Summer in Orcus

by T. Kingfisher

1. Don’t worry about things that you cannot fix. 2. Antelope women are not to be trusted. 3. You cannot change essential nature with magic.

In real life, though, a very dramatic statement is usually met with awkward silence, and then somebody makes a joke to try to break the silence, and somebody else decides they need a cup of tea.

I am a were-house.” “A warehouse?” The wolf sighed. “No. A were-house. I am a wolf by day, and by night I turn into a rather pleasant cottage with white curtains.” A great deal of Summer’s fear evaporated and she folded her arms and said, very grimly, “This is a pun, isn’t it?”

“I believe the hunter meant to trap me and put a silver chain through my tongue and when I change tonight, I will be trapped in that form forever and can be sold on the real estate market.” “Well, we can’t have that,” said Reginald. “Wouldn’t turn a rat over to the house-hunters.”

“I didn’t know houses had to drink,” said Summer. “They get thirsty on the long migrations,” said Glorious. “It’s a magnificent sight from overhead,” added Reginald. “A hundred houses in a herd, stampeding across the savannah, the big bulls slashing at each other with their rain-gutters…”

“If I kill you,” said Glorious. “I can claim that the moon made me do it, or the sun, or a man in another land whom I have never met. But it is my teeth that have blood on them.”

“Saving a single wondrous thing is better than saving the world. For one thing, it’s more achievable. The world is never content to stay saved.”

There were too many sorrows in the world. She thought that if she felt any one too deeply, she might drown in it.

One of the other great players in the game. Archangel Michael, perhaps, or the Blacksmith or the Wanderer with the Flute. Even the Bone Woman,

Those I think might need on this trip, and those I have yet to read and might want, and those old friends that I cannot bear to leave behind.”

in re: books

“And I still have far too many books to read to allow myself to die.

mythology is a truth that isn’t true, and that’s as delightfully twisty as a lie in its own way.

“He wants the world to burn and I want to dance on the ashes, so he thinks that we are alike. But hate and chaos aren’t the same thing.