Let the gods into your life and you rapidly lose faith in the natural laws.
If you are feeling more yourself, there is a problem best addressed immediately, said the queen.In my nightshirt? The king wriggled, as ever, out of straightforward obedience.Your attendants. I have s...
I have a whole guard room full of brawny veterans who'd enjoy a chance to drag two Eddisians out of here, particularly if you kicked a lot and they could kick you back.
He waved at his attendants. I dragged them like a ball and chain all the way across the palace and back.If sterner measures are called for, we can find a larger ball and chain. The queen turned and di...
He felt a chill on the back of his neck. It was self-doubt, the black beetle that had pursued him all his life, pinching at him, poisoning his every success, whispering in his ear about his flaws and...
Faith did return in extremis
Ever since the gods created the world, mortals have been forgetting from where their blessings come.
Eddis looked around as if recalling a question that had nagged at her for several hours. Where's Eugenides? she asked.For a moment the Attolian queen was immobile, her smile gone as if it had never be...
Did you send Attolia to me at the farewell? Eddis asked.Not I, said Gen quietly. The magus. I thought you knew that you loved him - the two of you have been like magnets drawing ever nearer to each ot...
Costis flinched and looked away from this compensation to the king’s handicap, only to find himself staring directly into the king’s face instead. Eugenides matched Costis look for look, his expressio...
And she had the most appealing of feminine virtues, especially in a queen. She's easily led.
Where are my guards, Teleus? He was still speaking softly. Three men dead and he wasn't even breathing hard, Costis noted.
They are all accepted, I said. It wasn’t important anymore.
The soldier stooped to bring his lips close enough to my ear to say very quietly, My king blames your master for the loss of his hand. That,
Thanks to His Majesty, the magus said, and my father seemed startled at the correction but not displeased. He looked thoroughly satisfied and very much like Ina when she has all her embroidery threads...
Ten thousand! I shouted at the walls, back in the room with the wooden shutters, now open, so that anyone could hear me, on the porch or probably across the compound. That bastard landed at Tas-Elis...
Speaking of the king to the queen--He didn't marry you to become king. He became king because he wanted to marry you.
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...
Oh gods, stairs.
It was like being lectured by an earnest, oversized child.