“This was one princess who could rescue her own damn self.”

“If you're late to the rescue, the imprisoned princess will just have to escape on her own!”

“Heroes were ordinary people who knew that even if their own lives were impossibly knotted, they could untangle someone else's. And maybe that one act could lead someone to rescue you right back.”

“Bah!” Magnus scoffed. “Humans always blame dwarves. A baby goes missing and it was a dwarf that stole it. A princess runs off with a second son of a king and it was a dwarf who lured her to a deep prison. And when they find her with the prince—lo, she was rescued!“A king is stabbed in the back in his own chapel, and a princess’s toweris turned into a death trap,” Royce called back to them. “Friends arebetrayed and trapped in a prison—yes, I can see your surprise. Where do they get such ideas?”“Damn his elven ears,” Magnus said.”

“Oh, you're one of those,' the princess said.'One of what?''One of those who needs to be told their worth over and over by others. Do you know who tells me my worth, Phaedra of Alonso?'The princess pointed a hard finger at her own chest. 'Me. I determine my own worth. If I had to rely on others I'd have lain down and died waiting.”

“People think they know the mystery of living in your skin. They don't. There's no one who knows except the person who carts it around her own self.”