More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Jim Butcher
Read between
March 16 - March 28, 2024
She began to smile but glanced aside at Mother and schooled her expression into soberly appropriate diffidence.
“No, apparently I have not been enlightened to your satisfaction—I would, however, submit to you that another repetition of this particular bit of pedantry seems unlikely to correct the situation, and that therefore the least frustrating course of action for all involved would be to abort the attempt.”
The warriorborn dealt best with the present, whereas she, like the Lancasters before her, had to concern herself with the far past—and the near future.
It was funny, Grimm mused, how often in life a bit of judicious silence could come in handy.
Being incompetent was surprisingly draining upon one’s confidence. And annoying.
She sauntered off, flicking her tail mockingly. “You are almost as handsome as you think you are, you know.”
“Predator is not property,” Grimm said in a calm, level tone. “She is not my possession. She is my home. Her crew are not my employees. They are my family. And if you threaten to take my home and destroy the livelihood of my family again, Commodore, I will be inclined to kill you where you stand.”
Grimm nodded. “Yes. One of your many excellent failings, Hamilton, is that you forget favors and remember insults.”
Because scandal, old friend, is ever so much more enjoyable than propriety. Such things are the spice of life.”
Ah! A man of modesty, either so false that it may be true or so true that it seems entirely false.
“You have questions, I answers. Shall we see if they match?”
She looked up at Benedict shrewdly. “You’ve never been known for your acute political intellect, Benny. Most of the House considers you a distant and disinterested observer—not a political asset.” Her cousin looked pained. “And I shall remain so in their eyes, if you please,” he said. “Politics is the purview of scoundrels, tyrants, and fools. I only observe because I prefer not to become their victim.”
We’re a civilized society, are we not?” Esterbrook blinked. “Since when, miss? We’re a democracy.” “Just what I mean. We have dispensed with violence as a means of governing ourselves, have we not?” “The heart of democracy is violence, Miss Tagwynn,” Esterbrook said. “In order to decide what to do, we take a count of everyone for and against it, and then do whatever the larger side wishes to do. We’re having a symbolic battle, its outcome decided by simple numbers. It saves us time and no end of trouble counting actual bodies—but don’t mistake it for anything but ritualized violence. And every
...more
She felt her throat turning very dry, to go along with her fluttering stomach and her racing heart. Fear was really quite tedious. She wanted to be rid of it as soon as possible.
“I went to the academy, too, thank you,” Grimm said. “The academy is where knowledge begins—not where it ends. You’re a solid man. You’ll understand in time.”
“Industry and determination, Mister Kettle, can transform the difficult into the routine,”
Two seconds was a great deal of time when measured in units of life and death.
The man moved with an absolute surety of purpose, with unbroken focus, and the men around him deferred to him with an obvious, silent respect that could not have been expressed in words.
“He seemed capable. And polite. And it’s so rare to meet someone who is actually polite for the proper reasons.”
Ferus said calmly, “You are trespassing, sir. Begone. While you still can.”
“There are many things you have never done,” Rowl responded. “To be frightened of them is of no use to you.”
if you go exploring, you might find something that could hurt you.” “If one doesn’t, one is not truly exploring,”
“I’m here to save time.” “Impossible, impossible,” Master Ferus said. “Time is time. We can barely even see it, much less alter it.”
“Death is light as a feather, duty as heavy as a Spire,
How did one, in good conscience, pay back a debt that by its very nature could not be calculated?
“Money is a madness, a delusion-illusion. It’s not made of metal, really. It’s made of time. How much is one’s time worth? If one can convince enough people that one’s time is an invaluable resource, then one has lots and lots of money. That’s why one can spend time—only one can never get a refund.”
The older you get, I should think, the more you will come to understand that the universe is very much a looking glass,
Captains did not arrive to address a crisis looking like an unmade bed. They were always calm, confident, and neatly turned out. If an enemy battleship was about to unleash a full broadside on a ship, the captain would face it with his hat straight and his cravat crisp and square. Anything else undermined the faith of a crew, increasing the chances of casualties, and was therefore unacceptable.
Once one had to depend upon someone else for food, one had to depend upon someone else for life itself.
“There are many, many kinds of strength. Fortitudo refers to something quite specific.” He poked a finger at Benedict’s biceps in demonstration. “Not this kind of brute power, not at all. It means something more—inner strength, strength of purpose, moral courage. The strength required to fight on in the face of what seems to be certain defeat. The strength to carry on faithfully when it seems no one knows or cares.”
“Strategy and tactics, discipline and protocol, are necessary, but they’re just the beginning. You have to know people, Byron. How they think, what motivates them. Watch. Learn.”
“Remarkable,” Grimm murmured. “That took more than a little courage.” Sorellin smiled, briefly. “My dear cousin has a very odd relationship with fear—though mostly she’s too busy to be bothered with it.”
“You mustn’t judge Bridget for saying such things,” Folly murmured. “She is only under strain, and I can hardly blame her. I don’t want someone I care about to be dead, either. Thinking of it makes me feel as though my stomach had curled into a ball and rolled away.”
“It’s a tradition,” Grimm said. “Were traditions rational, they’d be procedures.”
She had never gotten it through her gentle head that there was a time for a soft paw and a time for red claws.
But for the time being, his men needed him. He might not have a ship anymore, but he still had a crew. They were looking to him now, in this moment of despair and doubt. So he straightened his coat, turned his back on the horribly empty sky behind him, and faced his men.
“God in Heaven,” he whispered. “Thank You for Your grace.”
Bridget contemplated that in silence for a moment. She decided that she neither liked nor regretted the act, and that it had been absolutely awful.
“But wars are not simply about objective measurements. They are about will, Miss Lancaster, about belief.
Captain Grimm stood steady in his place on the bridge, hands folded behind his back, his safety lines tight and neat, the very image of what an airship captain was supposed to be, holding all their lives in his hands, and doing it without bowing beneath the burden or complaining of the weight.
Doctor Bagen, after laboring for nearly a day straight in the wake of the battle, was in a hammock strung up in one corner of the infirmary, snoring with the force of an approaching thunderstorm.
“There’s a question you need to ask yourself.” “Oh?” He nodded. “If you could go back to exactly those moments, with exactly the knowledge you had at that time—would you do it any differently?” “Don’t you mean, if I knew then what I know now?” “No,” he said firmly. “I mean exactly the opposite of that. You can’t see the future, Miss Lancaster. You cannot be aware of all things at all times.
“After the way I left, I suddenly find myself wanting very much to go home. But . . . it won’t be the same when I get back. Will it?” “It will be the same,” Grimm said. “You’re the one who has changed.”
