When Brocker arrived he took her hands and held them to his face and cried into them.

All right," Clara said. "We have our swordsman, so let's get moving. Brigan, could you attempt, at least, to make yourself presentable? I know this is a war, but the rest of us are trying to pretend it's a party.

She would thump them both, and she would apologize to neither.

As she left the room, Po went to Katsa, pulled her up, sat himself in her chair, and drew her into his lap. Shushing her, he rocked her, the two of them holding on to each other as if it were the only thing keeping the world from bursting apart.

He made her drunk, this man made her drunk; and every time his eyes flashed into hers she could not breathe.

Why does everybody throw every troublesome thing into the river?

It was just that she had the need to tell him something honest, something honest and unhappy, because cheerful lies tonight were too depressing and too sharp, turning in on her like pins