He laughed, tried to make it into a cough, inhaled at exactly the wrong moment, and then really did cough.

Mathin said: "It is best to take your opponent's sash. The kysin mark each blow dealt, but to cut off the other rider's sash is best. This you will do." "Oh," said Harry. "You may, if you wish, unhorse him first," Mathin added as an afterthought. "Thanks," said Harry.

I've always been fascinated by the grassroots folktale level of a culture, and as a storyteller, I have to follow what seems to be leading me on.

...there remained a strange formality between them, and her pleasure in his presence felt too much like missing him had felt during the last week.

Can't all beasts be tamed?

But the uproar this caused was nothing compared with the uproar when Katronia noticed [Rosie] had also cut her eyelashes. Various negotiations (including, finally, such desperate measures as "supposing you ever want to eat again") eventually produced the grudging promise that, in return for Katronia keeping her hair cut short, she would leave her eyelashes alone.

Vampire. Dangerous. Unknowable. Seriously creepy. This one's name was Constantine. We'd met before.