01UndatedThere are two kinds of guilt: the kind that drowns you until you’re useless, and the kind that fires your soul to purpose.Sabaa Tahir / quote ↗
03UndatedDisappear! I scream the word in my mind, queen of the desolate landscape therein, ordering her ragged troops to a last stand.Sabaa Tahir / quote ↗
04UndatedAre the Trials starting?” The girl claps her hands over her mouth. “I'm sorry,” she whispers. “I—”“It's all right.” I don't smile at her. It will only scare her. For a female slave, a smile from a Mask is not usually a good thing. “I'm actually wondering the same thing. What's your name?”“S-slave-Girl.” Of course. My mother would already have scourged her name out of existence.“Right. You work for the Commandant?” I want her to say no. I want her to say that my mother roped her into this. I want her to say she's assigned to the kitchens or infirmary, where slaves aren't scarred or missing body pSabaa Tahir / quote ↗
05UndatedWe match each other stroke for stroke until I get a hit on her right arm. She tries to switch sword arms, but I jab my scim at her wrist faster than she can parry. Her scim goes flying, and I tackle her. Her white-blonde hair tumbles free of her bun.“Surrender!” I pin her down at the wrists, but she trashes and rips one arm free, scrabbling for a dagger at her waist. Steel stabs at my ribs, and seconds later, I am on my back with a blade at my throat.“Ha!” She leans down, her hair falling around us like a shimmering silver curtain.Sabaa Tahir / quote ↗
06UndatedShe's still clinging to the side of her mountain, just like I'm still wandering lost in my battlefield.Sabaa Tahir / quote ↗
07UndatedYou—you were like me. You were a child. A normal child. And that was taken from you.”“Does that bother you?”“Well, it certainly makes you harder to hate.Sabaa Tahir / quote ↗
09UndatedSo you've made a few bad decisions. So have I. So has Elias. So has everyone attempting to do something difficult. That doesn't mean that you give up, you fool. Do you understand?Sabaa Tahir / quote ↗
