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61 " The king would never let Hild go, not now. Not until she was dead or of no more use. "
― Nicola Griffith , Hild
62 " You let my mother know what you’re about,” she said in Irish, just in case. “On purpose. My mother knows this. And you two are deep in your game, and I am one of those bees, sent by the queen bee to buzz from hive to hive to flower, not knowing what’s really going on.”“Well,” he said. “I’m surprised it took you so long. "
63 " Show them the pattern. Give them permission to do what they wanted to do all along. "
64 " It will rain, and the blood will wash away and the carcass will be taken away and all will be fresh and new. "
65 " She had no idea why it was important and her heart was kicking like a hare. But she had been trained to show a still face so she raised her own mantle and looked back. "
66 " Hild, on the first boat with Eorpald and Edwin, smelt it before she saw it: the old, cold scent of deep, turned dirt; the smell of bones. "
67 " She is filled with a light she does not yet understand, my king. "
68 " Beside her, Edwin stirred. Rædwald the overking was dead and under the dirt. Now Edwin was overking. Hild could feel him swelling like bread. "
69 " Hild, at first wary of so many strangers, soon forgot her caution under the weight of sheer wonder. "
70 " Gwaldus tugged at her collar again. She looked nothing like Hereswith. She was at least two years older, half a hand shorter. Her eyes were grey-green, and her hair would be paler when washed. Her whole body would be paler. Her nipples were more pink than red. "
71 " She’d be best off here with the princess with the slaughter seax. "
72 " Gwladus wanted to throw ale in the proud little face. But the princess would kill her, dead as a suckling pig. "
73 " It was hot, and it seemed stone would tell them nothing more. "
74 " The killer child was her mistress. For now. "
75 " She understood why a king often threatened violence. It felt good, and it worked. "
76 " He was younger than old Yvain, his voice as supple as a withy-wound chariot. "
77 " Fursey, hostage to the king and tutor to the light of the world, was fond of good wine and long conversations at meat about the wrongs of the world and how to right them, and in the course of things the long conversations naturally made him more thirsty. "
78 " The sense of the world shifting was so strong she swayed in the saddle. "
79 " What other pearls of wisdom has she dropped in your ready ear? "
80 " He could send his words trilling into the roof corners or scuttling through floor rushes. "