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“Does it make it easier?” She squinted at his form hunched in the saddle. “I don’t understand you.” “To have beautiful eyes. Does it lighten the burden of your Grace, to know you have beautiful eyes?”
there’s anyone I wish to stun at dinner, I’ll hit him in the face.”
“You look like you’ve been in a fight,” he said, “for the first time in your life.”
And then he mouthed two words. It was as clear as if he’d said them aloud. “Forgive me.”
It was time to get him out of here, so that she could return to her rooms and return to herself.
When they sat together talking, sometimes the silver and gold of Po’s eyes caught her off guard. She could not become used to his eyes; they muddled her. But she met them when he looked at her, and she forced herself to breathe and talk and not become overwhelmed. They were eyes, they were only his eyes, and she wasn’t a coward.
“But why would they build a city in such a place?” Po shrugged. “I suppose because it’s beautiful.”
“Your brothers are the foolish ones,” Tealiff said, “for not seeing the strength in beautiful things. Come here, child,” he said to Katsa. “Let me see your eyes, for they make me stronger.”
She supposed he would have reason to be vain. He was handsome enough, as handsome as Giddon or Raffin, with his straight nose and the set of his mouth, and his strong shoulders. And even those gleaming eyes. Even they might be considered handsome. His eyes came back into focus then and looked into hers. And then something mischievous in his eyes, and a grin. Almost as if he knew exactly what she was thinking, exactly what she’d decided about his claims to vanity.
“But you do have choice. He’s not the one who makes you savage. You make yourself savage, when you bend yourself to his will.”
When you’re a monster, she thought, you are thanked and praised for not behaving like a monster. She would like to restrain from cruelty and receive no admiration for it.
When a monster stopped behaving like a monster, did it stop being a monster? Did it become something else?
“for you would know I meant to kill you, and you’d escape me. You’d stay far away from me, always.” “Ah, but I wouldn’t.” “You would,” she said, “if I wished to kill you.” “I wouldn’t.”
