A Strange and Stubborn Endurance (The Tithenai Chronicles #1)

by Foz Meadows

I didn’t know whether I’d acted as I had because I wanted to live, or because I hoped to die; only that, either way, I hadn’t succeeded.

“You’re not an inconvenience, Velasin. You’re my husband.” “Many Ralian women claim that the one is synonymous with the other.” Caethari snorted. “That’s because many Ralian women are married to Ralian men.”

“Yours is a strange and stubborn endurance, Velasin.” And then, more softly still, such that I might almost have imagined it: “Just like your mother’s.”

Swallowing hard, he said, “You fainted?” “Only a little.” “You fainted.” “Yes.” “Out of the way of a crossbow bolt?” “I am a man,” croaked Velasin, with as much dignity as he could muster under the circumstances, “of many talents.”