If I am the pawn of the gods, it is because they know me so well, not because they make my mind up for me.

Then come out,” said the king, helping him, “knowing you‘ll never die of a fall unless the god himself drops you.

That one,”-he nodded toward the closed door-” will rule more than just Attolia before he is done. He is an Annux, a king of kings.

I sometimes believe his lies are the truth, but I have never mistaken his truth for a lie.

How do you know that, Philo, dear?” But Philologos had had enough of being condescended to. “Because, Lamion, I am not as dumb as you think I am, even if you are.” By the time Lamion had parsed this to make sure that there was in fact an insult at the end of it, Hilarion had laid a restraining hand on his arm.

Oh, that,” said the king with a shrug. “That isn’t your honor, Costis. That’s the public perception of your honor. It has nothing to do with anything important, except perhaps for manipulating fools who mistake honor for its bright, shiny trappings. You can always change the perceptions of fools.

Why didn’t you tell me to take Attolia’s advice from the beginning?” “I thought you should figure it out. What you learn for yourself, you will know forever,” said Eugenides. “Pol used to say that,” said Sounis, surprised. “I learned it from him. I just wish to my god that I had his patience for the process.

He didn’t marry you to become king. He became king because he wanted to marry you.

She’s like a prisoner inside stone walls, and every day the walls get a little thicker, the doorways a little narrower.

I am not sure I trust you.” “You can trust me with your life, My King.” “But not with my wine, obviously. Give it back.

Because you do not believe?” “Oh, no,” said Attolia bitterly. “Because I believe and do not choose to worship.

No,” he said. “Relius was right and I was wrong. You are My Queen. Even though you cut my head from my shoulders, with my last breath as a noose tightens, to the last beat of my heart if I hang from the walls of the palace, you are My Queen. That I have failed you does not change my love for you or my loyalty.

There are a lot of things a person with two hands couldn’t steal,” Eddis said. “So?” “If it’s impossible to steal them with two hands, it’s no more impossible to steal them with one. Steal peace, Eugenides. Steal me some time.

If I couldn’t be Eddis, I would be Attolia. If they needed to see my uncle in me, then I would show him to them. And I would take Attolia’s advice because if I identified my enemy and destroyed him, Sounis would be safe.

Who knows but that you will get up to find that the world has inverted itself yet again?

Who am I, that you should love me?

“Before you make a decision,” he said, “I want you to know that I love you.”

Are you badly hurt?” “Hideously,” said the king, without sounding injured at all. “I am disemboweled. My insides may in an instant become my outsides as I stand here before you.

Will there be poppy juice in it?” Phresine shook her head. “Good. My wife and I agreed that only my wine was to be poisoned.

“Who am I, that you should love me?” “You are My Queen,” said Eugenides. She sat perfectly still, looking at him without moving as his words dropped like water into dry earth. “Do you believe me?” he asked. “Yes,” she answered. “Do you love me?” “Yes.” “I love you.” And she believed him.

Would you have your hand back, Eugenides? And lose Attolia? And see Attolia lost to the Mede?’ Eugenides’s eyes were open. In front of his face the floor was littered with tiny bits of glass that glittered in the candlelight. ‘You have your answer, Little Thief.

I didn’t think about being king,” he said, his voice hoarse. Eddis stared. “Your capacity to land yourself in a mess because you didn’t think first, Eugenides, will never cease to amaze me. What do you mean you didn’t think about being king? Is Attolia going to marry you and move into my library?

Her queen danced like a flame in the wind, and the mercurial king like the weight at the center of the earth.

It isn’t deep,” the Eddisian Ambassador said from the other side of the bed. He was leaning over the wound, looking critical and mildly disappointed. Eugenides didn’t miss a beat. “It is…too…deep!” he insisted, outraged.

This is the stupidest plan I have ever in my career participated in,” Xenophon said. “I love stupid plans,” said Eugenides.

He could tell her he loved her. He ached to shout it out loud for the gods and everyone to hear. Little good it would do. Better to trust in the moon‘s promises than in the word of the Thief of Eddis. He was famous in three countries for his lies.

From shadow queen to puppet queen in one rule. That’s very impressive. When he rules your country and he tells you he loves you, I hope you believe him. At least that’s one lie I didn’t tell you.

Sometimes, if you want to change a man‘s mind, you have to change the mind of the man next to him first.

I’ll be your minister–” “Of the exchequer? You’d rob me blind.” “I would never steal from you,” he’d said hotly. “Oh? Where is my tourmaline necklace? Where are my missing earrings?” “That necklace was hideous. It was the only way to keep you from wearing it.” “My earrings?” “What earrings?

No ‘Glory shall be your reward‘ for me. Oh, no, for me, it is, ‘Stop whining‘ and ‘Go to bed’.

I’ll stop shouting. I won‘t sit down. I might need to throw more inkpots.

You’re awake,” he said. “Phresine is not,” pointed out the queen. “Oh?” “You gave her lethium.” “She gave it to me first.

It isn’t an easy thing to give your loyalty to someone you don’t know, especially when that person chooses to reveal nothing of himself.