Behemoth Quotes
"Always keep sideways to your opponent. That way, your chest presents the smallest possible target."
"Your body has to learn the proper stance. Otherwise you'll fall into bad habits."
"This is nothing. When I first started training with Count Volger, he wouldn't even let me hold a sword!"
"Maybe it was daft that the officers still thought of Alek and his men as enemies, but at least it gave Deryn an excuse to spend time with him."
"But she wasn’t really dawdling. Only two days before, Captain Hobbes had ordered her to keep an eye on Alek, to learn what she could."
"Barking Clankers, making their own lightning now."
"The trick was never to let what you were thinking slip out into the world."
"Those godless things are everywhere. Always listening."
"You’d think that in a fight not moving might be a bad habit!"
"Those lizards have got brains no bigger than walnuts," she said. "I don’t reckon they’d make very good spies."
"Well, of course he does! He told me his little secret, didn’t he?"
"Those ironclads are headed for Constantinople, aren’t they?"
"Feels good to have an engine rumbling underfoot again, doesn’t it?"
"It was just like with Newkirk. The fire shot straight up until the whole balloon was burning overhead, the heat pulling us skyward."
"You Clankers," he muttered. "You’re all cracked in the head."
"And here I was thinking it might be because of all the Germans pouring in."
"The Ottomans put a German in charge of their own barking army?"
"Diplomacy is all about symbols," Dr. Barlow said.
"Barking stupid machines!" Deryn muttered. A real beastie would know who its proper masters were.
"You must be hungry," Alek said softly. But he hadn’t the first idea what it ate.
"Just be careful," he whispered. "And stay quiet."
"Things already look ugly to me," Eddie Malone said, feeding a handful of sugar cubes to his firefly.
"You saw, right?" she said to Eddie Malone. "It was impostors driving! Not our men."
"Aye, in New York," Deryn sighed as she climbed the gangway.
"Peace be upon you, madam. I am the Kizlar Agha. Welcome aboard."
"But Alek has trained for this moment his whole life," Volger went on. "His father and I always knew that one day he would be alone, with the whole world against him."
"Are you all right, Mr. Sharp?" Newkirk cried.
"Revolutionaries are everywhere now. But they will not trouble us at the palace, nor in the sky."
"I’m talking about the beasties inside those eggs," Deryn said, staring at the cargo box. "What are they, anyway?"
"Aye, and now we’re taking one to this sultan fellow. A Clanker aristocrat, just like Alek!"
"Indeed," Dr. Barlow said coldly. "There appears to be a lot of that going about."
"The perspicacious loris, as it is known, is quite harmless. I would never put Alek in danger."
"To those who listen carefully, the perspicacious loris can be quite helpful."
"Unlike the other Clanker powers, the Ottomans have not forgotten the web of life."
"Perhaps it is only a start," she said, bowing her head a little more. "But we offer this gift with hope for a happier future."
"Then, dear boy, you shall have to learn to fence."
"I wish Volger were here too," Alek said softly.
"Every man arrives at that point, sooner or later."
"It’s odd to think, but if it weren’t for Lord Churchill stealing that ship, the Leviathan would never have headed across Europe. We’d still be in that castle in the Alps."
"It’s easier to starve a man than to fight him."
"I’m the fellow who just saved you from falling to your death."
"Midshipman Dylan Sharp," the captain began, "I hereby award you the Air Gallantry Cross for your brave and selfless actions of August 10, wherein you saved the life of a fellow crewman at great risk to your own. Congratulations."
"She was a decorated officer now, pinned with the same medal her father had won. And unlike him, she was still alive."
"The Dardanelles strait was the heart of the Ottoman defenses. It squeezed all ships headed for Istanbul into a channel less than a mile wide, which was stuffed with sea mines and lined with forts and cannon on high cliffs."
"Whatever the lady boffin’s alternate plan was, Deryn had a feeling it didn’t involve more diplomacy."
"A bit lively, eh, Mr. Sharp? Especially for your first command."
"Amazing creatures. They spend their humble lives clinging to ships, to whales, to rocks and driftwood, and yet they are implacable."
"Gravity was something you could beat; all it took was hydrogen, hot air, or even a bit of rope. But being a girl was a miserable, never-ending struggle."
"A creature from the Leviathan, where I’ve served as engine crew the last two weeks."
"My father was against this war, and the Germans had him killed for it."
"Give me the trickiest one you have, and I’ll prove it."
"Having the power of a goddess is quite a responsibility."
"Once the revolution comes, women will be the equal of men in all things!"
"Not to worry. At my age one can never have too many grandchildren. Even if some of them are idiots."
"Hold on tight!" Klopp shouted, and leaned the taxi into a tight turn. Its six insectlike feet skidded along the cobblestones, making a sound like sabers dragged along a brick wall.
"I don’t know how you can stand these daft contraptions," Dylan said, sitting up straight in his seat. "They’re pure murder when they go fast!"
"This is no mere war machine," Zaven proclaimed. "But a far more powerful engine of progress."
"Like a fist!" Zaven said, demonstrating with both hands. "Even the Young Turks have rejoined us, thanks to all the Germans marching about."
"War," said Bovril, staring up from Alek’s shoulder.
"What’s the point of legs if you can’t take the barking stairs? Just get moving!"
"Our neighbors are all friends. They have ignored greater disturbances than this."
"It’s just lucky Alek brought that slab of gold along."
"Ending a whole barking war with a bit of paper, even if it is a fancy scroll. Who would believe it’s real?"
"But my mission was meant to be top secret. I can’t let it go forward if a daft bunch of anarchists know about it!"
"How do you like that? It’s learnt the whole barking alphabet!"
"I was just practicing my signals. I was saying the letters out loud, I suppose, and after a couple times through… The beastie joined in, as quick as a bosun’s mate."
"One squick of bad luck could make all your plans go pear-shaped."
"You see? Your perspicacious friend is confident."
"Aye, that’s the word. Because it’s barking perspicacious."
"I would never lie to you, Dylan. We can signal perhaps a dozen letters."
"No matter what happens, I’ll never forget what you’ve done for us. I think you’re the most brilliant boy I’ve ever met."
"Aye, that’s the barking strangest thing about battle—that it’s real."
"Blisters, this is what you get for being a barking prince!"
"Aye, but that’s my home up there. I can’t live with … your machines."
"It was a bit of trouble, knocking out that Tesla cannon. But we got it done."
"How it's like a baby duck, latching on to whoever it sees first."
"Honestly, I don't know, ma'am. It's just that Alek was busy driving the walker tonight."
"This doesn’t mean that you are any less of an idiot, of course."
"The world of Behemoth, however, the 1908 revolution was unsuccessful, leaving the sultan in power."
"And yes, you really should call it Istanbul, not Constantinople."