1
Then perhaps you don’t need it. I think the scar gives you character, even if it does mar those pretty tattoos. Would make for great tavern stories if you didn’t cover it.” Neferre laughed flatly and stuck her hands in her pockets. “There’s nothing great about getting mugged, Ziro.” Ziro laughed, her deep voice jiggling her second chin. “Oh, aye. But no one said you had to tell the truth now, did they? .Ash Gray
2
Return me safely to my home, ” the princess said, “and I shall reward you with your weight in eggs.” Olorun snorted derisively. “You’re joking, right?” The woman’s eyes flitted in embarrassment. “Now wait a minute, ” said Helianthus. “We’re talkin’ eggs here. What sort of eggs? Ostrich eggs?” Neferre made an impatient noise. “Hel! She doesn’t have any eggs! Unless they’re hidden in a very. delicate place.” Neferre grinned at the princess. “Tell me your eggs are hidden where I think they’re hidden.Ash Gray
3
Kimaria smirked and placed her hands behind her back. “Come now. It doesn’t have to come to that. Violence is so beneath us.” “No, it isn’t, ” said Helianthus at once.“ Well . . it is beneath me, ” the high queen said and touched a hand to her chest. “Unlike you, I am civilized. I wear shoes and I have a last name.” They watched as she eased into a chair. She crossed one leg over the other, folded her arms, and regarded them calmly. “Aren’t you the least bit curious as to how I snatched the famed Nineveh Atvaris from our dark past? You can’t be that boring. .Ash Gray
4
Verne frowned. “Calm down. Don’t exert yourself in your condition.” Salen looked at Verne in amazement. “Don’t exert --! My dear woman, we are all about to die! I don’t think it damn well matters if I shit my pants at this point --Ash Gray
5
Helianthus snorted. “Olorun is like his mother: he will only change as the face of a rock changes. But .. . I think he missed you.Ash Gray
6
My child will bear those scars forever, ” Tilv said angrily. “ And if he isn’t a fool, perhaps your child will learn from them, ” Neferre returned calmly.Ash Gray
7
Neferre swallowed hard. “The elder used to tell stories of dark places in dark times, ” she said, picking the needle through with black nails, “when the winters were endless and the sun fell cold across the land. When beasts far worse than the crags prowled the shadows. And there were no humans. Only elvkarin and the night. We knew the bitter sting of winter’s breath and it never ended as it ends now. We called it Isaria on Evile. A Time of Darkness.Ash Gray
8
Why does everything want to eat children?! ” Neferre smiled. “Because you taste like candy. Stinky socks would mask your delicious scent from the aziza. We must get you stinky socks. So they do not eat you.”“ That’s not much of a bedtime story! You really haven’t done this before!Ash Gray
9
Probably human cruelty is fixed and eternal. Only styles change.Martin Amis