"Pick, her best friend, was a six-inch-high sylvan, a forest creature who looked for the most part like something a child had made of the discards of bird's nest, with body and limbs of twigs and hair and beard of moss." Chap. 1, p. 13

"His dreams were always of the future, a future grim and horrific, one where the balance of magic had shifted so dramatically that civilization was on the verge of extinction." Chap. 4, p. 45

"He no longer thinks of himself as a Knight of the Word, so he has stopped acting like one. But he can never quit." Chap. 5, p. 60

"He stood with his hand gripping the polished walnut staff that served as his crutch, wondering again what would happen if he simply cast it away, if he defied the warning that had accompanied its bestowal and cut loose his final tie to the Word." Chap. 6, p...