Home > Work > Paladin's Hope (The Saint of Steel, #3)
1 " Doctor Piper dealt with corpses and for the most part, he preferred them to the living. He didn’t mind living people, he was perfectly happy to meet them and talk to them and even work with them, but corpses never, ever asked stupid questions. "
― T. Kingfisher , Paladin's Hope (The Saint of Steel, #3)
2 " It’s what the Rat does,” said Galen, with bleak amusement. “They solve problems. "
3 " Same thing.” He took a deep breath, clearly choosing his words carefully. “A gnole’s compassion does not require fur. "
4 " Granted, Piper’s dating history was not particularly extensive and he had always been terrible at pursuing other men, but he was still pretty sure that the morgue wasn’t the place where you were supposed to start. "
5 " Once a thing is made, it exists in the mind of the world. The next one is easier to make, and the next one after that...."The first takes a twisted genius. The hundredth can be done by any blacksmith. It is why our first lesson is always be careful of what you make. "
6 " said Galen, faintly amused. Brindle said it frequently. As far as Galen could tell, gnoles viewed humanity as a race of ignorant, powerful toddlers, some of which were likable enough, but none of which were particularly bright. "
7 " The first takes a twisted genius. The hundredth can be done by any blacksmith. It is why our first lesson is always to be careful of what you make. "
8 " Start thinking you have the right to do things to people's bodies in a good cause, and you're halfway to hell and picking up. "
9 " Are you asking if I want to stand in rooms where giant blades fall on my head?"When you say it like that, if sounds weird," said Piper. "But isn't this fascinating? "
10 " All I want in life is to have a sexy man make passionate love to me, eat a nice meal together, and then I'll leave to go chop up corpses. Is that really so much to ask? "
11 " So what do we do now?" asked Piper, taking several steps back."I'm going to fight it," said Galen. "Obviously. "
12 " Why on earth did I never ask Earstripe what is resting heartrate was?""It's not the sort of thing that comes up in casual conversation.""It should." His gaze suddenly sharpened. "My god, Galen. You look like hammered shit.""But sexy hammered shit, right? "
13 " Did you know that there's erectile tissue inside your nose?" asked Galen.The healer stared at him as if he'd lost his mind. "Is yours giving you trouble?" she asked finally."I'm honestly not sure. "
14 " A human is good at talking to other humans,” said Earstripe. He gave an exaggerated human-style shrug, palms up. “A human doesn’t always listen to a gnole. "
15 " He was one of those problems, and the Rat had solved it, as well as someone like him could be solved. They could do nothing for his night terrors, but they had given him a job to do, and a place for him and his brothers to recover what shreds of their sanity they still could. Some of them had even put themselves back together well enough to love and be loved. "
16 " So you struck out on your own to try to solve this,” said Piper. “To save these humans, when the guard wouldn’t listen to you. But why? "
17 " Bone-doctor would save some gnole, yes? If some gnole was hurt?” “Of course,” said Piper. “If I could.” “And tomato-man would save some gnole?” He swung his muzzle toward Galen. “If some gnole needed big human with a sword?” “Yes, of course. "
18 " Even happiness? Joy?” Piper tilted his head toward Galen, his dark eyes lighting with amusement. “How many men really suffer from a surfeit of unbridled joy in their lives?” “I really hope somebody somewhere is,” said Galen. “Make up for the rest of us who are just muddling along, you know? "
19 " The thing that no one warned you about insanity was how incredibly tedious it was. You were always having to explain yourself and apologize, over and over, and you got so tired of being crazy. "
20 " Yes, Mother,” said Galen. “Hmmph! Wipe paws, too. "
