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43c8502
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You've a way of putting matters into perspective." "You're young." Urist smiled slightly. "You'll learn the trick of it."
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Jacqueline Carey |
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0f4ef85
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Betimes I have heard people bewail the fact that our destinies are shrouded in mystery; I think, though, that it is a blessing of sorts. Surely if we knew what bitterness fate held in store, we would shrink back in fear and let the cup of life pass us by untasted.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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a707c8f
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Tis strange how many leavetakings one life can hold.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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64af5dc
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So it began. It ended as it always does, with such things; he had a full pleasure-chamber and flagellary, the Duc de Morhban, and he took me there, in the cool depths of the earth beneath his castle at the outermost edge of Terre d'Ange, setting the torches ablaze until it might as well have been Kushiel's domain, wringing me limp with blood and sweat, his face distorted behind the lash, and the sound of my own voice, begging, pleading, as ..
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Jacqueline Carey |
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a3dd0c9
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Take care of her," he bid his servants, weariness and profound satisfaction draining his voice, shrugging into silk robes, bowing in my direction. "Treat her gently." They did, I trust; I don't remember it, in truth. I saw faces approach, awe-stricken. They understand, in Kusheth, what it is to serve Kushiel. I hurt, in every part of me. And I was content. I closed my eyes, then, and let the deeper tide of unconsciousness claim me."
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Jacqueline Carey |
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3534f60
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It is what I do. If you wish to thank me, do a kindness for someone in need.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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9ca134b
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I settled back to sit on my heels, liking the mild discomfort of the hard marble. It had been a long time since I had been able to make obeisance to anyone with unadulterated pleasure; I led a strange life...
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Jacqueline Carey |
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34aa5f5
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suspended between the carefree child of the Sanctuary I had once been and the confident adult I wished to become.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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97d2e58
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Because people can be foolish," Drustan said. "And fearful of heroes not their own."
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Jacqueline Carey |
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f76b8bf
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I was not surprised. I wanted to be, but I wasn't.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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1b42417
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Hard, his hands on my shoulders; my head rocked with the force of his fury as he shook me. Ah, Elua, it was sweet! The violence of it was spark to tinder for me.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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b5258ed
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One day I took my courage in both hands
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Jacqueline Carey |
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09c1ec0
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Guild takes an almighty risk when it decides to unleash the bottled lightning of a riot. Easy to start, hard to control.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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65b866f
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How could anyone endure what we had known and still be capable of so much goodness?
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Jacqueline Carey |
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316ff4e
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You can't separate the means from the cause, Brigitta. In theory, perhaps, but not in practice. We are dealing in realities here.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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3c63a1b
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Victory doesn't matter to the dead, nor to the living who mourn them.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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5495d3a
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The defeated always remember.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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5fb7518
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There is a madness in love.
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madness
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Jacqueline Carey |
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3c23cda
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There were barbs on the words, his formal address. I endured them in silence and watched him go, leaving me alone with the remorseless pleasure of my pain.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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a4fafa1
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How strange, how compelling a pain; to cause injury to a loved one.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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1d75b0f
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As gloriously, splendidly, intractably single-minded as he was, loving him was like grasping a knife, a clean white blaze of pain that kept me anchored to myself.
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pain
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Jacqueline Carey |
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6770fc7
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Pain and pleasure, yes, of course, but there are others, too. Cruelty, humiliation, dominance ... and compassion and kindness. It took all of these, to make truly exquisite music. That was the part so few understood. Affection.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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08a81b9
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What becomes of this emotion we call envy when it is uncoupled from fear and malice? Does it remain a sin? Or is it simply an honest assessment of the human condition?
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Jacqueline Carey |
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2b246ad
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It occurred to me, trying not to hobble in my too-tight slippers, that attire was another form of concealment.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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98b7cbe
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where battle prevails, women must grieve.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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83e4b95
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Vengeance and love didn't make for good bedfellows.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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937e881
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Fear and lies fester in darkness. The truth may wound, but it cuts clean.
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lies
truth
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Jacqueline Carey |
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dd35d5d
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a strange mood settled over the City: proud, defiant, hostile, despairing. All of these things at once. War was coming.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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9e7d76b
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Poets in their chambers began to scribble notes.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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d9863d3
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the gods answer our prayers sideways at best.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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0575b15
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I understood pain. It is the price of living, and of loving well,
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Jacqueline Carey |
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56cec48
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Merely surviving without doing harm seemed chore enough.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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4f1ca7e
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Tis a lonely business, being miserable when happiness abounds. I did my best to hide it, although the people who knew me well, knew.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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74a6815
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For good or for ill, some people seem to love more fiercely, want more powerfully, burn more brightly.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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3d6c181
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Nothing like truth to leaven a good lie.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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8f4e45c
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One never thinks, until one is badly injured, about the myriad intricate ways in which the parts of one's body are connected.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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1dba48d
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We were human, mortal and fallible. We forgot, we made errors, argued ambiguities, and twisted meanings to suit our own ends.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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411709f
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We were human, mortal and fallible. We forgot, we made errors, argued ambiguities, and twisted meanings to suit our own ends. And in so doing, mayhap we reshaped the gods themselves.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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9ae17d6
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I accepted the commission because the couturieres of Atelier Favrielle relish a challenge more than we fear ought else.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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fe68121
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Ambition untempered by caution is like a river in flood. It leaps from its natural channels to forge the shortest course, and it sweeps away all in its path. Do not get swept away,
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Jacqueline Carey |
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1c93042
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Talk is healing. It's the unexamined wound that festers.
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Jacqueline Carey |
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29c7fd1
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It's not wise to trust a poet with one's secrets, but it's not wise to cross them, either,
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Jacqueline Carey |
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c6c573e
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Are you a minor character in my tale, or am I a lesser figure in yours?" "I don't know, my lady," I murmured. "I suppose it depends on who is telling the tale."
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Jacqueline Carey |
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7ba5857
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It was a truth of the heart and it owed nothing to reason.
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Jacqueline Carey |