Quotes from Nancy Farmer

It's because they're afraid of El Patrón

It's my fault, said Rune. He's untrained and likely to overdo things. Like turning the queen bald. That was a good trick, though. Olaf smiled.

Don't talk about that!

Norns keep the tree Yggdrassil alive. Without them, nothing would exist… They show up when you're born and decide what kind of life you're going to have. I guess they were in a rotten mood when I came along, Jack said. He loaded up the water bag and supplies. Me too, Thorgil said gravely.

He says you freed him, Thorgil said with a face like a thundercloud. I did. Wait a minute. How did you know what he said?... You're like Sigurd. You got dragon's blood in your mouth.

Matt worried about what would happen to him now. Would Rosa come back and throw him into the sawdust? Would she make good on her promise to bury him alive?

I had no idea things could taste so good! she exclaimed. This is all so delicious! Is she all right? whispered Queen Glamdis to Jack. Just crazy in a new way, Jack whispered back.

El Patrón said these foods were his favorites, and Matt decided they were his favorites too.

My life is far too quiet these days.

It means she's a wise woman… There's nothing wrong with her! Jack cried. Thorgil Olaf's Daugher can do whatever she likes. He accepted her. Why can't you? She fought the troll-bear by his side. She killed a young dragon. She tasted its blood by accident, just as Sigurd did. That's why she understands birds now. She drank from Mimir's Well. That's why she can make poetry now. Why can't you accept that?

She actually bared her teeth like a wild animal

everyone's place to do it

His voice wasn't loud, but there was a quality to it that made Matt shiver even though he—for once—wasn't the one in trouble.

He was extremely thin, with shoulder-length white hair neatly combed beside a face so seamed and wrinkled, it hardly seemed real.

If you throw a rotten orange into someone's face, you can bet the orange will sooner or later come flying back.

Matt's mouth watered at the memory of cookies.

You could say I'm a cat with nine lives. As long as there's mice to catch, I intend to keep hunting.

She stuffed Matt into a long-sleeved shirt and trousers and gave him a pair of rubber sandals to wear.

The woman shucked Matt out of his shorts before he knew what was happening and dumped him inside.

It's strange. He knows more about science than we do, and he's a hundred years in the past. He says we depend too much on machines. All we know how to do is press buttons, but he knows how the buttons work.

Don't talk about that!" cried Celia so sharply that María hugged the pillow and stared goggle-eyed at the woman. "Don't say anything about El Patrón! Shoo!

to a cave-like hollow. The black river swept through the middle under a roof of trunks and branches. Jack looked up uneasily. He could see patches of sky, and it seemed little would be needed to bring the logs crashing down. But Olaf said the hollow had been there many years.

Soon the house shook with Celia's snores. To Matt, the sound was as normal as the thunder that sometimes echoed over the hills. It in no way kept him from sleep.

Turn, turn, Jack willed the boy... Thorgil, thought Jack. He missed her - oh, heavens, how he had missed her! - and yet he hadn't been aware of it till now.