Mark of the Thief Quotes

“The world will judge you based on what you think of yourself. "

"“Not every chain is made of metal,” I told her. “The worst are made of comfort and false promises. You’re no more free here than you were in the mines.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, Mark of the Thief

“Radulf jumped off the platform and went running for a lift that still had its doors open. Except a familiar face was coming up on that lift, with a long knife at her waist and a bow in her hands. I’d never been so happy to see anyone in my life.

Aurelia jumped onto the arena floor and nocked an arrow aimed directly at Radulf. “Another step closer and you’ll get poked.”

He threw some sort of magic at her, but I had already put up a shield to block it.

“I stand with you, Nic, as an equal!” she said. “This is what friends do!”

“Not here!” I yelled.

“You asked me to stand with you!”

“Symbolically!”

“Can we fight about this later?” she asked.

I smiled over at her. If I won this fight, I would gladly engage in more arguments with her.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, Mark of the Thief

“If I was going to fight this beast — regardless of how poor my chances were — I needed the use of both hands, so I put the bulla around my neck.

A wind swirled up around me when I did. “It isn’t yours,” the wind seemed to say. “It will curse you.”

The threat didn’t bother me — my present situation was worse than any curse from a dusty amulet. My bigger concern was that the wind spoke to me at all.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, Mark of the Thief

“When we drew up to the soldiers, Felix told them who he was and about the griffin he was bringing in. A soldier eyed me. “You have new slaves too?”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, Mark of the Thief

“have to defeat him and take his magic, just as he has taken it from others.” I shrank beneath his gaze.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, Mark of the Thief

“about more than the bulla. It means there is magic coming from inside you.” Aurelia pulled at my arm, but Felix grabbed my shoulders. “Listen carefully. These are dangerous times,”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, Mark of the Thief

“caused destruction like that without having control of the bulla, imagine what an enemy who controlled it could do.” “The enemy is General Radulf,” I said. “Emperor Tacitus must have him arrested.” “On what charge?”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, Mark of the Thief

“caused thousands of deaths. He’s a fugitive of the empire, not to mention a runaway slave. I paid good money”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, Mark of the Thief

“As part of the grand joke that had become my life, the gods had given me a master with the wit of a withered carrot and compassion of a wasp. He also smelled like toe fungus, though that’s less relevant. More significant is that of the hundreds of slaves who worked in the mines, Sal hated me the most. This was no great surprise, since Sal had always stood out to me as someone well worth hating back. With his whip and the ever-present chains on my wrists, he held absolute control over my life — or lack of it. So generally speaking, I did as I was told.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, Mark of the Thief

“Sal could have killed me for trying to escape the mines, but he didn’t. I’d certainly given him plenty of reasons to do it before then as well. I had to help him now. The”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, Mark of the Thief