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c0d38a5
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Laurence," Granby said at his shoulder, "in the hurry, the ammunition was all laid in its usual place on the left, though we are not carrying the bombs to balance it out; we ought to restow." "Can you have it done before we engage? Oh, good Lord," Laurence said, realizing. "I do not even know the position of the convoy; do you?" Granby shook his head, embarrassed, and Laurence swallowed his pride and shouted, "Berkley, where are we going?" ..
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Naomi Novik |
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be99540
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I turned back and tried again, and once more I was sure that I was understanding, and all of it made perfect sense - better than perfect sense, even; it had the feeling of truth, of something that I'd always known and just hadn't ever put into words, or of explaining clearly and plainly something I'd never understood.
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Naomi Novik |
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2734714
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Oh dear," Laurence said; he felt rather awkward explaining that the main attraction was the abundance of harbor prostitutes and cheap liquor. "Well, a city has a great many people in it, and thus various entertainments provided in close proximity," he tried. "Do you mean such as more books?" Temeraire said."
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Naomi Novik |
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daee5ac
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Gentleness shown once is mercy, shown twice is folly.
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Naomi Novik |
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0ce6fd3
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could have devoured the rest of the valley overnight. But a tree isn't a woman; it doesn't bear a single seed. It scatters as many of them as it can, and hopes for some of them to grow.
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Naomi Novik |
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09fa4e4
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I'm not your dear girl," Kasia said, with a bite in her tone that silenced him."
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Naomi Novik |
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78f21c5
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There's a considerable distance between seeking perfection and irretrievable haste,
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Naomi Novik |
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ee4d22b
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Because that's what the story's really about: getting out of paying your debts. That's not how they tell it, but I knew. My father was a moneylender, you see.
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Naomi Novik |
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4680e2e
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I had a feeling the Summoning wasn't really meant to be cast alone: as if 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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2200541
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A life before you in the moment isn't worth a hundred elsewhere, three months from now.
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Naomi Novik |
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c0bb193
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I needn't be offended every time I have to look at you
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offended
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Naomi Novik |
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10be568
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I had forgotten hours and days by then. My arms ached, my back ached, my legs ached. My head ached worst of all, some part of me tethered back to the valley, stretched out of recognizable shape and trying to make sense of myself when I was so far from anything I knew. Even the mountains, my constants, had disappeared. Of course I'd known there were parts of the country with no mountains, but I'd imagined I would still see them somewhere in ..
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Naomi Novik |
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100bc54
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Let her out!" I screamed at the tree. I beat on its trunk with my muddy fists. "Let her out, or I'll bring you down! !" I cried out in rage . . ." --
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Naomi Novik |
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6541f0a
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It is not as though we have not heard of you, Captain Laurence. We have all had a great many arguments, whether your aid would not be too expensive, to begin with." "Sir," Laurence said, now baffled, "I beg your pardon; however should you know me from Adam?" "If the world had not heard of you, after your adventure at Gdansk," Kutuzov said, meaning Danzig, where they had rescued the garrison from the wreck of the Prussian campaign, "or after..
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Naomi Novik |
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a03cc04
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I was back in comfortable plain skirts again, but they looked at me anyway as they went away, not with hostility, but not the way any of them would ever have looked at a woodcutter's girl from Dvernik. It was the way I had looked at Prince Marek, at first. They looked at me and saw someone out of a story, who might ride by and be stared at, but didn't belong in their lives at all.
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Naomi Novik |
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dfda49c
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Once we're out of the Wood . . .," I said, but my voice died in my throat. I felt odd and sick. Did you ever get out of the Wood, if you'd been in it for twenty years?"
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Naomi Novik |
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6656a47
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Of course I was afraid. But I had learned to fear other things more: being despised, whittled down one small piece of myself at a time, smirked at and taken advantage of. I put my chin up and said, as cold as I could be in answer, "And what will you give me in return?"
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confronting-fears
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Naomi Novik |
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f7f5b4c
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A crowd of women around me doing the ocean of women's work that never subsided and never changed and always swallowed whatever time you gave it and wanted more, another hungry body of water. I submerged into it like a ritual bath and let it close over my head gladly.
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work
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Naomi Novik (author) |
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62246fc
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Temeraire-- Never fear; I am going; the Son of Heaven will not tolerate delays, and Barham gives me leave. Allegiance will carry us! Pray eat something --L.
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Naomi Novik |
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b8ae50f
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Everyone says you love a Dragon-born girl differently as she gets older; you can't help it, knowing you so easily might lose her.
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Naomi Novik |
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630e6cd
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That is all we can do for each other in the world, to keep the wolf away.
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Naomi Novik |
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51bd5ef
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Rich meant that this room with three beds and a table and chairs and a window filled with glass was something to say sorry for.
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Naomi Novik |
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f109949
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Do none of you ever ?' I asked, baffled. 'And how do keep from getting all over mud?" she said. We both looked down. I was a good two inches deep in mud along all the bottom of today's skirt: bigger around than a wagon-wheel and made of purple velvet and silver lace. 'I don't,' I said glumly."
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Naomi Novik |
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f43c6c6
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Anger was a fire in a grate, and I'd never had any wood to burn. Until now, it seemed.
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Naomi Novik |
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c4a1cf5
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I tried to make him a young court-wizard in my mind--he almost looked the part in his fine clothes, pursuing some lovely noblewoman--and there my imagination stumbled. He was a thing of books and alembics to me, library and laboratory.
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Naomi Novik |
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41ca9e4
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I missed home like the ache of hunger, something in me left empty. I'd missed it every day since we crossed out of the valley, going over the mountains. Roots--yes. There were roots in my heart, as deep as any corruption could go.
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Naomi Novik |
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a21cab5
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I didn't properly think about what was happening even as I kissed him back, my laughter spilling into his mouth and making stutters of my kisses. I was still bound up with him, our magic snarled up into great messy tangled knots. I didn't have anything to compare that intimacy to. I'd felt the hot embarrassment of it, but I'd thought of it vaguely like being naked in front of a stranger. I hadn't connected it to sex--sex was poetic referenc..
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sex
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Naomi Novik |
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c59e9d6
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He slept once again in the small tent by his side, even though he thought Temeraire was well over his distress, and was rewarded in the morning by being woken early, Temeraire peering into the tent with one great eye and inquiring if perhaps Laurence would like to go to Dover and arrange for the concert today. "I would like to sleep until a civilized hour, but as that is evidently not to be, perhaps I will ask leave of Lenton to go," Lauren..
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Naomi Novik |
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22938d4
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And listen to me: what you've done here carries power with it, of a different sort. Don't let Solya take all the credit, and don't be shy of using it.
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taking-credit
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Naomi Novik |
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56dee6f
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I grabbed back at him just as incautiously with my hand and my magic both, even as he pressed magic on me from his side as well. His breath huffed out sharply, and our workings caught on one another, magic gushing into them.
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magic
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Naomi Novik |
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4e8d33b
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I held that last gown of plain undyed wool in my hands, feeling like it was a rope I was clinging to, and then in a burst of defiance I left it on my bead, and pulled myself in the green-and-russet gown. I couldn't fasten the buttons in the back, so I took the long veil from the headdress, wound it twice around my waist and made a knot, just barely good enough to keep the whole thing from falling off me, and marched downstairs to the kitche..
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Naomi Novik |
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8ff10c8
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And then finally the magic flowed, but not the same way as when the Dragon's spell-lessons dragged it in a rush out of me. Instead it seemed to me the sound of the chanting became a stream made to carry magic along, and I was standing by the water's edge with a pitcher that never ran dry, pouring a thin silver line into the rushing current.
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Naomi Novik |
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ac07f57
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For his part, Temeraire had been following this exchange with cocked head and increasing confusion; now he said, "I do not understand in the least, why ought it make any difference at all? Lily is female, and she can fight just as well as I can, or almost," he amended, with a touch of superiority. Riley, still dissatisfied even after Laurence's reassurance looked after this remark very much as though he had been asked to justify the tide, o..
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Naomi Novik |
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64d7e12
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We are not going to be herded anywhere we do not like," [Temeraire] said, dangerously, "by Napoleon or by your admirals; and if you like to ask the other dragons of the Corps to try it, I expect they will see at once how very foolish it is, and if not, I will explain it to them, and I daresay they will join us instead."
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Naomi Novik |
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9dbe065
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So the next morning, I had the deeply wretched experience of seeing Prince Marek stop outside the tower doors to look up to my window and blow me a cheerful and indiscreet kiss. I'd been watching only to be sure he actually left; it took nearly all the caution left in me not to throw something down at his head, and I don't mean a token of my regard.
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Naomi Novik |
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0ce5f9b
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But none of that matters at all." His head raised to stare balefully at me, but I said, incoherent yet convinced, "It's just--a way to go. There isn't only one way to go." I waved at his notes. "You're trying to find a road where there isn't one. It's like--it's gleaning in the woods," I said abruptly. "You have to pick your way through the thickets and the trees, and it's different every time."
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life
finding-your-path
finding-your-way
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Naomi Novik |
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c48f11e
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If you will pardon my saying so," Tharkay said, "you will never satisfy them on that point: the last thing you or Temeraire will ever give anyone is quiet obedience. Have you considered it might be better not to try?"
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Naomi Novik |
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a0941aa
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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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052f0f4
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I should like to know if he has sunk a frigate, alone, with a Fleur-de-Nuit on his back; and as for distinction, my ancestors were scholars in China while his were starving in pits.
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Naomi Novik |
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5f94c9b
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He was a thing of books and alembics to me, library and laboratory.
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Naomi Novik |
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0e9ffc9
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Success excuses all risks.
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Naomi Novik |
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a865261
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A power claimed and challenged and thrice carried out is true; the proving makes it so.
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Naomi Novik |
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d76f3df
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I had hated him, but I wouldn't have reproached him, any more than I would have reproached a bolt of lightning for striking my house. 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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204d242
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They cut them down. They will always cut them down. They come and go like seasons, the winter that gives no thought to the spring
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Naomi Novik |