Iseult Quotes & Sayings

Merik had seen potential trade for Nubrevna where there was none. He'd seen a navy that had "needed his leadership" when it hadn't. He'd seen a selfish domna in Safiya fon Hasstrel, a frustrating Threadwitch in Iseult det Midenzi, and then an inconsequential ship's boy in Cam - yet none of those presumptions had proved true. — Susan Dennard

Never had Iseult asked for anything. Not since learning as a little girl that rusted locks on a door were the best she could ever hope for.
Then she'd met Safi, and secretly, silently, so deep no one would ever find it, Iseult had started to hope that her life might turn into something. Little dreams weren't so bad. Iseult could brush against them from time to time, and no one would ever be the wiser. — Susan Dennard

No stopping, though. Only running onward through the weak rain. Men charged with blades, but swords were so easy for Iseult to evade with Aeduan at her side. Together, they arced, they lunged, they ducked, they rolled. A fluid combination of steps built on blood and Threads. — Susan Dennard

Stasis, Iseult det Midenzi told herself for the thousandth time since dawn. Stasis in your fingers and in your toes. — Susan Dennard

And I was so tempted that night in Cippanhamm's royal church. There is such joy in chaos. Stow all the world's evils behind a door and tell men that they must never, ever, open the door, and it will be opened because there is pure joy in destruction. At one moment, when Ragnar was bellowing with laughter and slapping my shoulder so hard that it hurt, I felt the words form on my tongue. That is Alfred, I would have said, pointing at him, and all my world would have changed and there would have been no more England. Yet, at the last moment, when the first word was on my tongue, I choked it back. Brida was watching me, her shrewd eyes calm, and I caught her gaze and I thought of Iseult. In a year or two, I thought, Iseult would look like Brida. They — Bernard Cornwell

So Tristram looked on Iseult face to face
and knew not, and she knew not. The last time
The last that should be told in any rhyme
Heard anywhere on mouths of singing men
That ever should sing praise of them again;
The last hour of their hurtless hearts at rest,
The last that peace should touch them, breast to breast,
The last that sorrow far from them should sit,
This last was with them, and they knew not it. — Algernon Charles Swinburne

Where are my blades, Threadwitch?" He stubbornly still spoke in Dalmotti.
So Iseult stubbornly answered in Nomatsi: "Hidden. — Susan Dennard

Habim had told Iseult once, War is senseless. She'd always thought he'd meant it figuratively. Now she knew he'd meant it exactly as he'd said. War was senseless, overwhelming her sight, her touch, her hearing. Even her witchery. Every piece of Iseult was crushed. Crumbled. Shattered to shreds. — Susan Dennard

Iseult hated herself for that truth, but there it was. She wanted to go after Safi; she wanted Aeduan to lead the way; she wished this child would simply disappear.
Monster, she told herself. You're a monster. — Susan Dennard

I hate this. Both the storm and the plan. Why does it have to be 'we'? Why not just me?"
"Because 'just me' isn't who we are," Iseult hollered back. "I'll always follow you, Safi, and you'll always follow me. Threadsisters to the end. — Susan Dennard

But it seemed to Tristan as though an ardent briar, sharp-thorned but with flower most sweet smelling drave roots into his blood and laced the lovely body of Iseult all round about it and bound it to his own and to his every though and desire. — Joseph Bedier

Iseult sucked in air, marveling at how her lungs could feel so full against her ribs. Then she closed her eyes. She wanted to make a wish, but there were too many choices. She wished for Safi at her side. She wished for Habim and Mathew too. And, though she couldn't quite understand why, she wished for her mother.
More than anything, Iseult wished for answers. About her magic. About the Cahr Awen.
I wish I could learn what I am. — Susan Dennard

Mhe varujta. Trust me as if my soul were yours. — Susan Dennard

Dead grass is awakened by fire,
dead earth is awakened by rain.
One life will give way to another,
the cycle will begin again. — Susan Dennard

Civic virtue is not best justified in terms of fair play in a cooperative enterprise for mutual advantage, because citizenship is not a strictly reciprocal relationship in which people receive benefits in proportion to their contributions, but a joint relationship that realises the common good of freedom and self-government. — Iseult Honohan

Iseult knew what she had to do. She knew what Safi would do in this position. What Habim or Mathew or her mother or anyone with a backbone would do. So why was she finding it so hard to summon any words? — Susan Dennard

And Iseult rose up where she sat apart,
And with her sweet soul deepening her deep eyes
Cast the furs from her and subtle embroideries
That wrapped her from the storming rain and spray,
And shining like all April in one day,
Hair, face, and throat dashed with the straying showers,
She stood the first of all the whole world's flowers,
And laughed on Tristram with her eyes, and said,
"I too have heart then, I was not afraid."
And answering some light courteous word of grace
He saw her clear face lighten on his face
Unwittingly, with unenamoured eyes
For the last time. — Algernon Charles Swinburne

Where's your hair?" she shouted. "And what happened to your arm?"
"Cut my hair and got shot with an arrow!"
"Gods below, Iseult! A few hours away and your whole life tumbles through the hell-gates!"
"I might say the same to you," Iseult shouted back - though it was getting hard to scream and ride. "Four opponents on your tail and a ruined dress! — Susan Dennard

It was incredible to watch. Inhuman, really, this gift to heal one's body. The power of the Void. The power of a demon.
Yet when Iseult glanced at the Bloodwitch's sleeping, dirt-streaked face, she didn't see a demon lying limp before her. — Susan Dennard

In that moment, Iseult knew what she had to do. Logic didn't matter, nor Threadwitch practicality, nor even the opposing halves of her heart.
What mattered was doing the right thing.
So Iseult made her choice, and she ran. — Susan Dennard

She was broken. She was useless. She was the pointless half of a friendship. The one who would live forever in shadows, no matter what she did. No matter whom she fought. — Susan Dennard

Of course, the three men in the tavern who'd decided to attack Iseult had never made it back home at all. At least not with intact femurs. — Susan Dennard

She believed in public service; she felt she had to roll up her sleeves and do something useful for the war effort. She organized a Comfort Circle, which collected money through rummage sales. This was spent on small boxes containing tobacco and candies, which were sent off to the trenches. She threw open Avilion for these functions, which (said Reenie) was hard on the floors. In addition to the rummage sales, every Tuesday afternoon her group knitted for the troops, in the drawing room
washcloths for the beginners, scarves for the intermediates, balaclavas and gloves for the experts. Soon another battalion of recruits was added, on Thursdays
older, less literate women from south of the Jogues who could knit in their sleep. These made baby garments for the Armenians, said to be starving, and for something called Overseas Refugees. After two hours of knitting, a frugal tea was served in the dining room, with Tristan and Iseult looking wanly down. — Margaret Atwood

Iseult's nostrils twitched. Her face hardened. The defiance, the determination - they were back, and against his will, Aeduan's lips twitched upward. — Susan Dennard

The very purpose of a knight is to fight on behalf of a lady. — Thomas Malory

The past gathered out of the darkness where it stayed, and the dead raised themselves to live before him; and the past and the dead flowed into the present among the alive, so that he had for an intense instant a vision of denseness into which he was compacted and from which he could not escape, and had no wish to escape. Tristan, Iseult the fair, walked before him; Paolo and Francesca whirled in the glowing dark; Helen and bright Paris, their faces bitter with consequence, rose from the gloom. And he was with them in a way that he could never be with his fellows who went from class to class. — John Edward Williams

She already fought so hard to separate herself from her emotions - if she got rid of her thoughts too, what would be left? — Susan Dennard

And they fell. Together. — Susan Dennard

He was younger than Iseult had imagined. No older than twenty, if she had to guess. Yet he felt old, with his voice so gruff. His language so formal.
It was in the way he carried himself too, as if he'd walked for a thousand years and planned to walk a thousand more. — Susan Dennard

He was good. The best fighter she'd ever faced. But Safi and Iseult were better. — Susan Dennard