Paladin's Strength (The Saint of Steel, #2)

by T. Kingfisher

Well, if I am going to die today, at least the weather is nice...

“Galen, I don’t know what’s going on here, but hopefully this woman can explain.” “What if she kills you, Boss?” called Galen. “Then either avenge me or put her in charge. Your choice.”

The larger part of power was understanding the power you had over others, even if you would rather not have had that much power in the first place.

“No, we keep no truffle pigs,” she said. “Pigs are entirely too intelligent and I do not trust them. The young ones are well enough, but they all seem to go a bit mad when they grow into their balls.” “A common enough affliction,” said Istvhan blandly.

“You are not a failure, you know,” he said, “simply because you can’t endure something unendurable.”

“How many of them do you think you could take, boss? A dozen, maybe?” “Galen, I’ve never tested how many rabbits I could fight off at a time. It just hasn’t come up.”

In life, if you were careful, there were simply not that many times when you absolutely, positively, had to turn into a bear.

After a moment he dropped his hands and said “I’m going to stop talking now.” “That would probably be for the best, yes.”

“Why do men get so defensive about their swords?” “They’re remarkably fragile when they’re not in use.”