All her life she'd planned to be a knight-errant, roving the world to do great deeds. But now she was learning that such a life included periods of boredom, riding through countryside that seldom changed. Not every village had a cruel overlord; few crossroads were held by evil knights.

-- chapter 1, p.16

"Now that I think of it, I don't know how the famous heroes of the past were able to take things from the entities that guarded them -- not if they were as noble as the stories claim. When you look at it right, it is stealing."

-- Alanna, chapter 4, p.130