Namesake Quotes
"All of you, while you’re aboard this ship, you will not step out of line. You will do as you’re told."
"The first of you to break these rules will be swimming back to Jeval."
"Then I think you’d better be quick about it."
"Give me back the four years I spent on that island. Then I’ll tell you which one of those dredgers is most likely to cut your throat."
"Don’t make trouble, Fay. You do what’s asked of you and you’ll get paid like everyone else."
"Better watch yourself down there. Tides are fickle."
"Start on the deeper end of each ridge. We’ll use our strength in the first half of the day and can work the shallower crests in the afternoon."
"It wasn’t until I stepped foot on the Marigold that I felt it lift from me."
"What are you going to do with over three hundred carats of gemstones?"
"Looks like you don’t know your helmsman very well after all."
"I thought you said you weren’t Jevali," "I’m not."
"Memories strung together in unraveling stitches as my hands worked the sunlit rock in a practiced pattern."
"The shape of her moved with a bend of light coming from the deck, flickering like a lantern’s flame."
"I hadn’t meant to fall asleep. I’d watched Ryland’s hammock above me in the dark until he was still."
"At least six ships gone. Several crew dead. Probably more by now."
"Our future and our fortune both lie in Bastian."
"She'll know the moment we dock. She knows everything that happens in that harbor."
"I wasn't going to rely on the Luna to get me home. I had a better chance with just about any other ship in Bastian's harbor."
"There are some things that can't be carved from a person, no matter how far from home they've sailed."
"The deepest lessons come from the journey, not the destination."
"We all carry our storms inside, it's how we weather them that shapes us."
"In the heart of peril, true courage is forged."
"Trust is not given lightly in the shadows of treachery."
"Freedom is not just a place, but a choice in the face of chains."
"To find your worth, you must navigate through the darkness."
"Our scars tell the stories of our battles, victories, and defeats."
"In the end, it's not the storms we remember, but the light that guided us through them."
"A mother never heals from the loss of a child. It’s a wound that festers, one that not even your death will soothe."
"You think a few hundred carats of gemstones can buy my forgiveness for what you did?"
"Nothing happens on the sea that I don’t know about."
"That’s not the only thing I didn’t understand about that girl. She was always restless. I don’t think there was anything in this world that could calm the sea inside of her."
"It was so easy. He fell out of his chair and he was kicking and trying to pull my hands away. But I just kept squeezing. I kept squeezing even after he stopped moving."
"I don’t know how long it took me to realize he was dead. When I finally let him go, I just sat there, staring at him. And I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t feel bad about what I’d done."
"Fable, I need you to understand something. I did what I needed to do. I didn’t like it, but I had a sister and a mother who needed my wages, and I had a place on a crew that treated me well. I know it’s not right, but if I could go back, I think I would do it all again."
"We’re going to have to figure out how to trust each other."
"Every time we dropped anchor at Jeval after that day, I had this constricting pain in my chest. Like I was holding my breath, afraid you wouldn’t be on the docks. That you’d be gone."
"I didn’t know if I could love someone like my father, but I did. With a love that was deep and pleading. With a love that was terrifying."
"We can’t get involved, Fable. He left us to deal with Zola when we were dead in the water. Now he can deal with Holland. You don’t owe him anything."
"If I find the midnight for you, you leave Saint alone."
"Saint was a bastard, but he was mine. He belonged to me. And even more unbelievable, I really did love him."
"I’m not choosing him over you. If it was Willa, you’d do the same thing."
"His pride was more stubborn than his hunger for copper."
"Nothing’s really gone to plan, if you haven’t noticed."
"The truth was that there was no telling what Saint would do."
"That man would sink his fleet for you, Fable. He’d walk away from everything."
"You have Saint. Now you have Holland. But us? Me, Willa, Paj, Auster, Hamish … all we have is each other."
"It was the first time he’d touched me since I’d made my deal with Holland and I could see that he was waiting. For what, I didn’t know."
"The labyrinth of reefs held everything from black diamonds to the rarest of sapphires, and most of the stories my mother had told me about dredging in the Unnamed Sea were born in these waters."
"The thought made a sinking feeling drop between my ribs as I tied another strip of silk and kicked off, letting the current take me again."
"I threaded my fingers into his and squeezed. The corners of his mouth softened and he let me go, letting the tow of water take me over the shelf, away from him."
"The sea bottom was nothing but pale silt that lay in parallel ripples far below. There wasn’t a reef or anything like one in sight."
"I could feel West’s gaze on me as I stood at the bow, watching Sagsay Holm come into view."
"I tried to slow my breaths, holding onto the arm of the chair."
"But when you sail back to the Narrows, it’s going to be under my crest."
"It’s not nothing." He grunted, dropping another wad of rope. "We should try to buy out the contract."
"I’m doing the same thing you were going to do. Two years with Holland, then back to the Narrows."
"It’s been paid for." Holland smiled. "I had the changes he requested made at the trade office. Everything should be in order."
"It’s the deed to the ship. As promised," she answered, closing the satchel.
"I trust you." His voice was quieter than I’d ever heard it. "Are you going to tell me why?"
"I don’t want what Holland has. I want you," I said, unsteady. "She can never give me what you can give me."
"I think maybe he hated that he loved her," I whispered.
"Sometimes," he admitted. "It doesn't matter what happens. You and me."
"No matter what happens, be ready to set sail by nightfall."
"Esteemed councils, I’d like to put forth today an official request for a license to expand my trading route."
"This is ridiculous! The accusation is false!"
"I have never loved anything in my life like I love you. Not Isolde. Not the trade. Nothing."