“Thank you sir," she said. "I hope that your friend feels better soon."I shrugged. "The ways of the Lord" I said, "are often dark, but never pleasant.”

“Perhaps,' she said, leaning forward a little, 'you will tell me your name. If we are to be friends' - she smiled her grave smile - 'as I hope we are, we had better begin at the beginning.”

“But Hazael only said, "I brought you a present."Liraz took the flower, looked at it, and then a Hazael, expressionless. And then she ate it. She chewed the flower and swallowed it."Hmm," said Hazael. "Not the usual response.""Oh, do you give flowers often?""Yes," he said. He probably did. Hazael had a way of enjoying life in spite of the many restrictions they lived under, being soldiers, and worse, being Misbegotten. "I hope it wasn't poisonous," he said lightly.Liraz just shrugged. "There are worse ways to die.”

“She's a nice girl," Tennessee said as a way of saying goodbye to them, as a way of saying thank you and I'm sorry, as a way of saying, I wish I had never let you go and I wish we had never met.”

“I just had this feeling about you," she said. "Is that foolish?""I hope not.”

“I find it intolerable that this lord is out there going about hisdepravities unhindered. I was hoping you might know some way to deal with the man.""Oh, Yes," James said with a dark, ominous smile. "I can think of a few ways.""Short of killing him, that is," Derek felt it prudent to add.James said nothing for nearly ten seconds, then, "If you insist.”