Home > Work > Sea Dragon Heir (The Chronicles of Magravandias, #1)
1 " How many personalities resided in a single body? Was it possible all aspects of a person could be real? "
― Storm Constantine , Sea Dragon Heir (The Chronicles of Magravandias, #1)
2 " In the days of the Dragon, on this night of Foymoriel, the people brought to this rock the fairest of youths. Here his blood was spilled and cast over the stone. Our silken cloth represents this blood. As the youth lay swooning against the rock, so the women called to the great Foy. She smelled the boy’s blood and came up from the deep to accept the offering. "
3 " It was a sacrifice. At that moment, she realized that Valraven too was a sacrifice. Not one of blood, but of something else, perhaps spirit. He had been sacrificed to Madragore. "
4 " Magic is optimism and hope, isn’t it? The desire for more than what is mundane to appear. "
5 " Varencienne knew she herself has the potential to be a passionate creature, but there was no one in Caradore to ignite her feelings. The closest she came to it was when she thought of Khaster Leckery. Even now, she liked to walk in the long gallery in Norgance, savoring the moment when she could pause before the portrait. Khaster inhabited her fantasies, but even if he wasn’t dead, he might as well be. The situation was entirely to Varencienne’s liking. Ghosts could be whatever she waited them to be, whereas real men were problematic. They had to control and demand. "
6 " It was the figure of a man, a symbolic husband perhaps, for the hungry dragon bride. "
7 " A young man had come into the garden. Not dead, then, but returned. A sense of recognition flooded through her, she felt her flesh grow hot. It was Khaster. She nearly choked, but after only a moment, she realized it was someone who looked like him, who’d stolen his brother’s face. "
8 " You had to face the fear to be worthy of acceptance. "
9 " We wear our troubles on our faces, Varencienne thought, then imagined herself with frozen agony in the set of her mouth. "
10 " The empress of Pharinet’s tale was perhaps the kind of mother Varencienne would have liked to have had all along: a priestess, a sorcererss, with a forgotten book of secret knowledge. Her own fantasies could not have provided a more perfect history. Yet this Tatrini lived only in Pharinet’s words. Varencienne would need proof for herself. "
11 " Caradore was not at rest. Ghosts walked there unseen: the shade of a younger, more innocent Valraven, Ellony, Thomist, Pharinet’s parents, and even Khaster, although he had not lived there. His shade would be beautiful, sensitive and mournful. "
12 " The air was hushed and still as if the fog were an enchantment beneath whose spell the whole world slept. "
13 " Caradore has made a woman out of a little mouse. "
14 " Girls sprawled on the floor and across the couches. A sickly scent of plundered fruit flesh filled the humid air. Wine had been drink and spilled; goblets stood upon the table and lay upon the floor. Young faces were flushed with pleasure and a vicarious excitement. Gowns were rumpled and stained, slippers cast off. The fire burned loudly and fiercely. Wood cracked in the flames. There was little other light, for the candles had burned nearly all away. "
15 " Fey little maid. So lonely, and yet not. "
16 " Valraven is confused by feeling. It sends him reeling, which is both endearing and exasperating. "
17 " Close to, he looked uncannily like the portrait of Khaster that hung in the long gallery. But the resemblance was only physical, Varencienne felt. Merlan was neither melancholy nor despairing, but quite the opposite. There was also a certain slyness to his expression. Light brown hair fell over his face, which was corded with muscle as if his features were in constant motion. Varencienne had heard all the stories about Merlan; he now held quite a prestigious position as assistant to the governor of Mewt. He was not a soldier but an administrator, safe from combat. His skin had been tanned to dark brown by the hot sun of Mewt, and gold highlights shone in his hair. He wore gold Mewtish earrings in his ears, hoops wound with tiny enameled snakes. "
18 " We are part of the sea, aren’t we? How long have we lived here, breathed in its scent, eaten the produce soaked in its salt? Think how we used to play in it as children. "
19 " Men were worshipped in Caradore. "
20 " You must gamble for your own survival, for once you have survived, you will have become something more than what you were. "
