By the Mountain Bound Quotes

“He leans over Cathoair, his felted woolen cloak falling forward to enfold them both. Bending down, he breathes across the other’s face, hand still heavy on the place where Cathoair’s neck runs into his shoulder. Cathoair trembles, but raises his face to the wolf’s, eyes coldly defiant and full of savage light.

The wolf sees also the way Cathoair’s lips half-part at the taste of Mingan’s breath, and the fury that follows weakness.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“We can bite down on a grudge and grin around it until the end of time.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“His voice held wonder and worry when he spoke at last.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“Strifbjorn did understand, when he could sense the past uncomfortable tightness of jealousy in his throat.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“All of Mingan’s longings and his sorrows were there under Strifbjorn’s heart, only waiting to be taken out and examined in the light.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“Pure in love, pure in attention, pure of heart. The other is no matter. Like thee and me, ’tis but a metaphor given flesh.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“Unworthy? I think not, Wolfling. Pure as the will of the pack, thou art.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“He steps forward, tossing his forelock about the root of his horn, and his beauty does not strangle me.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“Startle not. Startle not, my beauty.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“My hand, innocent of its glove, catches hers. I move her fingertip from my face, but still we are skin to skin.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“Is that so surprising, that you should be desirable?”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“It seems poetic that the strength of our enemies be made to serve us.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“I must not clutch my throat, I will not. And I will not give her Strifbjorn, even for that. Even for freedom. Not Strifbjorn.

But perchance, anything else.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“Her scent wreathes round my head. Musk, and a field of pungent flowers. Heady, not sweet.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“I would back away growling. Were I not a man. Or the masquerade of one.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“I would back away growling. Wer I not a man. Or the masquerade of one.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“When I leave the hall, I smell her before I see her, a scent that should be perfume. I know it is not.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“It was not yet noon, but under the shadow of the conifers twilight ruled.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“This was his wood, his mountain.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“My peace and focus, in any case, had been shattered, and there was no hope now of a steady hand.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“I stamp out the flames, the mtal sprays from beneath my boot, falling, freezing in the shape of a splash, red cooled to silver, still too hot for human touch.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“She stands and quaffs her drink as well, and lays down the horn. She places one hand on his shoulder and one on mine. Her nails graze my neck. A shiver follows.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“I shake the vision from my head. Less than a memory, more than a fancy.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“Fighting the snare only deepens the wound. One must lie in wait, hoarding strength until the hunter returns.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“The dark moss of her cloak makes her hair shine all the brighter, and the green contrasts with the brilliant blue of her eyes.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“The drink is drunk. The dice and draughts are set aside at the waning edge of a long night of testing conversations and ugly murmurs.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“Mingan’s cold little smile continued, twisting on his lips.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“Mingan’s disbelief couldn’t have been more polite, or more archly evident. Strifbjorn loved him with all his heart.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“He shot Strifbjorn a waifish, sidelong grin, starlight pooling in the gray part of his eyes.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound

“They were all born together of the starlight and the sea.”
― Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound