“Utterly still,all but invisible against the wall of the stable, the Dragon kept watch over his Saxon bride.”

“Joe closed his hand over the watch and it was still warm from his father's pocket, ticking against his palm like a heart.”

“He knew exactly what was due east and if his parents wanted him to bring a bride back to the castle, then heading towards the fire-breathing dragon was the wrong way to go about it. Any princess daft enough to get herself captured by a dragon was on her own." Prince Aiden on finding a bride.”

“He kept staring at you all night. For a moment there, I thought his eyes were attached to you by an invisible string.”

“What curious attitudes he goes into!' (For the messenger kept skipping up and down, and wriggling like an eel, as he came along, with his great hands spread out like fans on each side.)'Not at all,' said the King. 'He's an Anglo-Saxon Messenger-and those are Anglo-Saxon attitudes. He only does them when he's happy.”

“I get to live forever," he repeated. Luce was still lost, but he kept talking, a stream of words pouring out of his mouth. "I get to live, and to watch babies being born, and grow up, and fall in love. I watch them have babies of their own and grow old. I watch them die. I am condemned, Luce, to watch it all over again and again. Everyone but you." His eyes were glassy. His voice dropped to a whisper. "You don't get to fall in love--""But...," she whispered back. "I've...fallen in love.”