The Tyrant Baru Cormorant (The Masquerade, #3)

by Seth Dickinson

“My lady, I am yours in life and in death. But I must ask your leave.” “My leave? Hu, where are you going?” “To carry out my last duty, Your Highness, my queen.” Hu kissed her hand. “You cannot be obsessed with me forever. I’ve brought you to a place of some safety. Now you must go on without me.” “You promised you’d always be with me,” Baru whispered. “I will.” Hu looked up, fierce and dark and golden, perfect. “Always and forever in your heart. You don’t need this … mental trick to keep me alive. There are other women: oh, don’t look that way, as if I’m the only one suited for your oh-so-particular tastes. Go make some mistakes. Go find someone different, someone utterly unlike me, except that she should drive you mad, too, because she doesn’t agree with you, and she won’t bow down when you want; but she’s loyal beyond all reason when you need her. There must be another woman like that, somewhere.” Hu grinned. “One or two, at least.”

“My love, my queen, kuye lam”—Hu was unbearably radiant now, a cold clean light like a star—“I am a part of you forever, but I was born to rule high wilderness, to guard my people and to defy my foe. If I could answer these questions of empire and complicity for you, would I love and need you so much?”

“You told me that you would tell me the difference! Between pretending to obey them and really giving in…” “And I told you that I want you to keep asking that question forever. You will know the answer when you die, Baru. You will know it by the change you’ve made in the world. That’s what Agonist means, isn’t it? The one who causes change.”

“I don’t want you to go,” Baru whispered. “Too bad,” Hu hissed, though she was grinning. “I chose where and how to die. I died a fucking hero, didn’t I? Name some unexplored lands after me. And a statue. I always wanted a great big statue. The Duchess Triumphant, with my sword upraised, and Cattlson’s banner in my other hand: and you can give me great broad shoulders, and cl...

Yawa has assured her that most cases of cranial artifact (a fine way to say shit lodged in the brain)

“An interesting theory, Your Excellence. Though it puts a great deal of stock in your very untried talents as a lover.

What if she supports Baru’s ascent to the heights of power because this allows Iscend to serve a single woman who is more and more like the Republic incarnate? If Iscend can advise that woman, and thus in a way determine what that woman in turn orders her to do … isn’t that a kind of freedom?

Baru is certain that Shao simply forgets when things don’t go her way, and proceeds as if the universe has been amended, retroactively and completely, in her favor.

“She had a developed sense of justice. It’s a shame she was born into our world, and not a better one.

Baru has heard rumors that the same Ministry is now dealing with an outburst of uncouth seagull behavior: the dockside gulls have been mobbing passersby, stamping their feet as if dancing, demanding food, shitting angrily on possessions and people if not indulged.

treated me. The delicacy, the care, the pride, the insufferable modesty. Do you know what kind of ‘father’ lets people threaten to circumcise his daughter? No father at all! A rapist. An ally to rapists. A man who makes the world safer for rapists everywhere he goes.

“Oh, yes, I turned her. I did what you couldn’t, Cairdine Farrier.”

You thought I’d saved Falcrest when I killed her. But the only reason I killed her is that she volunteered. You’ve been outmaneuvered by a dead tribadist. You pathetic fuck.”

Baru glares at her. “You treacherous fuck. You bitch. I thought I was safe—” Yawa shrugs. “It wasn’t in your file, I’m afraid. But I knew other places to look.”

This being about a suprise birthday party is so funny whats her issue

“I am known for my brutal dawn ambushes,” Baru says, to Yawa’s incensed gasp.

Those who find the Masquerade’s programs of sterilization, economic intrigue, colonial adventure, and psychosurgery outlandish or unbelievably malicious (“too overtly evil,” in the words of a very smart friend) should familiarize themselves with the history of America in the twentieth century.