Lirael Quotes
"Once again, Lirael closed her eyes, screwing them tight as she willed herself to See the future."
"It's my birthday. I must not cry on my birthday."
"Death is a simple word, a simple way to avoid all the things that plagued her."
"There is always some new trouble, some danger that can be dealt with only by the King or the Abhorsen."
"The sight did not come to me and Ryelle till we were sixteen."
"The Library was shaped like a nautilus shell, a continuous tunnel that wound down into the mountain in an ever-tightening spiral."
"It is better to be a librarian than part of the collection."
"Whatever the spell had once been, now it was no more than hundreds of disconnected marks, fading into the dust."
"Charter marks washed across its smooth surface, forever seeking connection to some master Charter mark that would draw them all together."
"Even worse, there was the smell. The telltale metallic odor of Free Magic that left a sour taste in Lirael’s mouth and throat and made her stomach roil and heave."
"Both creature and Lirael moved at the same time. Lirael threw herself back towards the corridor as the thing struck out with its awful, elongated claws."
"On and on she ran, thinking that at any moment a hooked claw would bring her down."
"There, in the endless flow, she drew out all the marks she knew for breaking and blasting, for fire and destruction, for blocking, barring, and locking."
"For a moment she thought she was sick in bed and would soon see Aunt Kirrith or one of the other girls bending over her with a spoonful of herbal restorative."
"Lirael realized where she was and the state she was in. Bloodied, bruised, her waistcoat buttonless and torn, her emergency mouse lost."
"She sat there for ages, turning over ideas, scratching the stone head of the dog as if it were a miniature real animal."
"You are not the first Clayr I have seen suffer from the effects of attempting overambitious magic."
"I know of no other Clayr your age—and few of any age—who could speak such a mark without being consumed by it."
"Things of that ilk do not wake without reason, or without help of some kind."
"It was time for a light, she decided, even if that meant giving her own position away."
"The weight of the sword was already wearing her out. She had never been much of a swordswoman and had never regretted it—till now."
"You must learn about the creature you released and defeat it! Explore the Library."
"I would have liked to help you defeat the creature you have released, by counsel if not by deed."
"She hadn’t thought much at all about Awakenings, or the Sight, over these last few months."
"The bus slowed as it passed, and Sameth saw that most of the tents had women and children clustered in their doorways, looking out mournfully into the rain."
"The burdens of an Abhorsen are many, and one of the worst is that we are doomed to miss so much of our children’s lives—of your life, Sam."
"The Clayr’s conversations would always return to the Sight, the central focus of their lives."
"But it was the mere presence of his father that had driven away the fear of Death."
"The grubs weren’t dangerous, at least intentionally, but they were slow to react, and their rotating, multiple jaws chewed up anything in their path: ice, rock, or slow-moving human."
"The Clayr had learnt not to show the pain it caused her, not even to the Disreputable Dog, who otherwise shared all her thoughts and dreams."
"In fact, Lirael couldn’t even imagine that any man would be interested in her, compared to a real Clayr."
"A great part of that heritage is contained within The Book of the Dead, which you now have."
"It is the nature of Death to take, but the nature of Life to give."
"Imagine if you were going to be the King, and me the Abhorsen!"
"Some things," the Dog said portentously, "are worth missing dinner for."
"Don’t move," whispered the Dog, and Lirael felt a canine snout briefly press against her leg.
"This," said the Dog, lunging forward and nipping her quite sharply on the leg.
"Happy birthday," he said when his head had finished its slow movement. "What is it? Eighteen?"
"I’ll just tell her," announced Sam to the wind.
"That will not happen, of course," said Touchstone, breaking into Sam’s terrible imaginings.
"But I did make it, and I am going to be absolutely fine," Sabriel said firmly.
"Being the Abhorsen is a weighty responsibility," Sabriel said quietly.
"What? Like an interest in embroidery?" Lirael said in a depressed monotone.
"The Book of Remembrance and Forgetting called it a Dark Mirror."
"We must be close. Ask the men if they will work an extra shift tonight."
"Hello! But I expect you’re only another hallucination."
"I will look later. But you must call me if you find anything. It will be metal, I think."
"I feel unwell again. I’m going to lie down in my tent."
"Once he decides something is just so, he won’t change his mind unless you can prove it with mathematics or something he accepts."
"I don’t suppose you’ve been sensible enough to bring anything to eat?"
"Coils within coils. Fleas upon fleas, idiots begetting idiots."
"I have heard many strange things under this roof, Mistress, but none so strange as this."
"I am five and twenty, sir, and no girlish virgin dreaming of her mate."
"You could walk out there and send them all back to Death."
"Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?"
"We're going to ride, Sprout! Ride like the wind!"
"I can't take a life. Even that of a horse, in mercy."
"Five Great Charters knit the land, together linked, hand in hand."
"They put a great deal of their power into the bloodlines, but not all their being."
"Just a leftover from the Beginning, freely given to the Charter."
"We’re making good time—we must have come twenty leagues already!"
"Running water is no bar to those of the Third Kindred, or anything infused with the essence of the Nine."
"I’ll be careful. Thank you for the warning, Captain. May I go on now?"
"So you see that this hound is not the only one who knows of such things."
"I suppose if the village idiot here wouldn’t do it, there was no chance you would."
"There’s a reek on this breeze. Wake me if something unpleasant seems likely to occur."
"He’d heard the pipes before, the voices of Saraneth and Kibeth, though strangely different from the bells he knew."
"Sam was shouting, 'Help! Lirael! Dog! Mogget! Anyone! Help!'"
"She had grown taller as she had stalked after Sam, visibly a thing of darkness under the rotting, splitting furs."
"The blade came down. Sam screamed. The Disreputable Dog barked."
"‘We can’t just leave!’ protested Lirael. 'If we leave them, their bodies will get used—'"
"The Dead creature let the sword go and backed away."
"It’s different for dogs,' said the Dog mournfully. 'We just don’t like baths!'"
"She was still standing in the doorway, staring at the table."
"‘I am a Daughter of the Clayr,’ insisted Lirael, but her voice sounded weak even to her."
"It’s always better to be doing, Prince. Besides, you don’t smell like a coward—so you can’t be one."
"Now they both wondered what all this meant, and where their new lives would lead them."