Forest Born Quotes
"By the time Razo was born, all the family’s largeness must have been used up."
"Ma was longing too, but for a girl to share thoughts with, a daughter cut and sewn from her own soul."
"Rin learned to crawl on moss and walk on pine needles, and by the age of four she could climb a fir as easily as fall into bed."
That girl sees the bones inside birds," her ma would say. "That girl can see your soul.
"No one moved, except Rin. 'Ma,' she said. 'Ma sad.'"
"The place in her chest that had ached with panic now felt warbley and sweet, drowsy and green."
"Each year a trunk put on a new ring of growth, and within those rings she found the tree’s own story."
"Some folk is made for wandering and being in the open world, but you're a Forest girl, Rinna."
"In moments it was over. The attack wounded eight others, but only Brynn was lost."
"The city was so many walls and roofs and talking faces."
"Three girls who could speak the language of fire."
"Sitting on firm earth, Rin felt as if she were sinking."
"Something glittered on the edge of her memory, and she looked up into the stars as if for help recalling."
"Rin ran for her pack, her heart thudding in her chest, in her ears."
"The queen had brought her to watch Tusken, and she could not abandon him."
"When the creator made the world, everything had its own language."
"People move through this world unlike any other thing."
"What do a bunch of soldiers and waiting women know about children compared to a fellow like me with twenty-two nieces and nephews?"
"Keep Tusken safe, here and at home, until his mother returns. Promise me?"
"Stay with us, Rin, but be careful. Please be careful."
"She loves to run so fast she imagines her hair turns into wind."
"You should let her go run so fast her hair can turn into wind."
"She’ll worry sometimes about her ma, worry that she won’t ever get to go home and that will break her ma’s heart."
"I go to Castle Daire for complaining. I go with some men, but I did no trusting them to be smart, so young and stupid for carrying swords."
"If someone was not coming now, I was for hitting him already."
"She’ll still climb trees as long as her knees can bend."
"Despite the teasing, the queen cared very much whether her friend killed again."
"The queen needed to hear a second voice, to have someone she trusted always on her side."
"A loud, contented moo echoed Enna’s laugh, startling Dasha to scream."
"Rin realized they were walking through a herd of cows sampling the damp grasses of the night field."
"Rin put her arm more firmly through Dasha’s, breathing in the good feeling of being with friends."
"All Kelish tales are questions, and this one asks, if the boar was king, the stag was poet, and the eagle was cleric, then what was the wolf?"
"Maybe the wolf isn’t a person or a thing. Maybe it’s something inside—inside us."
"It was easy to watch her and forget about Razo and Tusken in the cage."
"People look up to their queen—when their queen has substance to offer."
"Such a collection of barrels and nails and wild stallions to please a boatful of royalty!"
"The moon lit the castle from behind, scratching its jagged outline across a blue-black sky."
"Gods in the wood are good luck. Gods roaming free get involved in people’s lives."
"The wrongness of it is what makes us think. The error in what we made will bring us the truth."
"But we know there’s so much we can’t see, so what we love about it becomes in part what we imagine it is hiding."
"The lurkers must have been close, because Isi or Enna pulled a wind to circle around the four girls."
"Rin was alone in a foreign wood, vulnerable, confused, anxious to run away but stuck to the spot with fear."
"Rin breathed in hard, shuddering gasps, taking in the waking world—the oak tree, the dark sky just stirred by light, Tusken asleep, and Razo staring."
"Jealous of me. Jealous of me. Those big boys are jealous of me."
"Energy was rising up in her, and she knew instinctively she could make her words very convincing."
"Perhaps that was people-speaking, she thought."
"Rin did not share that sentiment. Her hands were tingling cold in anticipation of Razo’s decision."
"The moon was hanging above them, white and ghostly against the blue sky as if anxious to bring on the night."
"She felt herself blush. 'I mean, that’s how I think of Dasha, Isi, and Enna.'"
"I’m a people-speaker, like Selia. I’m going to turn into a monster."
"I’ve had people-speaking my whole life. It’s been inside me like... like an egg, growing until something foul could eat its way out."
"The room was completely black and stank like a privy hole."
"Sometimes killing is justified, isn’t it? I wish I didn’t... I wish. But Selia is Selia, and she killed Razo, and I want to..."
"You have something worth telling me? You are a worm quivering on a stone."
"The knife under Rin’s finger became red hot, burning her skin before the soldier flung it away."
"First fire burst through the roof, so hot and quick the timber burned up in an instant, raining chunks of ash and stone."
"Wind gushed through the hole, a stiff cord of air, strong as a rampaging bull."
"Rin spotted a soldier coming up the stairs, not caught in the corner with the others."
"Isi kept pushing back the hearth-watchers and soldiers with her wind."
"Rin’s guard still gripped her wrist. She wished she was in the dungeon, locked away in darkness."
"Rin stood, meeting eyes with her guard."
"Rin covered her mouth with her hands. It worked. It worked."
"Rin should have fallen over too. But she felt the wind weave around her, pass through her fingers, arch over her as if she were made of leaves."
"You are never going to touch my family again," Isi said, her voice cold and firm.
"I am Queen Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee of Bayern, friend to King Scandlan."
"As they got closer to where Rin had left Razo, Isi gripped her reins, her focus dead ahead."
"I’d been rooting for an excruciatingly slow and terrifically painful end for our fair queen of Kel, but yes, I’d say she hit those stones headfirst and was gone before her feet caught up."
"I was going to try to burn through the lock, but the whole door is metal . . ." Enna shrugged.
"Rin felt perfectly balanced, half in, half out, and alive in both."
"I am not feeling jovial at this precise moment," Isi said.
"I find it very valuable that the Tiran ambassador observed all this."
"Is that what happened to Selia’s hearth-watchers?" Rin asked. "They burned themselves?"
"You’ll have a new service, and it’ll be even more important than your time with the queen of Kel."
"You are Rin. Of where? Nowhere? That is a curious name."
"You are allowed to be powerful, Rin. That’s not a bad thing."
"You can allow yourself to be powerful, Rin. That’s not a bad thing."
"You are Rinna-girl," she thought, "and I’m Agget-kin. I’m a tree-speaker and a people-speaker."
"It’s good to cry a bit, ’cause that helps us get through the rough parts."
"I’m holding you back. You could show Selia your devotion better if you didn’t have to guard me."