Madoc Quotes

“Father, I am what you made me. I’ve become your daughter after all.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Let's have a toast. To the incompetence of our enemies.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Mistakes can be dealt with. Loss of time can't.”
― Penelope Douglas, Rival

“Though I would not delight to see the straps sink into your skin, neither would I mourn.'

'Enough blustering,' he says. 'You've already won. Look.'

He takes me by the shoulders and turns me so that I can see where the great body of the serpent lies. A jolt of horror goes through me, and I try to wrench out of his grip. And then I notice the fighting has ebbed, the Folk are staring. From within the body of the creature emanates a glow.

And then, through that, Cardan steps out. Cardan, naked and covered in blood.

Alive.

Only out of his spilled blood can a great ruler rise.
...
Cardan takes a step forward and little cracks appear from his footfalls. Fissures in the very earth. He speaks with a boom that echoes through everyone gathered there. 'The curse is broken. The king is returned.'

He's every bit as terrifying as any serpent.

I don't care. I run into his arms.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Madoc seemed like the sort to roast him over a fire, consume his flesh, and call it love. By then, I had become familiar with love of that kind.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“He also says you fall in love a lot.'

That surprises a laugh out of him, although he doesn't deny any of it. 'There are certain expectations of a prince in Court.'

'You cannot be serious,' I say. 'You feel obliged to be in love?'

'I told you- I am a courtier, versed in all the courtly arts.' He's grinning as he says it, though, acknowledging the absurdity of the statement.

I find myself shaking my head and grinning, too. He's being ridiculous, but I am not sure how ridiculous.

'I do have a bad habit, he says. 'Of falling in love. With great regularity and to spectacular effect. You see, it never goes well.'

I wonder if this conversation makes him think of our kiss, but then, I was the one who kissed him. He'd only kissed back.

'As charming as you are, how can that be?' I say.

He laughs again. 'That's what my sister Taryn always says. She tells me that I remind her of her late husband. Which makes some sense, since I would have been his half brother. But it's also alarming, because she's the one who murdered him.'

Much as when he spoke about Madoc, it's strange how fond oak can sound when he tells me a horrifying thing a member of his family has done.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“What a freeing thought it was to no longer believe I had to deserve something in order to get it.'

He's right; that would be a shockingly freeing thought.

'Stop waiting,' Madoc says. 'Sink those pretty teeth into something.'

I give him a sharp look, trying to decide if he is making fun of me. I lean down and write in the dirt and the crust of my own dried blood. Monsters have teeth like mine.

He grins as though I am finally getting his point. 'That they do.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“I have secrets aplenty. There are so many things you don't know, daughter of Madoc. And I think you crave a little violence yourself.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Wren, you have plenty of reasons not to trust me right now, but I do intend to stop Lady Nore. And I believe we can. Though I plan on bringing back Madoc, we will still have gone a deed no one can deny was of service to Elfhame. Whatever trouble I will be in, you'll be a hero.'

I am not sure anyone has considered me that, not even the people I've saved. 'And if I decide to part ways? Are you going to tie my hands and drag me along with you?'

He looks at me with trickster eyes beneath arched golden brows. 'Not unless you scratch me again.'

'Why do you want to help him?' I ask. Madoc had been willing to use Oak as a path to power, at the least.

'He's my father,' he says, as though that should be enough.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“Little queen,' Madoc says with a crooked smile. Despite not sharing blood with Oak, the mischief in his expression is familiar. 'All grown up and come to devour your maker. I can't say as I blame you.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“You might be better served if she didn't wake. What happens when she discovers how you've deceived her? When she realises her role in your plan?'

I try not to move, try not to let a twitch of muscle or a tightening of my body give away that I am conscious and listening.

Oak's voice is full of resignation. 'She will have to decide how much she hates me.'

'Kill her while you can,' says the old general, softly. He sounds regretful but also resigned.

'That's your answer to everything,' Oak says.

'And yours is to throw yourself into the mouth of the lion and hope it doesn't like your savour.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“I'm never killing her,' Oak says softly, so softly I almost don't hear.

'Then you better hope she doesn't kill you,' the general replies.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“If it's hard for you to bear what you did, give me the weight.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“You were always good,' he says, looking down at me. 'Just never good enough.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“His sword sinks into my side, into my stomach.

I look up at him for a moment, eyes wide.

He seems as surprised as I feel.

Somehow, despite knowing better, part of me still believed he would pull a killing blow.

Madoc, who was my father ever since he murdered my father. Madoc, who taught me how to swing a sword to actually hit someone and not just their blade. Madoc, who sat me on his knee and read to me and told me he loved me.

I fall to my knees. My legs have collapsed under me. His blade comes free, slick with my blood. My leg is wet with it. I am bleeding out.

I know what happens next. He's going to deliver the final blow. Lopping off my head. Stabbing through my heart. The strike that's a kindness, really. After all, who wants to die slowly when you can die fast?

Me.

I don't want to die fast. I don't want to die at all.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Have you come to throw yourself on the mercy of the crown? Perhaps you hope the Queen of Elfhame will show leniency.'

Madoc barks out a laugh, his gaze going to me. 'Daughter, every time I think you cannot rise any higher, you prove me wrong,' he says. 'And I a fool to wonder if you were even still alive.'

'I am alive,' I say. 'No thanks to you.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“You were my guest until you drew your very fancy sword. Put it down and by my guest again.'

'Put it down?' says Madoc. 'Very well.' He slams it in to the floor of the brugh. A thunderous sound rocks the palace, a tremor that seems to go through the ground beneath us. The Folk scream. Grimsen cackles, clearly delighted with his own work.

A crack forms on the floor, starting where the blade punctured the ground, the fissure widening as it moves toward the dais, splitting the stone. A moment before it reaches the throne, I realise what's about to happen and cover my mouth. Then the ancient throne of Elfhame cracks down the middle, its flowering branches turned in to splinters, its seat obliterated. Sap leaks from the rupture like blood from a wound.

'I have come to give that blade to you,' Madoc says over the screams.

Cardan looks at the destruction of the throne in horror. 'Why?”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“He might not want to hurt me, but that doesn't mean he won't.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“...she speculates about all the aspects of the mortal world she's going to have to explain to Dad. 'Like cell phones,' she says. 'Or self-checkout in the grocery store. Oh, this is going to be amazing. Seriously, his exile is the best present you ever got me.'

'You know that he's going to be so bored that he's going to try to micromanage your life,' Taryn says. 'Or plan your invasion of a neighbouring apartment building.'

At that, Vivi stops smiling.

It makes Oak giggle, though.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“I used to wish that Madoc never went looking for those girls, and now all I wish is that we could be together again as we once were.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“Once my father said that conflicts are between rulers. Those that follow rulers can be perfectly nice, which is how you wind up with two perfectly nice people with daggers to each other's throats. Hyacinthe and I might have been friends, but for the part where we were set on opposite sides of a battlefield.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“Madoc makes a snorting sound, then turns to me. 'I am sure that Wren here wouldn't mind taking Lady Nore's castle and lands for herself.'

I shake my head at the absurdity of the statement.

He raises his brows. 'No? Still sitting at the table and waiting for permission to start eating?'

That's an uncomfortably accurate way of describing how I've lived my life.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“Don't listen to him.' He shakes his head with an exasperated look at his father. 'He's full of bad old-guy advice.'

'Just because I'm bad,' Madoc says with a grunt, 'doesn't mean the advice is.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“Plunge a heated sword in oil, and any small flaw will turn in to a crack. But quenched in blood as you were, none of you broke. You were only hardened”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Plunge a heated sword in oil, and any small flaw will turn in to a crack. But quenched in blood as you were, none of you broke. You were only hardened.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“And if I am particularly kind that evening, particularly deferential, if I laugh particularly loudly, it is because I know I will never do this again. I will never have him behave like this with me again. But for one final night, he's the father I remember best, the one in whose shadow I have- for better or worse- become what I am.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Te dolerá. El dolor te hace fuerte.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince / The Wicked King / The Queen of Nothing

“Puedes apropiarte de algo cuando nadie te mira. Pero defenderlo, incluso aunque cuentes con ventaja no es tarea fácil.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“...do you know how to tell the fight is over? All your enemies are dead...”
― Holly Black, The Prisoner’s Throne

“Jude?' [Madoc said (after he stabbed her in the side)]”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King