“Ew, sicko. I was practicing Edomic.""Sure you were," Jason said. "You're just too embarrassed to admit you were playing hide-and-seek all alone. Rachel hiding, nobody seeking.”

“How do you kill something that's already dead?Nobody knows enough about them. Ask Jason. He'll have an opinion.Wait a moment. Rachel could see Corinne talking to Jason, but they were too far ahead to hear. He says you chop them up into little pieces.But what if that infects you with the disease?Jason leaned closer to answer Corinne quietly. She laughed. You let Nollin do it.”

“Jason glanced at the creature. It remained the same distance away as before, still as a statue."What do you want?" Jason asked.No answer."Are you the thing that followed Tark? You should keep following him. He's the real mastermind. Shoo. Go hide."No response."Okay, how about you stand guard while I sleep. Keep the giants away. Sound good? All in favor, hold perfectly still. Fine, I guess we have a deal.”

“You look tired," Rachel told Jason."I wish I could jog and sleep at the same time.""Can't you?" Ferrin asked, joining them at the little cascade. "I always imagined that you could sleep rolling down a mountainside in a barrel.""I probably could today," Jason conceded.”

“If we might be able to save this world, how can we walk away? Too many people around here have given up! Galloran said heroes sacrifice for causes; they do things that others hide from. I may not be some great hero, but I won’t hide from this. I would never live with myself.”

“You don't know how to respond," Ferrin said. "I'll make it easy for you. The safest course of action for your young rebellion would be to toss me off the tallest cliff you can find. I have played a perilous game for years--trading secrets, telling lies, finding leverage, earning trust only to betray it. I got away with an eccentric lifestyle among Maldor's elite by hiding much of what I learned and proving myself too valuable to kill. It was a precarious, unforgiving game. When I released you from Felrook, I miscalculated, and I lost Game over. Bridges burned. But the game is part of my nature. I don't think I can stop playing until I stop breathing.”

“Might not hurt you to pick up a book, just as an experiment."Whatever. I looked up the definition for 'nerd' in the dictionary. Know what it said?""I bet you'll tell me."" 'If you're reading this, you are one.' "You're a riot.”