Home > Work > The Bone Shard Daughter (The Drowning Empire, #1)
21 " Listening is an art. It’s not so much sometimes in letting the other person speak as it is in asking the right questions. "
― Andrea Stewart , The Bone Shard Daughter (The Drowning Empire, #1)
22 " It was like they stood on two different islands when they argued, and neither of them could find a way across. "
23 " The thought gave her no feeling at all; her heart was as gray and cold as a foggy morning. "
24 " If a man could die of stress, I’d have died several hundred times over in the past few days. "
25 " Again, that rising tide of love mingled with a wave of frustration. "
26 " If I didn’t move now, I’d never move, frozen by indecision. "
27 " Exhaustion could make even the most solemn of occasions silly. "
28 " Everyone—always grasping, always wanting more, always needing more. I didn’t have it to give. "
29 " As desperately as I yearned for his approval, as desperately as I yearned for a kind word from him, I didn’t want to be like him. I wouldn’t be ruled by fear. "
30 " Reading—” “—without true understanding is only wading in the shallows without a care for the monsters that lurk beneath, "
31 " I swear it, upon the sky, the stars, and the Endless Sea itself. "
32 " Only fools believe everything they hear.”“And only fools discount everything they hear. "
33 " Listening is an art. It’s not so much sometimes in letting the other person speak as in asking them the right questions. "
34 " When everyone was asleep, I felt alone in the world. There was a comfort in that loneliness, the soft touch of black silk wrapped around me, hiding me away. "
35 " I wished things could be different, but wishing so was like throwing coins into the Endless Sea and hoping for some return. "
36 " Back then I’d thought hopes and willpower could make a thing be so. Now I knew the limitations of body, mind and heart. "
37 " Dragging myself from bed seemed easier when I was doing it for someone else. "
38 " My father would never love me in the way I wanted or needed him to. The grief of it filled me, overflowed. It felt like a wound that would never close. All my life I’d spent trying to earn his approval, and the only way I could have done so was by being someone else. "
39 " What are you doing outside my father’s room? I’ve more reason to be here than you.”“Is that so?” Bayan’s hand went to the keys around his neck. “I’m the one with more access to the palace than you. I was on my way to the library—the secret one.”“The secret library,” I said flatly. “It’s not a secret if you’ve told me about it.”He put a finger to his chin. He had to know the gesture only emphasized his firm jawline. “What should I call it then? The magic library? The construct library? The library forbidden to Lin because she just can’t remember?”My insides boiled like a pot ready to accept a feast of crabs. I breathed out the heat of it and kept my face cool. “If you’re seeking a name that descriptive, might I suggest the library primarily utilized by a pompous boy of no station? "
40 " What I would give to find myself in that library, to run my hands over the books, to smell their pages. To learn everything they had to offer. It was my birthright, not his. “You think so highly of yourself. Knowledge can only be wielded by those who dive into its depths and know the shape of it. Reading—”“—without true understanding is only wading in the shallows without a care for the monsters that lurk beneath,” Bayan finished. “I’m familiar with Ningsu’s Proverbs. "