“Below me Rontu was running along the cliffs barking at the screaming gulls. Pelicans were chattering as they finished the blue water. But suddenly I thought of Tutok, and the island seemed very quiet.”

“ Blue! My mind screams it along with everyone else. Blue, blue, blue, blue, blue. I thought it. I wanted to think it. I wasn't thinking yellow. I was thinking blue, and the wizard said blue, so everyone heard me thinking blue! Maybe, if this really, really works, none of my colors will be silent anymore.”

“This couldn’t be just a lake. No real water was ever blue like that. A light breeze stirred the pin-cherry tree beside the window, ruffled the feathers of a fat sea gull promenading on the pink rocks below. The breeze was full of evergreen spice.”

“Then, seemingly from out of nowhere, appeared sea gulls… forming a welcoming committee for an island I hadn’t the slightest desire to visit.”

“But-Jace what are you doing?''Finishing my shower. And if you‘ve made me run through all the hot water, I‘ll be very annoyed.”

“The skerry was resting in the sea. It was like being in a cradle, or on a deathbed, he thought. All the voices hidden in the cliff were whispering. Even rocks have memories, as do waves and breakers. And down below, in the darkness where fish swam along invisible and silent channels, there were also memories.”