But then, as she knew too well, the more fondly we imagine something will last forever, the more ephemeral it often proves to be. - Iain Banks

Oh. I didn't realise."
"Then you're simply ignorant rather than malevolent. Congratulations.

Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different reasons than I'd disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim. That's my score to date. Three. I haven't killed anybody for years, and don't intend to ever again. It was just a stage I was going through.

I am told he is something of a scholar, which is no bad thing in a king, providing it is not taken to excess.