The Scions of Elua are gifted. But I am D’Angeline too, and if the blood that flows in my veins is not nobly gotten, it holds no less of the lineage of Elua and his Companions for it. My mother was an adept of the Night Court, and in Terre d’Ange, it means as much to be a whore’s daughter as a prince’s son.
Jacqueline Carey / Kushiel’s Dart
[Top]“You despise your patrons a little, and love them too, yes?”
“Yes, my lady.” I sat down in the chair held for me and accepted a glass of joie, eyeing her warily. “A little.”
“And how many of them do you fear?”
I held my glass without sipping, as she did, and answered honestly. “One, at least, not at all. Most of them, sometimes. You, my lady, always.”
The blue of her eyes was like the sky at twilight when the first stars appear. “Good.” Her smile held promises I shuddered to think on. “Be at ease in it, Phedre. This is the Longest Night, and I am in no hurry. You’re not like the others, who are trained to it from birth, like hounds cringing under the whip for a kind touch from their master’s hand. No, you embrace the lash, but even so, there is aught in you that rebels at it. Let others plumb the depths of the former; ‘tis the latter that interests me.”
At that, I did shudder. “I am at my lady’s command.”
“Command.” Melisande held her glass to the light, inspecting the sparkling cordial. “Command is for captains and generals. I have no interest in command. If you would obey, you will discern what pleases me, and do it unasked.” She lifted her glass to me, smiling. “Joy.”
There are going to be a few quotes from these two chapters.
And I must note, the last paragraph is so on point in a way that is all too commonly missed. I don’t know if I’ve ever identified with a fictional character quite so much.
Beauty is at its most poignant when the cold hand of death holds poised to wither it imminently.
[Top]French covers of Kushiel by Jacqueline Carey.
I really love the first cover .
Bragelonne always makes beautiful covers!
[Top]Reading this amazing book, Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey and I HAD TO do something about that craving (she describes everything so well, that book is just – delicious. So rich. So cool.)
So here we go. Phédre..
‘I’d not parade you half-naked before the peers of an entire province, Phèdre.’
‘I know,’ I whispered. ‘Hyacinthe, that’s the problem.’
I don’t think, before that moment, that he truly grasped the nature of what I was. He knew, of course; had always known, and had been the one person who’d never cared for what, but only who I was. I saw him comprehend it now, and feared. It could change everything between us.
All paths are present, always… and we can but choose among them.
Your dreaming self seeks to tell you something your waking ears will not hear.
Because when you were born, for the first time, I understood it. Love as thou wilt,” she said, musing. “I have always adhered to the precept of Blessed Elua in my own way. And yet, until you were born, I didn’t truly know what it was to love another living soul. Beyond thought, beyond reason. And I thought, for once, that the gods were speaking clearly to me.