The thought of his only daughter living in the maze of dangers that was ordinary spy work, with torture and death to endure if she were caught, made his hair stand on end.
-Chapter 1, p. 7

Aly felt as if she was reading a book from which every second page was missing. She needed to learn more about the raka and their politics.
-Chapter 4, p. 78

There is no better spy than a slave. No one notices them. They may go anywhere, look into anything, if they are careful. They can ask questions that would be suspicious to others, because everyone believes a slave is stupid, even given evidence he is not.
-Chapter 5, p. 98

"Really, Aly, you have an imagination and a sense of the real world. You shouldn't have to ask. Their family is out of favor with a monarch whose grip on sanity is loose, they've been sent...