"Four days later, the coronation of Roland was held in the Plaza of the Needle. The juggler did not see it; he had been beheaded on the executioner's block behind the Needle three days before that."

--(teddybear170)

"Sasha was reading in be when he came to her, his ruddy, bearded face alight, but she laid her book on her bosom and listened raptly to his story as he told it, his hands moving. Near the end, he drew back to show her how he had drawn back the bow ... When he did this, she laughed and clapped and won his heart."

--(teddybear170)

"A door to the left of the great courtroom led into a narrow hallway. The hallway stretched perhaps 40 paces, and then the stairs began. They would up and up, around and around, all the way to the top of the Needle, where the two rooms Peter would live in henceforth, until the day he died, awaited him. There were 300 stairs in all. We will come to Peter at the top, in his rooms, and in good time, his story, as you will see, is not done. But we will not climb with him, because it is a climb of shame, leaving his rightful place as King at the bottom and marching, shoulders back and head erect, toward his place as prisoner of the Kingdom at the top - it would not be kind to follow him or any man on such a walk."

--(teddybear170)

"In the years ahead, the nightmare sometimes came again - his father accusing his hidden, spying son and then doubling over, smoking, his hair on fire. In those years, Thomas discovered two things: guilt and secrets, like murdered bones, never rest easy; but the knowledge of all three can be lived with."

--(teddybear170)