Do you think you could have touched the Fang Blade if you were not worthy?” The Minstrel’s voice rang out with authority. “Do you think Yorien’s Hand would have accepted you, had you not been worthy? Would Ardura Palace have returned to life for you? Would men have followed you into battle, would your friends have trusted you, would the dragons respect you if you were truly not worthy? You have lost a battle, Wanderer! Stop behaving as though you had lost the war.

We are warriors,” Devrin replied. “Our people are strong, accustomed to hardship, and will weather any storm. We may bend, but we do not break. We laugh into the gale and challenge it to do its worst. I believe with every fiber of my being that Llycaelon will survive even if the whole rest of the world falls.

You’re not so different from Kiernan anyway. You both have lived long enough to lose friends – too long, maybe. Perhaps that’s why the Minstrel wears a mask and keeps people at arm’s length: he too knows the pain of loving too much.

We are your friends,” Arnaud’s voice was low and strong. “You do not stand alone.

When all seems lost, look for Kiernan Kane.

Yole was annoyed that nobody had come to get him when the simple evening’s entertainment had turned into a clandestine council in a secret chamber and sulked a bit at not being included in mysterious meetings with strange minstrels.

Laugh at yourself, high and mighty king, laugh at yourself or despair!

It’s just like Kiernan Kane to send an urgent message hidden in an indecipherable mess of prophetic rhyme. By the time we’ve figured out what the thing means, we’ll be in the middle of danger only to realize that every assumption we made was completely wrong.

I will warn you now; adventures rarely, if ever, end. Once you step out on one you can never leave it behind; it follows you forever. Even if you make it home unharmed, you will never make it home unchanged.

My tutors all said that the greatest of the wizards died many years ago and that their like would never be again seen in our lands.”“Historians can be a pessimistic lot. I have never met one that did not believe that the world’s best years had already passed.