What’s a little maiming and treachery between friends?

I want to be a bad example,’ she said. ‘I see.’ Myrtle stirred herself, ready to walk to the prow. ‘Well, my dear, I think you have made an excellent start.

If someone throws aside their pride and begs with all their heart, and if they do so in vain, then they are never quite the same person afterwards. Something in them dies, and something else comes to life. Afterwards, it was as if some understanding of the world had sunk into Makepeace’s soul like winter dew. She knew that she would never feel safe or loved as she had before. And she knew that she would never, ever beg that way again.

Children are little priests of their parents, watching their every gesture and expression for signs of their divine will.

Faith had always told herself that she was not like other ladies. But neither, it seemed, were other ladies.

A rain shower was rehearsing. A few experimental droplets filled the silence.

She could feel her mind pulling loose like knitting, the neat stitches of her artificial days unravelling to become one mangled thread.

It is terribly bad form to admit to being terrified for one’s life, but nobody in their right mind would go to a Court banquet without making preparations. One must have the right costume, the right Faces, and at least eighty-two ways of avoiding assassination.

Her past was getting away from her.

But I’m afraid to sleep!” whispered Trista. “What if I fall to pieces before I wake up? What if tomorrow morning I’m just a pile of leaves and sticks tucked under a blanket? What if this is the last time I’ve got left, and I waste it all being asleep, then wake up dead?