“Gods be good, why would any man ever want to be king? When everyone was shouting King in the North, King in the North, I told myself ... swore to myself ... that I would be a good king, as honorable as Father, strong, just, loyal to my friends and brave when I faced my enemies ... now I can't even tell one from the other.”

“So do I wish I was to be king? That is not a question I ask myself. I ask myself, Would I be a good king? Would I be quick witted and generous of spirit and full of that boundless energy? Or would I be clumsy and stupid and dulled by my own prejudices? I try to be a good man, since I am alive at all, and hope that that teaches me what I would need to know if I was ever faced with a higher challenge.”

“Luka, the king—""Hail the king!" he playfully interrupted."Why does everyone say 'hail the king' every time I mention Darius?""Tradition." He winked at me from over his shoulder. A grin stretched my lips."So, if I say king—""Hail the king!"I tried again. "King?""Hail the king!""King.""Hail the king!""K—""Stop it!”

“Dard, [...] forgive me, but I wasn't in love with you. I wanted you. That's a very different thing. I like you and I enjoy your company, and for a while I lusted for you. But I don't want to go north with you and be your queen. Even if I were in love with you I wouldn't want that. I swore an oath when i became an officer and I can't, and won't, surrender my allegiance to my king.”

“As king, your desires must be stronger than any other. You must be more magnificent, more easily angered than everyone else! He should be both pure and chaotic, a man who was more real than any other man. Only through this could your subjects be impressed by their king, and only through this would the message ‘if I was king, such would be my wonder’ be imprinted upon their hearts.”

“The fact is, the king was a good deal more than a king, he was a man; and when a man is a man, you can't knock it out of him.”