If her enemies were Brigan’s friends and her friends were Brigan’s enemies, then the two of them could walk through the world arm in arm and never be hit by arrows again.
I’m not going to wear a red dress,” she said.”It would look stunning, My Lady,” she called.She spoke to the bubbles gathered on the surface of the water. “If there’s anyone I wish to stun at dinner, I’ll hit him in the face.
Perhaps I can stay by the fire and mend your socks and scream if I hear any strange noises.
There will be no yelling at people who are bleeding themselves to unconsciousness.
You’re the queen, and it’s the queen’s house, and whatever Brigan may accomplish, he’s highly unlikely ever to be queen.
I wouldn’t marry Giddon to save my life,” Katsa said. “Not even to save yours.””Well.” Raffin’s eyes were full of laughter. “I’d leave that part out.
All right,” Clara said. “We have our swordsman, so let’s get moving. Brigan, could you attempt, at least, to make yourself presentable? I know this is a war, but the rest of us are trying to pretend it’s a party.
You won’t even take your bow? Are you planning to throttle a moose with your bare hands, then?””I’ve a knife in my boot,” she said, and then wondered, for a moment, if she could throttle a moose with her bare hands.
Find something useful to do with your morning,’ she thought to him as she neared her chambers. ‘Do something heroic in front of an audience. Knock a child into a river while no one’s looking and then rescue him.
Katsa and Po were trying to drown each other and, judging from their hoots of laughter, enjoying it immensely.
In the end, Leck should have stuck to his lies. For it was the truth he almost told that killed him.
Truths are dangerous,” he said.”Then why are you writing them in a book?””To catch them between the pages,” said Teddy, “and trap them before they disappear.
But that’s how memory works,” Bitterblue said quietly. “Things disappear without your permission, then come back again without your permission.” And sometimes they came back incomplete and warped.
It was a hurting tune, resigned, a cry of heartache for all in the world that fell apart. As ash rose black against the brilliant sky, Fire’s fiddle cried out for the dead, and for the living who stay behind to say goodbye.
If we knew a person was going to die, we’d hold harder to the memories.”Fire corrected him, in a whisper. “The good memories.
It’s not reasonable to love people who are only going to die.
Every configuration of people is an entirely new universe unto itself.
I have no doubt that you are more than capable of bringing the Monsean queen and my son and the rest of my sons and a hundred Nanderan kittens through an onslaught of howling raiders if you chose to.
I’ve always been led to believe that the ultimate goal for an author is the movie deal. Now I understand that the movie deal is merely a MEANS TO A MUCH HIGHER END: NAIL POLISH.
I know this is war, but the rest of us are trying to pretend it’s a party.
I don’t understand your book. Isn’t every book a book of words?
That’s interesting,” Bitterblue said. “You think a conscience requires fear?
Hidden yourself in a hole and dared to burden no one with your grievous friendship? I will have friends, Katsa. I will have a life, even though I carry this burden.
Brigan, could you attempt, at least, to make yourself presentable? I know this is a war, but the rest of us are trying to pretend it’s a party.
It was starting to seem to her that being “forward-thinking” too often involved avoiding any kind of thought at all – especially about things that might benefit from a great deal of thinking.
What was the purpose of a woman monster?It came out in a whisper. ‘What am I for?
Your brothers are the foolish ones for not seeing the strength in beautiful things.
And of course she understood now why her body wanted to run whenever he appeared. It was a correct instinct, for there was nothing to be got from this but sadness.
Part of avoiding thoughts about something was not encouraging opportunities for that something to makes itself felt.
I wonder if it’s meant to be punishment for something one can’t forgive oneself for. Or an external expression, Lady Queen, of an internal pain? Or perhaps it’s a way to realise that you actually do want to stay alive.
It seemed to Fire it was rarely enough one knew a person one wished to marry. How unjust then to meet that person, and be kept from it because one’s bed was made of hay and not feathers.
Fire looked into his quiet eyes, touched his dear familiar face and considered the question.
For a moment, it was almost as if they were friends again.
The only way for you to keep your mind straight is to run from those who would confuse you.
How absurd it was that in all seven kingdoms, the weakest and most vulnerable of people – girls, women – went unarmed and were taught nothing of fighting, while the strong were trained to the highest reaches of their skill.
But everyone has some kind of power to hurt people.
She didn’t know what would happen because of this. But she knew that today, she would hurt no one. She threw back her blankets and though only of today.
I want to have the heart and mind of a queen,” she whispered. “I want it more than anything. But I’m only pretending. I can’t find the feeling of it inside
He leaned heavily on the desk now, as if danger had strengthened him before and its lack now made him weak.
You do trust him, though, Giddon?””Holt, who is stealing your sculptures and is of questionable mental health?””Yes.””I trusted him five minutes ago. Now I’m at a bit of a loss.””Your opinion five minutes ago is good enough for me.
I don’t know how it’ll be between us Thiel. I don’t know how we’ll learn to trust each other again, and I know you’re not well enough to help me with every matter I face. But I miss you and I’d like to try again.
It was a haunting tune, unresigned, a cry of heartache for all in the world that fell apart. As ash rose black against the brilliant sky, Fire’s fiddle cried out for the dead, and for the living who stay behind and say goodbye.
She didn’t want to go far, just out of the trees so she could see the stars. They always eased her loneliness. She thought of them as beautiful creatures, burning and cold; each solitary, and bleak, and silent like her.
They seemed no closer to the tops of the peaks that rose before them. It was only by looking back, to the forest far below, that she knew they’d climbed.
A monster that refused, sometimes, to behave like a monster. When a monster stopped behaving like a monster, did it stop being a monster? Did it become something else?
Do you understand? I don’t want you to do a thing if you don’t understand it.
How unjust then to meet that person you love, and be kept away from them only because ones bed is made of hay , and the other, feathers.
When Brocker arrived he took her hands and held them to his face and cried into them.
Please, Katsa,” he finally said. “At least talk to me”.She swung around to face him. “What it there to talk about? You know how I feel, and what I think about it.””And what I feel? Doesn’t it matter?
Love doesn’t measure that way… you may blame me for your feelings, but it isn’t fair to blame me for how you’ve chosen to behave.
I can’t know your feelings”, he said ,”if you don’t know them yourself.
You know,” he said, “I wish you could see this cave.”“What’s it like?”He paused. “It’s…beautiful, really.”“Tell me.”And so Po described to Katsa what hid in the blackness of the cave; and outside, the world awaited them.
She wanted to cause him pain for taking a place in her heart she wouldn’t have given him if she’d known the truth.
Sneaking was a kind of deceit. So was disguise. Just past midnight, wearing dark trousers and Fox’s hood, the queen snuck out of her own rooms and stepped into a world of stories and lies.
Now that we know about his indigestion, we can torture him with cake.
Alone in the forest, Katsa sat on a stump and cried. She cried like a person whose heart is broken and wondered how, when two people loved each other, there could be such a broken heart.
Our own story is even more important for us to know than history.
Only a person with the true heart of a dictionary-writer would be lying in bed, three days after being stabbed in the gut, worrying about his P’s.
It’s as if when I open myself up to every perception, things create their own focus.
Bitterblue had never seen a man naked, and she was curious. She decided the universe owed her a few minutes, just a few, to satisfy her curiosity. So she went to him and knelt, which shut him up.
It was a strange monster, for beneath its exterior it was frightened and sickened by its own violence. It chastised itself for its savagery. And sometimes it had no heart for violence and rebelled against it utterly.
Then come here,” he said, a bit redundantly, as he had already pulled her with him into an armchair and curled her up in his arms. “Tell me what I can do to help you feel be
Could you attempt, at least, to make yourself presentable? I know this is a war, but the rest of us are trying to pretend it’s a party.
If we’re to be judged by our parents and grandparents, then we all may as well impale ourselves upon bits of rock.
Everyone was willing to take some small risk to lessen the damage of their ambition and disorder and lawlessness.
She would thump them both, and she would apologize to neither.
Great! He has indigestion, so let’s torture him with cake.
There isn’t a simple person anywhere in this world.
Things don’t ever stay the same. Natural beginnings come to natural or unnatural ends.
Well. I always like it when you kiss me.Do you?You’re good at it.Well, that’s lucky, because I’ll always be kissing you.
Circumstances don’t always align themselves with human intention.
Not all sons were like their fathers. A son chose the man he would be.Not all daughters were like their fathers. A daughter monster chose the monster she would be.
Some of the smartest men have a hard time comprehending the obvious.
Everyone wants a little bit of something beautiful.
Men are daft around women, incautious and boastful.
Are you determined to leave me in this world to live without my heart?’ Archer asked. ‘Because that’s what you very nearly did.
What man can hate or love well when he is drugged?
Your horse is named Small.Yes.Mine is named Big.-Fire and Brigan
If we knew a person was going to die, we’d hold harder to the memories.
For now, Lady Queen,” he said, “allow us to continue to obey you. But give us honorable instructions, Lady Queen,” he said, turning a flushed face to hers. “Ask us to do honorable things, so that we may have the honor of obeying you.
It’s only water,” she said.”Tell that to a drowning man,” Giddon said.
Archer wouldn’t consider her allowance of the guard to be evidence of the powers of rational argument. He’d take it as proof that she was in love with whichever of her guards was the most handsome.
The poacher’s murderer was a man after Archer’s own heart, for Archer also didn’t like men to hurt Fire or make her acquaintance.
Tell me what I can do to help you feel better.”Well…I always like when you kiss me…”Do you?”You’re good at it. “Well, that’s lucky. Because I’ll always be kissing you.
What she really loved was to hang over the edge and watch the bow of the ship slice through the waves. She loved it especially when the waves were high and the ship rose and fell, or when it was snowing and the flakes stung her face.
This may be a thing you neither want nor need,” she said. “But I’d rather you have it, wishing didn’t, than not have it and wish you did.
Would you please do me the honor of telling me WHAT THE BLAZES IS GOING ON?
I’m bored to death. Perhaps I should pillage one of my neighbors for my own amusement. It seems to work for Drowden.
A man who fights you as he does is no better than an opportunist and no worse than a thug.
Who hit you?””Clara.””Clara!””She whaled me one in return for upsetting you. Well, at least, that was the main reason.
If we’re to be judged by our parents and grandparents, then we all may as well impale ourselves upon jagged bits of rock.