There is no truth on this island of yours. Rather, there are as many truths as there are stars in the sky; and every one of them different.
If a man truly loves, he gives no heed to what others may think. His heart has no room for that, for it is filled to the brim with the unutterable truth of his feelings.
And as I watched him, I knew that in every dark night there was, somewhere, a small light burning that could never be quenched.
This is a long goodbye, yet not time enough. I have no aptitude for this. I cannot learn this. I would hold on, and hold on, until my hands clutch at emptiness.
I wonder how it takes you, that moment when everything turns to shadows. – Somerled.
Not all were joyful tales; we needed to acknowledge that love was not just kisses, smiles, and fulfillment, but also sacrifice, compromise, and hard work.
The error was not yours, Somerled,” Eyvind said quietly, moving to the doorway. “It was mine. I failed to teach you the one lesson you could not do without: how to be a man.
You are a devious woman, Blackthorn,’ she said. ‘I prefer the term strategic thinker.
My world was changing, and I was not ready for it.
You’ve only just discovered you have a heart. Let it beat a little.
His touch was like a bard’s on his instrument, and it awakened a deep and mysterious music in my body.
All that he had of her was his memory, where he held every moment, every single moment that she had been his. That was all he had, to keep out the loneliness.
We cannot know the future. All we can do is face it bravely. We should take heed of those we love and respect. But in the end, we make every decision alone.
Three children lay on the rocks at the water’s edge.A dark-haired girl, two boys, slightly older.This image is caught forever in my memory, like some fragile creature preserved in amber.
You will find the way, daughter of the forest. Through grief and pain, through many trials, through betrayal and loss, your feet will walk a straight path.
You know not, yet, the sort of love that strikes like a lightning bold; that clutches hold of you by the heart, as irrevocably as death; that becomes the lodestar by which you steer the rest of your life.
Ask us for any help you need…Let us be strong for you.
The future was in our own hands. If we wanted a world where such things were possible, it was for us to make it.
His touch warmed my whole body. I was longing to throw my arms around him and hold him close, but the magic of this moment was like a single, lovely strand of cobweb, fragile and delicate. One wrong move and it would snap beyond mending.
For the others, it was still just a tale, like all the tales we told, night by night, tales comical and strange, tales heroic and awe-inspiring, the tales that formed the fabric of our spirits.
Who would awaken the past? It shines like a sunriseAnd cuts like a fine blade.
I like your anger,’ the Hag said mildly. ‘I like your resistance. It makes you less than courteous, but altogether more interesting.
What I do . . . the path I tread . . . it brings some choices that test me hard.
…if you give respect, yet get respect back. If you offend, you get…retribution.
I had learned how it felt to want more than the sweet touch of hand to cheek or lips to palm, more than a kiss, more than an embrace. I was starting to discover that it is not only the mind that understands love, but also the body.
I wonder how it takes you, that moment when everything turns to shadows.
You bound him to you with your courage and your tales. You hold him to you now. You captured a wild creature when you had no place you could keep him.
Death, of course, should not be feared, but awaited with certain wonder. To die was to step across a threshold into a new world, unknown, unimaginable.
His eyes reflected the open grey of the autumnal sky.
Even when I was young and content and thought life would bring good things for me and mine, I didn’t believe in miracles.
Hope is such a tenuous quality. To feel it and then to be denied what one most longs for … Better, surely, not to hope at all, than to open the heart to a hope that is impossible.
I should have realized, when Cathal kissed me in the hallway, that my response was the first raindrop heralding a storm.
With courage and hope, we can conquer our fears and do what we once believed impossible.
Perhaps this is what the stories meant when they called somebody heartsick. Your heart and your stomach and your whole insides felt hollow and empty and aching.
Look forward, not back,” the Hag said. “All is change. Do not regret. Instead, learn.