I know exactly what I'll do. I shall make her a new medicine, one that is so strong and so fierce and so fantastic it will either cure her completely or blow off the top of her head.
"Perhaps I am sending out a changeling to map fear itself," he said to himself, as he tidied the papers together and pushed back his chair. "What a joke for the worlds seen and unseen! A faerie child in the Order. A faerie child to map fear."
"Sure sounds like another curse to me," said McCorkle.
"I would guess it's merely an obscure quotation from the Book of the Dead. The bloody thing runs to two hundered chapters and nobody's figured all of it out."
"We're in on the secret, aren't we, Cas? And it's taking us out of this world."
"That's usually the way it works," I say softly.
"They tried to make these buildings perfect," he said. "Because they're working with such small-size things. But it's not a perfect world, Jack. Never has been. Never will be."
I said again, "What kind of accidents?"
"I make it. In uncertain times like these, gold is the wisest investment, don't you think? Governments fall. The dead rise. Giants attack Olympus. But gold retains its value!"
"Cyclopes! I tell you, Stheno, when I destroy Neptune and take over the oceans, we will renegotiate the Cyclopes' labour contract. Ma Gasket will learn her place! Now, what news from the north?"
"I'm training a replacement," he said. "I hope to be back to healthier stuff - gunshots and stabbings and bludgeonings - within a month or so."
Now you know, the crow whispered as it sat on his shoulder. Now you know why you must live.
"Why?" Bran said, not understanding, falling, falling.
Because winter is coming.
"Oh, great. It's nice to see my tax dollars at work. You guys build a satellite location system so that they can find my body. Wow."
"We have to get to the President."
"I know," Gant said, "but first ... I have to ... save your ass."
Oh, well, I think. There will be twenty-four of us. Odds are someone else will kill him before I do.
Of course, the odds have not been very dependable of late.
"... a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol ..."
Not even the strongest of the strong will triumph. Perhaps they never intended to have a victor in these Games at all. Or perhaps my final act of rebellion forced their hand.
My ongoing struggle with the Capitol, which has so often felt like a solitary journey, has not been undertaken alone. I have had thousands upon thousands of people from the districts at my side. I was their Mockingjay long before I accepted the role.
"The LD means 'lethal dose'. What Dr. Sorensen is saying, very tactfully, is that first I probably lose my hands, and then God tosses a coin to see whether I live or die."
"Don't worry," he said. "I'm not trying to commit suicide by sepsis." After a pause he added, "Shall we continue?"
"It's a polar bear," he said.
"Great, now we can test that stupid bear repellent," Mother said. "Hey Kid, go on. Go over and pat the nice widdle bear."
"They take their tailoring seriously here, ma'am."
"And a good thing too. You are in the presence of greatness."
Then he paused and added a single word that did more to encourage me to pursue writing than any compliment any editor has ever paid me. That word was Bravo.
True names have power. He remembered telling someone that.
He broke out in a cold sweat. Cade's mouth twitched in amusement.
