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656 pages, Hardcover
First published April 12, 2022
“When we die, it does not take long for us to go back to the ground, to become what we were, once the spark of life has left us. So I do this to remind me, of where we came from, of where we are headed, and that this life is fleeting. Best to make the most of it. To fight hard and fierce.”
“Real courage is to feel fear, but to stand and face it, not run from it.”
“I am sorry,” Lif said.
“Do not be sorry,” Orka growled, “be better.”
“Brother. How have I had such good fortune to find these people, after so many years of loneliness and pain?”
“Life is a knife’s edge, and all can change with the thrust of a blade.”
‘“It’s rude,” Gudvar muttered, “and would not be so brave and foolish as to insult me if those bars were not there to protect it.”
I’m glad those bars are there to protect me, he thought.”’
“Are you Gudvarr?” the man asked him.
How do you know that? As if I would tell you, you sniveling oaf.
The man’s eyes bored into him with a fierce intensity.
“Yes,” he rasped.
“To grieve is to be trapped in a world of loneliness.”
“Svik should be more like me… He should make a stone of his heart.”
“I can see that would help avoid the pain of betrayal, true enough, but it also stops you feeling the joy of friendship or love.”
“Real courage is to feel fear, but to stand and face it, not run from it.”
“If more made that choice, in their head and hearts, to live a peaceful life with those they love and value, and just allow others to do the same.”
“Kill your enemies,” Glornir said.
“Aye, and make a mountain of their corpses,” Orka finished.
To be a survivor is the opposite of being a fool. Staying and fighting at the Grimholt was the fool’s choice. Retreat and live to fight again, that is the deep-cunning mark of a strategist, and that’s what I did at the Grimholt. Seize the opportunities presented to you, that’s what I say.
We are one, the wolf and I. Together we are more. But I am the chief, the jarl, the pack-leader, and you the wolf are bound to me, like an oathsworn warrior. Oathsworn obey.
“I thought the new world we are fighting for will be one where we can all live together,” Biórr said. “Us Tainted and the untouched, all in harmony.”
“But think of the saga-tale that would be told if we were the ones to slay Lik-Rifa . . .”
We can all say brave words when the danger is passed. I should know, that is my speciality.