Golden Fool (Tawny Man, #2)

by Robin Hobb

In a curious way, it was a second coming-of-age. This one was not an arrival at manhood, but rather a slow realization of myself as an individual.

A burden shared not only can lighten it; it can form a bond between those who share it. So that no one is left to bear it alone.”

I was embracing my solitude, courting my pain.

There was the taste of a storm in the air, and the wind was cutting its winter teeth.

King Shrewd had chosen to invoke his claim on me as the right of my king rather than as my grandfather. Now Kettricken, my queen, claimed me first as kin and second as brother. She struck no bargains.

But when I drew the blade, it whispered death as it came free from the sheath and balanced like a bird on my fingers.

And with that, I unwillingly knew I had worked my way down to the deepest source of my injury. To discover that the truest friend I had ever had was actually a stranger was like a knife in my heart.

Not all is made clear to us, for we are but men and it is not for us to know every rune that god can write, nor what it is he has spelled across the face of the sea.

You always chose to be bound by who you are. Now choose to be freed by who you are.

One man armed with the right word may do what an army of swordsmen cannot.

Perhaps having the courage to find a better path is having the courage to risk making new mistakes.