One Good Knight Quotes

“I’m the leader of this herd of cats,” she responded. “I doubt my sanity every day.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“This had to be the most curious situation in all of her life. Not that she had a great deal to compare it to, of course, living, as she had, quite a sheltered existence. But if anyone had ever had a friend quite like Periapt, she had yet to read about it.
The most peculiar thing was the feeling, the conviction, that here was someone she had been looking for as a friend and companion her entire life.
When they were talking and she wasn't actually looking at him- in the dark, say, when they would go up to the top of the tower to rest their eyes and look at the stars- she never, ever even thought about the fact that he was a dragon. In fact, if she was reading a book with him and he would say something aloud, she would get a kind of shock to her system when she looked up and saw, not a person, but a huge, dusky-emerald dragon head.
The shock was getting worse, too, not better, every time she looked up and didn't see the studious young man she expected to see.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“The tray held herb tea, buttered bread, fruit and sheep's-milk yogurt mixed with honey, something Andie particularly liked first thing in the morning. It was, in fact, breakfast in bed.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“We, the Sworn Sisterhood, do solemnly vow to take back Acadia from those who are responsible for the scourge of the dragon and the tempests. We will fight them with our hands and our weapons. We will fight them with the power of our conviction. We will face the enemy without fear. We will take the enemy down and bring the enemy to justice and there is nothing that can stand in our way.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“Tiny rooms opened up onto the corridor, rooms that would have been like monastic cells if each of the girls hadn't made hers comfortable in her own way and according to her own taste. As she passed, Andie got glimpses of a riot of draped fabrics like a gypsy tent in one, a tapestry loom in another, painted murals of garden scenes in a third.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“Unicorns practically breathed magic. He was to a horse what a horse was to a pig. Four tiny cloven hooves shone like burnished silver, slender legs as graceful as an antelope's led to a slender body, a delicate neck with an arch like the stem of a lily-blossom and a head like the blossom itself, crowned with that glorious pearly horn. And the eyes- big golden-brown eyes you could fall into and never come out of-
'It's a male Unicorn, Andie.' Her brain prompted her with that information. 'Male Unicorns are attracted to female virgins, female Unicorns are attracted to male virgins.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“But, Andromeda-" Peri exclaimed. "You are the 'most' important person in this scheme!"
"I- what?" she said. "You must be joking!"
Peri shook his massive head. "On the contrary. You are the only person here who has actually been inside the Palace. You know everything there is to know about it. Without that, we can't even begin to mount an attack, now, can we?"
"At least not the kind of attack we can manage with as few people as we have, and as untrained or half trained," Adam agreed. "You are the key to our plan."
Of all the things she had heard today this was the most astonishing. She was important. She was vital. She who had never been anything to anyone-
"Besides," Gina said with a grin, "I can teach you to use something that you won't have to get in close to use. A sling. Believe me, I've seen a good sling-man take down seasoned fighters many a time."
Andie raised her chin and looked into Peri's eyes. "Then you have me," she said, but could not help adding, "for what it's worth.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“Anyway, you're to have four sets- to match jewels, I suppose- white gold, pale gold, yellow gold and rose gold. Can't have your oculars clashing with your bracelets, I suppose. I'll send the 'prentice up with them later. I'm waiting for the frames to cool now."
"If the Princess is not here, you can leave them with her handmaiden, Iris," Lady Thalia put in, and came around to take a look at the Sophont's handiwork. She blinked. "Good heavens. That is 'much' more flattering!"
"Yes, it is," Balan agreed with a lopsided smile. "Now you can see what pretty eyes she has. Well, I'm off! Lady Thalia, it was a pleasure meeting you. Princess, a delight to serve you!"
As soon as he was out of the room, Andie was out of the chair. Picking up the skirt of her gown this time to keep it from tripping her, she ran to her bedroom to peer into the little mirror over her dressing table.
The difference was astounding. The old oculars had been small, vaguely rectangular, and had cut across her face like a slash mark. These were large, circular and, for the first time, did not obscure her eyes. If anything, they made her eyes look bigger, like those of a young animal, soft and giving an impression of innocence and vulnerability. The frame, of white gold, was very simple and polished, somehow less fussy than Balan's frame of twisted wire had been.
"Gracious!" Iris exclaimed. "What a difference!"
"You don't think they look-well- 'owlish'?" Lady Thalia asked, a little doubtfully.
"Not a bit!" Iris declared. "Just look how big they make her eyes look! And 'you've' heard all those daft poets, my Lady, going on about a girl's eyes supposed to be like a doe's, or big pools of water!”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“They camped at night among evergreens, and George showed her how to make use of her herbs for a lentil stew for breakfast. She already was thinking longingly of the food back in the Palace- though, she was ravenous enough to have eaten almost anything. But their fare was plain in the extreme and even though there was quite enough to keep her from feeling hungry, still, images of roast fowl, lamb, bowls of ripe fruit and yogurt, fresh bread and honeycomb, and sweet wine kept intruding between her and her plain flatbread and crumbled goat cheese and olives.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“It's not a happy ending!" she wept, as Elena stared at her, dumbfounded. "It will never be a happy ending! How can I possibly have a happy ending when I am going to have to spend the rest of my life without the creature I love?"
Elena blinked at her, as did virtually everyone else in the courtyard.
"You did say 'creature,' am I correct?" Elena asked cautiously. "And you do mean-"
But she had already run across the courtyard and flung herself at Peri's neck, wrapping both arms around it. "I mean I am in love with Periapt," she cried, sobbing. "And I don't care who knows it! He's clever, he's wise, he's kind and gentle, he's noble-"
And to her shock and amazement, Peri let out a bellow that sounded positively heartbroken.
"I will never love anyone but you!" he cried. "I swear, I will never take a mate if it can't be you, and I don't care if they exile me from the clan forever for that. Let them exile me!" He shook his head violently as he looked down at her. "If only you could be a dragon, or make me human!" he cried, curving his neck around her and holding her close.
Andie wept on, consumed with despair. "I will never, ever, ever find someone I love as much as you.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“She felt him shifting himself under her and around her, rearranging himself, until she was being held in a real embrace. She opened blurring eyes to find that he had tucked her between his forelegs with his neck curled around her.
"Shhh-" he said, as she closed her eyes and threw her arms around his warm, soft, slippery neck. "I know, I know. It's all horrible. Just go ahead and cry, Andie. Go ahead and let it out. I think you've been holding it in too long."
She couldn't have stopped the flood now if she'd wanted to, and she really didn't want to. He was right. She'd been holding it in too long. She sobbed against his neck, eyes streaming and burning, throat raw and sore, chest aching. She babbled between the sobs, nothing really coherent, but just-
She'd wanted a mother. She'd wanted to make Cassiopeia proud of her so that she'd 'be' that mother. Show her that even her if her daughter wasn't like 'her,' she was still worth something. Was useful. Could stand at the Queen's side and-
That was all she wanted.
And her mother found her so unworthy that Cassiopeia threw her away to feed a monster, like so much offal.
"Oh, Andie," Peri sighed in her ear. "Oh, my poor girl. It's Cassiopeia that's unworthy of 'you.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“As usual she was in the "library," curled up with her back against his stomach, sitting on his folded legs. It was very comforting to be there.
The thing was, it was also beginning to feel a great deal like an embrace.
Not that she'd had a lot of experience with embraces. Once in a while as a child she had gotten a hug from someone, though not for a long while now. But-
This definitely felt like an embrace. It felt wonderful, in fact.
Was that wrong?”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“As she sat there, her feeling of loneliness increased. And this was strange, because she had always been solitary, and did not usually feel lonely when alone. But she watched Gina with Adam and-
-and she realized that she wasn't happy being solitary anymore.
But the person she was happiest with wasn't a person.
It was Periapt.
Being with him was like being with the perfect companion. He was clever. He was kind, at least to her- though he had been scathing with the fox, and once or twice with Cleo, whom he regarded as being rather too full of herself. They found the same kinds of things funny, they enjoyed the same sorts of books, and it was getting so that they could finish each other's sentences. She was never happier than when she was curled up with him, having a lively discussion over some obscure point in a book.
In fact, simply being with him made her happy- happy in a way that no human male had ever made her feel. Maybe it was simply that he didn't take long, doubtful glances at her oculars, or act polite while all the time he was actually bored.
That realization made her feel very odd indeed. And she wasn't entirely sure what to make of it.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“Her attention wandered, and she began staring at the clouds, dreamily watching them drift over the city. When she was little, she wished she could fly up there and play, or even, when things were particularly miserable, stay there forever. She'd never told anyone, but she used to daydream about trapping one of the flying horses that were supposed to live in the mountains, or finding some other way of getting up there. The idea of living in a place where you were never above the same landscape, that in fact, you could see the world without leaving "home," was enchanting.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“My eyes hurt," she said plaintively, as he surveyed the stacks of books they hadn't read yet.
"Then by all means, we will save your eyes for a bit," Peri said, with a chuckle that rumbled inside his chest. He put his head down along his folded forelegs and looked up at her with an amused expression.
"What are you thinking about?" he asked.
"That I've never known anyone it was easier to be- friends with," she said, hesitating a moment over the "friend" part. Because it felt as if their relationship was unfolding into something a great deal warmer than mere friendship.
"It's odd, isn't it?" he responded. "Except for my brother, I've never been as comfortable around any dragon as I am around you. I don't quite know how to fathom it."
"Then let's not," she said instantly, not wanting to spoil anything. "All right?"
He laughed. "One can certainly analyze things until they are no longer enjoyable. I bow to your wisdom. I am just happy to enjoy your company."
She felt warm and tingly in a pleasant sort of way as he looked down at her with those glowing dark-emerald eyes. Feeling greatly daring, she reached out and scratched the soft skin under his chin.
He sighed. "Oh, glory. That feels lovely. Don't stop doing that for the next thirty years or so. Take more time if you need it."
She laughed, but kept scratching.
"I wish there was something I could do for you that felt as good," he said, in a voice rich with content.
"You already are," she said. "You're very comfortable to sit on."
He laughed again, this time with a note of self-mockery. "I shall be sure to add that to my list of virtues. 'Makes a comfortable chair.' I am sure the Great Dragon at the gates of Paradise will find that ample reason to let me in straightaway. And the rest of my clan will surely inscribe it on my memorial wall."
She blinked. "Dragons believe in Paradise?" she said, surprised.
"Of course they do, silly goose," Peri replied, with another affectionate brush on his nose on her shoulder.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“She decided at that moment that she wanted Gina for a friend... if Gina wasn't already a friend.
She rather hoped that the Champion was. The more she thought about it, the more she hoped. Really, Gina had been very nice to someone that she'd had no real reason to like. After all, if it wasn't for Andie, where would she be now?
'On some other uncomfortable Quest?'
Well, maybe. Or maybe still at the Chapter-House.
And Andie was the one who had thrust herself on a reluctant Gina. The Champion had no reason to be happy about that.
'But she said herself that having me along made getting around the countryside easier.'
Still, when it came right down to it, Andie had been an inconvenience. Yet Gina had never made things uncomfortable for Andie. And once she'd been revealed as being another girl-
'I'd really like her for a friend.' She looked around at the other young women clustered about the makeshift table, which looked as if someone had taken a slab of the fallen stone of the fortress walls and set it on four stumpy columns.
Actually, someone probably had- that someone being one of the dragons.
'I'd like to have all of them for friends,' she found herself deciding in surprise. Uncommon trial and hardship, danger and uncertainty had brought them together, but they were making the most of it, and even seemed to be finding ways to enjoy themselves. They'd come to some sort of understanding, it seemed, because she honestly couldn't tell any differences of rank among them by the way they behaved toward one another.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“This was true mountain country, now, and true wilderness. Valley meadows, leafy trees halfway up the slopes, then evergreens gradually taking over at the higher altitudes... their road wound its way up and down through tree-tunnels that only intermittently allowed them to see the sky.
It would have been a lovely journey under other circumstances. The weather remained fair, and remarkably pleasant, even if the night was going to be cold. She had only read about the wilderness, never experienced it for herself, and she found herself liking it a lot. Or- parts of it, anyway. The way it was never entirely silent, but simply 'quiet'- birdsong and insect noises, the rustle of leaves, the distant sound of water. She had never before realized how noisy people were. And the forest was so beautiful. She wasn't at all used to deep forest; it was like being inside a living cathedral, with beams of light penetrating the tree-canopy and illuminating unexpected treasures, a moss-covered rock, a small cluster of flowers, a spray of ferns. These woods were 'old', too, the trees had trunks so big it would take three people to put their arms around them, and there was a scent to the place that somehow conveyed that centuries of leaves had fallen here and become earth.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“Cats," he said succinctly. "You two-legs think they're so inscrutable. They are the world's worst gossips. And they are everywhere."
Andie had to agree to that statement. The Palace was full of cats. Lean, hardworking cellar cats, energetic kitchen cats, pampered, aloof darlings of Cassiopeia's ladies- you couldn't walk ten feet without seeing a cat somewhere. The Queen didn't mind, because cats didn't demand attention the way dogs did, nor were they noisy, and as long as her maids could keep her gowns cat-hair free, she tolerated the creatures.
And as if they understood the limits of that tolerance, they kept their territorial squabbles and amorous serenades out of earshot of the Queen's Wing.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“One girl made flatbread, another cleaned and sliced greens, cucumbers and mushrooms, and a third made dressing of olive oil, vinegars and herbs. So while they waited they had greens and mushrooms tossed in the dressing with crumbled goat cheese on top to eat on the folded-up flatbread.
There was more flatbread to sop up the juices of the stewed rabbit and vegetables, and the dragons appeared, as they were finishing the meal, with yet more flatbread and honey.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“A great deal of what they were eating was gathered or grown there. The guess about Amaranth being a hardworking lass was true. She had been a dairymaid, and had a flock of goats to provide milk, which mostly went into cheese. Andie chose to believe that the dragons had bought the goats rather than stealing them.
The girls had a good vegetable garden, a flock of hens, several beehives, the dragons brought back flour and other things they could not grow or raise themselves, and there was much they could collect from the forest in the valley below. Nuts, berries, wild olives. Cress and other edible greens and herbs. Mushrooms.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“Adamant was clearly not long on tact. Periapt had tried to be diplomatic and Adam had blundered right into what could have been an uncomfortable moment.
But the girl in question just laughed and the awkwardness passed.
For a moment Andie sobered. Because the way that Adam had so bluntly blurted "Like eat her," reminded her that these were 'dragons' after all, and there were as many "bad" dragons as "good" dragons. And, yes, if the compulsion had been strong enough, they would have eaten the maidens. They would have felt dreadful afterward, but-
But they 'were' dragons. This was what dragons sometimes did.
She had to chuckle a second time, because after so short a time with them, the two were now "Peri" and "Adam" in her mind, and they already showed distinct personalities.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“You know that all dragons collect treasure of one sort or another, correct?" he asked, looking straight at Andie.
"That's The Tradition, of course," she replied. "I don't know how you could possibly escape that particular compulsion."
"Well, our family does that, too, of course," he said. "But our treasure is a bit different. We're librarians."
He held up his fore-claws and she saw that they had been blunted; looking closer, she saw that what was covering the talons were sheaths of some sort with blunt tips. Well, if they were librarians... they'd have to keep from damaging the books, wouldn't they?
"Librarians," she said aloud, then grinned as she got it. "Good gods. You are Bookwyrms, aren't you?"
Gina stared at her a moment, then groaned as she got the pun. The Tradition loved puns.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight

“Magical, unbelievably magical, Unicorns practically breathed magic. He was to a horse what a horse was to a pig. Four tiny cloven hooves shone like burnished silver, slender legs as graceful as an antelope's led to a slender body, a delicate neck with an arch like the stem of a lily-blossom and a head like the blossom itself, crowned with that glorious pearly horn. And the eyes- big golden-brown eyes you could fall into and never come out of-
'It's a male Unicorn, Andie.' Her brain prompted her with that information. 'Male Unicorns are attracted to female virgins, female Unicorns are attracted to male virgins.”
― Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight