Promise of Blood Quotes

“You’ve one mark on your record,” Tamas said. “You once punched a na-baron in the face. Broke his jaw. Tell me about that.”
Olem grimaced. “Officially, sir, I was pushing him out of the way of a runaway carriage. Saved his life. Half my company saw it.”
“With your fist?”
“Aye.”
“And unofficially?”
“The man was a git. He shot my dog because it startled his horse.”
“And if I ever have cause to shoot your dog?”
“I’ll punch you in the face.”
“Fair enough. You have the job.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“Doctor, what could you prescribe for Charlemund?”
The doctor looked down his nose at the unconscious form of the arch-diocel.
“Arsenic?”
“Now, really. Something to give him a quality headache and a great deal of memory loss.”
“Cyanide.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“The age of kings is dead, Adamat, and I have killed it.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“The world is changing. People do not exist to serve their governments or their kings. Governments exist to serve the people, so the people should have a say in those governments.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“I’m an investigator, my dear. Other people’s business is my business.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“Don’t trust any man who surrounds himself with beautiful women. Least of all a priest.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“When a man solved his problems by punching them, books were often a foreign thing.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“You seem to be in unusually good spirits.” “I do?” Tamas said. “I haven’t said two words.” Prime cleared his throat. “I can sense it about you. It’s in the air. Like a first-year student who knows he’s going to be every professor’s favorite. It’s annoying.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“A king’s pride doesn’t fill the people’s bellies.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“The people are hungry,” Mihali said. He lifted his hands, spreading them to encompass the city. “The people need to be fed. They need bread and wine and soup and meat. But not just that. They need friendship.” He pointed to a minor noble, some viscount decked out in his finest foppish frills, who poured a bottle of St. Adom’s Festival wine into the cups of a half-dozen street urchins.
“They need companionship,” Mihali said. “They need love and brotherhood.” He turned to Tamas. He reached out with one hand, putting a palm to Tamas’s cheek. Instinct told Tamas to step back. He found that he couldn’t.
“You gorged them on the blood of the nobility,” Mihali said gently. “They drank, but were not filled. They ate of hatred and grew hungrier.” He took a deep breath. “Your intentions were… well, not pure, but just. Justice is never enough.” He let go of Tamas and turned to the square. “I will put things right,” he said. He puffed out his chest and spread his arms. “I will feed all of Adro. It is what they need.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“For Dad For never being hesitant that I’d make it this far. Even when you should have been.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“The problem with logic,” Prime said, “is that sometimes you are forced to believe your own hypothesis, even if you don’t want”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“The lockpick gaped up at Adamat from his knees. “You’re making enough noise, you might as well have knocked on the front door,” Adamat said.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“Books are important. They link us to the past, to the future. Every written word gives us another hint about how to control the Else.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“You know,” Taniel said, “we could have kept firing after they sounded the retreat. Would have wiped out thousands on the mountainside. The Kez did that to us in Fatrasta a few times.”
Gavril snorted angrily. “War has to have some decorum. Otherwise it’s back to the Bleakening for all of us, and Kresimir be damned.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“I believed it had been long enough that Kresimir would never return. I believed it was time for change. I thought all of Rozalia’s concerns were foolish, and that Julene was living in the past. I believed we were alone.”
“My people have never been alone,” Mihali said. “The others may have left. I did not.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“He was a longtime street thug who had just enough ruthlessness to rise to legitimate businesses and not quite enough intelligence to leave his dark life behind him. Aptly suited as a banker.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“You gorged them on the blood of the nobility,” Mihali said gently. “They drank, but were not filled. They ate of hatred and grew hungrier.” He”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“If they can kill,” Gavril said, “they can drink.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“Tamas had heard that every genius was equal parts madness. He”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“Yes. I’d already realized that.” Adamat gritted his teeth. “You’re the type of man who gives face to evil.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“My loyalties are not for sale,” Adamat said. “You’ll have to change your loyalties, then.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“You look like you haven’t had a good night.” “You look like you have,” Tamas said. “I’ve seen it all now: seduction by way of omelet.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“I don’t really want to meet anyone yet, thank you,” he said. “I don’t want to cause a fuss. Meeting a god is an awfully big thing. I think.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“I swear by my mother’s squash soup.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“The man narrowed his eyes. “Cook?” he snapped. “Do I look like a cheap purveyor of watery soup and half-cooked meat? I’m a chef, damn it, and you watch who you call a cook in the future. Feelings are liable to get hurt.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“And they will guard Kresimir’s Promise with their lives, for if it is broken, all the Nine might perish.” He scanned the page, and then the page after, and then the page before. There were no other references. He scowled at the pages. “This doesn’t make sense.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“I did it because those grumbling students of philosophy at the university only play at rebellion. The age of kings is dead, Adamat, and I have killed it.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“Doctor, what could you prescribe for Charlemund?” The doctor looked down his nose at the unconscious form of the arch-diocel. “Arsenic?” “Now, really. Something to give him a quality headache and a great deal of memory loss.” “Cyanide.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood

“Spies aren’t like soldiers, Field Marshal. A soldier has loyalty, yes, but at the end of the day he does what he does for a full belly and a month’s wages. Spies do it because they love the game. They love their country, or their king.”
― Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood