Moira Young Quotes

But tears don't bring back the dead. I learned that.

It's always bin a bloody world, she says. Only nowadays, some people's blood is better than others.

Don't give in to fear. Be strong, like i know you are. An never give up, d'you unnerstand, never. No matter what happens.
I stare at him.
I won't, I says. I ain't no quitter, Pa.
That's my girl.

I grab his face an' kiss him on the lips. Then I step back. We stare at each other. All the air gits sucked outta the tunnel. The heartstone burns into my skin. The blood pounds in my ears.
Yer timin stinks, he says.

The Free Hawks is fighters, I says.
Warriors, she says, like you. An occasional highway robbers.

I never knew. Didn't know everythin could be fine one moment an then the next moment so bad that it 'ud be like the time before that moment was all a dream.

He turns around, all impatient. Now what? I wanna say something to you. I wanna say ... I dunno ... more. I could bust apart with all I'm feelin inside of me right now. What with fightin off the hellwurms an gittin my shoulder tore open, an how I felt when I woke up an seen you an, now, here I am, being so close to findin Lugh an I dunno what's gonna happen an
Jack's lookin at me, frowning. What's the matter with you, Saba? he says. I grab his face an kiss him on the lips.

Yer timin stinks, he says.

You got no idea, do you? You got no idea how beautiful you are.

Believe it or not, missy, back in my salad days, I was what we called a gay blade, he says. Had a fine manly figger. I had dash an charm an ... oh, I was devilish handsome, no word of a lie. Females flocked to me, helpless moths to my deadly flame.
There you go, says Em. You jest need to scrub up some.

I've climbed the high mountains an sailed the wide seas Fair faces a-plenty I've gazed on But with one glance, her beauty sent me to my knees, O hard-hearted Annie I never shall please. I've roved an I've rambled all o'er the wide world And kisses a-plenty I've tasted But it's her wine-sweet lips that I'm still dreaming of O hard-hearted Annie, cruel Annie my love. I've loved many women an wooed many girls And many soft arms have embraced me If only she'd lie with me one fleeting night With hard-hearted Annie I'd die of delight. Oh many fine beauties did beg me to stay But none until Annie did snare me Though she hurts me an shuns me an makes my heart bleed My hard-hearted Annie I never shall leave. I

Jack nudges our pile of clothes with his foot. Grins. Well, ain't this an innerestin sitchation? he says. Two girls naked in the water an me with all their clothes.

I'm sorry, I says.
Fer what? he says.
Fer always bein ... you know ... so-
Ungrateful? he says.
Yeah, I says.
Ornery?
I guess so.
Rude? Pig-headed? Violent?
I ain't violent!
Oh yes, you are. Very. But I like that in a woman.
I laugh. Yer crazy, I says.
I was fine till I met you, he says.

We ain't got time fer you to yell at me or fer me to tell you everythin that's happened, so I'm jest gonna cover the main points real quick an then I'm gonna kiss you, he says.

I hold up the heartstone. It's burnin hot now. He's on th'other side. The sound of a heartbeat. In my head, all around me, everywhere. So loud.

Well, we all gotta die. You jest gotta hope you die good.

How did you find me? The heartstone? he says.
I look into his eyes. His silver moonlight eyes. The still calmwater heart of him.
I don't need no stone to find you. I'd find you anywhere, I says.

No, you need to listen, she says. This ain't Silverlake, an you ain't the daddy. Out here in the real world, the person who knows what they're doin is the daddy an right now, that's me. So. Do like daddy says an shift that tasty butt of yers. Unless, of course, you want it shot off.

Lugh shines like the sun.
That must of made it easy fer them to find him.
All they had to do was follow his light.

Did you know, he says, every time you make somethin, any time you make anythin, a little bit of yer spirit goes into it?

We like to think we're in charge of our own lives, but we ain't.

There can be beauty anywhere. Even here. An if it ain't there, you can make it yerself.

I ain't no soft girl. I don't know no soft words.

I'm alert, full of purpose, free. An few the first time in a long time, I can breathe.

He's seen enough to know that you can't kill all the badness in the world. You cut it down in front of you only to find that it's standing right behind you.

I push him off, sit up an start puttin my clothes to rights. He's made a heroic effort to undress me.
You work fast, I says.
Yer a moving target, I hafts. Here, he says, lemme help.
I button, he unbuttons. I tuck, he untucks.
I slap his hand. I'll do it myself, I says.

I weep fer the livin. I weep fer the dead. I weep fer the yet to be born.

The mask's back in place. The heard-it-all smile. The seen-it-all eyes.

Anyways, settin so much store in one person ... it's dangerous.

Slim throws me a startled look. I aim my bolt shooter at him. Who am I, you sonofabitch?
Helluva time for a identity crisis, he says.

The Sword the burning decieved rising the science fiction the betrayed the spy the souls

We have a destiny, he says. Together, Saba. We're born to command, not obey.

Whatever's broke, he says, I can fix it. I'll fix it all. I promise.

Then Jack. Tellin me, farewell not goodbye, I'll see you out west an – oh, by the way – yer in my blood, Saba.

I'm gonna hafta kiss you, Jack, I says.
I wish you would, he says.

Saba! I'm afeared! cries Emmi.
If you are, you ain't no sister of mine! I shout. Come at me agin!
I ain't afeared of nuthin! She yells.
That's more like it.

I know it's selfish of me to even think of sayin this. You deserve a guy who'll ... pluck the stars from the sky and lay 'em at yer feet. I'm the kinda guy who'd step on 'em on my way out the door. I ain't got nuthin to offer you. He takes my hands in his. I jest want you to know that ... How I feel about you ain't changed. No. That ain't true. It has changed. It's grown stronger. He touches my face. You run deep in me Saba.

The lies that lurk in the shadows of truth.

I close my eyes. My bones sob. Throb. I'm so weary with tryin to hold myself together. Tryin to hold back the darkness.

You got three seconds, he says, then they're comin down. He starts to count. One ... two ...
I turn and run.
I can still hear him laughin when I'm halfways back to camp.

Before I know what he's up to, he grabs my hand.
Hey! I try to pull it away but he holds it even tighter.
Saba, he says, I dunno what happy star sent you lookin fer me but I'm mighty thankful it did. If you hadn't of turned up, I'd be dead by now.

His Chosen Ones. What a lie. They're slaves too. You jest cain't see their chains.

What does it look like I'm doin? If yer the shy type. I'd advise you to turn around.
Oh! I turn ny back on him quick.

I drop back a bit. I listen while they chatter on an Lugh makes us laugh. He always does.
We're together agin.
Lugh goes first, always first, an I follow on behind.
An that's fine.
That's right.
That's how it's meant to be.
Lugh turns around. Smiles.
Hey, he says, what're you doin back there? I ain't got a clue where we're goin. Git on up here an lead the way.
So I do.

The night starts to drift in. The crimson fingers of the dyin sun bleed into gray. The first stars blink down at us. Not long to wait now.

Like what you see, Angel? He says
I step to the fence. Hook my hands into the links, next to his. I lean in close. He's got tiny white lines around his eyes from squintin. Or maybe smilin. He smells of warm dust an sage.
You ain't my type, I says

You don't fool me, he says in a low voice.
Is that right?
Yea, he says. I see it in yer eyes. All you care about's yer precious brother.
That aint true, I says.
If it'd been Emmi they took, he says, Emmi an not Lugh ... would you of gone after her?
I take in a breath to say of course I would but the look on his face stops me. there ain't no point in lyin when he already knows the truth.
He leaves go of me an steps back.
I thought so, he says. Yer sister'll be safer with me than she could ever be with you. You jest ride along on yer high horse an leave her to me.

Jack grins. Anyways, Saba likes to look at my bare chest.
Lugh looks at me. Frowns. Is that a fact? he says.
I feel myself go bright red. It is not a fact, I says. You stinker, Jack.

Some things are jest too big to fergive.

You have a rare fire within you. The power to change things. The courage to act in the service of something greater than yourself.

Move fast, travel light, an never tell 'em your real name.

My heart breaks. I hear it break. I feel it.

Ever heard of the rule of three? he shouts as we run.
No!
If you save somebody's life three times, their life belongs to you. You saved my life today, that makes once. Save it twice more an I'm all yers.

There are some people, she says, not many, who have within them the power to change things. The courage to act in the service of somethin greater than themselves.

You can trust me, he says.
You would say that. How do I know you ain't lyin?
You don't. But I ain't.

Feeling sorrow is fine, he says. It's right. But you need to use those feelings, channel them into action. Just as you did with your brother. You have such strength, such courage, such power within you.

They call me the Angel of Death.

Yer lucky it was me you hijacked.

I turn to Slim. Do I smell? I says. He throws me a startled look. Uh - Ohmigawd, I do. I smell bad. How bad? Go on, you can tell me. Well, he says, you don't smell as bad as some. But you don't smell as good as some neether. I knew it, I says. What'm I gonna do? Yer askin me fer advice? He shakes his head as he says, I'd remind you that I'm wearin a lady dress with no unders.

I'm a fever in your blood now, Saba. As you are in mine.

It'll happen if it's meant to happen, he says. It's all written in the stars. It's all fate.

I never knew that missin somebody could hurt, I says. But it does. Deep inside. Like it's in my bones. We ain't never bin apart till now. Never. I dunno how to be without him. It's like ... I ain't nuthin.

What happens to you changes you. Fer good or ill, yer changed ferever. There ain't no goin back. No matter how many tears you cry.

Until next time, DeMalo says softly.

Why'd you come after me? he says. Back at Hopetown. That cellblock was on fire. You'd hafta be crazy to go in there. But you did. You risked yer life to save mine an you didn't even know me.

Love makes you weak.

There's some wounds that run too deep to be seen. They're the most dangerous.

Don't you dare walk away from this, Jack, don't you dare, Molly says fiercely. Most people don't ever feel what yer feeling. Be with her. An if it lasts one hour, one night, a week a month, it don't matter. Be with her, burn with her, shine with her ... fer whatever time's given to you.

You couldn't find nobody more pig-headed if you tried, he says. An she's always thinkin she knows best, even when she don't, especially when she don't. She's prickly and stubborn an everythin you'd put at the bottom of a list if you was makin a... a list of that kind. Which I aint. I didn't.
But? says Molly.
But ohmigawd Molly, she shines so bright, he says. The fire of life burns so strong in her. I never realized till I met her... I bin cold my whole life, Moll.
I know, she says softly.
It's jest that... aw, hell. She thinks I'm a better man than I really am.
Well, yer a better man than you think you are.

Friends don't owe ... Friends don't repay.

We don't choose the times we're born in, he says. That's the business of the stars. The only choice we got is what we do while we're here. To make it mean somethin.

If yer after a husband, forget it, he says. I seen what you did to the last one.

No, I says, He stole it agin. He's a thief an a menace an I'm gonna trade him in fer a umberella.

Bloody Jack. What is it with him? What is it about him that he seems to charm everybody an everythin that crosses his path? Ash an pretty well every other Free Hawk, my sister an now my damn crow. I swear, if there was a rock in his path that he couldn't be bothered steppin over, all he'd hafta do was give it one look an it'd roll outta the way.

I gasp.

All around me, the dead are risin.

Another leg bone bobs to the muddy surface. Then a skull. A arm bone. They swing lazily. The current grabs 'em an carries 'em away.

Wreckers must of used the dry riverbed as a mass grave an now the heavy rain's churnin it all up.

I snatch my hands from the water, hold my arms high, outta the way. Slowly I turn in a circle, blinkin the rain away from my eyes.

Ohmigawd, I says. Ohmigawd ohmigawd ohmigawd.

The river's alive with dead men's bones. It's thick with 'em.

My breath's comin shallow an fast.

I feel somethin touch me. I make myself look down. A skellenton's wrapped itself around my chest. The skull grins up at me.

I shove it away. But when I pull my hands up agin, the whole top half of the skellenton comes with 'em. I'm stuck in the ribcage. The skull's right in my face.

I scream. Shake myself loose. Scramble to git away. Lose my footin.

I fall. I go unner.

An the current sweeps me away.

Jack lifts his mug. Me an Ike do the same.
To Molly Pratt, says Jack.
Ike scowls at him. Watch yer mouth, he says.
Jeez, Ike, says Jack. All I'm sayin is ... to Molly Pratt.
Ike looks sly. Leans in an waggles his eyebrows. To Molly Pratt, he says, an her frilly red bloomers.
One helluva woman, says Jack.
One helluva pair of undies, says Ike.
Then they throw their drinks down their necks.

Travelling men make wide detours just to be in the same room as her. That's the most that even the best of of them can hope for.
Molly Pratt, he says. Remind me, what's a heavenly creature like you doin in a dump like this?
Servin rotgut to scoundrels like you, she says. An if you call my place a dump again, I'll bar you.

Maybe I did mean to kill myself. I didn't think it outright but ... maybe the truth is, I didn't
I don't
much care one way or th'other.

Whatever it is, I sure didn't go lookin fer it.
You don't hafta, she says. If it's meant to be, it'll find you. We like to think we're in charge of our own lives, but we ain't. Not really.

We're on our own. An I feel calm. It seems crazy ... but I'm calm. Because now I see what I gotta do. An what I ain't gotta do, which is waste time thinkin that anybody's gonna help us. That somebody's gonna come along an rescue us. I cain't count on nobody but me.

An when Ike walks through that door- after I finish kissin him to death- I'm gonna tie him to that chair an never let him go, cux life's too gawdamn short an it's about time I start takin my own advice. I might need yer help, of course, but I'm sure you won't mind, seein how-
Molly! Jack grabs her hand. Stop, Molly, please. Dammit Moll. Ike ain't gonna walk through the door.
She goes still. Very still. Her smile fades. Please don't say it, she whispers.
He can't bear to. But he has to. Ike's dead, he says. He's dead, Molly. I'm sorry.

Jest becuz I'm nine, don't mean I'm a stupid little kid.

I think of what we might say. Him to me. Me to him. I ain't no soft girl. I don't know no soft words. Be with me, Jack. That's what I'll say. Burn with me. Shine with me.