Dark Castle, White Horse Quotes

“Everything there makes sense, and it’s rather boring.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“They passed a huge, dim, pale shape. which was the square moon without its night-light on, and several crystal castles floated by apricot clouds. The Prince was so delighted that they had somehow given his horse a pair of fiery wings so that it too could flap through the air like the others.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“What’s that?” he asked the horse-lion.

“I don’t know,” said the horse-lion.

“At one time you seemed to know everything,” remarked the Prince tartly.

“At one time I did, but we’re all entitled to forget, I suppose. Besides,” it added, not unkindly, “I only seemed to know everything because you knew nothing at all.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“YOU SEE,” screamed the Buzzle as it took them on a guided tour of the castle some twenty minutes later. “IT’S QUITE NICE FOR ME TO MEET SOMEBODY FROM OUTSIDE, AND YOU A PRINCE AND ALL.”

“And the horse,” put in the Prince politely.

“OH, HORSES AREN’T ANY GOOD. YOU CAN’T TALK TO A HORSE.”

“Quite right,” said the horse approvingly.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“Good morning,” he said very politely. “Do you speak too?”

“No,” said the lion.

“Ah-ha,” said the Prince. “It’s you. You’re being a lion again.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“Aching, yet indifferent to it, Lir found himself in a deeper dark.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“Charm and chant is all that will keep the demon in.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“The forest was swirling with something that appeared to be sheer sorcery made visible.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“She had to brood on the truth, digest the confusion of it.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“There was no leisure to think.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“The influence which made her vulnerable to sunlight, indifferent to food; made her attract assistance on one hand, murder on the other.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“Magic, the elemental thing he himself had come to possess through the harp, had made him sensitive to another’s magic.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“Occasionally she managed to steal a book from the room full of books, parchments, spiders’ webs, mould, which was called the Library and kept locked as the cellars were.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“Courage, horse!” he cried.

“I’m not bothered,” said the horse. “I’ve been with you for so long I doubt if I shall despair either.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“It got dull and dark, and there below lay the black smoke clouds which were Nulgrave.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“The Prince got down from the chariot, and the red-haired man and the apple-haired woman each took one of his arms. This made the Prince feel very happy, he wasn’t sure why.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“You are very welcome,” they murmured as one.

“The horse said you never talk,” blurted the Prince.

“The horse often tells lies,” said the woman, laughing. “Hadn’t you noticed?”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“Around the side of the sapling, seeming to appear out of its trunk, came a thin, brown child with long, acorn-coloured hair and greenish-yellow eyes. It regarded the Prince with an amused sneer.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“What are we going to do?” despaired the Prince.

“When we get to the next rise,” said the horse, “there’ll be a ditch. Roll off it and hide.”

“How do you know there’ll be a ditch?”

“How do you know there won’t be?” asked the horse. “I shall ride on, and the wood will chase me, not having noticed the two of you are gone.”

“Of course it’ll notice. And besides, I need you help, and you may not come back.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“I met a maiden, fair and good
With long yellow hair, in the acorn wood
But when I asked with her to walk
She changed me into an apple stalk.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“Several times they passed caves with the black wolves in them who prowled round them in the dark. The wolves snarled, but said nothing. They didn’t like talking to people they might be eating later.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“There are a lot of secrets, and all jumbled together like they don’t seem anything, but if you just stand here a minute, the ones that belong to you will appear.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“As he ran away from the Dragon, the Prince was able to look up to see Ysome the Saffron and her lizards, and several Skrolls, skeletons, and Oggrings having gleeful hysterics on top of one of the bone palisades.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“It grew very quiet and dark, and then an icy wind came rushing from nowhere, sweeping like a great cold broom through the Castle of Bone. The Prince shuddered, and pressed himself back against the wall to let it past, because he felt the wind knew he was there, and would be angry if he didn’t show it proper respect.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“At least you remember things like a round moon. How daft that much look.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“This Bezzlegram’s a bit messy really altogether, but it’ll keep those Bezzles out anyway. They’re very ignorant. Beezles, now, or Buzzles, they’re much harder to fool.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“Draw a Bezzlegram,” said the horse.

“You spoke!”

“I didn’t,” said the horse.

“What’s a Bezzlegram?”

“It’s a circle with a seven-pointed star in it and drawings of safe signs in between the points. It keeps Bezzles out.”

“What are Bezzles? And I can’t! And does it matter?”

“Yes,” said the horse. “The things you see all around you are Bezzles. They’re demons of the Waste and they’ll attack any minute unless you’re inside a Bezzlegram.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“It must be a spell, or perhaps a blow on the head-that thing when you forget everything-amsneezia, is it?”

“Amnesia,” said the horse.

“Then you can talk!” cried the Prince delightedly.

“Of course I can’t,” said the horse. “Whoever heard of a horse talking?”

“Oh,” said the Prince. They hurried on, and the track was much steeper now, and the mountains loomed close.

Presently, the Prince thought of something. “But you just did.”

“No,” said the horse.

“But you did talk-there, you did it again.”

“You imagined it,” said the horse.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“He was really talking to keep his courage up, because he was certain he could now see shadowy figures and red eyes glinting in the darkness.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse

“The Prince didn’t know who he was or how he had got here.”
― Tanith Lee, Dark Castle, White Horse