“I'm consumed with curiosity because if I know Dirk, he probably sent his family a two-tine note—"I'm getting married. I'll be there in a week,"—and no further explanation whatsoever."
Skif laughed, and admitted that that was just about what Dirk had written, word for word.”
― Mercedes Lackey, quote from Arrow's Fall
“Little Robin had been brought by Lord Orthallen—although he had the feeling that his lord did not realize it. The boy was a part of his household, though Orthallen seemed to have long since forgotten the fact; and when the order came to pack up the household and move to the Border, Robin found himself in the tail of the baggage train, with no small bewilderment. He'd been at a loss in the encampment, wandering about until someone had seen him and realized that a small child had no place in a camp preparing for warfare. So he was sent packing; first off with Elspeth, then pressed into service by the Healers. They'd set him to fetching and carrying for Dirk, thinking that the child was far too young to be able to pick anything up from the casual talk around him, and that Dirk wouldn't think to interrogate a child as young as he.
They were wrong on both counts.
Robin was very much aware of what was going on—not surprising, since it concerned his adored Talia. He was worried sick, and longing for an adult to talk to. And Dirk was kind and gentle with him—and had he but known it, desperate enough for news to have questioned the rats in the walls if he thought it would get him anywhere.
Dirk knew all about Robin and his adoration of Talia. If anyone knew where she was being kept and what her condition was, that boy would.
Dirk bided his time. Eventually the Healers stopped overseeing his every waking moment. Finally there came a point when they began leaving him alone for hours at a time. He waited then, until Robin was sent in alone with his lunch—alone, unsupervised, and more than willing to talk—and put the question to him.
Dirk had no intention of frightening the boy, and his tone was gentle, "I need your help. The Healers won't answer my questions, and I need to know about Talia."
Robin had turned back with his hand still on the doorknob; at the mention of Talia's name, his expression was one of distress.
"I'll tell you what I know, sir," he replied, his voice quavering a little. "But she's hurt real bad and they won't let anybody but Healers see her."
"Where is she? Do you have any idea who's taking care of her?"
The boy not only knew where she was, but the names and seniority of every Healer caring for her—and the list nearly froze Dirk's heart. They'd even pulled old Farnherdt out of retirement—and he'd sworn that no case would ever be desperate enough for them to call on him.”
― Mercedes Lackey, quote from Arrow's Fall
“Elspeth had the joyous task of breaking the news to the rest of the Council. There was no such accord among the political leaders of Valdemar as there was among her military leaders.
Lord Gartheser was speechless with outrage and shock; Bard Hyron was dazed. Lady Kester and Lady Cathan, still seething over Orthallen's accusations of complicity with the slavers, were surprised, but not altogether unhappy. Father Aldon had closeted himself in the tiny chapel of the Keep; Lord Gildas was with him. Healer Myrim made no attempt to conceal the fact that Orthallen's treachery had not surprised her. Nor did she conceal that his demise gave her a certain grim satisfaction. But then, she might well be forgiven such uncharitable thoughts; she was one of the four Healers who were tending Talia's wounds.
Once the bare bones had been told to the Councillors as a group, Elspeth went to each of these Councillors in turn, privately. She gave a simple explanation of what had occurred, but would answer no questions. Questions, she told them, must wait until Talia had recovered enough to tell them all more.”
― Mercedes Lackey, quote from Arrow's Fall
“Healer Myrim made no attempt to conceal the fact that Orthallen's treachery had not surprised her. Nor did she conceal that his demise gave her a certain grim satisfaction. But then, she might well be forgiven such uncharitable thoughts; she was one of the four Healers who were tending Talia's wounds.”
― Mercedes Lackey, quote from Arrow's Fall
“It seems to me that evil is a kind of ultimate greed, a greed that is so all-encompassing that it can't ever see anything lovely, rare, or precious without wanting to possess it. A greed so total that if it can't possess these things, it will destroy them rather than chance that someone else might have them. And a greed so intense that even having these things never causes it to lessen one iota -- the lovely, the rare and the precious never affect it except to make it want them.”
― Mercedes Lackey, quote from Arrow's Fall
“Mas, logo ao outro dia, seus parceiros,
Todos nus e da cor da escura treva,
Decendo pelos ásperos outeiros,
As peças vem buscar que estoutro leva.
Domésticos já tanto e companheiros
Se nos mostram, que fazem que se atreva
Fernão Veloso a ir ver da terra o trato
E partir-se co eles pelo mato.
É Veloso no braço confiado
E, de arrogante, crê que vai seguro;
Mas, sendo um grande espaço já passado,
Em que algum bom sinal saber procuro,
Estando, a vista alçada, co cuidado
No aventureiro, eis pelo monte duro
Aparece e, segundo ao mar caminha,
Mais apressado do que fora, vinha.
O batel de Coelho foi depressa
Polo tomar; mas, antes que chegasse,
Um Etíope ousado se arremessa
A ele, por que não se lhe escapasse.
Outro e outro lhe saem; vê-se em presa
Veloso, sem que alguém lhe ali ajudasse,
Acudo eu logo, e, enquanto o remo aperto
Se mostra um bando negro descoberto.
Da espessa nuvem setas e pedradas
Chovem sobre nós outros, sem medida,
E não foram ao vento em vão deitadas,
Que esta perna trouxe eu dali ferida;
Mas nós, como pessoas magoadas,
A reposta lhe demos tão tecida,
Que em mais que nos barretes se suspeita
Que a cor vermelha levam desta feita.
E, sendo já Veloso em salvamento,
Logo nos recolhemos pera a armada,
Vendo a malícia feia e rudo intento
Da gente bestial, bruta e malvada,
De quem nenhum milhor conhecimento
Pudemos ter da Índia desejada
Que estarmos inda muito longe dela.
E assi tornei a dar ao vento a vela.
Disse então a Veloso um companheiro
(Começando-se todos a sorrir):
"Oula, Veloso amigo, aquele outeiro
É milhor de decer que de subir.”
― Luís de Camões, quote from The Lusiads
“Monstrous Sea is mine.
I made it, not the other way around.
It's not a parasite, or an obligation, or a destiny.
It's a monster.
It's mine.
And I have a battle axe waiting for it.”
― Francesca Zappia, quote from Eliza and Her Monsters
“He had no bag, which was strange. But overall it was vaguely reassuring to have such a man on board, especially after he had proved himself civilized and not in any way threatening. Threatening behavior from a man that size would have been unseemly. Good manners from a man that size were charming.”
― Lee Child, quote from 61 Hours
“I've no interest in this city. I do not want to live in a curio, Johannes. This is a sideshow! This is something to scare the children! 'The Floating Pirate City'! I don't want it! I don't want to live in this great bobbing parasite, like some fucking pondskater sucking the victims dry. This isn't a city, Johannes; it's a parochial little village less than a mile wide, and I do not want it.
"I was always going to return to New Crobuzon. I would never wish to see out my days outside it. It's dirty and cruel and difficult and dangerous—particularly for me, particularly now—but it's my home. Nowhere else in the world has the culture, the industry, the population, the thaumaturgy, the languages, the art, the books, the politics, the history … New Crobuzon," she said slowly, "is the greatest city in Bas-Lag."
And coming from her, someone without any illusions about New Crobuzon's brutality, or squalor, or repression, the declamation was far more powerful than if it came from any Parliamentarian.
"And you're telling me," she said finally, "that I've been exiled from my city—for life—because of you?”
― China Miéville, quote from The Scar
“Hey there, little mermaid. You don’t want to start that game with me. I win every time.”
― C.L. Stone, quote from Introductions
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