"Home was a dream she’d had yesterday. A place where children used to play. Among towers near the mountains, by a river, on curving sweeps of white or golden sand beside a palace at the edge of the sea."

““The Tyrants have cleaned out most of the highway brigands. Just a matter of protecting their own interests. They want to make sure no one else robs us before they do with their border tariffs and taxes.” He spat, discreetly, into the dust of the road. “Personally I preferred the brigands. There were ways of dealing with them.”

“It was true, it was all true. But none of it was the truth.”

“I suppose being right will have to compensate me for being poor—the story of my life, I fear.”

“Words were power, words tried to change you, to shape bridges of longing that no one could ever really cross.”

“There are no wrong turnings. Only paths we had not known we were meant to walk.”

“In this world, where we find ourselves, we need compassion more than anything, I think, or we are all alone.”