The Traitor Baru Cormorant (The Masquerade, #1)

by Seth Dickinson

She was powerless without her patrons. Could power be real if someone else gave it to you?

Her fury had nothing else to eat and so it began to eat her.

That we are not free. Not even when we march beside them, nor even when we lead them. Freedom granted by your rulers is just a chain with a little slack.

“Every moment is an edict spoken by its past. The past is the real tyranny.”

I wish you could see me, Hu, she thinks. Unflinching. Unmoved. The hope of Aurdwynn, giving them no yoke over me.

But I will not be bound as you are. I will walk among your council and you will tremble at what you have unleashed.