"She understood now that while it had been wrong to kill Cansrel, it had also been right. The boy with the strange eyes had helped her to see the rightness of it. The boy who'd killed Archer. Some people had too much power and too much cruelty to live. Some people were too terrible, no matter if you loved them; no matter that you had to make yourself terrible too, in order to stop them. Some things just had to be done.I forgive myself, though Fire. Today, I forgive myself."

"Please, Katsa," he finally said. "At least talk to me".She swung around to face him. "What it there to talk about? You know how I feel, and what I think about it.""And what I feel? Doesn't it matter?"

"Circumstances don't always align themselves with human intention."

"And of course she understood now why her body wanted to run whenever he appeared. It was a correct instinct, for there was nothing to be got from this but sadness."

"Alone in the forest, Katsa sat on a stump and cried. She cried like a person whose heart is broken and wondered how, when two people loved each other, there could be such a broken heart."

"Would you please do me the honor of telling me WHAT THE BLAZES IS GOING ON?"

"She didn't want to go far, just out of the trees so she could see the stars. They always eased her loneliness. She thought of them as beautiful creatures, burning and cold; each solitary, and bleak, and silent like her."

"I want to have the heart and mind of a queen, she whispered. "I want it more than anything. But I'm only pretending. I can't find the feeling of it inside."

"When Brocker arrived he took her hands and held them to his face and cried into them."

"The only way for you to keep your mind straight is to run from those who would confuse you."

"What man can hate or love well when he is drugged?"

"Did you ever love someone," Lucy says, "and know they love you, and you're attracted to them, and you know they're attracted to you, and so many things are exactly right, but it doesn't matter, because the few things that are wrong are completely, totally fucked?"

"It seemed to Fire it was rarely enough one knew a person one wished to marry. How unjust then to meet that person, and be kept from it because one's bed was made of hay and not feathers."

"There will be no yelling at people who are bleeding themselves to unconsciousness."

"Every configuration of people is an entirely new universe unto itself."

"People want incongruous, impossible things."

"I know this is war, but the rest of us are trying to pretend it's a party."

"You cannot measure love by a scale of degrees."

"Our own story is even more important for us to know than history."

"Everyone was willing to take some small risk to lessen the damage of their ambition and disorder and lawlessness."

"If we're to be judged by our parents and grandparents, then we all may as well impale ourselves upon jagged bits of rock."

"I wonder if it's meant to be punishment for something one can't forgive oneself for. Or an external expression, Lady Queen, of an internal pain? Or perhaps it's a way to realise that you actually do want to stay alive."

"Fire supposed he needed to be there in order to give rousing speeches and lead the charge into the fray, or whatever is was commanders did in wartime. She resented his competence at something so tragic and senseless. She wished he, or somebody, would throw down his sword and say, 'Enough! This is a silly way to decide who's in charge!' And it seemed to her, as the beds in the healing room filled and emptied and filled, that these battles didn't leave much to be in charge of. The kingdom was already broken, and this war was tearing the broken pieces smaller."

"When she came back minutes later with a great, fat, skinned rabbit, Po had built a fire. The flames cast orange light on the horses and on himself. "It was the least I could do," Po said, drily, "and I see you've already skinned the hare. I'm beginning to think I won't have much responsibility as we travel through the forest together.""Does it other you? You're welcome to do the hunting yourself. Perhaps I can stay by the fire and mend your socks, and scream if I hear strange noises."

"It's not reasonable to love people who are only going to die."

"You do trust him, though, Giddon?""Holt, who is stealing your sculptures and is of questionable mental health?""Yes.""I trusted him five minutes ago. Now I'm at a bit of a loss.""Your opinion five minutes ago is good enough for me."

"For a moment, it was almost as if they were friends again."

"Not all people who inspire devotion are monsters."

"Your horse is named Small.Yes.Mine is named Big.-Fire and Brigan."

"Fire looked into his quiet eyes, touched his dear familiar face and considered the question."

"What she really loved was to hang over the edge and watch the bow of the ship slice through the waves. She loved it especially when the waves were high and the ship rose and fell, or when it was snowing and the flakes stung her face."

"It was a hurting tune, resigned, a cry of heartache for all in the world that fell apart. As ash rose black against the brilliant sky, Fire's fiddle cried out for the dead, and for the living who stay behind to say goodbye."

"How absurd it was that in all seven kingdoms, the weakest and most vulnerable of people - girls, women - went unarmed and were taught nothing of fighting, while the strong were trained to the highest reaches of their skill."

"Katsa and Po were trying to drown each other and, judging from their hoots of laughter, enjoying it immensely."

"Do you understand? I don't want you to do a thing if you don't understand it."

"Could you attempt, at least, to make yourself presentable? I know this is a war, but the rest of us are trying to pretend it's a party."

"Bitterblue had never seen a man naked, and she was curious. She decided the universe owed her a few minutes, just a few, to satisfy her curiosity. So she went to him and knelt, which shut him up."

"They sat on the outcropping of stone and at bread and fruit. Kasta watched the long grass moving around them. The wind pushed it, attacked it, struck it in one place than another. It rose and fell again. It flowed, like water."Is this what the sea is like?" Kasta asked, and they both turned to her, surprised. "Does the sea move the way this grass moves?""It's like the sea, she said.Giddon's eyes on her were incredulous."What? Is it such a strange thing to say?"It's a strange thing for you to say. He shook his head. He gathered their bread and fruit, then rose. "The Lienid fighter is filling your mind with romantic notions."

"Perhaps I can stay by the fire and mend your socks and scream if I hear any strange noises."

"You won't even take your bow? Are you planning to throttle a moose with your bare hands, then?""I've a knife in my boot," she said, and then wondered, for a moment, if she could throttle a moose with her bare hands."

"This may be a thing you neither want nor need," she said. "But I'd rather you have it, wishing didn't, than not have it and wish you did."

"Things don't ever stay the same. Natural beginnings come to natural or unnatural ends."