Nettle And Bone Quotes

“How did you get a demon in your chicken?'

'The usual way. Couldn't put it in the rooster. That's how you get basilisks.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“Fenris was a good man and maybe the weakness of being good was that evil didn't occur to you.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“Magic never seemed to be much use at doing the things you wanted done in a reasonable time frame.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“He fixed her with a thoughtful look, and it occurred to her that his eyes were the colour of sun-warmed earth, and she did not quite know what to do about it.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“He was a wooden puppet. Some kind of marionette, Marra thought, the kind that traveling performers used to entertain very young children. He had the carved hands and the clacking jaw, the articulated arms and legs. But the only string on him was a black cord that looped Miss Margaret's throat, and the puppet held it in one hand.

He moved as they watched. It was a slow, considered movement, like a tortoise turning its head in the sun, and it set Marra's nerves crawling.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“Very unlikely people, you know, will share confidences with each other if they think the other person understands. A prisoner who won't tell a guard anything will thaw immediately if he's put in a cell with another man in for the same crime. And doctors who would bite off their own tongues before showing indecision to a patient will tell another doctor about how little they know and how frightened they are. I've seen it happen many times. It's how spies work.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“The king gathered himself. It felt as if the tomb was breathing in. The painted warriors lifted their swords and the archers let fly their arrows, aimed at the dust-wife. They were trapped in the wall and it should not have been possible for them to reach her, and yet for a moment, it seemed as if she would be drawn in to the wall, as if the arrows must reach her...

Moonlight flashed as she held up her staff and the painted arrows fell apart in to scattered pigment across the floor.

I will not bend! hissed the dead king, rising from his throne.

'Then you will break,' said the dust-wife, and slammed her staff across the painted wall.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“Dead men are much less trouble.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“Maybe you and I could... not go home together?'

The words hung in the air between them, as fine as spun glass and just as fragile. Marra waited for him to say something, to catch the words or shatter them, whichever he chose.

'I think I'd like that,' said Fenris.

Marra sagged with relief.

She had been so focused on what he might say that she hadn't quite expected what he might do. So it came as a surprise when he wrapped both arms around her and put his lips against her hair. 'I think I would like that very much,' he murmured.

'Oh good,' said Marra, against his neck. And then she would have kissed him or he would have kissed her, but Bonedog decided that they were wrestling and jumped up and barked soundlessly at them both.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“It was small and shabby, but very clean, with the kind of cleanliness that spoke of poverty.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“Somebody gives a lonely child a toy and they pour all their hopes and fears and problems into it. Do it long enough and intensely enough, and then it just needs a stray bit of bad luck and the toy wakes up. Of course, it knows that the only reason it is alive is because of the child. A tiny personal god with one worshipper. It latches on and... well.' She clicked her tongue. 'Normally, you get them pried off and burned long before adolescence. Impressive that it lasted this long.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“Marra carried the knowledge that her sister hated her snugged up under her ribs. It did not touch her heart, but it seemed to fill her lungs, and sometimes when she tried to take a deep breath, it caught on her sister's words and left her breathless.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“Marra thumped the pillow and then gave up. 'Fenris?'

'Yes?'

'I don't know how to ask this without giving you completely the wrong idea.'

'All right?'

'Do you remember on the road, when we slept back-to-back?'

He did not answer, but she heard the bed creak, and then the indignant snuffle of Bonedog being nudged out of the way. Her own bed sagged as Fenris sat on the edge of it. Marra scooted up against the wall to give him room.

His back was as solid and warm as she remembered. She sighed and felt something unclench, although whether it was in her jaw or her gut or her soul, she couldn't say.

'You're a saint,' she mumbled, tugging the blanket up around her shoulder.

'You have no idea,' muttered Fenris.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“You cannot help people who do not want help,' rumbled Fenris. 'You cannot force someone to do what you think is best for them.' He paused, then added, somewhat reluctantly. 'Well, you can. But they don't appreciate it and most of the time it turns out that you were wrong.'

'But-'

'We can only save people who want to be saved.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“The white stone was the colour of moonlit bones and the chunks of abandoned rock looked unpleasantly like skulls.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“how dare you, peasant.
do you not know who I am?
'No, and at the moment, neither do you.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“Injustice and the desire for revenge age the body, but they keep the soul going halfway to forever,' said the dust-wife practically. 'And being buried alive for a crime you didn't commit will certainly keep you going for a while.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“The bodiless dead are much harder to grab. But they also can't hurt you, usually.'

'Usually?'

'Never say never.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“Did an echo just tell us to run?' asked Agnes, adjusting Finder, and looking rather calmer than Marra felt.

'Do ghostly echoes have our best interest at heart?' asked Fenris, also remarkably calm.

'Rarely,' said the dust-wife.

Marra thought, I'm surrounded by lunatics, but and I love them all, but maybe we should be running, anyway.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“When you're lost in the woods, stay put,' muttered Marra. 'That way people can find you. But this isn't the woods, and I don't think we've got enough time...”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“She broke in to a run, not caring if the thief-wheel heard her now, half sobbing. 'Fenris! Agnes! Dust-wife!'

'Marra?'

She broke in to the room and before she could even focus, Fenris had thrown his arms around her and had his face pressed against her hair. 'You're alive,' he said. 'I thought I'd lost you. You're alive.'

'You're alive, too!' she said. She wanted to stop and think about what I thought I'd lost you might mean, but it didn't quite seem like the time. And he was very warm and she was very cold and it was very pleasant to be held in such a fashion. 'You're alive.

'Yes, yes,' said the dust-wife testily. 'We're all alive. Please don't cry on me about it, though.'

Fenris finally released her, although not without reluctance. Bonedog immediately leapt up at her, washing her face with his tongue.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“The words had no sound, but the echoes rang through the room. Marra felt as if they were being pounded into her skull with a metal hammer. There was weight to them and a mind like steel and stone.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“Ah.' The godmother smiled then, and cracks ran across her skin from the motion, like a plaster wall falling apart. As Marra watched in horror, a chip of skin fell from her cheekbone. There was no blood under it, nothing but cool, brown bone. 'Yes, Agnes, will you pass me my teacup? It seems that I am about to die, and I would like a little more tea.'
...
She tried to press it in to the godmother's hands, but they were only bone, folded politely in to a pile of dust.
...
'Thank you,' said the godmother against the rim of the teacup, and then she fell apart. Marra took a step back but there was something oddly peaceful about it, about bones sinking down in to the robes and the dust pattering down around them. There had been very little flesh left to the godmother, only skin and skeleton and iron will. Her robes stayed in the perfect triangle, stiff with gold brocade.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“He looked across the room and his eyes met hers. It was the same look he always had, the one that said, Can you believe two sensible people like us are caught up in this? And then he turned to meet the guards and Marra saw on his face the moment that he decided to die.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“It was fourteen hours later that Marra and the dust-wife flung themselves at the stone lid, scrabbling with all their strength. For a horrible moment, she thought that it would not be enough, that they would have to come back with levers, but it began, inch by agonising inch, to slide. They got it perhaps six inches and had to stop, panting.

Fingers slid out of the gap and caught the edge. Marra nearly wept with relief. Fenris shoved the lid aside and sat up, gasping for air.

'You're really here,' he said, bending over so that his forehead touched his drawn-up knees. 'I kept imagining voices, but you're really here this time.'

'We're here,' said Marra, the words this time jabbing her like pins.

He took a half dozen sobbing breaths. 'It is very close in there,' he said, 'even with holes.' His face was slick with sweat or tears, Marra did not know. 'Close and cold.'

'I'm sorry,' said Marra. 'I'm sorry. It was the only way I could think of.' She pulled him out of the coffin, or he climbed out and she helped, and he wrapped his arms around her and they stood together, shaking.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“Your mind knows what certain things ought to look like and when your eyes are wrong, your mind wins.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“You need to train him to sleep elsewhere,' said the dust-wife, disapprovingly. 'Otherwise you'll have a rooster who thinks he should dive headfirst in to your cleavage when he wants to roost.'

'It's been a while since any man wanted to dive in to my cleavage,' said Agnes. 'It might be a nice change.'

'Not when the spurs grow in.'

'Oh, well, probably not.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“She slept back-to-back with Fenris at night. No one commented. Sometimes he moved and she knew that he was also awake in the darkness, but neither of them quite had the nerve to act on it, not with Agnes and the dust-wife there. I could roll over. I could put my arm around his waist. I could...”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“At sunset, just as the light from the fire became brighter than the light from the doorway, she finished. The skeleton lay across her lap, complete, claws wired to paws vertebrae strung like beads.

'Wake,' she whispered, while the light faded outside the door. 'Wake. Please.'

The bones lay motionless in her lap. She bowed her head. Please. Please, Bonedog. I'm never going to see my sister again, or my mother. I'm not going to see the Sister Apothecary or the abbess. I need one more friend. Please.

It was too much like the first time. The second impossible task was also the third. She had always known that she had gotten off too lightly, being handed the moon in a jar.

Fenris took her free hand, careful of her sore fingertips, and held it between his palms, waiting with her.

'Please,' she said again, and a single tear ran hotly down her cheek and splashed on to the white expanse of skull.

Bonedog yawned and stretched and woke.

Marra let out a sob of relief and buried her head in Fenris's neck. He held her in the crook of his arm while Bonedog stood up and bounced and cavorted around the hut.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“We can only save people who want to be saved.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone