They are afraid of him?' D'Harcourt raised his comedian's eyebrows....

We?' said Chancellor.'I am lavishly paid,' Danny said, 'to think in the first person plural.

In order to rule, one must face reality.

Lymond's life was lived on this level: the level on which the future of whole communities could be steered or reshaped, improved or jeopardized by a handful of people.

You need bed and a hot drink and a little less fluent self-pity.

And the effect on yourself?' Guthrie said.For a short time, Lymond was silent. Then he said, 'I had some strengths, which have grown. I had some weaknesses, which have gone.''That is true,' Adam...

I want you to try to understand. I am going alone. The risk, if any, is mine. I have no dependants, no responsibilities; I am adamant that this time no one will accompany me. What I hope to do in...

I have been taught to face reality: an excellent thing.

You are a mathematician,' John Dee said.'I am a musician,' said Lymond.

So, as Lymond strode out and stopped, rigid and white by the doorpost, Sybilla set eyes on Francis, the son of her heart; and so Francis Crawford, after four years of unharnessed power, came face to...

I wish,' said Lymond, 'it would try a major key sometimes.''Wind,' Chancellor said, 'is a melancholy creature.

You lead, therefore you kill.

Why do you call him M. d'Harcourt? You called Jerott Jerott.''I called Jerott a great deal worse than that.

Our powder and arrows are going to run out on us some time. And so are our food and water and joie de vivre and good books and everything. Why not walk out now and get made into somebody's favourite...

Will he travel tomorrow?'They both gazed, united in fascination, at the insensible and manhandled person of the sacrosanct Voevoda Bolshoia. 'I doubt it,' said Ludovic d'Harcourt.But he did. He...

There is a Russian proverb,' Nepeja said. There was a brief silence, while his hearers considered the analogy. 'Beat your brother and he shall be deader?' at length Danny said.

If it had been reeled off with defiance, Richard could perhaps have tolerated it. Instead, delivered with restraint and with clarity, it was the voice of the Voevoda Bolshoia, unquestioned master of...

Perhaps the forces of winged retribution. The prophet Elijah being fed to the ravens. Like Baida, I have killed my three pigeons.''Two,' Adam said.'Two died instead of Vishnevetsky. One died instead...

Danny Hislop was not there, nor the artist called Blacklock. Riding between Lymond and the fresh-faced Knight of St John who did not like eagles, Chancellor asked after them. Ludovic d'Harcourt...

Which reminds me -''The new ladies have arrived,' said Adam grimly. 'Guaranteed of clean stock, and inured to Russian practices. Osep has announced himself suited.''For the time being,' said Danny,...

I am too far away now from it all,' Lymond said. 'And if we are going to be metaphysical, I have no sea card, or compass, or star.

Are you by any chance …' said Lymond....

I have said the intellect is all that can matter. I haven't said it is easy-or painless … to rid oneself of all that is left.

You called me Alec just now,' Guthrie said. 'If I have dispensation to do the same, let me say it. Francis Crawford, I wish you away from this country; and if I had the hearing of a friend, and not...

Meanwhile, until the snow comes, we had better keep Master Chancellor and his party entertained.'...

Unwanted, unasked, unwelcome as ever, here I am.''Again,' said Lymond.

Age can mellow, they say.''They say wrong,' said Diccon Chancellor. 'I have known Mistress Philippa these two months, and I have aged while she has grown daily less mellow. Why else am I fleeing the...

You've changed the metre,' said Philippa.'I reserve the right,' said Lymond, 'to change the metre. Don't interrupt.

I don't change from minute to minute. I don't change at all.

And a capable feminine voice, directed past Austin Grey's ear to his opponent, said baldly, 'Hit him.'Lymond, already balanced on the upswing to hurl himself forward, dropped his arm and said, with...