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cba0387
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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 parts of his report on his grain tax." "I am sure you can arrange an appointment." "I am sure I can too."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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f676c85
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From shadow queen to puppet queen in one rule," he whispered. "That's very impressive. When he rules your country and he tells you he loves you, I hope you believe him." He anticipated her blow and leaned back. Her hand only brushed his cheek in an entirely unsatisfying manner. "At least that's one lie I didn't tell you."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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a16e467
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I would very much like to strangle someone. Why don't you go away until I decide it isn't you?
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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485c3e6
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I wanted Ambiades to understand that I considered myself a hierarchy of one.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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b5bc2ba
|
He whines, he complains, he ducks out of the most obvious responsibility. He is vain, petty and maddening, but he doesn't ever quit.
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perseverance
eugenides
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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662f942
|
I inherited this country when I was only a child, Nahuseresh. I have held it. I have fought down rebellious barons. I've fought Sounis to keep the land on this side of the mountains. I have killed men and watched them hang. I've seen them tortured to keep this country safe and . How did you think I did this if I was a fool with cow eyes for any handsome man with gold in his purse?
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politics
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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aed6b2b
|
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."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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39465e4
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I love stupid plans.
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stupidity
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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60289d1
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Before you make a decision," he said, "I want you to know that I love you."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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4c1376d
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I didn't really care much about anything, so I guess I felt fine.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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aa31dbb
|
Ornon said, "I have seen him jump across atriums four stories above the ground, a distance that would make your blood freeze, and I heard him once confess that he sometimes thinks the distance is beyond him. He always jumps, Your Majesty. The Thieves are not trained in self-preservation. I beg you would take my advice."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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407cbcb
|
My beautiful queen. Your entire court is staring at you, and I can't blame them." They were, too. The queen turned to look. Her glance swept through the crowd like a reaping sickle through grain. Mouths slammed shut on every side. There was a scuffling sound as the people in the back shifted, trying to screen themselves from view. The queen looked back at the king, who was broadly smiling."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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ea35e60
|
The gold was a gift; you said so yourself." "You are a woman," Nahuseresh said very gently. "You do not understand the world of kings and emperors, you do not understand the nature of their gifts." "Nahuseresh, if there is one thing a woman understands, it is the nature of . They are bribes when threats will not avail. Your emperor cannot attack this coast unprovoked; the treaties with the greater nations of this Continent prevent him. All..
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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9386e64
|
Irene-" "Don't call me that." "You were the princess Irene the first time we met." "It means 'peace'," Attolia said. "What name could be more inappropriate?" "That I be named Helen?" Eddis suggested. The hard lines in Attolia's face eased, and she smiled. Eddis was a far cry from the woman whose beauty had started a war." --
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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2f9425c
|
Sophos, you sleep with a knife under your pillow? I'm hurt." "I'm sorry," said Sounis, afraid that he had made contact with his wild swing. "I was joking. Wake up the rest of the way, would you?" "Gen, it's the middle of the night." "I know," said the king of Attolia. Sounis tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes. He was sitting up in his bed. The sky was still entirely dark, and he couldn't have been asleep for long. He suspected that he h..
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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d58121b
|
That prison," I said with heartfelt sincerity, "Was absolutely the most awful thing that has happened to me in my entire life." I could tell by the way he looked at me that he thought my life had been filled with one awful thing after another."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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d6ce314
|
He looked at her and tilted his head very slightly in wonder. He had forgotten, as he always forgot, how beautiful she was. Her hair was held away from her face by the ruby and gold headband that crossed her dark brows. Her skin was flawless and so fair as to be translucent. She dressed as always in an imitation of Hephestia, but it was far easier to imagine the impersonal cruelty of the Great Goddess than to see cruelty in the face in the ..
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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3ade022
|
Then come out," said the king, helping him, "knowing you'll never die of a fall unless the god himself drops you."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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1984daf
|
Dying would have been so much easier.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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9554169
|
He watched Attolia out of the corner of his eye. She was still cool, like a breath of winter in the warm evening air, but in the last few days he had begun to sense a subtle humor in her chilly words. When Gen had complained earlier that evening that Petrus, the palace physician, should stop fussing over him like a worried old woman, Attolia had asked, archly,"And me as well?" "When you stop fussing," Gen had said, slipping to his knees bes..
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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112a98a
|
I hate horses. I know people who think that they are noble, graceful animals, but regardless of what a horse looks like from a distance, never forget that it's as likely to step on your foot as look at you.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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5be6508
|
Costis bowed stiffly. "I am here to make sure that you stay in bed, Your Majesty, because if this offends you and you order me summarily executed, it is no loss. Politically speaking."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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2084892
|
A little danger adds spice to life.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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e5f1769
|
These people make my family look easy to get along with.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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551d972
|
She reached out and touched the king's face, cupping his cheek in her hand. "Just a nightmare," he said, his voice still rough. The queen's voice was cool. "How embarrassing," she said, looking at his maimed arm. The king looked up then, and followed her gaze. If it was embarrassing to wake like a child screaming from a nightmare, how much more embarrassing to be the reason your husband woke screaming. A quick smile visited the king's face...
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eugenides
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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6f87199
|
Discretion prevented me from saying that I thought she was a fiend from the underworld and that mountain lions couldn't force me to enter her service.
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humor
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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1fc8395
|
No friend had I made there, but I wasn't with this group to make friends, and besides, he sneered too much. I've found that people who sneer are almost always sneering at me.
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young-adult
queen-s-thief
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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54bffd7
|
I am a master of foolhardy plans.
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planning
wit
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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eb0a270
|
You have to believe him, because he's going to have your entire palace up in arms and your court in chaos and every member of it from the barons to the boot cleaners coming to you for his blood, and you are going to have to deal with it." Attolia smiled. "You make him sound like more trouble than he is worth. "No," said Eddis thoughtfully. "Never more than he is worth."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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6d90c5c
|
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.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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56e8f24
|
And the Earth had no name. The gods know themselves and have no need of names. It is man who names all things, even gods.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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eb73067
|
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 lobe of his ear. 'I love your ears, and I love'-she paused as she kissed him gently on the lips-'every single one of your ridiculous lies.' The king opened his eyes and smiled at the queen in a companionship that was as unassailable as it was unf..
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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7d60047
|
She pulled the bedclothes up as far as they would go and suppressed a perverse wish to have her old nurse come to chase away the darkness, perverse because she didn't know if she wanted the shadows to be empty or not.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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761508d
|
Because not wanting the prize the gods have arranged for you - that just might offend the hell right out of them.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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b980a37
|
I want you to steal something." I smiled. "Do you want the king's seal? I can get it for you." "If I were you," said the magus, "I'd stop bragging about that." His voice grated. My smile grew. The gold ring with the engraved ruby had been in his safekeeping when I had stolen it away."
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magus
gen
eugenides
the-thief
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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cb617ad
|
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."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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2d4fdec
|
So Sophos thinks you're going to marry me." "While I think you'll marry Sophos." "I might. We'll see what he's like when he grows up."
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eddis
gen
sounis
eugenides
σοφός
thief
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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c2cc5ca
|
I was not so comfortable with my new authority that I could say 'We eat the chicken now!' but the magus had seen that I was considering it... "My purse is full enough," said the magus, "to keep you supplied with roast chickens." "So, so, so," I said. "We know who the power behind the throne is," and the magus laughed. "You eat more than Gen did after prison," he said. "I have more sympathy with him all the time. Are you going to finish that..
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humour
eating
|
Megan Whalen Turner |
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7c54382
|
She thought of the hardness and the coldness she had cultivated over those years and wondered if they were the mask she wore or if the mask had become her self. If the longing inside her for kindness, for warmth, for compassion, was the last seed of hope for her, she didn't know how to nurture it or if it could live.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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11976bb
|
Muse of poetry, come to his aid, I thought. Could the man produce one more metaphor of husbandry? He seemed to be trying. "Green wood," I suggested, but even he sensed that there was something unfortunate about a metaphor for a king in which you dry out your royalty before you set fire to it."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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1d77a76
|
We are not philosophers, we are sovereigns. The rules that govern our behavior are not the rules for other men, and our honor, I think, is a different thing entirely, difficult for anyone but the historians and the gods to judge.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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27dee6e
|
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 room. The court thinks he is trying to be gracious, sharing his attention. Only I see that he moves always to the empty spot and the court always moves after him. He is like a dog trying to escape his own tail. He indulged himself in one brief..
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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24a2233
|
When we opened the doors, we saw that the entire room was scorched black and you were on the floor possibly dead, surrounded by broken glass. Window glass is expensive, you realize that?" "Yes, Your Majesty," he said meekly."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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8ef9129
|
He should have said something, why hadn't he? Costis wondered. In fact, the king had. He had complained at every step all the way across the palace, and they'd ignored it. If he'd been stoic and denied the pain, the entire palace would have been in a panic already, Eddisian soldiers on the move. He'd meant to deceive them, and he'd succeeded. It made Costis wonder for the first time just how much the stoic man really wants to hide when he u..
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Megan Whalen Turner |