The Ember Blade (The Darkwater Legacy, #1)

by Chris Wooding BA

Bravery loved company, but Aren had long ago learned that shame was best borne alone.

‘Grub hope your razor wit come in very handy when skulldog eating your face.’

He was the authority here, and authority didn’t ache, or tire, or become irritated or impatient. Authority was inhuman and perfect.

‘If you’re not paranoid by now, you just haven’t been paying attention.

‘Meanwhile, fully one half of the population will never go to the Glass University, never be schooled to their potential, never be allowed a job with any status outside of a narrow few allowed them because they are seen as suitable to their nature.

Long ago, she’d come to realise that not everybody was like her, that the minds of most were not full of restless curiosity and calculation but rather with bovine meanderings interspersed with lengthy periods of vacancy.

Every day the sands of her life ran thinner and the window of opportunity narrowed.

‘The wheels of change are greased with blood,’

Tormenting his subordinate had begun as a necessity but ended up as a habit.