“They were too much to carryso I left them behindfor a new life, in a new placebut no one forgot who I was.”

“Perhaps this was how the sparrows did it too; perhaps they were looking so hard at the peaks and tips of the new rooftops coated with dew, and the vast new horizon, that they only forgot that they did not know how to fly until they were already in midair.”

“And there are new kinds of nomads, not people who are at home everywhere, but who are at home nowhere. I was one of them ”

“I thought you were supposed to be the champion of your people,' I said.I live because I need to do that. For anyone who is left.'Don't you see? No one will be left. Protect them now or there will be no one to protect!' This is a battle that goes on and on. It never ends. You're too young to understand.No! You're too much of a coward to fight.'I was sick of lies and secrets and of battles so old we had to erase who we were to fight back. And still we lost. Still we were tied to posts.”

“But she's not, and I am left to wonder on my own: How does this work, the getting to know a new guy without revealing too much desperation for his undivided attention?”

“Too many questions had been left unanswered. Every day there were new rumours saying that the Kamari numbers were growing. Nick wondered why so many people were joining them.”