Bloodline

by Claudia Gray

So much for the supposed “equality” of the office arrangements; status could be carved out of any substance people desired—and in Leia’s experience, they always did desire.

“Is everybody enjoying their drinks?” “Free intoxicants are among those gifts most welcomed by sentient biological life-forms,”

Failing to help those in need was bad enough for a government that claimed to represent and protect everyone. But even those too shortsighted to understand that ought to realize that one world’s difficulties often spread offplanet and magnified exponentially. One world’s epidemic could become a system-wide pandemic. One world’s dissident faction could turn into interplanetary terrorism—

She knew how to learn the true measure of an individual: Watch what he does to someone he believes is at his mercy.

Han had said virtually the same thing about every ship he’d flown since the Millennium Falcon. He kept hoping to re-create that magic. But Leia knew he never would, no matter how much speed or maneuverability any other spacecraft might have. Some loves came only once in a lifetime.

“Port in a Storm? You’re actually drinking that?” “Not any longer.” Ransolm grimaced but was able to keep back a shudder. Joph whispered, “I think my skull is melting.”

The bridges they’d built between them had collapsed, but she still felt the urge to step out onto the thin air where they had been.

Answer suffering with kindness.

beneath his youth and his daredevil attitude lay the kind of decency that could stand up to the ugliness of the world. On Pamarthe they called that quality bedrock. A warrior of bedrock was one on whose loyalty a kingdom could be built.

“Kothan si!” Greer repeated the traditional Pamarthen greeting, which roughly translated to “May you die at full throttle.”