The Iron Flower (The Black Witch Chronicles, #2)

by Laurie Forest

parents value modesty and beauty much more highly than strength or bravery in young girls,

she’d be like the broken dragons who started out fierce and beautiful but have been destroyed.”

“Against all the odds. You need to hold on to your faith in the good.”

“Knowledge is never wasted, my dear. No matter how obscure or difficult...or confusing. It always serves to enrich our lives, if we let it, and in ways we can rarely anticipate.”

“Learn all you can, Elloren, about everything you can. You will find that, when you’re as powerless as we are, it helps to be clever.”