How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Alek bit his lip. Father had never allowed him to be photographed or even sketched, and now Alek knew why—in case he would ever need to hide. And yet he'd still given himself away. (13.41)
It's not Alek's appearance that betrays him—it's his tongue. No matter what he looks like, he can't help but sound like a nobleman. Deryn and Alek both change their appearances—Deryn to hide her gender, and Alek to hide his social class—but both also realize that a good disguise is about more than appearances. They have to work on changing their behavior, too.
Quote #2
As another female, Dr. Barlow might notice a few odd things the other crewmen hadn't. And she was a clever-boots, with all that science under her bowler. If anyone was going to guess Deryn's little secret, it would be this lady boffin. (16.92)
Another woman on board is definitely something Deryn didn't bargain on. It's easy enough to hide her gender from a bunch of men, but hiding from another woman is going to be a different trick entirely. Is it odd that Dr. Barlow never seems to figure it out?
Quote #3
She'd been such a ninny to muck about with razors. This was how she'd always been caught out in lies—making things too barking complicated.
"I…I'm not sure what you mean, ma'am."
"How old are you, Mr. Sharp?"
Deryn blinked. She couldn't speak.
"With a face that smooth, not sixteen," Dr. Barlow continued. "Perhaps fourteen? Or younger?"
A squick of hope began to trickle through Deryn. Had the lady boffin guessed the wrong secret? She decided to tell the truth: "Barely fifteen, ma'am." (19.47-52)
We're so focused on Deryn's gender-bending disguise that we don't think about the other reason she's not allowed in the military: she's not old enough. Dr. Barlow definitely notices that something's up, but she attributes anything less than masculine about Deryn's appearance to age instead of gender. Hmm… Maybe Dr. Barlow isn't quite as smart as she thinks she is.
Quote #4
Volger snorted. "Aleksander, you don't trust a mere boy with the greatest secret in the empire." (21.60)
Even if that secret is about that mere boy? Apparently not. We can't say we blame Volger for not telling Alek about the pope's letter earlier. While we can see that Alek is maturing, he's done some pretty irresponsible things on the way to Switzerland (see Lienz), and we don't know that he could have kept the fact that he's the true heir to Austria-Hungary under wraps.
Quote #5
"Well, then," Volger said. "Let's pretend that I don't know English. We might learn something interesting if the Darwinists think I can't understand them." (29.10)
Volger, you crafty cat—like anybody's going to believe you're not the savviest guy in the room. It's so funny to watch Volger pretend to be dependent on Alek's translations because the person he becomes in the meeting is so different from his typical character. Also, pretending you can't understand the enemy = oldest trick in the book. A book which Volger probably wrote.
Quote #6
Alek didn't answer, gritting his teeth. Every word out of his mouth only betrayed more information.
He wondered if the Darwinists had already guessed who he was. The assassination was still front-page news, and the rift between his father and the emperor was no secret. Luckily, the Austrian papers had never revealed that Alek was missing. The government seemed to want his disappearance kept quiet, at least until it could be made permanent. (30.20-21)
Talking just gets you in trouble when you've got any kind of secret. This time, it's not his accent that betrays Alek but his words themselves. Dr. Barlow is way good at asking leading questions, and Alek consistently follows her lead.
Quote #7
She held his gaze a moment. "I can't babble all our secrets to you, Alek. But it should be obvious that I am a scientist, not a soldier."
"And a diplomat?"
Dr. Barlow smiled. "We all do our duty." (34.46-47)
Very sneaky, Dr. Barlow. Poor Alek: he tries to beat her at her own game and ask leading questions of his own, but Dr. Barlow is just way too quick for him.
Quote #8
"Please, ma'am," Alek said, trying to keep his voice from shaking. "Don't tell anyone else who I am. It might complicate things." (34.74)
Ugh, that moment when you are one hundred percent busted. We feel bad for Alek here because he is totally at Dr. Barlow's mercy, which goes to show how much good being a prince will do you sometimes. This crack in his armor reminds us of when he wakes up in the gun turret after Klopp and Volger sedate him—again he sounds less like the heir to an empire than a scared little boy.
Quote #9
This was the moment, of course, when duty required her to tell the captain all she knew—that Alek was the son of Archduke Ferdinand, and that the Germans were behind his father's murder. Alek had said it himself: this wasn't just family business. The assassinations had started the whole barking war, after all.
And now Lord Churchill himself was asking about it!
But she'd promised Alek not to tell.
[…]
She couldn't break her promise—not like this, without even talking to Alek first.
Deryn saluted smartly. "I'm happy to do whatever I can, sir."
And she left without telling the captain any of it. (40.28-30, 32-34)
Deryn has a tough dilemma here. On one hand, she has a duty to tell the captain everything she knows, but on the other, she told Alek she wouldn't tell. It seems no matter what she does, she's betraying someone—so she'll have to decide whom she minds betraying the least.
Quote #10
"You don't have to," Deryn argued, but she knew Alek wouldn't listen. He wouldn't believe she was safe from hanging unless he knew the truth. Strangest of all, she almost wanted to tell him, to trade her secret for his. (40.85)
Alek is afraid Deryn will hang for lying for him and insists on going to the captain then and there, which speaks really well for his sense of responsibility for other people. The more interesting part of this quote though, is that Deryn, who has been guarding her secret with her life, wants to tell someone now. She knows the risks, and she still wants Alek to know who she really is, which shows that she places a huge amount of trust in him.