Tears stung her eyes. She sank her knees next to the sleeping bench and gently raked strands of golden hair from him forehead. "Don't you die. don't you dare. I forbid it." As if Han Alister had ever listened to anything she said.

She padded toward Han, barefoot, like a faerie startled out of a forest bower, bewitching mix of clan and flatland beauty.

If you want to be a writer, you must be in love with the process of writing, whether you achieve financial success or not.

History,' Mari muttered, as if she'd overheard his thoughts. 'Why do we need to know what happened before we were born?' 'So hopefully we get smarter and don't make the same mistakes again.

Nobody's going to hand you anything. You don't get what you don't go after.

Both Averill and Bayar were like actors speaking lines for their audience and not to each other.

Outside the Weirwall, Jack could hear the thud of bodies colliding and the cries of the wounded. It seemed like a lot of noise. Even given the fact that Ellen was involved. "Why'd she go out there?" Jack demanded. "Why didn't you stop her?" Brooks spat on the ground. "Have you ever tried to stop Captain Stephenson from anythin'?