Stone and Sky Quotes

“You will never escape me,” Ione had said as we lay together on our last night. “I’m a siren and we both live in the Kingdom by the Sea. Every evening I will sit on the rocks at Greyhope Bay and sing you home to me.” “Every evening?” “Obviously I might have to work, or study, or go to the pub. But definitely Wednesdays and Sundays—minimum.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“THE TALKING FOXES think they’re spies. I don’t know why, and I’m fairly cert that they don’t know why either. But if someone taught them to be spies then their teachers left some major gaps in their vocabulary. This is why Sax William’s briefing on Rubislaw Quarry contained such fox-speak as “an affa big diggy-thing, I mean affa, affa big, mony winters afore Violet and a hale lot o’ stone dens.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“So what’s with the Queen?” “Ah, they all believe that,” says Duncan. “A’ the al wifies. That’s fit they tak aboot fan they come for tea. I bet your ma thinks it’s true.” “That the Queen is an immortal fae who secretly rules the world?” asks Ione. “You’d think Charlie would use some of that magic to grow his hair back,” I say, which gets a grin from Duncan. He swivels away from his PC and faces us straight. “It might even be true,” he says. “Who knows for sure?”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“I puff out the werelight with a little flourish that two out of three of my teachers say is an unnecessary affectation. Well, one of them says affectation—the other says it’s showing off.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“Nightingale waits—he’s good at waiting. He once told me that the most important thing he’s learned in his long life is how to wait. Mind you, he can wait in lots of different ways—this is the way that says, I’m so old and patient, I can do this all day.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“I don’t think my stab vest is rated for dragons,” said Blinschell. “My advice is, don’t try to arrest one until you have backup,” I said. Possibly to avoid thinking about the operational difficulties re: restraining a dragon. I mean, would it count as a dangerous wild animal under the Animals (Scotland) Act 1987? If it did, would we be required to take due care with regards to its welfare?”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“Dragons? You said a dragon was unlikely.” “Possibly a wyvern,” I said. “What’s the difference?” asked Blinschell, and I was tempted to say about two hundred hit points but decided against it.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“Hidden by that was a wrought-iron gate. As I touched it I thought I heard the clash of swords, the shouting of men and the creaking of wagon wheels. When I stepped through into the warm shade of the tree the quality of the air changed, became richer, older—untainted by particulates or petrol fumes.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“What’s next?” he asked. “Dragons?” “Unlikely,” I said, which proved later to be unwarranted confidence on my part.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“The moon is up, the mice are prancing and the owls are nervous,” she says. “Now is the time for covert operations.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“I could just about cope with the foxes being all John Le Carré, but if they went full Mission Impossible, fuck knew where that was going to end.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“I have remembered the wisdom of my mum, who grew up small like me and has never backed down from a fight in her whole life. ‘The thing about big men,’ she said to me once, ‘is their bollocks are at a convenient height.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone & Sky

“Thus the Folly had been dragged kicking and screaming into the 1960s, and was taking a much-needed breather before tackling the information revolution.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“I’m a siren and we both live in the Kingdom by the Sea. Every evening I will sit on the rocks at Greyhope Bay and sing you home to me.” “Every evening?” “Obviously I might have to work, or study, or go to the pub. But definitely Wednesdays and Sundays—minimum.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“Normally, because they are famously geniuses at finding inventive ways of getting themselves killed, a dead sheep does not cause much concern beyond irritation in the farmer and speculation as to whether it can be disposed of off the books to avoid costs.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“few kilometers west of the town of Mintlaw, Aberdeenshire. Normally, because they are famously geniuses at finding inventive ways of getting themselves killed, a dead sheep does not cause much concern beyond irritation in the farmer and speculation as to”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“How do you cope?” I asked. “With what?” “With losing people?” “I rather think I’m the wrong person to ask,” he said. “I didn’t cope. Or, rather, I merely carried on until enough time had passed for things to settle.” “That’s not very helpful,” I said. “As I said, perhaps I’m not the right person to ask.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“You do not have to worry about the police, or NSTA, or even The Hague, because what you have done is break a much older set of agreements. Do you think you can just fuck with the people of the deeps and not face the consequences? You live in the Kingdom by the Sea, and the sea will follow you into your dreams. And in the end you will beg to drown, so it will be over. Do you understand me?”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“Dinna be sae feel,” says Uncle Atlas, and now there is power in his words. There’s rain and wind in that voice, the smash of waves against rocks and bits of pottery. It’s like the dig I went on in Norfolk when the sea was eating the cliffs—a sense of an inevitable doom.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“Foxes don’t fight unless they have to—and definitely not “human-sized things.” Asymmetrical warfare has a very specific meaning when you’re the size of a two-year-old child.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“We haven’t gone three meters in when Sax William and the advance fox scouts come running back—much faster than they went down. “Bandits,” says Indigo. “Dead ahead, three, human-sized.” I ask what human-sized means. “They’re the size of humans,” she says—which serves me right for asking.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“Radio operator?” he says to Indigo. “Yes, sir.” “Omne vetus novatur,” he says to himself. Everything old is made new. And then, to Indigo, “Carry on.” “Yes, sir,” says Indigo and then, when he was out of earshot, “I wish he was a fox.” “Seriously?” “I’d drag him into my den and never let him out.” “That was an overshare,” I say. And she’s never fancied a human being before. Not even my friend Simon, who’s so peng he has a teen fan club on Snapchat. “What’s that about?” Indigo sighs. “It’s that time of the year,” she says.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“This is the thing about Nightingale. He’s the only elder I know who looks right at you—like he’s seeing the real person you are. And he never asks a question unless he’s actually interested in the answer. This can get bare uncomfortable sometimes.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“There was very little in the Folly’s records about summonings and ting. Not only because the Folly didn’t hold with demonology or spirit summoning, but they also thought such activities was immoral, dangerous and, above all, the preserve of heathen foreigners.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“The quarry was opened in 1740 when Rubislaw Hill was countryside, and over the next two hundred years they dug out six million metric tons of granite. This figure impressed the foxes, who I knew all dream of extensive split-level, hunt-proof dens, with hot and cold running mice and all modern amenities. I reckon they’re ten years from doing a deal with the Quiet People, after which no oligarch’s super-basement will ever be safe again.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“Selkies,” she says. “You don’t seem surprised. Why’s that?” “Really selkies?” I ask, ’cause even though I have no intention of becoming a Fed I’ve picked up some good habits. Like not leading witnesses. And some bad habits, too—like not answering questions unless I have to.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“I’m going with the selkies,” I said. “I don’t think they can survive long out of the water—I think they’re of the sea. The mermaids seem more like people with magic. I bet they stay close to the surface.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“Beverley asked what pressure the turbine produced. “About 147 bar,” shouted Griffiths. “That’s almost 15 million pascals,” Beverley shouted in my ear. “Thanks,” I said. “I was wondering.” I don’t think she heard me.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“He had the kind of non-specific American accent associated with Canadian actors who have trained themselves out of politeness.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky

“Is this about the giant squid?” I asked, because according to Beverley, a pair of bottlenose whales she’d guided out of the estuary in the spring had confirmed rumors that there was a giant squid living in the North Sea. Or, more precisely, the bottlenose whales might have confirmed those rumors. “They’re not dogs or cats,” she’d said. “They didn’t co-evolve alongside Homo sapiens so there’s an absolute conceptual barrier to communication. I’m saying stuff to them, they’re saying stuff to me. But how much of it means what we think it does, beyond ‘danger stinky river stay away,’ I don’t know.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Stone and Sky