Home > Work > Hild
121 " Her thoughts came together, smooth as a shield wall: The fact they could check the prophecy they must believe. "
― Nicola Griffith , Hild
122 " It occurred to Hild that both Hereswith and Cian now had their own paths. She had only her mother’s dream. "
123 " Her sister and gemæcce already had the beginning of a kin web here in a foreign land. They wouldn’t be all alone. "
124 " It was like being inside a lyre, inside a drum, inside a pipe. Hild thought her head might burst. "
125 " She had no idea why it was so much harder for her to folk in Anglisc to anyone but Begu, it just was, though these last weeks she was learning how to let the words come. It helped if there was no weightiness behind them, no import; if they were only words with no life or death hanging in the balance. "
126 " Holding secrets, her mother said, made a man feel mighty. "
127 " The three women were gracious but remote, dry-eyed players in the royal mummery of Eorpwald and Edwin’s grander farewell: the pledges of honor and allegiance between king and overking. "
128 " The burning was something to hold on to as her headache threatened to engulf the world. "
129 " She was the hunger of light, seeker of patterns. She had just the gift for Hereswith, something to help her in the time to come: the truth. "
130 " It shines and it gleams, but is not what it seems. "
131 " Watch women and men, put yourself inside them. Imagine what they’re thinking. "
132 " A memory of stretching like a dog, the push of feet on turf and flash of teeth flicked across her mind like a leaf on a gust of wind. She tried to catch it back, but it was gone. "
133 " You are a seer overwhelmed by vision, not a silly maid who can’t hold her drink. You will not hide. You will not hang your head. You will smile. You will eat. You will make a show of drinking your wine. One more sip of this. Good. Now gather your wits. "
134 " The revolt always begins when the steward wants to be king. A lesson the Franks never seen to learn. "
135 " Not all were Anglisc, but they drank and shouted and boasted alike. "
136 " It is time to give your light to the world. "
137 " Our time is not yet come. For now we live like mice in the byre. Everyone knows we’re here, but we’re not worth attention. Quiet mouth, bright mind. "
138 " Breguswith taught her the gathering and drying of herbs, and began to spirit Hereswith away for mysterious lessons that, when her sister tried to share them with Hild, made no sense. "
139 " Hild remembered her mother’s words exactly-the light of the world must remember everything. "
140 " Breguswith, distaff tucked under her left arm, rolling her fine-yarn spindle down her thigh with her right, stared absently at the fire, though Hild knew even as her mother’s fingers were busy, busy teasing out the yarn, testing its tension, her attention was focused on Ceredig king, who laughed and leaned from his stool and let firelight wink on the thick torc around his neck. "