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6647a6e
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He looked at me, baffled and for the first time uncertain, as though he had stumbled into something, unprepared. His long narrow hands were cradled around mine, both of us holding the rose together. Magic was singing in me, through me; I felt the murmur of his power singing back that same song. I was abruptly too hot, and strangely conscious of myself. I pulled my hands free.
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Naomi Novik |
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f7bb92e
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What I mean--what we mean by it is--it's like credit," I said, suddenly thinking of my grandfather. "Gifts, and thanks--we'll accept from someone what they can give then, and make return to them when it's wanted, if we can. And there are some cheats, and some debts aren't paid, but others are paid with interest to make up for it, and we can all do the more for not having to pay as we go."
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Naomi Novik |
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a984d2e
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When they had dismounted, he indulged himself in a shudder of his whole body. "That is more than I undertake to do again!' --this to the admiral, in reproachful tones. "Those two monstrously large beasts! Going right up to them like that and dangling their captains in front of them just as if to say, look what I have got, ha ha! I am all astonishment they did not leap upon me at once. I hope they did not get a clear look at me. If they ever..
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Naomi Novik |
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4a8e95d
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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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69ff944
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she didn't even have time to scream, just gave a startled "Oh!" and was gone,"
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Naomi Novik |
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63692f3
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But my father's irritation told me otherwise. I had been a disappointment to him from the beginning, my mother having taken an excessive number of years to produce me, and shortly afterwards miscarrying the overdue son and dying with him.
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Naomi Novik |
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1f99d7b
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The Magnati have all been summoned for the funeral, and I'll be announcing our betrothal once they're gathered.
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Naomi Novik |
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6e25523
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including one gentleman who had been introduced as a poet, although Laurence could not believe this had been an accurate translation: more likely the man was a clerk of some sort.
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Naomi Novik |
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696cf69
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I knew it wasn't going to help me. It was a warm kind presence in my hands, but with the kindness of a friend who sits with you in comfort by the fire and can't change what's wrong.
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Naomi Novik |
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3eab7aa
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Laurence did not let anger go, but dismissed it to return later; the battle was not over.
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Naomi Novik |
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56f50a8
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I wanted to scream, to weep. I wanted to drag my hand across the world and wipe it.
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uprooted
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Naomi Novik |
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edffcba
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a girl had supposedly disguised herself as a man to fight in her father's stead, had become companion to a military dragon and saved the empire by winning a great battle;
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Naomi Novik |
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bc07c07
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I had roots, too, but not like that. I could be carefully dug up, and shaken loose, and transplanted into a king's castle, or a tower built of marble--unhappily, perhaps, but I could survive.
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Naomi Novik |
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a2f8091
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He turned a cold certain look over them like the sweep of a scythe. "For however many of them will be left," he said."
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Naomi Novik |
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8955c32
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If they cannot be woken to a natural affection for their country, such as we feel, it is our fault and not theirs.
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temeraire
patriotism
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Naomi Novik |
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b61c07a
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We leave tonight," he continued, very cold and calm, "and we take the eggs with us."
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Naomi Novik |
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ea6a3a7
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There were forest depths in her eyes, green and unending.
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Naomi Novik |
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60e9cd3
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Feiglings!" Eroica bellowed after them at the top of his lungs as they clawed and scattered his wing dragons."
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Naomi Novik |
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2c8392c
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No one had ever shouted at me in my life: my mother with her quiet voice, my gentle father. But I found something bitter inside myself, something of that winter blown into my heart: the sound of my mother coughing, and the memory of the story the way they'd told it in the village square so many times, about a girl who made herself a queen with someone else's gold, and never paid her debts.
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Naomi Novik |
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2b204af
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I recognized that hunger: a devouring thing that would gulp down lives with pleasure and would only pretend to care about law or justice, unless you had some greater power behind you that it couldn't find a way to cheat or break, and that would never, never be satisfied.
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wealth
greed
corruption
power
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Naomi Novik |
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e98d88a
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You have not paid for this victory, false one, cheat, and I will give you nothing.
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Naomi Novik |
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d5a9304
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I am sick of the quarrels of nations and kings, and I would not give a ha'pence for any empire other than our valley, if that can content your ambition.
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Naomi Novik |
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08ea859
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Then she'd straightened up and announced in irritation, "I've fallen out of time," before vanishing in a great cloud of smoke."
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witch
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Naomi Novik |
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5369728
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If I could have remembered, at least some of the words would have been wrong: like hearing again a half-remembered favorite tale from childhood and finding it unsatisfying, or at least not as I'd remembered it.
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Naomi Novik |
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e6bbb0e
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if people grew milder or kinder with age, he certainly hadn't.
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Naomi Novik |
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8f53c8d
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That Staryk wanted to take her for nothing. He made her give him gold just to live, as if she belonged to him because he was strong enough to kill her. My father was strong enough to kill me but that did not mean I belonged to him. He sold me for six kopeks, for three pigs, for a jug of krupnik. He tried to sell me again and again like I was still his no matter how many times he sold me. And that was how that Staryk thought. He wanted to ke..
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Naomi Novik |
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edadba2
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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 one, I would do nothing forever.
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courage
activism
hard-choices
determination
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Naomi Novik |
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da0b4ff
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I didn't really understand what mothers were, because mine was in a tree, but I knew they were very good things and you were very angry and sad if you lost them.
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Naomi Novik |
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6d45938
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I would have preferred it if she'd slapped me across the face, and laughed at me, so I could hate her. I didn't want to be the good fairy in her story, scattering blessings on her hearth. Where did all those fairies come from, and how rich could they be in joy to spend their days flitting around to more-or-less deserving girls and bestowing wishes on them? The lonely old woman next door who died unlamented and left an empty house to rob, wi..
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Naomi Novik |
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12b31d7
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Whatever was carrying me dropped me again with an ungraceful thump, and I lay gasping and throat-sore on the earth--the warm earth, lush with soft green grass, though it silvered with frost in a circle around where the Staryk knelt.
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Naomi Novik |
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1fc7eb6
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he would not neglect what he considered his duty for the sake of being liked.
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Naomi Novik |
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40e4823
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and if they were both outcast for the same reason, they might at least have the pleasure of each other's society for compensation.
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Naomi Novik |
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b2c1534
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I didn't want her to need to do things like that. I didn't want her to need a sword.
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Naomi Novik |
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d6b1e3e
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There are men who are wolves inside, and want to eat up other people to fill their bellies. That is 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 wolf away. That is all we can do for each other in the world, to keep the wolf away. And if there has been food in my house for you, then I am glad, glad w..
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Naomi Novik |
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5c0b6df
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I should rather have you than a heap of gold, even if it were very comfortable to sleep on," Temeraire said. "I do not mind the deck."
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Naomi Novik |
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b5f5406
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Jerzy was lying in their bed. It was a heavy clumsy thing made of small logs jointed together, but in this case that was all to the better. He had been tied hand and foot to the posts, and ropes were bound over his middle and under the whole bedframe. The ends of his toes were blackened and the nails were peeling off, and there were open sores across him where the ropes rubbed his body. He was pulling on them and making the noise, his tongu..
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Naomi Novik |
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84ca166
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The French seized his arms and put a blade to his throat, calling to Eroica, "Geben Sie oben," --
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Naomi Novik |
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97c1803
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And if you have been lying about it," Iskierka put in, having roused enough from her napping to follow the conversation, with slitted eyes, "you may be quite sure you will all be sorry: if anything has happened to my egg, I will burn everything between here and whatever house Napoleon is hiding in, and then I will set *that* on fire, too."
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threats
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Naomi Novik |
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7803811
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after supper Laurence would go to sit outside and read to him by the light of a lantern. He had never been a great reader himself, but Temeraire's pleasure in books was so great as to be infectious, and Laurence could not but think with satisfaction of the dragon's likely delight in the new book, which spoke in great detail about gemstones and their mining, despite his own complete lack of interest in the subject.
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Naomi Novik |
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c2c40b8
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there is no sense your trying to put out sakura blossoms, when you are a bamboo.
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Naomi Novik |
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1dbb7a2
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Dragon intelligence was a mystery to men who made a study of the subject; he had no idea how much the dragon would hear or understand, but thought it better to avoid the risk of giving offense.
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Naomi Novik |
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c91d181
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he thought how little the rest of the world should matter to him, when he was secure in the good opinion of those he valued most, and in the knowledge that he was doing his duty.
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Naomi Novik |
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6a51c54
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We may meet again; the world is not after all so very large a place." He"
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Naomi Novik |
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5423623
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So I put together a street-going rig and came up with the courier.
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Naomi Novik |