“Bloodlines and last names didn't make a man extraordinary — the extraordinary existed in what we did in life, not in who we were.”
“We are not defined by our lack of fear—Dad had said, smiling as Ethan let our four-year-old brother tackle him—but rather by what we choose to do when facing the nightmare.”
“We are not defined by our lack of fear but rather by what we choose to do when facing the nightmare.”
“Fortune favors the bold," he said. "But she'll only fall for a bloke who's got an ace up his sleeve.”
“My people are condemned to wander this eternal twilight”
“The problem with a cross is - It fails the unbeliever.”
“Unlike Dad, she'd always known just the right things to say, and her words felt like bandages or spurs or even ledges, instead of Dad's bullets and knives and nooses.”
“Lokeij whistled. “Make the king’s warriors vanish if
they come. . . what a deceitful turtledove you are.”
Aly smiled at the sky. “Oh, don’t,”she replied in the
tones of a flirtatious court lady. “Stop, I insist. Your
flattery makes me blush.”
“You are the most boring teacher ever."
He grinned and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, just as a knock sounded at the door. "It all depends on what you me to teach you.”
“It is cocaine," he said, "a seven-per-cent solution. Would you
care to try it?"
"No, indeed," I answered brusquely. "My constitution has not got
over the Afghan campaign yet. I cannot afford to throw any extra
strain upon it."
He smiled at my vehemence. "Perhaps you are right, Watson," he
said. "I suppose that its influence is physically a bad one. I find
it, however, so transcendently stimulating and clarifying to the
mind that its secondary action is a matter of small moment.”
“Were you there?”
She shook her head. “No. I was here in Nain having a
child.”
“Then why do you weep as though you had part in his
crucifixion? You had no part in it.”
“I’d like nothing better than to think I would have
remained faithful. But if those closest to him—his
disciples, his own brothers—turned away, who am I to
think I’m better than they and would have done
differently? No, Marcus. We all wanted what we
wanted, and when the Lord fulfilled his purpose rather
than ours, we struck out against him. Like you. In anger.
Like you. In disappointment. Yet, it is God’s will that
prevails.”
He looked away. “I don’t understand any of this.”
“I know you don’t. I see it in your face, Marcus. You
don’t want to see. You’ve hardened your heart against
him.” She started to walk again.
“As should all who value their lives,” he said, thinking of
Hadassah’s death.
“It is God who has driven you here.”
He gave a derisive laugh. “I came here of my own
accord and for my own purposes.”
“Did you?” Marcus’ face became stony.
Deborah pressed on. “We were all created incomplete
and will find no rest until we satisfy the deepest hunger
and thirst within us. You’ve tried to satisfy it in your own
way. I see that in your eyes, too, as I’ve seen it in so
many others. And yet, though you deny it with your last
breath, your soul yearns for God, Marcus Lucianus
Valerian.”
Her words angered him. “Gods aside, Rome shows
the world that life is what man makes of it.”
“If that’s so, what are you making of yours?”
“I own a fleet of ships, as well as emporiums and
houses. I have wealth.” Yet, even as he told her, he
knew it all meant nothing. His father had come to that
realization just before he died. Vanity. It was all vanity.
Meaningless. Empty.
Old Deborah paused on the pathway. “Rome points the
way to wealth and pleasure, power and knowledge. But
Rome remains hungry. Just as you are hungry now.
Search all you will for retribution or meaning to your life,
but until you find God, you live in vain.”
“TO CHANGE THE FATE OF ONE INDIVIDUAL IS TO CHANGE THE WORLD.”
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