They love them - eat the prickers and all, great big thistles.

"If she tried anything, a Deryni pricker would put a stop to it very quickly."

Yeomen prickers they are, who tend to the King's hunt.

He could imagine what the prickers and thorns were doing to the old man's flesh.

He seemed satisfied with what I gave him, for he began cutting off the prickers again without any further requests.

"That must be one of the Deryni prickers we hear of occasionally."

Sam sat up, wiped the juniper prickers from his face and got his breath.

He passed the pricker, which was like a large skewer, to Gilbert to inspect and waited while the others looked.

"The city has stopped hopping around, it is true, but how are we to get to it over this mass of prickers?"

The iron pricker which was at first common was replaced by brass or copper.

Stearne was known at various times as the witch-hunter and "witch pricker".

The prickers get immediately under the skin and emit a poison that remains long after the thistles are gone.

Both priests had Deryni prickers in their hands, though the instruments were not uncapped.

"Is that supposed to be a Deryni pricker?"

Another, perhaps even more dangerous method, was to force the pricker down through the stemming, into the powder, and then insert a fresh straw.

Father Lior followed on horseback, a Deryni pricker already in his hand.

Pick a fifth man to collect wads, pricker and powder horn from the magazine."

That's why we use the pricker.

Bothwell's first action was to fire his cannon at cavalry 'prickers' who tried to draw the Queen's party out to fight.

Stevanus had a cased Deryni pricker in his hand, but he kept it shielded.

Next, a long tapering round metal pricker was inserted so that its point penetrated a short distance into the powder.

"You have just tasted the sting of a cunning new device which we call a Deryni pricker," the priest went on.

He fingered the Deryni pricker as he glanced at the younger priest beside him.

Incidentally, the drug was administered with one of their Deryni prickers, not by mouth; this made the onset much faster and more profound.