“THE ARRANGEMENTS AT the green house had become slightly peculiar, for Roen had decided to take the house back from Brigan and give it to Fire.‘I can understand you taking it from Brigan, if that’s your pleasure,’ Fire said, standing in the small green kitchen, having this argument with Roen for the third or fourth time. ‘You’re the queen, and it’s the queen’s house, and whatever Brigan may accomplish, he’s highly unlikely ever to be queen. But Nash will have a queen someday, Roen, and the house by rights should be hers.’‘We’ll build her something else,’ Roen said with a careless sweep of her arm.‘This is the queen’s house,’ Fire repeated.‘It’s my house,’ Roen said. ‘I built it, and I can give it to whomever I want, and I don’t know anyone who needs a peaceful retreat from the court more than you do, Fire—’‘I have a retreat. I have a house of my own in the north.’‘Three weeks away,’ Roen snorted, ‘and miserable half the year. Fire. If you’re to stay at court then I want you to have this house, for your own daily retreat. Take Brigandell and Hannadell in if you like, or send them out on their ears.’‘Whatever woman Nash marries is already going to resent me enough—’Roen spoke over her. ‘You are queenly, Fire, whether you see it or not. And you’d be spending most of your time here anyway if I left the house to Brigan; and I’m through with arguing. Besides, it matches your eyes.”

“You're the queen, and it's the queen's house, and whatever Brigan may accomplish, he's highly unlikely ever to be queen.”

“Well then," Roen said briskly, "are you sleeping?""Yes.""Come now. A mother can tell when her son lies. Are you eating?""No," Brigan said gravely. "I've not eaten in two months. It's a hunger strike to protest the spring flooding in the south.""Gracious," Roen said, reaching for the fruit bowl. "Have an apple, dear.”

“If my house is on fire, I don't need the fire chief telling me I should not have built the house out of wood. I need somebody to put the fire out.”

“He never tried to own me, Brigan. Roen said that Cansrel could never see a beautiful thing without wanting to possess it. But he did not try to possess me. He let me be my own.”

“I want to have the heart and mind of a queen,” she whispered. “I want it more than anything. But I’m only pretending. I can’t find the feeling of it inside me.”Fire considered her quietly. You want me to look for it inside you.“I just want to know,” Bitterblue said. “If it’s there, it would be a great comfort for me to know.”Fire said, I can tell you already that it’s there.“Really?” Bitterblue whispered.Queen Bitterblue, Fire said, shall I share with you the feeling of your own strength?”