Mal’s Reviews > The Stolen Heir > Status Update

“He’d acted the fool, that his enemies might believe he was one.
How could I have forgotten that he’d been weaned on strategy and deception?”

“All my mistakes are coming home to me.”

“that fighting back would only bring me further pain. That’s the lesson they wanted me taught, but soon I realized I would be hurt anyway. Better to hurt someone else when I had a chance. Better to make them hesitate, to know it would cost them something.”

“And that is why you ought not dramatically vow to obey someone,” I say, a growl in my voice. “They seldom ask for what you hope they will.”

“And for a moment, I am viciously glad. It doesn’t feel good exactly, to be in danger, but it does feel good to be the cause of events rather than being swept along into them.”

“I was never less free than when I ruled.”

“It is tragic that she has only me to beseech. Does she not see my predator’s teeth? How afraid must she already be for me to seem like a possible ally?”

“ I am proud of my answer, which is both true and yet missing the most important detail. I am learning how to speak like them.”

“This is the problem with living by instinct. I don’t think.”