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

by Samantha Shannon

Then again, Linora never looked serious. For her, tragedy was merely an occasion for gossip.

Ead knew the scent of a secret. She wore it like a perfume.

Art is not one great act of creation, but many small ones. When you read one of my poems, you fail to see the weeks of careful work it took me to build it—the thinking, the scratched-out words, the pages I burned in disgust. All you see, in the end, is what I want you to see. Such is politics.”

“No, no—” Sulyard crawled toward him. “I beseech you, Doctor Roos, do not expose our transgression. I am unworthy of her love, but . . . love her I do. It hurts my soul.”

😭

We may be small, and we may be young, but we will shake the world for our beliefs.”

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

Loth and Kit are so funny together fr i have no idea how they made it this far but keep going kings

Do you not see that this is a divine mission?” “No, I do not, you witless cabbage.”

She could bite down her loathing, but she would give him no smiles.

“In darkness, we are naked. Our truest selves. Night is when fear comes to us at its fullest, when we have no way to fight it,” Ead continued. “It will do everything it can to seep inside you. Sometimes it may succeed—but never think that you are the night.”

No woman should be made to fear that she was not enough.

All he could do now was wait. Fortunately, waiting meant more time to read.

Me fr

She had lain with her hands cupped over her ears, so all she could hear was the sea.

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“All of us have shadows in us,” he said. “I accept yours.”

“Fair roses have grown from twisted seeds.”

“So you would like your new Virtues Council to tell you only what you want to hear.” Ead raised her cup. “Very well, Your Majesty. Loth can be Duke of Flattery, and I’ll be Duchess of Deceit.”

If you are a witch, then perhaps witches are not so wicked after all.”

“My heart knows your song, as yours knows mine. And I will always come back to you.”

“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.”

This year was either a test from the Saint, or he was on the verge of apostasy.

“but it seems we are destined for a change in the way of things. Besides, I like to defy convention now and then. No ruler made progress by playing a safe hand. And it keeps my officials on their toes.” Sunlight gleamed in the darkness of his hair. “They never expect us to actually rule, you know. If we do, they call us mad.

“They raise us to be soft as silk, distract us with luxury and wealth beyond measure, so we never rock the boat that carries us. They expect us to be so bored by our power that we let them do the ruling in our stead. Behind every throne is a masked servant who seeks only to make a puppet of the one who sits on it. My esteemed grandmother taught me this.”

“Goodnight, rider.” “Goodnight, slayer.”

How much suffering might have been avoided if they had felt safe enough to broach their ideas with you, Sabran, rather than take matters into their own hands.”

“Your house,” she whispered to the queen, “is built on barren ground.” Sabran strained to break her grip, but her hand was a vise. “I see chaos, Sabran the Ninth. Beware the sweet water.”

Without me, you will have nothing to unite you. You will fall to wars of wealth and religion. You will make enemies of each other. As you always have. And you will end yourselves.

“Your bones lie behind me. Nothing lies ahead. You are dead, and I an old man,”

“You loved me. Without condition. You saw the person I could be. And I will be that person, Jan. I will endure, my midnight sun.” He touched the stone face one more time, the lips that were so like they had been in life. “I will teach my heart to beat again.”