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7b882ec
|
If something doesn't break soon, I'm going to look like a Brillo pad made of nerve endings.
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Mercedes Lackey |
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538c29a
|
She felt him shifting himself under her and around her, rearranging himself, until she was being held in a real embrace. She opened blurring eyes to find that he had tucked her between his forelegs with his neck curled around her. "Shhh-" he said, as she closed her eyes and threw her arms around his warm, soft, slippery neck. "I know, I know. It's all horrible. Just go ahead and cry, Andie. Go ahead and let it out. I think you've been holdi..
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comfort
mother-and-daughter
heartbreaking
crying
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Mercedes Lackey |
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7e988a3
|
Too often have I seen human parents who were too young, too unstable, or otherwise unfit or unready for children produce child after doomed, mistreated child. I will have none of this for these, my gryphons. By watching them, and then training others what to watch for, I can discover which pairings are loving and stable, which would-be parents have the patience and understanding to be parents. And in this way, perhaps my creations will have..
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Mercedes Lackey |
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4291af3
|
Or, as Nikolas had said, in tones of admiration, "She can tell you to go to hell in a way that will send you running off to pack your bags."
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girl-power
humor
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Mercedes Lackey |
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88c6343
|
Her attention wandered, and she began staring at the clouds, dreamily watching them drift over the city. When she was little, she wished she could fly up there and play, or even, when things were particularly miserable, stay there forever. She'd never told anyone, but she used to daydream about trapping one of the flying horses that were supposed to live in the mountains, or finding some other way of getting up there. The idea of living in ..
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up-in-the-sky
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Mercedes Lackey |
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b9197c0
|
Think twice, act once, is what everyone says.
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Mercedes Lackey |
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4be6e18
|
And revenge generally turns out to be a lot less satisfying than you think it will be.
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Mercedes Lackey |
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884663d
|
Inexperience can be overcome, ignorance be enlightened, but prejudice will destroy you.
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Mercedes Lackey |
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062f7ca
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There are more than enough people in this world who only want cheaper goods, and don't care how they're made, or what the hidden costs are.
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Mercedes Lackey |
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d3c23f2
|
Always rest, eat, and play when you can, because the universe conspires to keep you from doing any of these things nearly as often as you would like.
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Mercedes Lackey |
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5d42f8c
|
They camped at night among evergreens, and George showed her how to make use of her herbs for a lentil stew for breakfast. She already was thinking longingly of the food back in the Palace- though, she was ravenous enough to have eaten almost anything. But their fare was plain in the extreme and even though there was quite enough to keep her from feeling hungry, still, images of roast fowl, lamb, bowls of ripe fruit and yogurt, fresh bread ..
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luxuries
princess-andromeda
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Mercedes Lackey |
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d7695ca
|
No, it's not you," Abi managed to interrupt her. "Actually, it's not anyone. Not even my best friend Kat. Or Rudi or Emmit or Brice or--well, it's not anyone. It's never been anyone."
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Mercedes Lackey |
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e5bbc5f
|
No, General. Not necessarily what you thin you want. Your heart knows what you want, but often your head has some other idea. It is the task of the kesta'chern to ask your heart, and not your head, what you need and answer that need.
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Mercedes Lackey |
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acdc7cb
|
Three things trust and cherish well-- The horse on which you ride, The beast that guards and watches And your sister at your side!
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Mercedes Lackey |
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7e56f4d
|
Oh, well. I'll just tuck it in my subconscious, and it'll wake me up in the middle of the night, probably.
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Mercedes Lackey |
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91db773
|
If something went right, it was a teaching thing, and if something went wrong...it was a teaching thing.
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Mercedes Lackey |
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4c8c648
|
Have I mentioned before that being responsible sucks?
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Mercedes Lackey |
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27f6575
|
There's your real heroes--the people who keep coping, keep trying, no matter how many blows Fate takes at them.
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Mercedes Lackey |
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436f25b
|
There are times when--when being alone is a hurt that's worse than dying. When it's easier to die than to be alone. Aren't there?
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Mercedes Lackey |
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1c77c1d
|
We could also come to the question of motive, although as any good detective will tell you, you need to find the means first, then the opportunity, all bolstered by evidence, and then you will have the motive without needing to look for it. You don't immediately go about accusing every random person who has motive to kill someone." He chuckled. "If you did that, you'd be arresting a great many innocent people."
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Mercedes Lackey |
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659a65e
|
That's religion as an excuse. Sometimes it seems to me that when religious fervor enters the mind, the wits pack up entirely and fly out the ear," Karal replied a bit sourly. "But worst of all is when powerful, ruthless people use the religious fervor of others to further their own greed."
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Mercedes Lackey |
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91cd9f7
|
You must be a real thing. I finally figured out this place has linear time. I wouldn't dream something as silly as linear time, so you've got to be real.
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Mercedes Lackey |
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3c609f0
|
I'd been going to study Pre-Flowering History," Tiercel offered. "Now you're living it," Kave said."
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living-history
location-10055
page-438
the-phoenix-transformed
character-tiercel
james-mallory
mercedes-lackey
study
|
Mercedes Lackey |
|
5a0d599
|
So, that's okay. It's not like you're turning into an Endarkened or something, like Kellen's evil stepbrother Anigrel the Black.
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|
humor
inside-joke
location-2115
page-120
the-phoenix-unchained
character-tiercel
james-mallory
mercedes-lackey
|
Mercedes Lackey |
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565b517
|
There were times that Tiercel thought that the Wild Magic had a far greater sense of humor than the Light-Priests had ever spoken of, considering that to help him oppose the forces of Darkness, it had made Harrier Gillain a Wildmage.
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location-6246
wildmage
character-tiercel
james-mallory
mercedes-lackey
the-phoenix-endangered
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Mercedes Lackey |
|
7566764
|
You have a long history," he said, when Lanya indicated her story was finished. "Ah, Harrier, were I to tell you a long story, we should be here for a sennight, perhaps more. Long stories are best saved for deep winter, when the days are short and time grows heavy." Lanya glanced at the sky."
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character-lanya
location-1558
james-mallory
mercedes-lackey
the-phoenix-endangered
elves
weather
stories
|
Mercedes Lackey |
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2313c10
|
Eric could teach Hosea the way to call his magic. He could teach him that Eric's was the only right way, teach Hosea to do only as Eric had done and could do, and no more. But that was not what it meant to be a teacher. Hosea must grow to be all that Hosea could be,
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Mercedes Lackey |
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d363011
|
Magical, unbelievably magical, Unicorns practically breathed magic. He was to a horse what a horse was to a pig. Four tiny cloven hooves shone like burnished silver, slender legs as graceful as an antelope's led to a slender body, a delicate neck with an arch like the stem of a lily-blossom and a head like the blossom itself, crowned with that glorious pearly horn. And the eyes- big golden-brown eyes you could fall into and never come out o..
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virgins
unicorns
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Mercedes Lackey |
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c373625
|
A great deal of what they were eating was gathered or grown there. The guess about Amaranth being a hardworking lass was true. She had been a dairymaid, and had a flock of goats to provide milk, which mostly went into cheese. Andie chose to believe that the dragons had bought the goats rather than stealing them. The girls had a good vegetable garden, a flock of hens, several beehives, the dragons brought back flour and other things they cou..
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maidens
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Mercedes Lackey |
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0d058fb
|
One girl made flatbread, another cleaned and sliced greens, cucumbers and mushrooms, and a third made dressing of olive oil, vinegars and herbs. So while they waited they had greens and mushrooms tossed in the dressing with crumbled goat cheese on top to eat on the folded-up flatbread. There was more flatbread to sop up the juices of the stewed rabbit and vegetables, and the dragons appeared, as they were finishing the meal, with yet more f..
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maidens
food-preparation
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Mercedes Lackey |
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5e8b7e5
|
Tiny rooms opened up onto the corridor, rooms that would have been like monastic cells if each of the girls hadn't made hers comfortable in her own way and according to her own taste. As she passed, Andie got glimpses of a riot of draped fabrics like a gypsy tent in one, a tapestry loom in another, painted murals of garden scenes in a third.
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rooms
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Mercedes Lackey |
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ffc88a7
|
She decided at that moment that she wanted Gina for a friend... if Gina wasn't already a friend. She rather hoped that the Champion was. The more she thought about it, the more she hoped. Really, Gina had been very nice to someone that she'd had no real reason to like. After all, if it wasn't for Andie, where would she be now? 'On some other uncomfortable Quest?' Well, maybe. Or maybe still at the Chapter-House. And Andie was the one who ha..
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|
friends
gina
maidens
princess-andromeda
|
Mercedes Lackey |
|
06ce41d
|
But, Andromeda-" Peri exclaimed. "You are the 'most' important person in this scheme!" "I- what?" she said. "You must be joking!" Peri shook his massive head. "On the contrary. You are the only person here who has actually been inside the Palace. You know everything there is to know about it. Without that, we can't even begin to mount an attack, now, can we?" "At least not the kind of attack we can manage with as few people as we have, and ..
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|
princess-andromeda
supporting
important
|
Mercedes Lackey |
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ae10a8a
|
There's no justice for the poor man. Money buys justice, and I have no doubt there's a great deal of money in that man's pockets to buy the finest judge on the bench.
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|
|
Mercedes Lackey |
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0c33f09
|
to block
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|
|
Mercedes Lackey |
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30c8a2f
|
Keep breathing. Exhale all the hurt and sorrow, inhale the untainted air.
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|
|
Mercedes Lackey |
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a621678
|
This is the lesson history told me: when a religion gets so mired in bureaucracy that compassion takes second place to the law, and the law is iron-bound and iron-clad and has no room in it for exceptions, then it's no longer a religion for humans, it's a religion for paper-pushers, painted saints, and marble statues.
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|
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Mercedes Lackey |
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63677d8
|
People did stupid, sometimes unkind things. People did things that were a little bad, things that they were ashamed of. People cheated a little on their taxes, got a little greedy, sometimes they pilfered something that wasn't properly theirs, they quarreled, they abused each other (but never to the point that it would call for a Herald's intervention) and were basically just . . . people. A little good, a little bad, mostly just getting by..
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Mercedes Lackey |
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ab63b75
|
You know that all dragons collect treasure of one sort or another, correct?" he asked, looking straight at Andie. "That's The Tradition, of course," she replied. "I don't know how you could possibly escape that particular compulsion." "Well, our family does that, too, of course," he said. "But our treasure is a bit different. We're librarians." He held up his fore-claws and she saw that they had been blunted; looking closer, she saw that wh..
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periapt
librarians
|
Mercedes Lackey |
|
48f5e08
|
It seems to me that evil is a kind of ultimate greed, a greed that is so all-encompassing that it can't ever see anything lovely, rare, or precious without wanting to possess it. A greed so total that if it can't possess these things, it will destroy them rather than chance that someone else might have them. And a greed so intense that even having these things never causes it to lessen one iota -- the lovely, the rare and the precious never..
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|
greed
destruction
obsession
evil
|
Mercedes Lackey |
|
349ecdf
|
He held out the bottle. Clarice's hand was steady as she took it from him. , she thought distantly. She tried to be horrified at the thought, but she couldn't manage it.
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Mercedes Lackey |
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7cde424
|
You are speaking to a cat. If you do not believe this is magic, what do you think it is? She
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|
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Mercedes Lackey |
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9f5319d
|
But a Herald has to have your trust right away, don't you see? If you come to trust the person more than the office, the way you do with your priest, there would be trouble for every new Herald in a Sector." The boy looked thoughtful at this. "So you move all the time, to make sure it's the job that stays important, not the person doing it. I bet if you stayed in one place too long, you'd get too bound up with the people to judge right, too..
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|
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Mercedes Lackey |
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b0c2d60
|
I, ah ... I suppose it's for the best. That you ... aren't a boy, I mean." There was another, longer awkward pause. "I ... I'm glad you aren't a boy." Despite the danger, the horror, the utterly terrible ridiculousness of the situation, Clarice felt like laughing. "Thank you," she said gravely. "I'm glad I'm not a boy, too."
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Mercedes Lackey |