Knight's Shadow (Greatcoats #2)

by Sebastien de Castell

Kest looked behind us along the road. ‘No sounds of anyone coming from behind.’ ‘No signs of danger at all,’ Brasti said. I loosened both my rapiers. ‘So, definitely a trap, then.’ ‘Oh, absolutely,’ Brasti said, and motioned for me to go forward. ‘I imagine you’ll want to walk right into it.’

There is no crime in feeling fear, nor any virtue in acknowledging it.

‘I am Dariana, daughter of Shanilla, Thirteenth Cantor of the Greatcoats,’ she says. ‘And I am the King’s Patience.’

Happiness is a series of grains of sand spread out in a desert of violence and anguish.

Nehra frowned. ‘Do you always run headlong into certain death?’ ‘Sometimes he walks,’ Dariana said. ‘Occasionally he shuffles. Once I’m pretty sure I saw him amble into certain death.’

‘Because the fights that matter most aren’t won on skill,’ I said. They’re won on sacrifice.

‘What’s wrong with his face?’ Dariana asked. ‘He’s smiling,’ Brasti replied. ‘It’s a rare and altogether terrifying—’ ‘Shut up, Brasti,’ Kest said.