“I've liked you better when Katsa's around,' Giddon said. 'She's so rotten to me that you seem positively pleasant in contrast.”

“I wouldn't marry Giddon to save my life," Katsa said. "Not even to save yours.""Well." Raffin's eyes were full of laughter. "I'd leave that part out.”

“That was a perfectly reasonable explanation," she said grumpily. "Perhaps my advisers don't lie to me.""Isn't that what you'd want?" asked Giddon."Well, yes, but it doesn't elucidate my puzzle!""If I may say so, Lady Queen," said Giddon, "it's not always easy to follow your conversation.""Oh, Giddon," she said, sighing. "If it's any comfort, I don't follow it either.”

“It's only water," she said."Tell that to a drowning man," Giddon said.”

“You know,” he said, “I wish you could see this cave.”“What’s it like?”He paused. “It’s...beautiful, really.”“Tell me.”And so Po described to Katsa what hid in the blackness of the cave; and outside, the world awaited them.”

“But you're better than I am, Katsa. And it doesn't humiliate me. It humbles me. But it doesn't humiliate me.”

“He considered her seriously. "Well. And that's easy," he said. "My Grace will protect me from him, And I'll protect you. You'll be safe with me, Katsa.”