Troubled Waters Quotes

“There is nothing but heartache for a coru woman and a hunti man," she said, deliberately contrary. "He cannot control her and she cannot change him."

"He never fails her and she always moves him," Darien corrected. "She can trust his strength, and he can be lifted by her joy.”
― Sharon Shinn, Troubled Waters

“it was as if that long-healed wound was raw again; all the complex memories crowded once more to the forefront of her mind. An old despair should not feel so new, but a new despair could haul an old one out of hiding.”
― Sharon Shinn, Troubled Waters

“I suppose that in general I am not a contrary sort of person,” she said, her voice muffled.

  His eyes were narrowed; he was making no attempt to disguise the fact that he really wanted to peer inside her soul. “And yet you are the daughter of a sweela man,” he murmured. “You cannot be as tame as you appear. There must be passion in you that can be roused by something . There must be something you would fight for, or against.”

  “I am a woman of water,” she replied. “I am more likely to slip away in stealth than to blaze up in wrath.”

  He looked dissatisfied. “All men and women have a little wood and bone in them. Somewhere, from some ancestor. Something that will not back down. Something that will not give way.”

  She turned her right hand palm up and studied the faint lines. “There must be bone in me somewhere, or I could not hold my shape,” she said. “But these days all I can feel is blood.”
― Sharon Shinn, Troubled Waters

“She almost laughed. “I think you’re a man who gathers up power like a child gathers up wildflowers in the woods.”

  “Responsibility, maybe,” he said. “Not necessarily power.”

  “Harder to gather handfuls of lake water or rain,” she said.

  “I know,” he said. “I don’t expect to be able to harvest you.”
― Sharon Shinn, Troubled Waters

“I think these simple country folk you worry about already believe there is a great deal of lying going on at the palace,” Zoe said. “And I think most of them don’t care. They want order in the realm. They want safe borders and opportunities for profitable trade. It doesn’t matter to them who governs as long as he or she governs well.”
― Sharon Shinn, Troubled Waters

“It lightens my heart to think I might do no deep and lasting harm during my brief time in this world.” “You could still do some harm,” he said. “But in the end, all the works of men tumble down and fall away.”
― Sharon Shinn, Troubled Waters

“It looked like her main course for dinner would be an argument.”
― Sharon Shinn, Troubled Waters

“I do not like the idea that you feel you can lie to me with impunity, just because your life is complicated,”
― Sharon Shinn, Troubled Waters

“Thank you, no,” Zoe said, speaking with an effort. “If I have something to occupy my hands, perhaps my heart won’t hurt quite so much.”
― Sharon Shinn, Troubled Waters