Brian Staveley

Believe what you see with your eyes, trust what you hear with your ears; know what you feel with your flesh. The rest is dream and delusion.

If you intend to heal the breach,_ she went on, __s you claim. If you intend to abide by the treaty we have both signed, then I am the Emperor, Annur__ Emperor, and your Emperor, and you will address me properly._____e always found that those most insistent on their titles,_ Moss replied, __re those least deserving of them.

This is what we are for, Alin,_ the older guardsman said, turning to his companion. Adare had never heard anyone use Birch__ first name. She hadn__ even known it herself. __ur lives for hers. If she refuses this, there__ no saying what the zealots will do to her.___here__ no saying what the zealots will do if she agrees,_ Birch pointed out. __e can__ save her if we__e dead.___hat is a risk that the princess will have to assess for herself. Our duty is to serve.___ thought service meant fighting,_ Birch protested, but the anger had gone out of him. Resignation thinned his voice.__ometimes, Alin,_ Fulton replied, nodding. __nd sometimes it means dying.

Her anger, so useful just moments before, was getting the better of her now. She could hear it; she was too loud. Nira had counseled her again and again on the importance of holding her tongue and her peace. Ironic, given the source, but good advice all the same.

Leadership isn't just about giving orders. A fool can give orders. A leader listens. He changes his mind. He acknowledges mistakes.

Oh for __hael__ sweet sake, girl, you think you can rule an empire without lying? You think your father didn__ lie? Or his father? Or any of your goldy-eyed great-great-founders of Annur? It__ built into the job. Bakers have flour, fishermen have nets, and leaders have lies.

Justice, as it turned out, was a lot harder than war. War was largely a series of technical questions, a matter of taking living human bodies and making them dead. There were infinite variations in the tactics and the strategy, of course, nuances in weaponry and technique, but the basic premise was bedrock: you__ done it right if you were alive at the end of the day, and the other poor fool was not.

The mind is a flame. Blow it out, or it will blind you.