They are all accepted, I said. It wasn’t important anymore.
The gate was made out of blocks of stone bigger across than I am tall. Something else supposedly built by the old gods, it was topped by a solid stone lintel with two carved lions that were supposed t...
The Attolian waited, far and away the best non-speaker I think I have ever known.
Please, he whispered. His voice was low but clear. Don't hurt me anymore.Attolia recoiled. Once, as a child, she'd thrown her slipper in a rage and had knocked an amphora of oil from its pedestal. The...
One cannot toss ambassadors back like bad fish, said Eugenides. You treat them with care, or you'll find you've committed an act of war.
I wouldn't destroy an entire house to destroy one man. But I would destroy a man to destroy a house.
I woke with a terrible headache and wobbled around 'till I fell out the window.You what?Fell out the window. That one over there. She [Edwina] gestured to the curtain behind her. I broke my back. My s...
I was listening, the king said, aggrieved. I closed my eyes to listen better.What did you hear?I'm not sure, he said. That's why I was listening so closely. I may have to ask the baron to repeat some...
I was captivated. My own hair was easily as long as Olga's, but it frizzed and knotted at every opportunity. When it was combed, it didn't float in perfect fans down to my shoulders.
I know, Attolia soothed him. I did not say that I am afraid. He is, though, I think. Afraid of his own desire for power. He is not unused to wielding power, but it has always been in secret. I could,...
He loves me, and I reward his love by forcing on him something he hates. In the evening, after we dance, he rarely returns to the throne; he dances with others or moves from place to place through the...
Everybody is always willing to throw someone else's country to the dogs.
Eddis looked at her minister, curious. Your head? she asked.Attolia explained. He had to be forcibly dissuaded from strangling his son.So have we all from time to time, Eddis said seriously.
Calf love doesn't usually survive amputation, Your Majesty.
Attolians did not invest much belief in their religion. They dutifully attended temple festivals and used their gods for cursing and little else.
After one moment of gripped immobility, the queen bent to kiss the king lightly on one closed eyelid, then on the other. She said, 'I love your eyes.' She kissed him on either cheek, near the small lo...
A thief never makes a noise by accident.
I wanted Ambiades to understand that I considered myself a hierarchy of one.
Your Majesty, please get down. My friend Aris is really a very good man, and if you fall off that wall he's going to hang for it, and so will his squad, most of whom are also nice men, and though I ca...
You'll have to pardon me, the magus said. But with your country at war I can't see how any of it really matters.Standing up, Eugenides pulled the papers from the magus's hands. It matters, because I c...