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“My little skylark, my skysung queen,” he said. “You are awfully young to be giving orders.”
“They watch us kneel, they see the back of our heads, and they think we’ve given in. They don’t realize you can think from your knees just as well as from your feet.”
“Antigone,” Leon mused. “That’s a Dragontongue name.”
What could I do with my knowledge? Nothing. And when nothing can be done, discretion is the last decency.
“These mere words, these stupid ideals: Those who don’t have them, underestimate them. They can’t imagine that your tiny flame of purpose could turn into a fire to burn down a world. They can’t imagine that such featherlight words will give you strength to endure the harshest pain. They can’t imagine ideas could be more powerful than dragonfire.
I told myself for a while, cornered and in desperation, that climb I must. But now I remember I was never supposed to climb. The way was always for Annie, for the first lowborn Firstrider of Callipolis, who now flees routed, hunted, and condemned by the regime her people died to overthrow. The light was always meant to shine for her.
It’s the dragons talking, it’s the wine talking, and I try to remember the words to articulate this, to remind her that we can’t have the things we want, the cardinal rule Annie and I live by, our law of gravity. But here in this house, on this night, it feels like gravity has stopped working.
Let the skies be someone else’s to rule. Let me stay grounded, blissfully grounded, like this forever. Not a Guardian but a girl in love.
But sing me first her vengeance and her reckoning. Sing me now your fury-song.
When a government ceases to protect its people, it becomes necessary to overthrow it.”
“Everyone likes a dress with pockets.”
“I just wanted it to be in writing, somewhere. I wanted it to be in writing that it was you. For me. It’s always been you.” He
See, little one? There’s so much left to live for.
The only way past grief is through it, but on the other side, someone needs me. I can’t afford to keep her waiting.
But whatever may be said about my heart, I’m done apologizing for following my conscience.
“Some of the bravest women in our lives have been peasant women, Annie. They’re why we’re here. Even if they go unsung.”
Lee’s alive, I’m not pregnant, and I’m going to wipe the floor with Ixion as I bleed.
When they don’t give you the tools to win, you make your own.
took a vow to guide the City to justice. And justice has always been found by way of my mercy.
I once worried that reading about heroes of the old Houses made me unsuited to the life of one. Now I know it does. In this corner of the earth that is mine, I will read poetry and grow old in love. Let them sing of others.
