84
" The others saw him as he stumbled down the stairs, bleeding from nose and ears and eyes an mouth. The sheathed form of the Sword lay across his palms. He met their eyes, and choked out:
"Remember. Remember, all of you."
Mathilda's voice was infinitely gentle. "Remember what?"
"That I was a man, before I was King. Remember for me, when I forget.
His hand closed on the black double-lobed hilt, and the moonfire in the opal glowed. He drew the Sword, thrust it high.
And screamed as pain beyond all bearing ripped through him like white fire, turning his body to a thing of ash smoke.
He screamed, and knew. "
― S.M. Stirling , The Sword of the Lady (Emberverse, #6)
88
" When I was fifteen and had quit school forever, I went to work in a vineyard near Sanger with a number of Mexicans, one of whom was only a year or two older than myself, an earnest boy named Felipe. One gray, dismal, cold, dreary day in January, while we were pruning muscat vines, I said to this boy, simply in order to be talking, "If you had your wish, Felipe, what would you want to be? A doctor, a farmer, a singer, a painter, a matador, or what?" Felipe thought a minute, and then he said, "Passenger." This was exciting to hear, and definitely something to talk about at some length, which we did. He wanted to be a passenger on anything that was going anywhere, but most of all on a ship. "
― S.M. Stirling , The Reformer (The General, #7)
90
" I was father to the land. I saved my people. I was... King.
"By... earth," he said, more a movement of the lips than a thing of the throat and air. "By... sky..."
Another breath, and it did hurt a little now. The next was harder. The women leaned over him, the mothers of his children. He blinked once more. His own mother, her black braids swinging as she rocked his hurt away. She was singing to him:
"Manabozho saw some ducks
Hey, hey, heya hey
Said 'Come little brothers, sing and dance';
Hey, hey, heya hey-- "
― S.M. Stirling , A Meeting at Corvallis (Emberverse, #3)