87
" That reminds me of a song,” said Emilia. The women laughed; the men groaned. But the fire was blazing and the night was long, and folk will want entertainment after the tedium of a day’s work. Emilia’s song detailed the amorous adventures of a water horse who fell in love—if love was the right word—with a series of young women who passed beside the lake in which the creature dwelled and from which he emerged in the form of a good-looking young man of exactly the right sort to catch a young woman’s fancy. She had a clear voice and a pleasing timbre, and every local knew the chorus, whose euphemisms about mounting and galloping embarrassed me. We did not sing these sorts of songs in the Barahal house. Rory caught right on and sang the chorus as if born to it. In the laughter and pounding of tables that followed, I said, to no one in particular, “I thought kelpies drowned and then devoured their victims!” The words, innocently spoken, only caused the gathered folk to laugh even "
― Kate Elliott , Cold Magic (Spiritwalker, #1)
90
" You are weeping, child," the old man said as he rested a companionable hand on her shoulder.
"So I am," she agreed. But this time she let the tears fall.
"Truly, there is more to you than I first saw." He regarded the burning stone with a frown as light flickered along its length and began to die. "I can only see through the gateways using the power of blood. Yet you can simply look, and thereby see."
Startled, she turned on him. "I thought you were a great sorcerer. Can't you teach me everything I need to know?"
He smiled at her and walked away, but he was only going to sit on his bench of rock. He picked up the rope and began to twist the strands against his thigh.
"In the end, only one person can teach you everything you need to know, and that is your own self. If you wish to learn with me, you must be patient. Now." He gestured toward the burning stone. "You must make your choice - there or here. The gateway is closing."
The flames flickered lower until they rippled like a sheen of water trembling along the surface of the stone.
She was still weeping, gentle tears that slid down her cheeks. "Ai, Lady! What must I do? How can I leave them?"
Yet she had known all along that it might come to this. She could never regret the choice she has made before and, knowing what she had known then, she would make the same choice again: to return to Sanglant.
But she knew a lot more now.
Now she know who her enemies were. "
― Kate Elliott , The Burning Stone (Crown of Stars, #3)
93
" He would not let himself be overawed by her consequence! He was also the son of noble parents, if not of a king. "Then-then they'll need more Dagons," he blurted out. "Let me go, please. Let me serve the king."
"It is not my decision to make."
"How can you stop me if I refuse to take vows as a monk when my novitiate is ended?" he demanded.
She raised an eyebrow. "You have already pledged yourself to enter the church, an oath spoken outside these gates."
"I had no choice!"
"You spoke the words. I did not speak them for you."
"Is a vow sworn under compulsion valid?"
"Did I or any other hold a sword to your throat? You swore the vow."
"But-"
"And," she said, lifting a hand for silence-a hand that bore two handsome rings, one plain burnished gold braid, the other a fine opal in a gold setting, "your father has pledged a handsome dowry to accompany you. We do not betroth ourselves lightly, neither to a partner in marriage-" He winced as she paused. Her gaze was keen and unrelenting. "-nor to the church. If a vow can be as easily broken as a feather can be snapped in two-" She lifted a quill made from an owl feather from her table, displaying it to him. "-then how can we any of us trust the other?" She set down her feather. "Our oaths are what makes us honorable people. What man or woman who has forsworn his noble lord or lady can ever be trusted again? You swore your promise to Our Lady and Lord. Do you mean to swear that oath and live outside the church for the rest of your days?"
Said thus, it all sounded so much more serious. No man or woman who made a vow and then broke it was worthy of honor. "
― Kate Elliott , Prince of Dogs (Crown of Stars, #2)
100
" Why should I believe you, a common-born woman, over the son of a margrave?"
Hathui smiled wryly. "God makes the sun to rise on noblewoman and commoner alike. The Lord and Lady love us all equally in Their hearts, my lady."
"Yet Our Lord and Lady follow Their own will in parceling out to individuals whatever They wish. To some They give more, and to others, less. Could we not also argue that we merit what we each receive? That They confer on the elect these gifts of grace that set them apart from others?"
But the Eagle shrugged, her expression untroubled. "All gifts are given to us by God. Without such gifts, no matter how noble, we are dust. So we are all equal before God - and the honorable word of a common-born woman no different than that of a nobly born man. "
― Kate Elliott , Prince of Dogs (Crown of Stars, #2)
