The Empress of Salt and Fortune (The Singing Hills Cycle, #1)

by Nghi Vo

Accuracy above all things. You will never remember the great if you do not remember the small.

Sometimes the things we see do not make sense until many years have gone by. Sometimes it takes generations. We are taught to be content with that.”

Those who bear children hold the keys to life and death, and their ill wishes are to be feared.

In-yo laughed the spring day I pulled up a full basket of spring radishes, but she ate them as quickly as I did. They were so fresh and spicy and perfect that if I sit in the spring breeze, letting the wind touch my cheek, I can taste them still.

he merely said that some endeavors are too great to be attempted. Some ambitions must be left to lie until one is strong enough to conquer them.”

I didn’t say that you could also find a beauty in it, a kind of peace even in something that was at first so very unsettling.

“The abbey at Singing Hills would say that if a record cannot be perfect, it should at least be present. Better for it to exist than for it to be perfect and only in your mind.”

“Save that anger,” Mai said with a sigh. “Angry mothers raise daughters fierce enough to fight wolves.”

“And the new empress, who is even now preparing for her first Dragon Court?” Rabbit smiled. “Angry mothers raise daughters fierce enough to fight wolves. I am not worried for her in the least.”