Goldstone Wood Quotes

“I can't believe in the impossible," he whispered as though trying to convince himself against what he had just witnessed. "A man can't be big and small at once. He can't be a freak and a hero."
The cat glared. "Do you believe in justice?"
The Chronicler hesitated. Then, only once, he nodded.
"Do you believe in mercy?" pressed the cat.
"Yes."
"Ha!" Eanrin lashed his tail again. "What an impossible contradiction. Ha!”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“Do you understand, mortal?" Eanrin said. "We Faerie know it's the spirit that counts, and all else is malleable. Beauty or ugliness; brawn or frailty; height or lack thereof--these appearances can be exchanged with scarcely a thought! But the truth...now, that's another issue. The truth of the thing, the person behind what you perceive with any of your paltry five senses...Creature of dust, it's the truth that counts! And you'll rarely find more truth than in Faerie tales."
With those words, the golden man dwindled into the golden cat, and try as he might, the Chronicler could perceive him as nothing else. But he was still Eanrin, and he smiled, pleased with himself.
"That wasn't a half-bad monologue. Do you find yourself inspired to new heights of ambition?”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“What's the good of a story that ain't got a happy endin'?”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Veiled Rose

“Please tell me you haven't given yourself to Hri Sora."
She shook her head.
"Is that no, you have, or no, you haven't? Dragon's teeth!" Eanrin ran his hand down his face.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Starflower

“Hri Sora stood transfixed upon her roof, watching the scene being played out on the streets of Etalpalli. She could not believe her eyes. The fire in he breast flared in her fury at such a picture of tenderness enacted in this place of death. She gnashed her teeth and tore at her own hair, leaving lines of blood streaming through the lank strands.
"I must be mistaken!" she raged. "How can a woman of the Land be. . . be compassionate to one of them? The little monsters! The little fiends! They have his eyes, yet she stretches out her hand to them?”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Starflower

“I am afraid." Eanrin shuddered as he saw now the deepest secret of his soul. The secret he had kept hidden even from himself all the long ages of his existence. "I don't want to love. I will be hurt if I do."
"You were born in fear, Eanrin. But my love casts out fear.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Starflower

“Oh!" This was as far as her vocabulary would take her on short notice.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“You're a hundred years old?" Mouse whispered in awe, her voice carrying up the stone passage,
"Oh no," said the cat with a chuckle. "Much older!"
"What's funny?" asked Alistair, bringing up the rear and feeling rather ill used. "What did she say?"
"She says your breathing is so loud, you might as well blow trumpets to herald our coming," said Eanrin. "So duck your head and keep your mouth shut, eh?”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“Love is a terrible thing," Mouse whispered.
"Only love gone astray," said the prisoner. "Only imperfect love."
Mouse tried once more, feebly, to shake off the prisoner's grip. "You frighten me."
"Oh, child!" said the prisoner. "The time has come you should be frightened. If fear will awaken you, be afraid! And then be courageous in your fear and act!"
"There's nothing I can do."
"You aren't the mouse they have made you be. You were meant for so much more!”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“I was born an accident," the Chronicler said.
"You were born for a purpose," the stranger replied, "and in the best form to fulfill that purpose.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“You had no right to do that, you pale-faced dog of a bullying man!"
Eanrin, leaning with his shoulder against the rock of the cave opening, called down into the dark, "She says your kisses are like drops of summer rain on a parched and thirsty land.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“[T]hough she clung to the cold stones of the chimney, Leta whispered, "We are never obliged to be only what they have told us we are. Not if we were meant to be more.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“Eanrin folded his arms and rolled his eyes ceilingward. "Of course. Prophetic destinies can't be played out without the proper sense of poetry. Even the girl must be here at the end! Though, Lights Above, I don't know how she managed it. I don't think I could have fixed it that way even in verse!”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“It is the hardest thing in the world to let go of a dead dream," Eanrin said, his voice more serious than Alistair had ever before heard it. "Many people cling to their dreams and watch them die again and again rather than release them entirely.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“Perils?" Sairu said. "Highway robbers? Hustlers? Cads, perhaps? Pickpockets? Pestilence?" Her brows lifted, her eyes widened. "Toll gates?”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Golden Daughter

“Sairu slid off her donkey and gave pursuit, shouting, "Sticky Bun!" Which is not a good name for shouting if one hopes to maintain any sense of dignity.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Golden Daughter

“I'll have you know that Dumpling, Rice Cake, and Sticky Bun are the noble offspring of the great Bright Mane," Sairu said, "descended in a long line of royal canines bred from the deified lineage of the Lordly Sun's own watchdogs."
The cat gave her a look. "Really?"
"Well, the come from the same kennels as the emperor's dogs, so that's close enough."
"Useless yapping things, hardly what you'd call proper dogs. What's the point of them?"
"They ward off devils."
"Yet I'm still here. What else?"
"They're fluffy."
"I'm fluffy," said the cat.
"You're a monster," said Sairu.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Golden Daughter

“It means starflower," Sairu said. "The temple is named for the Gardens of Hulan."
"Oh," said the cat. "You don't say."
Sairu, startled by the tone of his voice, looked down. But he was gone.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Golden Daughter

“But then a voice reached out to him across the leagues of his own vast terror. A silver voice, gentle and serene yet cutting like a blade through any boundaries or walls.
Won't you follow me?
The cat opened his eyes. Sure enough, the blindness pressed in upon him, sickening his gut. But the voice still sang, and when he turn his head to the sound, he was able-if only just-to discern figures moving up ahead of him.
And so, not for the first time in his life, he walked Death's Path.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Golden Daughter

“Falling on her face, she knew she could not walk a single step more on this road, this Dragon's Path.
But suddenly there were arms around her, strong arms drawing her close. She fell into them, leaning against a warm heartbeat. She heard a voice he recognized, felt it flowing over her like a covering, a shield, a protection.

"Beyond the Final Water falling,
The song of spheres recalling,
When all around you is the emptiness of night,
Won't you return to me?”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Golden Daughter