Ravenspur Quotes

“Richard felt his spirits begin to recover and he raised his hand to the crowds, though it made his back ache. It was worse every year, he thought. Pain he'd thought he could bear all his life became less easy to endure as he aged. It was a frustrating thing to acknowledge, but the physical power and certainty of a man in his twenties saying 'This, I can stand for ever', would not itself last.
A brother and a beloved king could die.
A vow could wither, a back twist further and his pain might never ease at all”
― Conn Iggulden, Ravenspur: Rise of the Tudors

“had”
― Conn Iggulden, Ravenspur: Rise of the Tudors

“To be close to your greatest desire could be an exquisite pain”
― Conn Iggulden, Ravenspur: Rise of the Tudors

“It was rare for Richard to have hands clear of broken blisters or his body unbruised. When he was weak of will, as his brother was weak, when he wanted to gorge his starving frame or drink himself to oblivion, or simply to allow all his bruises to heal to spare himself from pain, he would recite the words a Benedictine monk had taught him for such times:
'Non draco sit mihi dux. Vade retro Satana.'
'The dragon is not my master. Get the behind me, Satan.' The words had become a talisman and saying them brought him back to calm. Richard lived in pain and his flesh was in opposition to his will. Yet he would prevail, because all flesh failed, whereas the will was a sea deep enough to drown”
― Conn Iggulden, Ravenspur: Rise of the Tudors

“Warwick breathed out slowly. He could her the noise of the descending duke and he turned back to the Plantagenet armies of York - of Edward and Richard and George. He felt the pain of it once more. To be the victor, he had to destroy three boys he had raised up to be men. He knew how they would stand together, just as he stood with his brothers. He was forty-two years old and he had fought for over sixteen of them. He had sinned and he had lost friends and his father. He had witnessed bravery at the moment of death, had known bitter exile and murder and great victory, all of it marking him where it could not rub off or be washed away. He had no sons of his own.
He began to chuckle in the breeze, though it was far closer to sobbing than laughter”
― Conn Iggulden, Ravenspur: Rise of the Tudors