The Bear and the Serpent Quotes

“This is why Mother left this to me; she would have had to work at being mysterious. I just say what little I know, and it sounds mysterious because I know so little.”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Bear and the Serpent

“confused, and she attacked them wherever she found them, whatever shape they were in. Tiamesh and Moon Eye harried their flanks, snarling and snapping. Teeth grazed her, lunging up from below and trying for her belly. Instantly she was a tiger, leaping over them, and then she turned with knife in hand and found Ulsen and his spear. His thrust was too hurried, too soon, and she knocked the shaft away, knowing this would be her only opening. She darted in as he tried to back away, cut him shallowly and made him Step again. She leapt as a tiger”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Bear and the Serpent

“There was a tale Maniye knew from the Crown of the World where a young hunter was cast out of his tribe. The names and the reasons varied, but all those stories shared the same soul. The exile would wander, meet strangers, overcome challenges, and at last return to his village to call out the chief or whoever had wronged him. Usually he became chief himself, after that. As a child she had always wondered at it: why would the chiefs and the priests allow such a tale that challenged the way things were? She understood it now: no matter how the chiefs and the priests might want to keep every tomorrow the same as yester- day, sometimes the world called for change. Better to have that path safe in a story, than let that change rip all your laws and bonds when you could no longer hold it in.”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Bear and the Serpent

“My mind has been fed many meats it doesn’t like the taste of, Matsur. Let me digest.”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Bear and the Serpent

“that pure bond of youth that feels at the time as though it will last forever.”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Bear and the Serpent