A wager?" I repeated. "Yes," he said, and gave me a slow smile, bright with challenge. ... "Stake?" I asked cautiously. He was still smiling, an odd sort of smile, hard to define. "A kiss." My first reaction was outrage, but then I remembered that I was on my way to Court, and that had to be the kind of thing they did at Court. And if I win I don't have to collect. I hesitated only a moment longer, lured by the thought of open sky, and speed, and winning. "Done," I said.
Sherwood SmithWhy is it the songs all end with the good people winning, but in life they don't?" They don't make songs when the good lose," I muttered. "They make war chants against the bad. So there won't be any songs for us.
Sherwood SmithWe'll abduct Garian. Or Jason." "Andโ?" "And dump them into the ocean. Nobody would ever pay a ransom for them.
Sherwood SmithFinally someone takes me seriously enough to ask for my word of honor, and itโs a villain.
Sherwood SmithWhy did I laugh at his sorry, bedraggled appearance? Because ridiculousness made a repellant situation more bearable.
Sherwood SmithIt would have been funny if I had been an observer and not a participant, an idea that gave me a disconcerting insight into gossip. As I walked beside the silent Tamara, I realized that despite how entertaining certain stories were, at the bottom of every item of gossip there was someone getting hurt.
Sherwood Smith