"Your passion and loyalty do you credit, Hans, but they do little to convince me that you also possess a brain."

“If you do not act, the world dies, and you with it. Surely survival is worth a little effort? Unless you are so eager to retire to that dismal heaven of your Christian god?”

“There is no kindness at courts, only greed and lies and pain.”

“Magic is only useful against those with an affinity to magic.”

“Expediency is the god of princes.”

“He suddenly remembered Prince John Maurice’s assessment of the situation in a recent letter: The government lost its head, the people its heart, the country its hope.”

“Clouds boiled like a brooding frown in the west, and the sun drew fire from them as it sank burning and orange into their billowing embrace.”