Dance Of Thieves Quotes
"Write it down, he had told me. Write down every word once you get there, Before the truth is forgotten."
"This way. I had learned to mostly shut them out."
"You’ve been given a second chance, Kazi. Don’t throw it away."
"You’re not powerless anymore. You can make other things right."
"Gather close, my brothers and sisters. We have touched the stars, And the dust of possibility is ours."
"Take my finger, he says. It’s your only way in."
"Out of many, you are one now. You are family. The Ballenger Family. Shield one another. Survive."
"I had tasted only one in my whole life—when I stole into the home of a quarterlord."
"With every tear of the peel, I breathed in the heavenly spray of its scent."
"Even the way it was fashioned had fascinated me, impossibly organized into neat little half-moons packaged in gilded perfection."
"It was the first and last time I had had one."
"Smiling to deceive them, spinning to rob them."
"Your oranges are lovely, but I’m afraid too steep for my pocket."
"I wouldn’t want to be chained to a dead weight."
"And I do have a name too, even though you’re fond of calling me pretty boy."
"Make them believe. Smile, Kazi. It is just an innocent game."
"Because you’re an opportunist. You’re a cheat. You’re a thief."
"He died the way all men die, one breath at a time."
"The less I have, the more I grow, I swirl and twirl and make a show. You can’t ignore me, though hard you try, I growl, and scream, and wail, and cry. I roost in darkness, but my bite is seen, In rib and cheek, and wrist so lean. With fierce teeth, and sharper claw, None can escape my ruthless maw, But a strutting hen can strike me down, With its pretty legs in feathered gown."
"Freedoms are never won once and for all, they come and go, like the centuries. I cannot grow lazy. Memories are short. It is the forgetting that I fear."
"My face is full, but also slight, I pale in the bright of light, I whisper sweet to the forest owl, I kiss the air with wolf’s sad howl, Eyes follow me from sea to sea, Yet alone in this world … I will ever be."
"They tricked us. Their voices were soft. Their heads bowed. They did not look dangerous. They looked like us, afraid. Until we opened the gate."
"The smallest, most useless thing I ever stole was a shiny brass button that made the Tomac quarterlord so very proud. It was all the supper I needed."
"Legend says the forest grew from bone dust and that every tree holds the trapped soul of someone who died in the devastation. That’s why they bleed red when you cut them."
"He’s gone, Kazi, was all she had said, and she seemed sad so I didn’t ask again."
"What is this, Kazi? I don’t know, Jase. What do you feel? Your lips, your hands, your heartbeat. No, Kazi, in here, what do you feel in here? I don’t know. Let me taste your mouth, I whispered. Don’t make me think."
"Where I go, you go, so you better hope it finds a nice juicy antelope today."
"It sounded like a timepiece ticking off our steps."
"Even without the rattle of the chain and the swish of our footsteps, I still heard a persistent hum and tick in the stillness of the air."
"We were the first country, or as you Vendans would call it, the first kingdom."
"I wasn’t going to risk creating a child, not when this world we were living in would disappear in only a day or two."
"It was something permanent that said our family and legacy would survive."
"But then I knew—it was his kindness that had broken me."
"Ignoring tomorrow seemed as natural and expected as breathing."
"We can never know the exact moment when someone will leave our lives forever."
"I had interrupted his thoughts. 'My father is being entombed today,' he said."
"She was only a child herself but was forced to lead along with Greyson because the others were even younger."
"In this strange upside-down world, ignoring tomorrow seemed as natural and expected as breathing."
"We were the poorest of the poor. My mother was beautiful but so very young."
"The subtle flick of fingers. A hand held at the side, rigid. A fist against a thigh. A finger on the cheekbone. Run. Don’t move. Say nothing. Disappear. I will return. Smile."
"My mother’s eyes were frantic black pools. 'I have nothing,' she immediately told him."
"She stitched garments, washed clothes, wove tethers for amulets."
"My pace slowed as we drew near and heads turned to watch our approach, but Jase’s hand was firm at my back, pushing me forward."
"My mother told me not to cry. She told me not to forget kindness. She told me to be strong. She told me to believe in tomorrow."
"I found myself envying the finality of a door shutting, a certainty that I would never get."
"It was surprising how quickly habits could form, and I wondered how long it would take for them to disappear."
"I’m sure he’ll be as comfortable in the guest quarters as I would be."
"I had already found a forgotten grooming kit in the bottom of his wardrobe with a long, thin tool that could be useful for many things besides grooming."
"Heavy drapes covered the windows, and the walls were covered with polished wood panels on three sides."
"But I wanted to, more than I had wanted to the first time, because now I knew what was on the other side of that line."
"No, I do not care for your brother, at least not in the way I think you’re suggesting."
"I’m sure it will be good to sleep in a bed again."
"Everything was more complicated now, even something as simple as gratitude."
"We may have dirty work to do, but everyone doesn’t need to see it."
"Maybe getting the lay of the land at Tor’s Watch wasn’t going to be as hard as I thought."
"She blew out a puff of air. 'Dozens. Farms. A lumber mill. The Ballenger Inn. But the main ones are managing the arena and Hell’s Mouth.'"
"Numbers don’t lie. They’re far more reliable than people."
"Sometimes we must give something up in order to gain something else that is more important to us."
"You must find the magic that warms your skin in winter, the magic that perceives what cannot be seen, the magic that curls in your gut with fierce power and will not let you give up, no matter how long or cold the days."
"Hear the language that isn’t spoken, Kazi, the breaths, the pauses, the fisted hands, the vacant stares, the twitches and tears, for everyone can hear spoken words, but only a few can hear the heart that beats behind them."
"I can’t promise when or if she will come, you know?"
"I’m helping you, Jase. I’m giving you a chance to do the right thing."
"If it had punctured anything vital, I’d be dead already."
"The best things were always hidden in the bottom."
"I want to kiss you just because you want to. Because you deeply want to."
"I want to kiss you because I want you, every part of you."
"A lot can change in a few weeks, Kazi. Plans can change."
"It was his kindness that had seduced me, and now everything else about him captivated me."
"I’m just asking you to be honest about this one thing! Would you stop thinking about tomorrow or a thousand days from now! In this moment, what do you want, dammit!"
"You’ve infected me with a poison that I don’t want to flush out."
"The ghosts, they never go away. They call to you in unexpected moments."
"Because if I could believe in tomorrow or the next day, maybe that would give the magic time to come true."
"You're a good bit of trouble, Kazi," he said, "the kind of trouble that I—"
"I understand why Natiya despises the captain so much. I think he might be more contemptible than the Komizar."
"Times you won’t sleep. Times you won’t eat. Times you’ll be hated for the decisions you’ve made. Times you will hate yourself."
"All I wanted was to be with her, hold her, listen to her voice, listen to her laugh, 'You don’t even know half of my tricks yet.' I wanted to know them all."
"My chiadrah, I whispered somewhere deep inside me where no one could hear."
"No," I answered. "The dead can't harm you. It's the living I fear."
"I’m not the only one with tricks up my sleeve."
"You’re not the only one with tricks up your sleeve."
"Look at my fingers, Jase! Take a good long look at every single one, because I’m not missing any. That’s how I got my name!"
"I was alone on the streets from the time I was six. Completely on my own. No one cared if I lived or died."
"How do you go from anguish to pulling coins out from behind ears? It’s an acquired skill, Jase. Something all thieves learn."
"I remembered in the wilderness when she was ready to eat minnows before we had cooked them."
"I had to scavenge for every rotten mouthful I ever ate."
"A Patrei never apologizes for decisions he's made."
"Protect and defend it all, he told me. This is who you are. It has always been in your blood, Jase. Now it is over your heart."
"Damn you, Jase Ballenger, I whispered. Le pavi ena. And I'm afraid I will forever."
"There’s nothing that will make me give them back to you, Jase. Nothing."
"Eleven years, Jase. I can keep it here for eleven years if I have to."
"Guard your heart, Patrei. I see a knife hovering, ready to cut it out."
"How long can you keep a knife pressed to my neck?"
"The wind, time, They circle, repeat, Teaching us to be ever watchful, For freedoms are never won, Once and for all, But must be won over and over again."
"Dragons eventually wake and crawl from their dark dens."
"Shhh, Kazi. Listen. Hear the language that isn’t spoken, for everyone can hear spoken words, but only a few can hear the heart that beats behind them."
"It’s more than that. It’s their history. It’s who they are."
"It’s as if they’re expecting a rescue, and if they are, that means they weren’t working alone."
"But there was one other thing—when the captain first saw troops riding toward us, his face brightened, as if he thought they were somebody else."
"I’m still worried about what Bahr said to Phineas."
"I have no memory of my family, only my grandfather, one of the most powerful men in the world, the leader of a once-great nation, scooping me into his arms and running."