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61 " Whatever was carrying me dropped me again with an ungraceful thump, and I lay gasping and throat-sore on the earth—the warm earth, lush with soft green grass, though it silvered with frost in a circle around where the Staryk knelt. "
― Naomi Novik , Spinning Silver
62 " My girl, my brave girl had done this. She had gone and come back bloody and she had brought us back the spring. And she had come back, she had come back, which was worth all the spring and more for me. "
63 " You refused him,” he said to me, almost angrily. “I’m not a fool, to take gifts from monsters,” I said. “Where do you think its power comes from? Nothing like that comes without a price.” He laughed, a little shrill and sharp. “Yes, the trick is to have someone else pay it for you, "
64 " I put my fingers up to brush the fine links. Even lying on my skin, it still felt cool to the touch, and when I looked at myself in the mirror, in the glass I was not standing in my father's study. I was in a grove of dark winter trees, under a pale grey sky, and I could almost feel the snow falling onto my skin. "
65 " But I had not known that I was strong enough to do any of those things until they were over and I had done them. "
66 " Крадецът, който е откраднал нож и се е порязал на него, не може да обвинява домакинята, че го е държала остър. "
67 " if he had been in any danger of turning his head at all, except perhaps all the way round like an owl. "
68 " I say to you, here are the dangers. Some are more likely than others. Weigh them, put them all together, and you will know the cost. Then you must say, is this what you owe? "
69 " You have fed each other, and you kept the wolf away. "
70 " My lady, I did not think you could answer it, when I took you from your home without your leave, and set value only on your gift. But I am answered truly. You have given fair return for insult thrice over and set your worth: higher than my life and all my kingdom and all who live therein, and though you send my people to the fire, I can claim no debt to repay. It is justly done. "
71 " Here I had no idea what I was even meant to do, and if I didn't like it, still, I wanted to neglect my duties deliberately, and not just because I was a stupid girl who didn't know what they were. "
72 " One day when I was ten one of out neighbors came to the house and said that the tsar was dead and when I asked what ir meant they said that there would be a new tsar. So I did not really see why a tsar mattered. "
73 " One day when I was ten one of our neighbors came to the house and said that the tsar was dead and when I asked what ir meant they said that there would be a new tsar. So I did not really see why a tsar mattered. "
74 " I am not your subject or your servant, and if you want a cowering mouse for a wife, go find someone else who can turn silver to gold for you. "
75 " And on the wedding contract, before me and my parents and the rabbi, and Wanda and Sergey for our witnesses, in silver ink he signed his name.But I won't ever tell you what it is. "
76 " It's not seemly for a girl," my grandmother tried, but my grandfather snorted."Gold doesn't know the hand that holds it," he said, and frowned at me, but in a pleased way. "
77 " Did the tsar refuse to marry you?" I asked. I thought the duke might have been angry with her if he had: he hadn't seemed like a man to be satisfied if his plans went awry."No," she said. "I am tsarina. For as long as I live." She said it dryly, as if she didn't expect that to last long. "The tsar is a black sorcerer. He is possessed by a demon of flame that wants to devour me."I laughed; I couldn't help it. It wasn't mirth, it was bitterness. "So the fairy silver brought you a monster of fire for a husband, and me a monster of ice. We should put them in a room together and let them make us both widows. "
78 " The tsar was holding her hands against his chest, the ring on his finger gleaming pale silver like the tears running in silver lines down his cheeks; he was gazing down at her with eyes shining jewel-green, as though she were the most beautiful thing in the world. "
79 " A servant is easy to make dishonest when they bring you coin and never touch any themselves,” he said. “Let her feel that her fortune rises with yours. "
80 " My heart broke, but I was not a young girl anymore, afraid of being trapped behind a door forever. I knew the door was safety, I knew the door would not always be closed, and I did not let her out. "