Rule Of Wolves Quotes

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Get a message to the Crow Club,” she said. “Tell Kaz Brekker the queen of Ravka has a job for him.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Love was the destroyer. It made mourners, widows, left misery in its wake. Grief and love were one and the same. Grief was the shadow love left when it was gone.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Because I am greedy for the sight of you. Because the prospect of facing this war, this loss, without you fills me with fear. Because I find I don’t want to fight for a future if I can’t find a way to make a future with you.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
This is what love does. In the stories, love healed your wounds, fixed what was broken, allowed you to go on. But love wasn’t a spell, some kind of benediction to be whispered, a balm or a cure-all. It was a single, fragile thread, which grew stronger through connection, through shared hardship and trust.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I suppose that's why I love you." His eyes flew open and his face lit in an extraordinary grin. "All Saints, say it again." "I will not." "You must." "I'm the queen. I must do nothing but please myself." "Would it please you to kiss me?
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Maybe the gift of being human is that we do not give up- even when all hope is lost.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I’m not supposed to let you in,” Jesper said. Brekker seemed unperturbed. “Why not?” “Because every time I do, you ask me to break the law.” A voice from behind Jesper said, “The problem isn’t that he asks, it’s that you always say yes.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I would give you a crown if I could," he said. "I would show you the world from the prow of a ship. I would choose you, Zoya. As my general, as my friend, as my bride. I would give you a sapphire the size of an acorn." He reached into his pocket. "And all I would ask in return is that you wear this damnable ribbon in your hair on our wedding day.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
The world might crumble, but Nikolai Lantsov would be holding up the ceiling with one hand and plucking a speck of dirt from his lapel with the other when it all went to ruin
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Why did you go to her? Because with her he was human again.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
You do realize you just referred to yourself as the queen. That means you agreed." "I am going to kill you." "So long as you kiss me again before you do.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I'll tell you a thousand stories, my love. We'll write the new endings, one by one.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
He had wanted her for so long that it seemed impossible he should actually have her beside him every day, that he might lay down beside her every night. Not impossible, he supposed. Just improbable.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
This is a bad idea," moped Adrik. "I have a surplus of bad ideas," said Nikolai. "I have to spend them somewhere.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Is it the shadow inside you that makes you brave?" "I should hope not. I was making bad decisions long before that thing showed up.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Why does it matter?” asked Nikolai. “Because unlike Kaz, I have a conscience.” “I have a conscience,” said Kaz. “It just knows when to keep its mouth shut.” Jesper snorted. “If you have a conscience, it’s gagged and tied to a chair somewhere.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
The Darkling's gray eyes studied Mal with more interest than he'd ever shown before. "I understand we're blood related." Mal shrugged. "We all have relatives we don't like.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I would make you my queen because I want you. I want you all the time.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I really wondered why people were always doing what they didn't like doing. It seemed like life was a sort of narrowing tunnel. Right when you were born, the tunnel was huge. You could be anything. Then, like, the absolute second after you were born, the tunnel narrowed down to about half that size. You were a boy, and already it was certain you wouldn't be a mother and it was likely you wouldn't become a manicurist or a kindergarten teacher. Then you started to grow up and everything you did closed the tunnel in some more. You broke your arm climbing a tree and you ruled out being a baseball pitcher. You failed every math test you ever took and you canceled any hope of being a scientist. Like that. On and on through the years until you were stuck. You'd become a baker or a librarian or a bartender. Or an accountant. And there you were. I figured that on the day you died, the tunnel would be so narrow, you'd have squeezed yourself in with so many choices, that you just got squashed.
Carol Rifka Brunt (Tell the Wolves I'm Home)
Let the hounds give chase. I do not fear death, because I command it.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I will always seek to make it summer for you.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
There was nothing else to do but keep moving forward. You chose your path. You walked it. You hoped to find a way home again.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I will kneel to only one ruler, and I will se only one person crowned this say. The age of the Lanstovs is over." He sank to one knee. "Let the Nazyalensky dynasty begin. All hail the Dragon Queen.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Don’t go,” he said, still half asleep. “I have to bathe. I smell like a forest fire.” “You smell like wildflowers. You always do. What can I say to make you stay?” His words trailed off into a drowsy mumble as he fell back asleep. Tell me it’s more than war and worry that makes you speak those words. Tell me what they would mean if you weren’t a king and I weren’t a soldier.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
None of this had been fated; none of it foretold. There had been no prophecies of a demon king or a dragon queen, a one-eyed Tailor, Heartrender twins. They were just the people who had shown up and managed to survive. But maybe that was the trick of it: to survive, to dare to stay alive, to forge your own hope when all hope had run out.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
We've become a nation of wolves, ruled by sheep. Owned by swine, overfed, and put to sleep. While the media elite declare what to think, I'll be wide awake, on the edge, and on the brink.
Otep Shamaya
And if...if I wished for more?" She felt his fingers on her chin, turning her head. There was an unwanted ache in her throat. Zoya forced herself to meet his gaze. In this light, his hazel eyes looked almost golden. "Then I would gladly be your prince, your consort, your demon fool.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Of course, Nikolai was the liar here. But kings did what they wished; bastards did what they must.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Go home and tell them what you've seen, Nikolai thought as the demon soared through the night. Make them believe you. Tell them the demon king rules Ravka now and vengeance is coming.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I have a gift for persuasion. I once talked a tree out of its leaves.” “Nonsense.” “Well, it was autumn. I can’t take full credit.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Alina nodded. "The real question is how you're going to outdo this gown for the royal wedding." "Don't get ahead of yourself," Zoya said. "Nikolai hasn't asked." "Can you blame him?" Genya said. "He hasn't had much luck with proposals." Alina snorted. "Maybe he should have offered me a dynasty and not a piddly little emerald.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Brekker would probably make an excellent security consultant—if Nikolai didn’t think he would steal the golden domes right off the Little Palace roof.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Why did you go to her?" Because with her he was human again. How had she bested him? Sheer stubbornness. Something more. He's known a name for it once, a hundred lifetimes ago.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
You push us away, keep us at arm's distance so that you won't mourn us. But you'll mourn us anyway. That's the way love works.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Tell me, Brekker, do you believe in monsters?” “Of all kinds.” “Prepare to meet another.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
One day your luck will run out, Mister Brekker.” “Then I’ll just have to make some more.” He paused and turned to look back over his shoulder at her. “The Suli never forget their own, General Nazyalensky. Just like crows.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
She brushed the hair back from his face, placed a kiss on his forehead. "I would stay forever if I could", she whispered.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Do you read novels?" "I read when I have time." "So, no." "I read when I can't sleep." "So, regularly then.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I believe in all kinds of things. Ghosts. Gnomes. True love.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I will march with you in times of war. I will rest with you in times of peace. I will forever be the weapon in your hand, the fighter at you side, and the friend who awaits your return. I have seen your face in the making at the heart of the world and there is no one more beloved, Genya Safin, brave and unbreakable.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Some people were built for love and some were built for war. One did not lend itself to the other.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Your heart is in your eyes, Your Highness," murmured Tamar, wiping the sweat from her brow. Tolya poled his twin in the arm with a sparring sword. "Tamar knows because that's the way she looks at her wife" "I am free to look at my wife any way I please." "But Zoya is not Nikolai's wife.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I forgive you for these scars." He couldn't hide his surprise, and she laughed. "You didn't expect that, did you? I don't regret them. I found my way to who I was meant to be through the pain I endured. I'm stronger for it.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
You should have said yes, she thought for the hundredth time. You should have told him you love him.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I have a gift for order and a taste for chaos.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
What are you doing?” she whispered. “Studying something beautiful,” he said without the faintest hint of flattery, as if he truly were trying to find the formula for the woman before him.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I loved him. I loved him and he loved me. When I was... when no one could reach me... he saw me. He... I loved him and he loved me.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
But think how brightly you might have burned if you hadn’t always walked in shadow.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I can't do this alone. I . . . I can't be the last of us.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
A great many people are looking for you." The gleam in the tiny girl's eye was wicked. "They'd best pray they don't find me
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I can still pick up a rifle. I was a soldier before I was a Saint.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I’ll call it a victory.” “Then enjoy it,” Tolya said, climbing atop his huge gelding. “People only say that when they know it won’t last.” “Of course it won’t last,” said Zoya. “What does?” “True love?” suggested Tamar. “Great art?” said Tolya. “A proper grudge,” replied Zoya
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I have a conscience," said Kaz. "It just knows when to keeps its mouth shut
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
This is the problem with letting your enemies live.” “They’re my parents.” “Your point?” Kaz settled his cane more firmly in his grip and nodded to the cable operator, ready to descend. “A word of advice, from one bastard to another: Sometimes it’s best to let the demon have its day.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
He feared for his country and for himself. He’d be a fool not to. But some part of him, maybe the privateer, maybe the demon, maybe the prince who had clawed his way to the throne, was itching for a fight.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Maybe the gift of being human is that we do not give up—even when all hope is lost.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
As long as I live, the demon will remain inside you,” said the Darkling as Nikolai used a knife to saw through the ropes at his wrists. “We’ve made our peace.” “Some treaties do not last.” “You do love a dire prophecy, don’t you?” “Zoya will live a very long life,” the Darkling said. “Despite the demon, you may not do the same.” “Then I will love her from my grave.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
What if I say I can't bear to lose you?" A smile tugged at her lips. "I'd say you're a liar. That claims like that belong to romantic ninnies." She raised her hand and let her fingertips trace the line of his beautiful jaw. He closed his eyes. "We would go on, you and I. If I couldn't be queen, you would find a way to win this battle and save this country. You would make a sheltering place for my people. You would march an bleed and crack terrible jokes until you had done all you said you would. I suppose that's why I love you.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
You can choose faith or you can choose fear. But only one will bring you what you long for.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I'm not the queen Ravka needs. "And if you're the queen I want?
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Nevertheless, (Jefferson) believed that the habit of skepticism is an essential prerequisite for responsible citizenship. He argued that the cost of education is trivial compared to the cost of ignorance, of leaving government to the wolves. He taught that the country is safe only when the people rule.
Carl Sagan (The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark)
He had been strong for his country, his soldiers, his friends. It meant something different to be strong for her.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
General Wolf Rules For Life 1. Eat 2. Rest 3. Rove in between 4. Render loyalty 5. Love the children 6. Cavil in the moonlight 7. Tune your ears 8. Attend to the bones 9. Make love 10. Howl
Clarissa Pinkola Estés (Women Who Run With the Wolves)
You are strong enough to survive the fall. They were plummeting toward the sea. Zoya felt Genya’s arms around her, Liliyana holding her tight. She felt Nikolai’s presence beside her and Juris’ sword in her hands. With a wild, gasping breath, she felt her wings unfurl.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Only one person can unite this country and bring peace to our nations. Soldier, Summoner, and Saint.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
You are my prince and you have my heart.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
There will be no redemption for you,” Genya said. “The woman I am can forgive you for the punishment you dealt me. But for the sake of the child I was, there is no penance you can perform, no apology you can speak that will make me open my heart to you.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Has he never been trained? The work seems rudimentary.” Jesper sniffed. “I thought it had a certain rustic elegance.” “No,” said Wylan. “He hasn’t been trained. He’s stubborn that way.” “Independent,” corrected Jesper. “Pigheaded.” “But stylish.” Kaz rapped his cane on the floor. “And now you know why I don’t visit more often.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
So you'll remember me when I meet you in the next world
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Kaz smoothed a gloved hand over his lapel, looking at no one. “It’s for Inej.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I am Zoya Nazyalensky and I am getting truly sick of the cocktail party in my head, you old lizard.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Growing up means learning to go without.” “What a depressing thought.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I would choose you Zoya. As my general, as my friend, as my bride.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
And you will be my queen." Hanne's shy glance pierced Nina - sudden light, too bright after so much darkness. "If you'll have me.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Everyone mourns the first blossom, Who will weep for the rest that fall? I will remain to sing for you, Long after the spring has gone.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
The rules are as treacherous as wolves in the sheep pasture.
Rebecca Rosenberg (Madame Pommery, Creator of Brut Champagne)
But lately it felt hard not to be known, like keeping herself together was all the more difficult without someone to see who she truly was.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
While much psychology emphasizes the familial causes of angst in humans, the cultural component carries as much weight, for culture is the family of the family. If the family of the family has various sicknesses, then all families within that culture will have to struggle with the same malaises. There is a saying cultura cura, culture cures. If the culture is a healer, the families learn how to heal; they will struggle less, be more reparative, far less wounding, far more graceful and loving. In a culture where the predator rules, all new life needing to be born, all old life needing to be gone, is unable to move and the soul-lives of its citizenry are frozen with both fear and spiritual famine.
Clarissa Pinkola Estés (Women Who Run With the Wolves)
Rule number one about your mate: he is completely wrong until you decide he is not.
Quinn Loftis (Luna of Mine (The Grey Wolves, #8))
Power doesn't make a man wise.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I would push you into the sea and do a jig as you drowned.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Better to get fat on information than starve on good manners.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I think strong men show strength, but great men show strength tempered by compassion
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
When he looked at her, you could see that he had found his perfect equation.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
She stood with her perfect profile turned to the glittering night sky, her hood sliding back. Snow was beginning to fall, and it caught in the dark waves of her hair. “I plant something new for every Grisha lost. Heartleaf for Marie. Yew for Sergei. Red Sentinel for Fedyor. Even Ivan has a place.” She touched her fingers to a frozen stalk. “This will blossom bright orange in the summer. I planted it for Harshaw. These dahlias were for Nina when I thought she’d been captured and killed by Fjerdans. They bloom with the most ridiculous red flowers in the summer. They’re the size of dinner plates.” Now she turned and he could see tears on her cheeks. She lifted her hands, the gesture half-pleading, half-lost. “I’m running out of room.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
There's a mural in my room," she said hesitantly, unsure of what she meant to say, afraid of the words that might come. "A stormy sea. A boat. A flag with two stars. Did you ever wonder–" "What they mean? Only when I thought of your bedchamber. So, roughly every night." "Can you be serious for once?" "Once and only once.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I can't do this," Genya whispered. Her face was swollen from crying. Her vibrant hair lay limp down her back. "You don't have to do anything," Zoya said. "Just be here. Stay standing." "Not even that." "I've got you. I won't let you fall.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I can’t help but notice,” Alina said. “The too-clever fox gave up his throne, but still managed to stay a king.” “A prince,” Genya corrected. “Prince consort. Or is he your general?” Zoya didn’t really care what title he took. He was hers, and that was all that mattered. Her eye caught on the blueprints she’d found waiting for her on her desk that morning, designs for an extraordinary structure Nikolai had designed to protect her garden. The plans had been bound with her blue velvet ribbon and accompanied by a note that read, I will always seek to make it summer for you. Zoya had been courted by men of wealth and power, offered jewels, palaces, the deed to a diamond mine. This was a different kind of treasure, one she could not believe she’d been lucky enough to find.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
You would make a sheltering place for my people. You would march and bleed and crack terrible jokes until you had done all you said you would. I suppose that's why I love you.' 'All Saints, say it again.' 'I will not.' 'You must.' 'I'm the queen. I must do nothing but please myself.' 'Would it please to kiss me?' It would. And she did.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
As your general, I should tell you that would be a terrible decision." [...] "As your king, I should tell you that no one could dissuade me. No prince and no power could make me stop wanting you. [...] I would give you a crown if I could, I would show you the world from the prow of a ship. I would choose you Zoya. As my general, as my friend, as my bride.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I need to go to him,” Genya whispered. “One last time.” She had pulled a notebook from her pocket, the pages held open. It took Zoya a moment to understand what it was. She glimpsed a few words in David’s scrawl: Ideas for compliments—hair (color, texture), smile (causes and effects), talents (tailoring, tonics, sense of style—inquire on “style”), teeth? size of feet? “His journal,” Zoya said. Where David had written down all his little reminders for how to make Genya happy.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
They left the garden and walked back through the woods. On the path, they parted as they always did—she to the Grisha, and he to the Grand Palace. He wanted to call her back. He wanted to follow her through the snow. But his country didn’t need a heartsick boy chasing after a lonely girl. It needed a king. “And a king they will have,
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
True,” said Nikolai. “But they know what you are too, Sankta Zoya.” “Do not call me that.” “It has a nice ring to it,” said Tamar. “Our Lady of Dragonfire?” Suggested Nadia. “Sweet scaly vengeance?” Said Genya. Zoya turned her back on all of them and strode towards the tents. “I’m going to go live in a cave.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
I am a soldier, I've been a soldier since I was a child. Would you have a girl who has spent her life down in the trenches of battle wear a crown? Would you have a soldier queen? I am a Squaller, a Grisha. Some of our enemies will call me a witch. And some of our own people will agree. Will you have a Grisha queen? My father's name was Suhm Nabri, and I am his only daughter. Will you have a Suli queen?
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Names crowded into his thoughts. Staski. Kiril. Kirigan. Anton. Eryk. An avalanche of memories. He’d been all of them, but who should be become now? He’d had plenty of time to consider such things in the isolation of his glass cell, but now that he was free, truly free to choose, he found that only one name suited. The oldest of them: Aleksander. He had no reason to hide his strangeness anymore. Saints were meant to live forever.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
She bobbed her chin toward the walls. “Do you see what grows around this place?” Nikolai peered at the twisting gray branches that ran along the perimeter of the garden. “A thorn wood.” An ordinary one, he assumed, not the ancient trees they needed for the obisbaya. “I took the cuttings from the tunnel that leads to the Little Palace. It’s all prickles and spines and anger, covered in pretty, useless blossoms and fruit too bitter to eat. There is nothing in it worth loving.” “How wrong you are.” Zoya’s gaze snapped to his, her eyes flashing silver—dragon’s eyes. “Am I?” “Look at the way it grows, protecting everything within these walls, stronger than anything else in the garden, weathering every season. No matter the winter it endures, it blooms again and again.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
None of this had been fated; none of it foretold. There had been no prophecies of a demon king or a dragon queen, a one-eyed Tailor, Heartrender twins. They were just the people who had shown up and managed to survive. But maybe that was the trick of it: to survive, to dare to stay alive, to forge your own hope when all hope had run out. For the survivors then, Zoya whispered to herself as the people before her knelt and chanted her name. And for the lost.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Jesper sniffed. “I thought it had a certain rustic elegance.” “No,” said Wylan. “He hasn’t been trained. He’s stubborn that way.” “Independent,” corrected Jesper. “Pigheaded.” “But stylish.” Kaz rapped his cane on the floor. “And now you know why I don’t visit more often.” Jesper folded his arms. “No one asked you to visit more often. And I don’t remember issuing an invitation for lunch.” “I have a job that requires both of your skill sets.” “Kaz,” Wylan said, carefully collecting some of the half-full glasses around the room. “We’d prefer not to do anything illegal.” “That’s not strictly true,” said Jesper. “Wylan would prefer it, and I want to keep Wylan happy.” He paused, unable to hide his interest. “Is it illegal?” “Highly,” said Kaz. “But the pay is excellent,” offered Nikolai. “We don’t need money,” said Wylan. “Isn’t it glorious?” Jesper sighed happily. Kaz smoothed a gloved hand over his lapel, looking at no one. “It’s for Inej.” Wylan set down the dirty glasses. “Why didn’t you say so? What do you need?
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
Here, witnessed by our Saints and our friends,” Genya said, “I speak words of both love and duty. It is not a chore but an honor to swear faith to you, to promise love to you, to offer my hand and my heart to you in this life and the next.” They were the traditional Ravkan words, spoken at the weddings of nobleman and peasant alike. The Grisha vows were very different. “We are soldiers,” David recited, low and shaky. He was unused to speaking in front of a crowd. “I will march with you in times of war. I will rest with you in times of peace. I will forever be the weapon in your hand, the fighter at your side, the friend who awaits your return.” His voice grew stronger and louder with every word. “I have seen your face in the making at the heart of the world and there is no one more beloved, Genya Safin, brave and unbreakable.
Leigh Bardugo (Rule of Wolves (King of Scars, #2))
If anyone attempted to rule the world by the gospel and to abolish all temporal law and sword on the plea that all are baptized and Christian, and that, according to the gospel, there shall be among them no law or sword - or need for either - pray tell me, friend, what would he be doing? He would be loosing the ropes and chains of the savage wild beasts and letting them bite and mangle everyone, meanwhile insisting that they were harmless, tame, and gentle creatures; but I would have the proof in my wounds. Just so would the wicked under the name of Christian abuse evangelical freedom, carry on their rascality, and insist that they were Christians subject neither to law nor sword, as some are already raving and ranting. To such a one we must say: Certainly it is true that Christians, so far as they themselves are concerned, are subject neither to law nor sword, and have need of neither. But take heed and first fill the world with real Christians before you attempt to rule it in a Christian and evangelical manner. This you will never accomplish; for the world and the masses are and always will be unchristian, even if they are all baptized and Christian in name. Christians are few and far between (as the saying is). Therefore, it is out of the question that there should be a common Christian government over the whole world, or indeed over a single country or any considerable body of people, for the wicked always outnumber the good. Hence, a man who would venture to govern an entire country or the world with the gospel would be like a shepherd who should put together in one fold wolves, lions, eagles, and sheep, and let them mingle freely with one another, saying, “Help yourselves, and be good and peaceful toward one another. The fold is open, there is plenty of food. You need have no fear of dogs and clubs.” The sheep would doubtless keep the peace and allow themselves to be fed and governed peacefully, but they would not live long, nor would one beast survive another. For this reason one must carefully distinguish between these two governments. Both must be permitted to remain; the one to produce righteousness, the other to bring about external peace and prevent evil deeds. Neither one is sufficient in the world without the other. No one can become righteous in the sight of God by means of the temporal government, without Christ's spiritual government. Christ's government does not extend over all men; rather, Christians are always a minority in the midst of non-Christians. Now where temporal government or law alone prevails, there sheer hypocrisy is inevitable, even though the commandments be God's very own. For without the Holy Spirit in the heart no one becomes truly righteous, no matter how fine the works he does. On the other hand, where the spiritual government alone prevails over land and people, there wickedness is given free rein and the door is open for all manner of rascality, for the world as a whole cannot receive or comprehend it.
Martin Luther (Luther and Calvin on Secular Authority (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought))