Why Wizards Do Not Rule the World
“You can’t leave me in this condition. What if I blast the king, or one of his courtiers?”
“You won’t,” she said.
“How do you know?”
“Magic costs,” she said. “Go to the kitchens first, before you sleep.”
“I’m not—”
“Do it.”
She had laid a binding on him. A fugitive memory told him what it was. Then the griping in his belly bound him more tightly still.
He was ravenous—starving. He was dizzy with hunger. If the cooks were not awake, he would raid and pillage on his own. Then he would sleep like the dead.
Not the worst battle he had ever fought, on the field or in lordly hall, had taxed his mind and body as this little bit of magic had. Small wonder wizards did not rule the world, if this was what it did to them to try.
— Rite of Conquest, Chapter 8
Emphasis mine.
