Royal Assassin (The Farseer Trilogy, Book 2)

I copied her silence. After a long time she observed, “Our own ambitions and tasks that we set for ourselves, the framework we attempt to impose upon the world, is no more than a shadow of a tree cast across the snow. It will change as the sun moves, be swallowed in the night, sway with the wind, and when the smooth snow vanishes, it will lie disto

decorous.

extemporized.

chastened

blanched

veneer

quiescent

Then, in that place, you will finally have time to be yourself.

The wide stretch of white snow with the inky tree shadows spilled on it, the elusive scents on the cold wind, the ridiculous fun of bounding and digging after shrews that ventured out of their winter burrows.