The Black Gryphon Quotes
"Cold wind played against Skandranon’s nares—a wind as frigid as the hearts of the killers below."
"They were cruel and cunning, these makaar, and yet the worst aspects of these manufactured horrors paled before the cruelty of their creators."
"The journey here had been one of long soars and kiting, and although he was in his best physical shape ever, flight muscles protested even yet."
"He watched them sleeping restlessly, twitching in their dreaming. Did they know how transient, how fleeting, they were?"
"They’d never risk their lives to do something because they felt it was right."
"And one need only ask Skandranon which was the more attractive; he’d likely answer, "I am.""
"His meeting with Urtho had been brief by choice."
"That was three dozen leagues and four meals ago; a long time to cover such a distance."
"Skandranon’s eyes focused on the town of Laisfaar."
"He hoped with every drop of blood that he would never be required to use it again."
"If he would even stop to think about all the harm he has caused and come to me, I would help him. But he will not. He cannot. Not and still be Ma'ar."
"I would say that I had done nothing to cause this, but the simple fact of our existence was enough to trigger this assault from Ma'ar."
"Not all gryphons are large and powerful enough to close with makaar."
"Sometimes I feel like a kestra‘chern. Expected to please everyone and generally pleasing—almost everyone."
"You have much to remember. Kelethen is as fussy as any other hertassi."
"Whoever he had, it was never enough. It was a kind of hunger with him, but one that could not be sated."
"I seem to recall that you not only volunteered, you insisted."
"I will think about it. At the moment, I should be very glad merely to be healed and flying again."
"What arrre you doing down herrre anyway? Isn’t there a weapon to investigate, a Pass to retake?"
"The simple fact of our existence was enough to trigger this assault from Ma‘ar."
"No one knows hurt and heartache like a kestra‘chern, because no one feels more pain than their own."
"Healing means more than mending the body, it means mending the heart, the mind, and the spirit as well, or the body is useless."
"We are the rest after the battle, and the blanket to warm them when they shiver."
"We are comfort in the darkness when death has become far too personal."
"We are the listeners who hear without judgment."
"We are priest and lover, companion and stranger."
"We are all the family many of them have, and something so foreign they can say anything to us."
"They need us, as they need their rations, their weapons, their Healers."
"If one goes, hold tight to the sticks! Let me protect your belly."
"When has Garber the right to decree what we do off-duty?"
"I tell my superiors when they’re idiots often enough."
"Books and noble birth don't give you all the answers you need."
"Didn’t it ever occur to you that the real reason you were told to lecture this young lady was not that she was doing anything wrong?"
"Without asking for permission. Without being told."
"We gryphons are constantly being ordered about by humans who know and care nothing about us."
"We’d continue to serve him because he is right, and because we respect and care for him."
"We’re not slaves, and we’re not replaced with a snap of the fingers!"
"I would bet a bolt of silk on cold, demanding parents, who expected perfection—and got it."
"A child is not a small copy of one’s own self. Many people think that. They feel the child must have the same needs and interests they do, simply because it sprang from them."
"There are no excuses. But there are reasons. Reasons why we are what we are. Reasons why we do not have to stay that way."
"You are a good channel, and you worked today to better effect than I have ever seen you work before."
"If it took more effort to produce a child than the exercise of a moment’s lust, perhaps there might be less misery in this world."
"By watching them, and then training others what to watch for, I can discover which pairings are loving and stable."
"The reasons for bearing young should simply be love and respect for the incipient child, and for the world they will be born into."
"Try to think of him the way you think of all those admiring gryphons who are showing off for you on your obstacle course."
"She’s carrying one of Urtho’s magic boxes, which makes her non-expendable."
"The quail that escapes is always fatter than the one you catch."
"Time to go. There was no place to run from it now. And no point in running."
"Assuming you trust my intentions, I’d prescribe an infusion of vero-grass, alem-lily root, and mallow."
"Well, Ma‘ar has always been a master of opportunity, and he’s never used a direct attack when an indirect one would work as well."
"Ma‘ar may have taken Jerlag, but it’s cost him a hell of a lot more than he thought it would."
"They weren’t cowards, they were so badly wounded that most of them had gone beyond thinking of anything but their fear and their shame."
"If you’ve been with Urtho that long, I suppose you must have seen quite a bit of the Court, then."
"She was very sweet, very pliant, in his arms. He sensed a passionate nature in her that he doubted Conn Levas even guessed at."
"As I got to my feet, I began to black out again."
"The fact that he was well-protected made them even angrier."
"Knowledge will always be the best weapon against tyrants."
"I always make certain to be on the winning side."
"The longer you entertain the Emperor, the longer you will live."
"The first thing I intend to do is to begin a quiet evacuation of the noncombatants."
"We don't want to make trouble, but we don't want to be blackmailed into suicidal missions."
"How dared this creature, a thing that I had created, presume to dictate the terms of this war?"
"You’ve obviously thought about becoming the leader of the gryphons."
"That was why I hid her in the Tower and kept her existence secret."