Charlie N. Holmberg Famous Quotes & Sayings
100 Charlie N. Holmberg Famous Sayings, Quotes and Quotation.
For if rice and tuna was his for-guests meal, Ceony couldn't imagine what the man ate when he dined alone. Perhaps Mg. Aviosky had assigned her here merely to ensure England's oddest paper magician got some decent nutrition and didn't wither away, leaving the country with only eleven paper magicians instead of twelve.
Prit?" she asked. "The boy you bullied in school?"
Emery scratched the back of his head. "'Bullied' sounds so juvenile . . ."
"But it's him, isn't it?" Ceony pushed. "Pritwin Bailey? He became a Folder after all?"
Emery nodded. "We graduated from Praff together, actually. But yes, he's the same."
Ceony relaxed somewhat. "So you two are on good terms, then?"
The paper magician barked a laugh. "Oh, heavens no. We haven't spoken to each other since Praff, save for this telegram. He quite loathes me, actually."
Ceony's eyes bugged. "And you're sending me to test with him?"
Emery smiled. "Of course, in a few days. What better way to prove you had no bias than to place your career aspirations in the hands of Pritwin Bailey?"
Ceony stared at him a long moment. "I've been shot to hell, haven't I?"
"Language, love.
Don't you see, Delilah?" she asked. "I need to wrap up this mess before anyone else gets hurt. I can do it. I know I can. But we have to leave now, while there's still time.
She didn't know where the factory was, but she didn't need to - the city unfolded itself before her just as every other vision had, directing her toward Emery Thane, for she ran through the secrets of his heart.
Excellent!" Mg. Thane clapped her on the shoulder and strode out of the library. "I'll be on my way. Try not to burn anything down.
Perhaps she really wasn't as astute as she should be. She wondered if there was a spell for that.
months of study to learn how to form the bones and joints so
He finally had something worth going home to.
She had fit him into a one-dimensional mold during their first meeting, and had done so with ease. Langston, too. How many others had she judged and set aside like that, thinking them no more than a one-sided piece of paper?
It stretched forever until it met a gray-blue sky lined with pale cerise, a sky perpetually caught in the moments before sunrise.
On count two, she shouted, "I deserve a stipend after this!" The words echoed offbeat with the pulsing walls.
The clouds looked like ethereal creatures, sky-fish swimming across the blue expanse, following the sun to the other side of the world.
For heaven's sake, you even delivered yourself to my front door.
She turned her head to showcase the barrette. "What do you think?"
Emery's expression softened. "I think it's lovely. I did a good job on that."
Ceony rolled her eyes. "How modest. But thank you, for this. And the flowers.
She had the feeling of reading a story with all its even pages torn out.
secret only she knew -
From her pocket she pulled a tiny snowflake, the one she had stowed there after her first day as a Folder. She rubbed her thumb over its tiny, delicate cuts, grateful she hadn't yet washed this particular skirt. The snowflake still felt frosty, just like real snow. Snow he had made for her. All of it had been for her in one way or another, hadn't it?
In the glow of the candlelight she said, "I have to do it. I have to save him."
For she knew no one else would.
These books you're reading . . . I question your taste, Miss Twill."
She straightened the collar of his maroon coat. "I'll read what I please, Mr. Thane."
"I have a suggestion," he said with a wry smile, stepping away and glancing back at the sunset, which had already grown ruddier. "I have a dissertation on eighteenth-century Folding basics on interlibrary loan. It's wonderfully dry and has all its nouns capitalized. I think you'll enjoy it."
Ceony frowned. "You want me to study primitive Folding techniques?"
"Only subprimitive," he said, a smirk playing on his lips. "It never hurts to go back to basics, even if you think you know them."
"I do know them."
"Are you sure?"
Ceony paused. "Is this a hint for my test?
Once a secret spread to too many minds and mouths, anyone could learn it - including
raspy breaths. She pressed an ear to his chest,
Setting her jaw, Ceony stepped away from the heart. She would allow no spell of Lira's to miss her and strike it. She would keep Emery's heart safe, especially from the woman who had treated it so very poorly.
The closed door to the left of the hallway hid whatever room lay beyond it, but instead of walking farther into the house to see what the second right revealed, she shouted, "Magician Thane! Your guests are here and would greatly appreciate a real person at the door!"
"Miss Twill!" Mg. Aviosky said in a suppressed sort of hiss as the paper skeleton shut the front door. "Manners!
Focus on your target," Emery's voice spoke in her memory as he had during his quick lesson in the new spell. "Feel it in your mind like your story illusions. If you do, the stars will hit their mark." Reaching
Fennel, giving up on Ceony's side of the bed, scampered over to Emery's feet and began tugging at his pant leg.
"Emery," Ceony said, pausing her breakfast, "what was that telegram about yesterday?"
"Hm?" he asked, shaking Fennel free. For a moment, Ceony imagined equipping the paper dog with more substantial teeth - plastic, or perhaps steel. The latter would likely weigh his head down. And what did Ceony need a dog with steel teeth for?
You are mad," she whispered, walking toward the glider. It had a thin coat of dust on the top, and two handholds near the nose. No seat to sit in, no belt to strap in.
Surely Mg. Thane hadn't flown in this. No one could fly! It must have been a prototype. Surely a man couldn't find groceries a bothersome chore if he could retrieve them in this!
Emery nodded. "But I'm afraid you're now a week behind in your studies." "You told me I was two months ahead!" Ceony frowned. "A week behind," he repeated, as though not hearing her. And perhaps he didn't. Emery Thane had a talent for selective hearing, she'd learned. "I've determined it's best for you to study the roots of Folding.
Well," he said after a moment almost long enough to be awkward. He picked up the slices of cucumber and put them on the bread himself, then pulled a plate from the cupboard. Walking back to the table, he said, "Now we can finally have this meal, hm?"
"This meal?" Ceony asked, glancing at his bland sandwich. He took a bite of it without even bothering with mayonnaise. "Any meal I put thought into is levels above a cucumber sandwich. I could have been a chef, if you recall."
"Is that so?" he asked, taking another bite.
Ceony began to cut two slices of bread for herself, but paused halfway through the first. "Would you humor me for a moment?"
"I believe I've been humoring you since you walked through my front door," he replied.
crust. It's strange, this story of mine. A tale that starts somewhere in chapter twenty and ends who knows where.
Hi, Ceony," he said. He then stiffened like a soldier and added, "Magician Thane, it's a pleasure to meet you finally."
Bennet took a few long strides and offered his hand to the paper magician, who stood taller in height by several inches. Emery shook the apprentice's hand with an amused twinkle in his eye. Bennet continued. "I've heard a great many things about you."
"And you still shook my hand?" Emery asked. "Your mother raised you well.
Matrona imagined her flush was made of thousands of biting ants, and the soft breeze blew them off her skin as she walked, carrying them back into the wood.
His laughter made me laugh, his thoughts made me think, and his silence made me listen to each intake of his breath.
but with their enemies either dead, jailed, or in a perpetual state of being frozen, danger had decided to leave them alone.
I'm sorry. I'm a little on edge."
"No need to remind me," Mg. Aviosky quipped just as a real person emerged from that second right, some sort of ledger in his hands.
"There are guests at the door," the man said, closing the ledger. The ensuing burst of air rustled his wavy black hair. In words pitched at a light baritone, he added, "And I would have thought the knock gave it away.
Less than a week had passed since Ceony had heard this,
Why hello!" she said, and the dog jumped and pressed its front paws against her knees, then actually licked her with a dry, paper tongue. Ceony laughed and scratched behind its ears. It panted with excitement. "Wherever did you come from?"
The door squeaked again, announcing Mg. Thane's arrival. He looked a little tired, but no worse for wear, and still wore that long indigo coat. "This one won't give me hives," he said with a smile that beamed in his eyes. "It's not the same, but I thought it would do, for now."
Wide-eyed, Ceony slowly stood, the paper dog yapping in its whispery voice and nudging her ankles with its muzzle. "You made this?" she asked, feeling her ribs knit over her lungs. "This . . . this is what you were doing last night?"
He scratched the back of his head. "Were you up? I apologize - I'm not used to having others in the house again.
stepped away from it. What sort of morbid man constructed a butler out of paper? Was there no one else to answer the door? "Do
Remember that you are much different now than you were an hour ago, Ceony. Before you merely read about magic; now you have it. Denying it won't make you return to ordinary.
He wore normal clothes, but his dark skin contrasted with the rest of the bystanders.
You are the kind of women who makes me believe in God...I don't know how else it could be possible to find you.
Everyone is afraid of something, right?" The
She imagined Mg. Thane's hands over her own, guiding her Folds, and squinted in the candlelight to ensure all her edges aligned and all her creases were straight.
Crouching, Ceony felt the edge of the giant crack. None of it came away in her fingers, even when she scratched it with her nails. The rock stayed hard and firm. Another handful of sand dropped to the canyon floor, seeming to make no difference in the canyon's depth whatsoever. But Ceony knew that enough handfuls would fill it, eventually. After all, it took time to mend one's heart. Enough time could heal a heart as broken as this one. It was half-healed already.
Her head full of clouds, but not in the dreamy sense. Just the empty one.
I'd say, Ceony," he said after swallowing, "had I not been present for the lessons, I'd think you'd found a way to enchant pasta." Ceony smiled. "You like it?" He nodded, scooping up another bite. "It tastes just as good as it smells. That's a sign of a well-rounded person. I should congratulate you." "On my person or my pasta?" - The Paper Magician
She felt certain she could make the trip in a quarter hour on Emery's paper glider, but he insisted that the world wasn't ready for such eccentricity.
to describe. It still felt like paper, of course - a medium
It's easiest to disguise what you're doing when you're shuffling or dealing," Emery explained, "or when your opponent is distracted by something that's cooking in the kitchen."
Ceony opened her mouth to protest, but instead closed it and shot him a disapproving look. He had won the game last Tuesday when Ceony had cinnamon rolls in the oven. She had been worried they would burn. Perhaps that's why Emery never kept the money she lost, regardless of the amount. The cheater.
She stared up into the beauty of his green eyes, and for a moment she saw everything there, all the pieces of his heart that she remembered so vividly, all the smiles and unspoken words she had earned since meeting him three months earlier.
Don't be ridiculous," Mg. Aviosky assured her as Magicians Katter and Hughes studied Mg. Thane lying on the floor by the light of four candles. "The only one who can manipulate Emery Thane's future is Emery Thane himself.
She found Emery and Mg. Aviosky talking to two disgruntled police officers. Or rather, Mg. Aviosky stood by silently while Emery yelled at them.
Mg. Thane held his fork loosely in his hand. "I'll not starve you, if that's your worry.
I always found bonding incredibly anticlimactic," Mg. Thane commented as he picked up the easel from the chair. "Do you want to save it?"
Ceony blinked a few times and held her bonding hand to her chest. "Save what?"
He shook the large paper in his hand. "Some find it sentimental."
"No," she said, perhaps a little too sharply. Mg. Thane didn't seem to notice and placed the paper against the wall, and the easel atop the table perfectly parallel to the paper stacks.
As far as magic went, she knew it was paper or nothing, and she'd rather be a Folder than a failure. She
In the farthest corner of the third floor, Jonto - Emery's skeletal paper butler - hung by a noose from a nail in the ceiling, hovering over a mess of rolled paper tubes, tape, and symmetrical cuts of paper. Emery, wearing his newest coat, a maroon-colored one, stood on a stool beside him, affixing a six-foot-long bat wing to Jonto's spine.
Ceony blinked, taking in the sight. She really shouldn't be surprised.
"I thought I had a few more years before I saw the angel of death," she said, folding her arms under her breasts. "Even just half of him.
Bennet was a wonderful friend and, admittedly, a wonderful specimen of a man, but she worried over his friendliness.
He examined the paper, his eyes bobbing as he counted the pieces, and sighed, shoulders slumping. "I'm going to teach you something I really shouldn't be teaching you."
"But given the circumstances," she urged.
He nodded. His lip quirked. "Given the circumstances. Just pretend to forget it once this is over . . . if either of us makes it past this.
And there's nothing wrong with freckles, Ceony. Heaven forbid you look like everyone else in this place.
Ceony gaped in surprise. There, wagging its little paper tail, stood a paper dog.
You are the kind of woman who makes me believe in God, Ceony," he murmured. "I don't know how else it could be possible to find you. For heaven's sake, you even delivered yourself to my front door." She
Do you have a large family? You seem like someone who suffered through a great deal of sisters."
"I've suffered through a great many people, but none of them sisters. I'm an only child."
That explains a few things, Ceony thought.
Sometimes, darling, you don't have to say it out loud.
She didn't need a paper dog reminding her what a fool brain she had inside her skull.
Beside Thane - who watched the setting sun with such peace, with such light in his eyes - the "woman" seemed imaginary.
Because she is, Ceony realized, a second breeze tickling her skirt and blowing loose flower petals across her vision. These are the things Thane - Emery - hopes for.
She studied him, his peace and his contentment, the eyes that seemed to radiate life. She studied the shadowy woman beside him from head to foot. He wants to fall in love again.
she exclaimed with all the anxiety of a worried mother, the sternness of an academy principal, and the relief of a farmer feeling spring's first rain on his skin. Her
Faith is a very personal thing, really. Just because you don't meet with a group of people once a week who believe everything exactly the way you do doesn't mean you don't believe in something.
Folding his arms, Mg. Thane leaned against the table and asked, "What is the story written on?"
"What sort of question is that?"
"The kind you should answer."
Ceony's eyes narrowed. His tone carried an air of chastisement, but his expression seemed lax enough. "It's obviously written on paper."
Mg. Thane snapped his fingers. "There we are! And paper is your domain now. So make it mean something. And calm down," he said, almost as an afterthought.
Perhaps," Mg. Katter cut in, "she's finally gotten smart. In and out, job done."
Mg. Hughes said, "No. Not her." He paused. "She knows Emery is critical to the syndicate, they all do. He's personally invested in it. That, and she's always kept a . . . keen . . . interest in him.
All she could do now was run . . . and figure out how to defeat an Excisioner who couldn't be killed.
I can wait two years, she thought, turning the rose in her hand. I can wait two years for him, longer if need be. If he would ever love me, I'd wait my entire life.
How many men can honestly say a woman has walked their heart?" he asked. "But I can. And if you'll have me, I'd like you to stay there." Tears welled in Ceony's eyes. She didn't blink them away. Emery reached into his pocket and pulled from it a loop of white and violet paper about the width of his fist, made of dozens of tiny, crisscrossing links. Not a spell, just something crafted to be beautiful. From it hung a gold ring that glimmered rose in the sunlight. A diamond carved in the shape of a raindrop sat at its center, flanked on either side by a small emerald. The paper magician slipped the ring off the paper loop and turned it in his hands. Dropping to one knee, he said, "Ceony Maya Twill, will you marry me?" THE
Make it whole, and it will rise whole. That's your first lesson of the day.
Put it down," Ceony said. Clearing her throat, she repeated, "Put it down or I'll shoot you, I swear I will. I'm taking this heart back with me."
Lira's face turned to a scowl so gradually Ceony hardly saw it change. "I'm not letting some ginger tart take what's rightfully mine.
whose dark eyes narrowed to lightless almonds,
But you can't die!" Ceony cried, and Mg. Thane didn't so much as flinch at the volume, or at the tear that struck him on the bridge of his nose. He didn't seem aware of her at all. "You have too much to teach me! And you're too nice to die!
Do you have any idea what it does to me when you put yourself in danger? And so willingly, no less!
Oh, how often I had played the part of the fool, but I learned from it every time. This new pain would ultimately help me grow stronger; I knew that. But it ached so terribly, and I felt so very, very cold. In
He opened his mouth to respond, closed it. Pushed fingers back through his short hair, then actually laughed. "I suppose we're both horrible people.
Six days. The man had been gone six days, and that was all he had to say about it?
No, you're not," he said, sounding much surer than she
The heart pumped softly in her hands, it's PUM-Pom-poom rattling gently against her skin.
A means of living. The greatest spell she had ever crafted.
She said nothing. Even Mg. Aviosky didn't offer an explanation, which made Ceony wonder how far word of Emery's near demise had reached.
Mg. Bailey stared at the beating heart in Ceony's grasp.
And smiled.
I think life would be much . . . simpler . . . if a man could believe in one solid thing," he answered, still not looking at her. "Bits and pieces here and there do no good for a man's soul. Thinking all of it is right or all of it is wrong does no good, either. Just as a magician cannot work all materials. He must choose one. But how does he know? How do these people believe in this faith, but not the others? Yet they are happy." Ceony
Then she shouted, "If you're going to get yourself killed, you could at least kiss me first!
Mad Olia had a lot to say, and most of it was nonsensical, if it could be understood at all. Like bad poetry spoken underwater.
Her entire body became a heartbeat.
All I knew to look for was a redheaded girl with strange magic. And you turned out to be Emery Thane's apprentice, of all people. How is the bugger? Still kicking, I hear.
Anger. Infidelity. Death. Dark times - that's what these memories were. Ceony had passed through Emery's goodness and his hopes; it made sense to see his darkness, too. To see his hurts and his vices. To see the shadows cast behind those bright eyes.
How do you feel?" Ceony asked, her pulse still thundering in her ears. It made her hands shake as she peeled and cut the cucumber. She forced herself to slow down so she wouldn't slice open a finger.
"Like someone has been tromping around in my chest, looking at things they shouldn't be looking at."
Her knife froze mid-slice. She met his eyes and saw knowledge behind their amusement.
She brought the box back into the dining room and showed it to Emery. "Which ones go here?"
Amusement touched his eyes - that seemed to be their preferred emotion - and he took the pen and paper from her, finishing the last three symbols himself as he chewed.
To her amazement, snow began to fall. Paper snowflakes cascaded through the air, some as small as Ceony's thumbnail, some as large as her hand. Hundreds of them poured down as the paper ceiling gave way, all somehow timed just right so that they fell like real snow. Ceony stood from her chair, laughing, and held out her hand to catch one. To her astonishment it felt cold, but didn't melt against her palm. Only tingled.
"When did you do this?" she asked, her breath fogging in the library's air as more snowflakes fell like crisp confetti from the ceiling. "This would take . . . ages to make."
"Not ages," Mg. Thane said. "You'll get quicker as you learn." He still sat on the floor, completely unfazed by the magic around him. But of course he would be - it was his creation. "Magician Aviosky mentioned you hadn't exactly jumped at the news of your assignment, and I can't blame you. But casting through paper has its own whimsy.
something else - nostalgia, or something similar. Dolefulness, maybe?
She tied a robe around herself even though she had no intention of leaving her room - one could never be too careful about avoiding Peeping Toms in a new place.
Where were you?" she asked before he turned the knob. He paused, and she clarified: "I came to the cottage last week to find you, to tell you about Reading, but you weren't there. Where were you?"
He glanced back at her. "You'll have to be more specific."
"Tuesday," she said. "I searched for a hint . . . waited, but you never came. I left the note on your windowsill."
A small smile touched his lips - almost a sheepish smile, of all things. Ceony had never before seen such an expression on his face. "Just out for a stroll.
Everyone has a dark side! But it's their choice whether or not they cultivate it.
Ceony looked back up to see Lira grab Mg. Thane's collar and rip it down clear to his sternum, exposing his chest. "I'm finally leaving, dearie," she whispered, "and I'm taking you with me."
She plunged her right hand into his chest. Ceony stifled a cry. A golden ring of dust sparkled about Lira's wrist as Mg. Thane screamed between clenched teeth. Lira pulled her red-stained hand back out, clasping a still-beating heart between her bloodied fingers.
Before she went to bed, she loaded her Tatham percussion-lock pistol and added its weight to her bounty of spells. One didn't always need magic to win a fight.
Emery's eyes sparkled with amusement. Had she done something funny?
"I've determined that I will teach you to cheat at cards for the day's first lesson," Emery announced.
Ceony dropped her scissors. "I knew you were cheating!
Ceony made her way down the hall, peeking briefly into her room. The bed had been remade, and she smiled. Emery's odd knack for tidiness had him folding and tucking blanket corners as though crafting a spell, and while he had demonstrated to Ceony how to properly make a bed, she'd never taken the time to mimic the art. She often kept the door to her room closed just so Emery wouldn't be tempted to rearrange her things, but with her out of the house, there was nothing to stop him.
He must be bored.
She passed her room and stuck her head into the library, but the paper magician wasn't there. The table and telegraph had both been moved to the right of the window, however. Terribly bored, then.
Staggering to her feet, Ceony stomped her shoe down on the hand twice before it stopped moving. She stomped it twice more for insurance.
tall buildings and clustered streets of the city had her trapped like a mouse in a maze, without even the possible reward of cheese.
Secrets make friendships fonder, no?
