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Like every good gift, beauty was a blessing for the rich, but sometimes a curse for the poor.
Marissia straightened her back, and looked him in the eye. “My name is Marissia Pullawr. The White was my grandmother. You were my assignment. I was never a slave.”
Gill didn’t obey immediately, instead giving her a few extra moments to pull herself together, and nearly commenting on her state. Despite his newness, Gill was going to be an excellent Blackguard. The best of them didn’t look out only for their charges’ physical well-being. Finally, satisfied, he opened the door.
He dabbed at the corners of his eyes to dry tears she hadn’t even seen.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered to this woman who had lived and would die for him. “I’m so, so sorry.” But for this cold night, he cuddled close to her and thought of his wife.
knees, still holding the paryl and chi streams apart. His arms sagged, halfway to his sides, his will almost extinguished. He wanted to drop dead, drop into the sea, and be no more. But before his arms fell, he felt a presence behind him, embracing him, propping his arms up. “I’ve got you, Kip. Come on, Kip, we’re almost through!” Kip? Everyone on the squad called him Breaker. Who … “Help me!” Tisis shouted.
“The enemy steered that storm toward you, so this much healing is allowed me. You won’t be blinded, not today,” she said, and she extended her hand as if making the sign of the three on him, her thumb to one eye, middle finger to the other, and her forefinger touching his forehead where the eye of the mind was. Warmth shot through him, and he fell into blessed sleep.
Then, as if Teia’s life hadn’t just changed forever, Commander Fisk continued on down the line.
“And that’s why you had to hunt wights. You’ve been running out of power from the very first day, and it had to be replenished with the blood of drafters. In her weakness and her love, your mother denied it. Your father and brother knew the truth. They held off as long as they could, but when you murdered all those people at the White Oak estate, they knew you were a monster. They knew you had to be stopped. You, Dazen, are the Black Prism.”
Teia had seen Karris train. She had fought with her and against her. The speed with which Karris moved shouldn’t have been surprising. It was.
“The seeds of love may sprout where they will, but we choose whether to water them and give them light or to pluck them like weeds from the soil. We always have a choice.”
The people loved her. They called her the Iron White.
want to get married. Not kids, you know, but a husband? The same man every night used to sound too boring to me. Maybe it still does. But the same man every day? That sounds … I dunno. Warm. Safe. Nice.”
A man who risks his life to save strangers testifies not to their worth but to his own. I have never seen or known a man to be great and strong and good as well. I will see you in three days with any who will join me. I care not what others call you; if you will have me, I will call you lord.”
“Oh, my husband, you beautiful soul. It’s not fair, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good. A marriage breathes, and every exhalation is giving, and every inhalation is taking. It can’t live without both, Kip. So … just … breathe.”
“We’ve entered a time that immortals find interesting enough to visit personally, and because of some fluke or perhaps some very carefully prescribed and maintained traditions that neither you nor I were aware of, we have just done exactly what we needed to do to kill one of them. I think it would be an insane level of optimism not to expect the full fury of their vengeance.”
Let me offer you this: Guilt is a poor counselor. Guilt oft conspires to make two victims where there was only one. If it comes to trusting your gut or trusting your son, make a wise choice, High Lady.”
“I hate you,” Gavin said. Andross stared at him with inscrutable eyes for a long time. “I know. And it’s too bad, because I have only ever loved you, Dazen.”
Every community is a gull gliding over a sea of spite, eager for carrion, all too ready to steal, and all too quick to squawk when stolen from.
No wonder they’d been quiet about doing it—it was utterly forbidden. No wonder they’d done it anyway—it worked.
And Kip’s fool dream that he might destroy the White King was like a babe stillborn, lying pallid and cold in his hands—taking sudden breath, stirring, squalling; thus was born his army.
She rubbed a sore dogtooth absently and then, gathering her will, went to work. And when she was finished, she had by no means mastered paryl. He would not be the last.
A nuisance? Child, people are dying so your compatriots can train with fire.”
It was what she had laid down when she had taken up the title and duties and sacrifices of being the Third Eye: it was her name.
“Lord Guile! I, Amrit Kamal, Lord of the Air, do challenge you to a duel!” His men were hurriedly reloading muskets they’d discharged in the fighting. “Yeah. No,” Kip said.
Kip isn’t your brother’s son. He’s mine.”
Teia turned to leave, but as she got to the door, Karris called out to her. “Adrasteia, we have all of us fallen short.” The young Blackguard assassin looked at her, and she was pitiless. “Some fall farther.”
“And how am I supposed to kill Orholam? With very sharp words? The cutting edge of my disbelief? The poison of a Prism’s hypocrisy?”
“Oh my God,” Tisis whispered, but in her hushed tone, that holy word wasn’t blasphemy but reverence. “Kip. Heart of my heart. You have brought light.”
