27cc483
|
Ray bent his head toward her, and they smiled at each other, a pair of blissful ghouls in love. I might have felt sorry for them if the continued existence of their relationship didn't necessitate generating incredible amounts of anguish and misery, which I was apparently next in line to provide.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
c6f581c
|
All I could do was stare blankly at him. "Look." He raised both hands, palms outward. "Daisy, I'm sorry. I had no idea." "You had no idea ?" "No idea she was coming." He sounded tired. My tail began lashing back and forth in agitation. "Oh, and where exactly did Emmy pop in from, Sinny dear? Did she drive up from Kalamazoo? Because I don't recall you mentioning a sister. And it sounded a lot like jolly old England, which I don't recall you..
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
be66e94
|
You like him?" I nodded. "I like him. Hell, Mogwai likes him." "You could pick a worse judge of character than your cat," she said in a pragmatic voice."
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
5fd6010
|
It wouldn't last, of course. I had no illusions on that score. But while it did, I meant to relish every moment of the respite.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
724ce50
|
Ben Lewis. He's in Afghanistan." "He is?" I blinked. "In the ?" "Well, he's not there on his honeymoon."
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
d1f7a1f
|
He nodded at Josceline and me. "Keep these two with you, will you? They seem to be damnably hard to kill."
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
2653094
|
raised on
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
faa8233
|
Shambloth the Great Protector, whom you know as the Inchoate Terror,
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
615d9a5
|
Custodire i segreti e l'unico potere che un bambino puo sperare di esercitare nei confronti degli adulti.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
8161a78
|
Take your happiness where you find it, children, and don't ask too many questions. Life is too short and uncertain to do otherwise.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
24ea9a4
|
There's glory in it," he acknowledged. "Dagda Mor! It's why I like to fight. When the battle-frenzy fills you, you feel like a god, I think." He paused, remembering. "But then you hear a friend's voice begging you to help, and you see your friend's guts falling out of a hole in his belly, and you can't stop to help, because someone is trying to kill you, so you have to keep going. You tread upon a corpse and realize it's a man who taught yo..
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
85c660f
|
training in the Fortress of the Winds, I'd never developed a full appreciation for the power of disguise. Oh, I understood it on an intellectual level--it was Brother Yarit's disguise that had allowed him to take Brother Jawal by surprise in the Trial of Pahrkun--but I'd never felt it.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
32e7feb
|
You were the most desirable woman I've ever seen, and I resented you for it. Foolish, but true.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
95923bd
|
slipped past them to return to the palace to engage in pointless speculation with Zariya.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
16cf24f
|
Another silence fell between us, a silence stretching toward awkwardness.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
0103931
|
I will be your friend, then, for the ancient Hellenes said a good friend may stand between a man and his moira. Do you know what that means?' 'Fate.' I answered unthinking...
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
b3c3ef3
|
The enemy of fear is love, for it is in loving others that we set aside our own personal fears, holding their safety and well-being as our highest regard.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
205a719
|
There are worse things in the world than heartbreak. Finding that out is a rite of passage.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
0dbc5bb
|
You should tell them," Joscelin said shortly. "Tell them the truth. Fear and lies fester in darkness. The truth may wound, but it cuts clean."
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
0003d68
|
I bid you to aid one another. Let the wealthy have charity for the poor. Let the strong have mercy on the weak. And I promise, if we are victorious, such a time shall never come again.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
f6145c9
|
But it's a lot easier to blame someone else than accept blame for your own failings.
|
|
blaming
failure
guilt
|
Jacqueline Carey |
729b1e1
|
As much as I might wish for a reason I could understand, in my heart, and not only in the dark intuitive part of me that shuddered away from such comprehension, it would never come.
|
|
understanding
|
Jacqueline Carey |
1cd8db3
|
I'm going so far out on a limb here, you might as well call me a squirrel.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
89daaff
|
and I didn't know if I was proud or indignant that he hadn't noticed.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
61e1e54
|
There are ties that bind more complex than blood.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
190b519
|
One does not reckon, at such times, the cost to one's limbs and joints; there is a limit to the pliancy of the mortal form.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
95b1971
|
The pain of the flesh is naught to that of the heart.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
d76f5a8
|
He paced the room like a caged tiger, splendid in his wounded anger.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
ff2ccde
|
Would that I could make of heart and soul something other than a battleground!
|
|
love
soul
|
Jacqueline Carey |
3ca9bad
|
mothers have wept less, bidding farewell to their children. At least, mine certainly did.
|
|
mother
|
Jacqueline Carey |
ca1c449
|
There are those who are awkward in the face of sorrow, fearing to say the wrong thing; to them, I say, there is no wrong in comfort, ever. A kind word, a consoling arm ... these things are ever welcome.
|
|
sorrow
|
Jacqueline Carey |
13c6b0b
|
Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
ed7a124
|
He was a young man, Gunter Arnlaugson, and tireless after their fashion. There was no shame among the Skaldi, and I could feel his eagerness when he brushed up behind me, his considerable phallus erect and straining at the front of his trews. It would be some time before he wearied of this. To my dismay, I felt the answering moisture begin between my own legs. I would have wept again, but my eyes, at least, were dry. I concentrated instead ..
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
9916962
|
My taste is for spices, and not sweets.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
1e1bef5
|
Though he was her enemy, he treated her with unfailing courtesy.
|
|
gentleman
courtesy
chivalry
jacqueline-carey
the-sundering
enemy
|
Jacqueline Carey |
9a9132e
|
I will say to you what I have said to others: Blessed Elua cared naught for crowns or thrones. It is a human game, a mortal game. I imagine you will say it was not worth the cost of innocent blood spilled in the process, since it is what Phedre no Delaunay once said to me. Mayhap it is true. And yet, countless numbers of those she would deem innocent never hesitated to engage in a death-struggle for these things, these mortal tokens of powe..
|
|
life
|
Jacqueline Carey |
ce21058
|
Life goes on even at the worst of times, and there are some ways no one ever grows up, no matter how long they live or how many lifetimes
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
087b28d
|
Wide grey eyes and a mop of red-gold curls, a charming sprinkle of freckles across the bridge of her nose--there is a limit, within the canons, of the number allowable for beauty.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
c24fddf
|
It involved Melisande, and the razor-sharp blades they call flechettes, and a good deal of me screaming ... I have dreams about it still, and Elua help me, some of them are exquisite.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
92af8da
|
Quincel de Morhban received me in his garden, something I never would have suspected, from either the man or the place. It was an inner sanctum, like Delaunay's, like I had known in the Night Court, only vaster. It was shielded from the elements, warmed by a dozen braziers and torches, with mirrors set to gather the sun's heat when it availed, and scrims of sheerest silk that could be drawn across the open roof to protect the delicate flora..
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
0160e99
|
On my knees, I touched the tip of my tongue to my lips, catching a drop of his seed. Pleasure-chamber. My very skin shivered, anticipating the lash. "As you wish, my lord," I whispered. It is not needful, I think, to detail what befell thereafter; it was a good meal, a very good one indeed, for de Morhban's cooks were the equal of his gardeners. We had fresh seafood, baby squids so new-caught they fairly squirmed, cooked in their own inky j..
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
863e0c8
|
Why did Ysandre send you?" he asked softly, testing. I pushed my chair back from the table, struggling to my feet, fighting the dark blood-tide. Somewhere, I thought, listening, somewhere Joscelin is telling tales to de Morhban's House Guard. I clung to the memory of him like a talisman, his deadly dance with Selig's thanes in a driving snowstorm, remembrance cooling my blood, shaking my head. "No questions," de Morhban said quickly. "No qu..
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
9e65497
|
You've touched a good many lives, Imriel," Sidonie observed. "A good many lives have touched mine," I said in reply."
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |
fa5bb87
|
And somewhere along the way, I found a little bit of healing. It wasn't enough to undo all of the damage done to me when I was a child; that, I think, cuts too deep. But enough.
|
|
|
Jacqueline Carey |