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“But it’s better to live as you will want to have lived, rather than spend your time worrying about the end. You are right here in your story. Don’t skip ahead.”
The fear was there, familiar and clear. Picket inhaled, acknowledging its presence while at the same time assigning it a place of service. It would have to sharpen his mind. Fear would not, could not, be his master. Not today. There was too much at stake.
“I’m sorry, lad,” Lord Blackstar said. “I know this is a hard blow, not finding your family here. But stay on the job, son. Do the next right thing.”
What a burden to assign all these souls to places where he knows they will face unthinkable danger.
In real war there’s betrayal, and the betrayers win. In real life you get old staring at a growing heap of unhappy endings.”
“We don’t have to win the war today, sir,” Heather said. She hoped she looked braver than she felt. “We only have to win the next battle.”
We are beset by many dangers, and traitors multiply in the dark. It will not be so in the Mended Wood.”
“I am grateful for you—each of you. We go, but we will return. Look for us when hope is almost gone. And always, for the sake of this wounded world,” he said, looking at Heather with a sad smile, “bear the flame.”
But he had no interest in the last fight, only the next one.
He fought because of what he loved, not because he loved to fight.
“I’m reading children’s poems,” he said, “to clear my mind before the day’s tasks. I have done it for years— whenever I can.” “Children’s poetry, a great lord like you?” she asked. “Does it distract you?” “No,” he answered. “Well, I suppose it does. But I feel less—I don’t know—less sullied by the awful parts of my work when I read.”
She ran on, aiming for the least awful thing.
He will let us be who we are, inspire us to be who we ought, not promise us what we can never be.”
“Rabbits who wait for their betters to act ought to act better.”
“I will hear you with humility,” she said, touching her ears. Then, touching her eyes, she said, “I will see you with generosity.” Finally she touched her mouth. “And I will speak to you with honesty.”
“Let us hear with humility, see with generosity, speak with honesty, and so leap with audacity!”
“What would we do, faced with such a decision? Would we leap? I don’t know what I would have done. I only know what I will do. In this moment—and every moment is a new Leaping in miniature—I will do what our ancestors did. I will leap. And leap, and leap again!”
“War is a splash of terror in a sea of boredom,” Heather said, “At least that’s what Helmer says.”
Fight for Smalls, for Emma, for Heather and the whole wounded world. Carry your pain and let it fire you in the fight. Bear the burden and bear the flame.”
“May you hear peace, see peace, and speak peace.”
But no cause is greater than my love for you. I fight because you are in my heart.”
