The Priory of the Orange Tree (The Roots of Chaos, #1)

by Samantha Shannon

“Arteloth, we are courtiers. We have no useful instincts.”

“Do you not crave vengeance?” “I prefer the taste of mercy. It lets me sleep at night.”

“Margret,” he said, “you are my child. I forgave you all your sins on the first day of your life.”

“Just because something has always been done does not mean that it ought to be done.”

“You remember the first day we walked together. You told me about the lovejay, and how it always knows its partner’s song, even if they have been long apart,” Ead whispered to her. “My heart knows your song, as yours knows mine. And I will always come back to you.”

“I will not kill you this night, butcher,” she said, “but what you see before you is a ghost. When you least expect it, I will return to haunt you. I will hunt you to the ends of the earth. And I vow to you that if we meet again, I will turn the sea red.”

“They are not only raised to hate fire-breathers, but our dragons,” Tané reminded him. “Knowing this, why would you sail with them?” “Perhaps you should ask yourself a different question, honored Miduchi,” he said. “Would the world be any better if we were all the same?”

“To be kin to a dragon,” Nayimathun said, “you must not only have a soul of water. You must have the blood of the sea, and the sea is not always pure. It is not any one thing. There is darkness in it, and danger, and cruelty. It can raze great cities with its rage. Its depths are unknowable; they do not see the touch of the sun. To be a Miduchi is not to be pure, Tané. It is to be the living sea. That is why I chose you. You have a dragon’s heart.”

“I will teach my heart to beat again.”

“I would live alone for fifty years to have one day with you.”

“Ten years,” she said, “and not one sunrise more.”

“Some truths,” he said, “are safest buried. Some castles best kept in the sky. There’s promise in tales that are yet to be spoken. In the shadow realm, known only to the few.”