Historical Fantasy Quotes

“The sunset bled into the edges of the village. Smoke curled out of the cottage chimney like a crooked finger.”
― Sara Pascoe, Being a Witch, and Other Things I Didn't Ask For

“Gossip is like thread wound over a spindle of truth, changing its shape.”
― K. Ritz, Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master

“This evening I spied her in the back orchard. I decided to sacrifice one of my better old shirts and carried it out to her. The weather’s been warm of late. Buds on the apple trees are ready to burst. Usually by this time of the year, at that time of day, the back orchard is full of screaming children. Damut’s boys were the only two. They were on the terrace below her, running through the slanted sunlight, chasing each other around tree trunks. She stood above them, like a merlin watching rabbits play.”
― K. Ritz, Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master

“The early women rise before I do. Their lamps splinter the gloom of the kitchens. They chatter in whispers as they brew tea for the cooks. Windows are open to counter the heat of the ovens. Outside, the sky is as black as my soul.”
― K. Ritz, Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master

“If one does not react to gossip, the informer hushes more quickly.”
― K. Ritz, Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master

“This world would be a pleasant place if people didn’t inhabit it.”
― K. Ritz, Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master

“And she was right. No matter how they tried, the two humans, with the cat but without the microchip, couldn’t connect to headquarters. Raya heard a loud popping sound in her mind, like a huge rubber band being snapped, like a glider plane released from a Piper Cub.”
― Sara Pascoe, Being a Witch, and Other Things I Didn't Ask For

“The summer sun bowing out threw slashes of colour between the buildings. London looked big, empty, and lonely. She stood in the doorway, like a cat trying to make up its mind.”
― Sara Pascoe, Being a Witch, and Other Things I Didn't Ask For

“Oscar looked up from his plate, and if a cat could laugh, he would have. ‘Boy, that’s ugly, even for a jinn. Looks like a cross between a rat, a frog and a bottlebrush.”
― Sara Pascoe, Being a Witch, and Other Things I Didn't Ask For

“Everyone thought she was so confident and together, but that was really a mask she wore to protect herself. The old adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover” applied to her.”
― Hope Worthington, Shifting Moon: Shifting Moon Saga, Book 1

“But let it be my ambition and not my fear that seals my fate.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“Theirs was a bond forged from necessity, hurt, and a shared, intimate understanding of hell.”
― R.F. Kuang, The Burning God

“Remy glanced up and found herself staring into Logan’s eyes. She was lost to his stare and forgot that anyone else was around. Again, that feeling of protectiveness washed over her, and this time, something else. There was also a sense of familiarity when she looked into his eyes.”
― Hope Worthington, Shifting Moon: Shifting Moon Saga, Book 1

“7. The blind woman retained her grip on Sylva’s arm. “I’ll be quick. I want to thank you for your efforts copying out Martha’s teachings. I hope you take some of her words with you. I see many difficult choices ahead of you. You will need help in making the right decisions and Martha’s words will perhaps guide you. I see you having to seek the true path between right and wrong, between good and evil, and the choices will not always be easy, or obvious. Martha can help to guide you, if you let her.”
― Robert Reid, The Empress

“5. Then on a rainy day in early July the words she was copying from one of Martha the Benevolent’s ancient sayings spoke to her:
Birds fly free until they are put in a cage, but the cage does not bind their wings
When the cage is opened, the wings spread out, and the bird flies free again
So the poor are trapped in a cage by the avarice of the rich
Not in a cage made of gold, but one of hunger, despair and need
So the prisoner dreams of the wide open spaces
Wind in her hair, breathing in the freedom, beyond the four walls of her cell
Our mission is to free the prisoner, to help the poor to spread their wings
To open the door of the oppressor’s cage, to find a way to a fairer age.”
― Robert Reid, The Empress

“13. Boretar was basking in the warm June sun as the Russell family prepared to depart. The black BMW’s boot was packed with the suitcases and the roof box was filled with tennis rackets and other sports gear. The bike stand on the rear of the car was already loaded with the children’s bikes. Peter made one final check of the house to ensure that all doors and windows were locked and secure. Then he shouted to his wife Mary, “We’re ready to go, where are the children?”
― Robert Reid, The Empress

“9. Delicately Sylva moved the upper layers of paper and vellum away and saw, lying on the table, a small book. It was an ornately inscribed little volume with a beautifully worked golden motif; this was what had glittered and caught her attention. The book’s cover was edged in gold and in the centre of the cover was the motif: a letter O superimposed with the letter I, forming the symbol Φ, also marked out in gold.”
― Robert Reid, The Empress

“12. The common man has to fight to survive each day
But when his Lord demands his homage to pay
The common man has to fight another way
With sword or axe or spear, whatever his Lord doth say
The common man just hopes to live beyond this frightening day
And asks for the courage not to turn and run away”
― Robert Reid, The Empress

“14. ‘This statue was erected in memory of Emile Razan, the Hadoka, Aralmerian freedom fighter and healer of the desert.”
― Robert Reid, The Empress

“11. Four Eastern Aramin warriors drew their swords and moved towards Armand. Aaron started to move forward, thinking Armand would need some help. At the same moment Armand dropped down to one knee and to the tune of sixteen bow strings, sixteen feathered barbs crisscrossed the space that the Eastern Aramin warriors had advanced into. Wolfasten held up his hand and shouted to his men, “Hold your positions!” Then he nodded to Armand. “You are the conductor of this ring of arrows, I presume?”
― Robert Reid, The Empress

“10. The stranger’s breath also came out in small white clouds. The man was clearly a lot fitter than his charges and wasn’t breathing nearly as heavily. “I have been sent – that’s all you need to know for now. As to the walls, there are secrets in even the thickest walls, young master. You just need to know where to look.”
― Robert Reid, The Empress

“1. In 1511, the solitude and peace of Martha’s sanctuary was rudely interrupted by the arrival of a new conscripted member. Tall, with long fair hair and intelligent green eyes, the woman was of striking appearance. She was in her mid-thirties and held herself with a regal demeanour. This was Sylva, the deposed Empress of the North.”
― Robert Reid, The Empress

“2. Alice Ereldon was in her late twenties, unmarried, and she had a reputation. She was an attractive twenty-eight-year-old. Her long brown hair hung down over her shoulders and she could conveniently sweep it over her face, partially hiding her dazzling amber eyes. The eyes were her secret weapon; she could look like a cat lining up its prey, and her prey was usually young male courtiers.”
― Robert Reid, The Empress

“8. Sylva suddenly remembered one of the teachings of Martha that she had copied out. The person who listens, gains wisdom – She who just talks only expels air. Naomi had told Sylva that she should let Martha’s words guide her. Maybe she was correct. Anyway, what harm could it do to spend a few moments listening to the huntsman?”
― Robert Reid, The Empress

“6. Before there was any more discussion Fowler pulled his long knife from his belt and prised open the lid of the chest. There was a gasp of astonishment from the company. Where there should have been clothes, there was the Empress Sylva, curled up in a foetal position. She cursed. So near, but still so far.”
― Robert Reid, The Empress

“...that means we’re in love,” His eyes were never leaving her lips, “madly so.”
The spirits waltzed across the leaves, enclosing two lovers, singing their own melody as the bodies became one.”
― Ezgi Yücebaş, Curse of the Stars

“You make the blood flow in my veins once more. You remind my heart to beat.”
― Leigh Bardugo (Author)

“Each morning comes along and you assume it will be similar enough to the previous one-- that you will be safe, that your family will be alive, that you will be together, that life will remain mostly as it was. Then a moment arrives and everything changes.

Images of the city to the south speed through his consciousness, but he has seen neither a city nor a likeness of one and does not know what to imagine, and his visions intermingle with Grandfather's tales of talking foxes and moon-spiders, of towers made of glass and bridges between the stars.”
― Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land

“Une situation cruelle n'a pas de belle solution.”
― Shelley Parker-Chan, She Who Became the Sun

“Il est vrai qu’il existe des amateurs de pêches mordues, qui préfèrent naturellement les autres hommes. Je me demandais si c’était votre cas. Mais non... je crois que vous désirez les hommes parce que les femmes vous rappellent tout ce que vous détestez en vous-même. Le fait que, quoi que vous fassiez, quelles que soient vos prouesses, vous serez toujours considéré comme plus proche d’une femme que d’un homme. Faible. Médiocre.”
― Shelley Parker-Chan, She Who Became the Sun