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2df60e0
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You intolerable lunatic," he snarled at me, and then he caught my face between his hands and kissed me." --
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Naomi Novik |
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ced99b1
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If you don't want a man dead, don't bludgeon him over the head repeatedly.
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Naomi Novik |
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4f42a0d
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truth didn't mean anything without someone to share it with; you could shout truth into the air forever, and spend your life doing it, if someone didn't come and listen.
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Naomi Novik |
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48538cb
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And I wasn't old enough to be wise, so I loved her more, not less, because I knew she would be taken from me soon.
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Naomi Novik |
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26320e3
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What an unequaled gift for disaster you have.
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Naomi Novik |
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6b9515f
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Listen, you impossible creature," he said, "I'm a century and more older than--" "Oh, be quiet," I said impatiently."
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sarkan
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Naomi Novik |
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49ffa2a
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I should rather have you than a heap of gold, even if it were very comfortable to sleep on.
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Naomi Novik |
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74d080d
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I was a glaring blot on the perfection. But I didn't care: I didn't feel I owed him beauty.
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Naomi Novik |
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30a7edd
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We're meant to go. We're not meant to stay forever.
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Naomi Novik |
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7df0ba9
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I don't want more sense!" I said loudly, beating against the silence of the room. "Not if sense means I'll stop loving anyone. What is there besides people that's worth holding on to?"
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naomi-novik
uprooted
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Naomi Novik |
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f315873
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It comes, I suppose," I said thoughtfully, speaking to the air, "of spending too much time alone indoors, and forgetting that living things don't always stay where you put them."
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Naomi Novik |
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645b625
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But I had not known that I was strong enough to do any of those things until they were over and I had done them. I had to do the work first, not knowing.
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Naomi Novik |
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7dfb9a8
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But she hadn't been able to take root. She'd remembered the wrong things, and forgotten too much. She'd remembered how to kill and how to hate, and she'd forgotten how to grow.
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Naomi Novik |
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7b767a5
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I am very tired of this Government, which I have never seen, and which is always insisting that I must do disagreeable things, and does no good to anybody.
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temeraire
snark
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Naomi Novik |
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0a482c6
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Temeraire said, 'It is very nice how many books there are, indeed. And on so many subjects!
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reading
temeraire
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Naomi Novik |
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efe7208
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I leaned against his side, his irritation oddly comforting. After a moment he grudgingly put his arm around me. The deep quiet was already settling back upon the grove, as if all the fire and rage we'd brought could make only a brief interruption in its peace.
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Naomi Novik |
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6377f05
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He darted a look at the uncovered basket behind me, saw what I was eating, and glared at me. "That's appalling," he said. "They're wonderful!" I said. "They're all coming ripe." "All the better to turn you into a ," he said. "I don't want to be a tree yet," I said."
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Naomi Novik |
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4039118
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There was a song in this forest, too, but it was a savage song, whispering of madness and tearing and rage.
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Naomi Novik |
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7a90437
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They all had stories. They had mothers or fathers, sisters or lovers. They weren't alone in the world, mattering to no one but themselves. It seemed utterly wrong to treat them like pennies in a purse. I felt the soldiers understood perfectly well that we were making sums out of them-- this many safe to spend, this number too high, as if each one wasn't a whole man.
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Naomi Novik |
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08092b6
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It is quite uninteresting; that is why one comes out." "
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infancy
egg
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Naomi Novik |
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a7d6405
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But the world I wanted wasn't the world I lived in, and if I would do nothing until I could repair every terrible thing at once, I would do nothing forever.
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Naomi Novik |
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aa96baf
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Magic was singing in me, through me; I felt the murmur of his power singing back that same song.
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Naomi Novik |
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87a6f37
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I don't think I can do it alone," I said. I had a feeling the wasn't really meant to be cast alone: as if truth didn't mean anything without someone to share it with."
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Naomi Novik |
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08f17b0
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I wanted to rub handprints through his dust
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Naomi Novik |
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84e82d4
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I'm not stupid, nor a liar," I said, "and if I can't do any good, I can at least do something"
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Naomi Novik |
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646ef88
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Hush, sweetheart. You don't have a mother anymore, but let me to speak to you with her voice a minute. Listen. Stepon told us what happened in your house. There are men who are wolves inside, and want to eat up other people to fill their bellies. That it what was in your house with you, all your life. But here you are with your brothers, and you are not eaten up, and there is not a wolf inside you. You have fed each other, and you kept the ..
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Naomi Novik |
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1683f51
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The Dragon hissed under his breath with annoyance: how dare a chimaera inconvenience him, coming out of season.
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Naomi Novik |
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a846a54
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You've been inexpressibly lucky," he said finally. "And inexpressibly mad, although in your case the two seem to be the same thing"
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madness
uprooted
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Naomi Novik |
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c7ade7f
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A robber who steals a knife and cuts himself cannot cry out against the woman who kept it sharp.
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Naomi Novik |
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e77281e
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It seems to me that if you wish to apply laws to us, it were only reasonable to consult us on them, and from what you have read to me about Parliament, I do not think any dragons are invited to go there
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parliament
laws
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Naomi Novik |
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d38a6c9
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I'm glad," I said, with an effort, refusing to let my mouth close up with jealousy. It wasn't that I wanted a husband and a baby; I didn't, or rather, I only wanted them the way I wanted to live to a hundred someday, far off, never thinking about the particulars. But they meant life: she was living, and I wasn't."
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Naomi Novik |
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da6a2f5
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His name tasted of fire and wings, of curling smoke, of subtlety and strength and the rasping whisper of scales.
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Naomi Novik |
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c34c0b1
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His name tasted of fire and wings, of curling smoke, of subtlety and strength and the rasping whisper of scales. He eyed me and said stiffly, "Don't land yourself into a boiling-pot, and as difficult as you may find it, try and present a respectable appearance."
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Naomi Novik |
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d5f4321
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Well, I would have struck him, but I would have had to get up. You have no notion how difficult it is to arrange skirts when sitting down; it took me five minutes together the first time.
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Naomi Novik |
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d620deb
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I will see you bereft of all that you have, of home and happiness and beautiful things. I will see your nation cast down and your allies drawn away. I will see you as alone and friendless and wretched as am I; and then you may live as long as you like, in some dark and lonely corner of the earth, and I shall call myself content. -Lien, Albino Celestial (Dragon)
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revenge
dramatic-announcements
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Naomi Novik |
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28773cf
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But it was all the same choice, every time. The choice between the one death and all the little ones.
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Naomi Novik |
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4a8b201
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I do not think you are in any danger of starving," Maximus said. "The surgeon said only two weeks ago that you are too fat." "The devil!" Berkley said indignantly, sitting up; and Maximus snorted in amusement at having provoked him."
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humor
dragon
fat
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Naomi Novik |
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ca667c5
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And more to the point, I was reasonably certain he wasn't going to try and devour my soul. My expectations for a husband had lowered.
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Naomi Novik |
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b5fe4f0
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He would only shrug and look at me expectantly again, waiting for high magic: magic that came only when you made some larger version of yourself with words and promises, and then stepped inside and somehow grew to fill it.
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Naomi Novik |
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8354326
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I had forgotten to fear him, from too much time spent too close.
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Naomi Novik |
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134a6e4
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He wasn't a person, he was a lord and a wizard, a strange creature on another plane entirely, as far removed as storms and pestilence.
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Naomi Novik |
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cf6ba58
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There's no kindness in offering false hope.
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Naomi Novik |
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a861a44
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All those stories must have ended this same way, with someone tired going home from a field full of death, but no one ever sang this part.
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Naomi Novik |
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acbeb4d
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He snorted. "He thinks killing a day-old hydra has made him a hero." None of the songs had ever mentioned the Vandalus Hydra being one day old: it diminished the story more than a little."
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Naomi Novik |