The Burning Bridge Quotes
"Nowhere is ever really impassable. Particularly if you have no respect for how many lives you lose trying to prove the fact."
"There’s a big difference between shooting at a target and shooting at a charging Wargal. A target isn’t usually trying to kill you."
"It’s preferable to run into a swordsman who doesn’t know the dangers involved in the double knife defense."
"Polite, isn’t he? Obviously manners are well taught in the Battleschool these days."
"Maybe, in his own way, he is a kind of a sorcerer."
"Jump off the cliff. It’ll be less messy that way."
"It was like poetry, Will thought. Like dancing. Like the movement of running water over smooth rocks."
"It’s not how they look that counts. It’s how they feel."
"But I’ve never yet met a Celt who would desert a mine while there was an ounce of metal still to be torn from it."
"Banging, hammering, clanking," Gilan answered him briefly.
"Something is going on and I’d like to know what it is."
"After all, he was possibly the best unseen mover in the Ranger Corps, and Rangers were the best unseen movers in the kingdom."
"I really prefer camping in forest areas," Horace said.
"Plus in a forest, you’ve usually got pine needles or leaves on the ground."
"He can feel fear, he can be afraid. But it doesn’t stop him from doing what he has to."
"I’ll show you respect!" He picked up the letter and tore it in half.
"You’re getting off lightly," he told them in a cold voice.
"That’s all women are good for, girl. Cooking and raising the babies!"
"Wars often turn on the smallest piece of information."
"You’re the one who said this is so darned important."
"He was methodical and, in his own way, logical."
"We won’t need speed if we’re following the Wargals. We’ve got horses. We’ll have no trouble keeping up with them."
"It would make sense to have someone else along with him, now that he thought about it."
"You’re planning to follow the Wargals," the girl said flatly.
"Look, I’m scared of those things," she said. "But I assume you’re planning to follow them, not join up with them."
"I feel decidedly queasy at the prospect of getting within earshot of those things again. But equally, I don’t like the idea of being abandoned here on my own."
"We seem to be heading for the Fissure," he said, more than a little puzzled.
"It’s a different situation," he said finally. "The attack on Celtica was more of a raid than an invasion."
"Let’s think it through. Halt has a saying: When you can’t see the reason for something, look for the possible result—and ask yourself who might benefit from it."
"The real attack will come from here—a surprise attack from behind. And our army will be trapped. And then destroyed."
"He started moaning about an hour ago. Then he went quiet. I think he’s dead. At least he died the way he wanted to."
"Let’s get back across the bridge," he said. "I’ll tell you then."
"It’s a huge bridge, I said. Big enough to bring an army across."
"The King must know about this as soon as possible. But we have to be sure that we’re not taking him another red herring."
"They’re either very confident or very careless," Will agreed.
"I want the peace of the Out of Light," he continued softly, and Will suddenly understood.
"But what can we do to stop the Wargals here?" he asked.
"That’s the first sensible reason I’ve heard for her coming along so far," said Horace.
"That’s crazy," Horace said instantly. "After all, one of his men died as a result."
"My lord…" Gilan began apologetically, but Duncan had already stepped forward, seizing his hand to steady him.
"They’ve got Will!" the boy shouted hoarsely, recognizing Gilan among the group of officers.
"And no thanks you’ll get from Morgarath for that," he told them.
"We fight for profit, and when there’s no profit to be had, I say we go."
"First and foremost, they’re hostages, aren’t they?"
"All warfare has a risk attached to it, sir. Otherwise it would be easy."
"If we hit them as they come out, we simply contain them,"
"I don’t think he’d take too kindly to deserters."
"I’m not handing any girl over to the Wargals."
"Good," he said. "Now let’s get on the road again."
"But you and I took an oath when they gave us these silver oak leaves, and now we have to live up to it."
"This plateau is full of Wargals," he’d told them roughly. "You can take your chances with them if you choose."
"The Rangers have charted and surveyed every inch of the kingdom for years, my lord,"
"Then remember it if you start thinking about escape," he said coldly.
"The boy will have to take his chances, Halt,"
"The broadsword bit deep into the steel of the shield, then caught there."