|
7647974
|
When in doubt, be ridiculous.
|
|
fast-thinking
uncertainty
decision
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
3f5c457
|
You, there, girl! Halt!" Who in the ever halts when the enemy tells them to?"
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
a8e370d
|
A wager?" I repeated. "Yes," he said, and gave me a slow smile, bright with challenge. ... "Stake?" I asked cautiously. He was still smiling, an odd sort of smile, hard to define. "A kiss." My first reaction was outrage, but then I remembered that I was on my way to Court, and that had to be the kind of thing they did at Court. And if I win I don't have to collect. I hesitated only a moment longer, lured by the thought of open sky, and spee..
|
|
meliara
shevraeth
vidanric
wager
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
9902756
|
Finally someone takes me seriously enough to ask for my word of honor, and it's a villain.
|
|
humor
villian
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
1215276
|
Memory warps time, as it does the sights and sounds and smells of reality; for what shapes it is emotion, which can twist what seems clear, just as the surface of a pond seems to bend the stick thrust into the water.
|
|
reality
remember
memory
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
3878eae
|
Except. What is normal at any given time? We change just as the seasons change, and each spring brings new growth. So nothing is ever quite the same.
|
|
seasons
maturity
growth
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
fec384e
|
Why is it the songs all end with the good people winning, but in life they don't?" They don't make songs when the good lose," I muttered. "They make war chants against the bad. So there won't be any songs for us."
|
|
good
songs
inspirational
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
87d6734
|
No, I don't think I could fall in love with him, handsome though he is, because I don't accept any of that huff he gives me about my great beauty and all that. I'd have to trust a man's words before I could love him. I think.
|
|
relationships
love
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
3d94b23
|
It would have been funny if I had been an observer and not a participant, an idea that gave me a disconcerting insight into gossip. As I walked beside the silent Tamara, I realized that despite how entertaining certain stories were, at the bottom of every item of gossip there was someone getting hurt.
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
778429a
|
So let me end with the wish that you find the same kind of happyiness, and laughter, and love, that I have found, and that you have the wisdon to make them last.
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
961d00f
|
Angry men with pointy things sent to secure a foreign city are pretty much alike anywhere. That's what I've heard. So far nothing's convinced me different.
|
|
war
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
2e82217
|
Everyone is an idiot," I stated. "Except me."
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
9555bd3
|
Because you showed one face to all the rest of the world, and another to me.
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
45846ba
|
Despite how entertaining certain stories were, at the bottom of every item of gossip there was someone getting hurt.
|
|
truth
society
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
72e4e48
|
It desolates me to disappoint you, but your brother is not here. Despite two really praiseworthy attempts at rescue." ... The hint of amusement irritated me, and sick and hurt as I was, I simply had to retort thing. "Glad... at least... you're desolated."
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
d1dac08
|
One doesn't lose a self, like a pair of gloves or a pine. We learn and change, or we harden into stone.
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
015f288
|
They're safe,'' he said. "And you're not made of glass". He swept me up in his arms. I laughed. "And I'm not made of glass." He carried me into our room and kicked the door shut behind us."
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
503e1c4
|
If more people recognized the difference between friendship and mere attraction, and how love must partake of both to prosper, I expect there'd be more happy people.
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
95a1231
|
I've been working hard at assuming Court polish, but the more I learn about what really goes on behind the pretty voices and waving fans and graceful bows, the more I comprehend that what is really said matters little, so long as the manner in which it is said pleases. I understand it, but I don't like it. Were I truly influential, then I would halt this foolishness that decrees that in Court one cannot be sick; that to admit you are sick i..
|
|
truth
social-weapons
falsehood
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
57f640d
|
I had seen ardency in men's eyes, but I had only felt it once. With Flauvic, false and therefore easy to dismiss. I suddenly wished that I could feel it now. No, I did feel it. I did have the same feeling, only I had masked it as restlessness, or as the exhortation to action, or as anger. I thought how wonderful it would be to see that spark now, in the right pair of eyes.
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
c1d6825
|
A horse blanket, Mel? I remembered what I was wearing. 'It tore in half when Hrani tried washing it. She was going to mend it. This piece was too small for a horse, but it was just right for me.' Bran laughed a little unsteadly. 'Mel. A .
|
|
funny
brother-and-sister
horse
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
4a8ebd2
|
Why did I laugh at his sorry, bedraggled appearance? Because ridiculousness made a repellant situation more bearable.
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
c51ec66
|
We'll abduct Garian. Or Jason." "And--?" "And dump them into the ocean. Nobody would ever pay a ransom for them."
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
956e9c2
|
We'll abduct Garian. Or Jason." "And--?" "And dump them into the ocean. Nobody would ever pay a ransom for them." --
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
32c0613
|
The more one has, the less one desires.
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
c9d5c9b
|
Some of it was wrong decisions made for the right reasons, and a little of it was right decisions made for the wrong reasons; but most of what I did was wrong decisions for the wrong reasons.
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
4228b3b
|
It is time,' he said, 'to collect on my wager.' He moved slowly. First, his hands sliding round me and cool light-colored hair drifting against my cheek, and then softly, so softly, the brush of lips against my brow, my eyes, and then my lips. Once, twice, thrice, but not closer. The sensations - like starfire - that glowed through me chased away from my head all thoughts save one, to close that last distance between us. I locked my finger..
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
71884aa
|
Who can ever know what turns the spark into flame? Vidanric's initial interest in me might well have been kindled by the fact that he saw my actions as courageous, but the subsequent discovery of passion, and the companionship of the mind that would sutain it, seemed as full of mystery as it was of felicity. As for me, I really believe that the spark had been there all along, but I had been too ignorant--and too afraid--to recognize it.
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
afd52fc
|
It is a shame when we must regard a people as an enemy. It is a shame and a regret when the two peoples share so much. And it is a shame, a regret, and a tragedy when those peoples meet as individuals and find much to admire.
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
c8469c7
|
I endeavor to be serious and you will not take me seriously
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
235a03b
|
But I'd also learned that the self might want one thing, but that didn't mean it was right.
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
e1cc518
|
No, my career as a warrior princess, short as it had been, was over, I thought morosely. Violence only works if you're good at it. Otherwise, it hurts too much.
|
|
violence
warrior
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
6dd347d
|
War is a convenient fix for government problems if it happens somewhere else. To other people.
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
33f88eb
|
If your opponent is better armed and has longer reach, then surprise is your only ally. And then you'd better hope he's half asleep.
|
|
wisdom
opponent
tactics
enemy
strategy
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
fb353d9
|
Maybe I'm no longer a dog, but I can still bite!
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
d2cecb6
|
You don't look at the problem all at once, or it's like being caught in a spring flood under a downpour. You tackle the problem in pieces...
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
d075ee5
|
Judging the actions of the many by those of the one is both human and dangerous.
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
890a75a
|
What might have happened to them to make them the way they were? It did not change what they now did, but it changed, profoundly, how he perceived their motivations, their place in the world.
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
8434d0b
|
Jaim says that the essence of command is to turn surprises to your favor. You get your perimeter outside the enemy's perimeter, and attack." "What does that mean, exactly?" "Oh, I don't know, some kind of military jabber. I was hoping you knew." --
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
045eef2
|
Rumor has it your war is intended to protect the Covenant, but the King insists it was you who was going to break it. Rumor also has it you and your brother said you were going to war for the betterment of Remalna." "It's true, I assure you," I said. "I mean, about our going to war for the Covenant. The King intends to break it--we have proof of that. And we want to help the kingdom." "Perhaps it is true." The mother gave me a serious loo..
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
8c00e33
|
What's it really like to always be the prettiest person in a room? Dos it mean you're always acting as if in a play, because no one stops looking at you?' 'Life is a play, isn't it?
|
|
beauty
life
flauvic
princess-elestra
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
6ba4bde
|
What if feeling good only comes after you destroy someone you hate?' 'That's not good, that's triumph,
|
|
flauvic
princess-elestra
triumph
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
88b391a
|
I am old, but the word to me means familiar, comfortable. Accustomed after long and venerable use. Not dilapidated and useless.
|
|
|
Sherwood Smith |
|
89c89f3
|
Are they trained to treat everyone as a servant?' 'Probably. That doesn't make you into one,
|
|
granny-risa
young-risa
princesses
servants
|
Sherwood Smith |