147
" One of the Obsidians to fight alongside Ragnar at the walls of Agea, Wulfgar was with the Sons of Ares that freed me from the Jackal in Attica. Now ArchWarden of the Republic, he smiles down at me from the step above, his black eyes crinkling at the corners. “Hail libertas,” I say with a smile. “Hail libertas,” he echoes. “Wulfgar. Fancy meeting you here. You missed the Rain,” I say. “You did not wait for me to return, did you?” Wulfgar clucks his tongue. “My children will ask where I was when the Rain fell upon Mercury, and you know what I will have to tell them?” He leans forward with a conspiratorial smile. “I was making night soil, wiping my ass when I heard Barca had taken Mount Caloris.” He rumbles out a laugh. "
― Pierce Brown , Iron Gold (Red Rising Saga, #4)
153
" But I have eyes only for the lonely bird of prey that stands at the center of all the silly, vain, power-hungry little pigeons. Her golden hair is bound tight behind her head. Her tunic is pure white, without the ribbons of their Color the others wear. And in her hand, she carries the Dawn Scepter—now a multi-hued gold baton half a meter long, with the pyramid of the Society recast into the fourteen-pointed star of the Republic at its tip. Her face is elegant and distant. A small nose, piercing eyes behind thick eyelashes, and a mischievous cat’s smile growing on her face. The Sovereign of our Republic. Here at the summit of the stairs, her eyes shed the weight from my shoulders, the fear from my heart that I would never see her again. Through war and space and this damnable parade, I have traveled to find her again, my life, my love, my home. I bend to my knee and look up into the eyes of the mother of my child. “ ’Lo, wife,” I say with a smile. “ ’Lo, husband. Welcome home. "
― Pierce Brown , Iron Gold (Red Rising Saga, #4)