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2fb490d
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If these were death agonies, they were fake ones, Costis thought, and was sure of it when they reached the shallow stair at the far end of the reflecting pool. No one on the verge of death has the strength to pile one foul word on top of another like a man compiling a layered pastry of obscene language, from the the bottom step all the way to the top.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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bad66d4
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What he brought out was a wooden gag they put in someone's mouth before doing something drastic, like cutting off a leg.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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d2b9ea3
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Welcome," said the magus. "Would you like some dried beef, some dried beef, or some dried beef for lunch?" "Oh, I'll take stuffed pigeons in sauce, thank you, and some decent wine to drink. None of that cheap stuff, please." The magus handed me an almost empty paper package of dried beef and half of a loaf of bread. "Enjoy your meal," he said."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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a0eb2ee
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I stayed only two days in the capital. I was welcomed by a cheering citizenry, who threw flowers at my head. It was disconcerting to think I could have put almost any young man in my retinue on a white horse and they would have thrown flowers at him instead. It was not me they cared about, only what I meant to them: a cessation of hostilities, a chance for prosperity, food on the table.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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74ee1bd
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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 other since you met - but the magus was concerned. He thought the grief of leave-taking might surprise you." "I feel very stupid." She leaned back into his embrace. "'I look forward to hearing of your adventures.'" She shook her head in disg..
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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cffaaf6
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The queen had passed him, so close he'd felt the stir of air, and he guessed that if she had turned her head, only a little, and met his eyes, he might have died right there.
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costis
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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47e22a2
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That he'd seen...two people, a young man and a woman, sitting on invisible furniture with their feet up, reading books and eating chocolates.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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799e6cd
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Perhaps you can bring out better in them?" Eugenides shook his head. "I pulled the carpet out from under them very thoroughly. They will not cross me, but they won't love me, either. I am not Eddis. People do not hand me their hearts." Sounis wondered. He would have given Eugenides his heart on a toothpick, if asked. He remembered Ion's obvious wince at being rated somewhat less significant to Gen than his boots."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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11dbcd4
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Coming from light into the dark, he was looking ahead of him, not down at me. My lunge, as I came to my feet, took him in the chest as I drove the sword upward with the strength of my legs. Even rusted, the sword slid through him, and I found, for the first time, how easy it is to kill a man.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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14a8b61
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You know-- Eddis hesitated, not sure how far to push the Attolian Queen. -Go on. Attolia inclined her head. -I was going to say that you look like a polecat when you smile like that.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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190ec60
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Relius lay alone with his thoughts. What kind of man, he wondered, referred to himself as "safely dead"?"
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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4ca791e
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The Magus must had eyes like a thief because he told Pol to stop and dismount to walk alongside me, one hand resting just above my knee ready to shake me if I fell asleep. He shook hard and resorted to pinching periodically.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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9eb8911
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The clear light of the library was slanting in through the glass-paneled doorway to my right, falling on the table between my tutor and me and on dust motes hung in the air. The tiny flecks drew my eye, and I watched as they dipped and swirled in invisible currents. "They are beautiful in the light, are they not?" my tutor asked. They were, catching the sun and shining like tiny stars themselves. "You know, there are just as many outside t..
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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ee550bc
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If she pardons people because she loves them, someday someone that she loves will betray her and all of Attolia with her. A queen must make sacrifices for the common good.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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3d86084
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You will make the boy Thief king?" he said. "When you could have had me?" Attolia allowed a slight smile. "A fine revenge for the loss of a hand," said the Mede, close to snarling. "I will have my sovereignty," said Attolia thinly. "Oh, yes, a fine one-handed figurehead he will make," spat Nahuseresh. Then he remembered Attolia's flattery earlier that morning. "Or do I insult your lover?" he asked. "Not a lover," said Attolia. "Merely my ch..
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mede
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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4963275
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A natural! A natural!
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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5f64eec
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One by one, the silence by the bed drew their attention. Even the king was quiet. Exhausted, relieved, he lay boneless and silent. The skin was dragged thin across his cheekbones. His sweaty hair stuck to his face, and his eyes were closed. His hand, clutching the fabric of his tunic, had relaxed and slipped down to his side, revealing what the careful bunching of the cloth had concealed. The tunic had been split by a knife stroke from one ..
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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80f4cc4
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Darker thoughts crowded in during the deepest hours of the night when he woke listening to the secret mystifying sounds of the sleeping palace. Many nights, the king was there. Pleasant, irrelevant, and distracting, he eased Relius past nightmares and self-recrimination. Some nights he said nothing at all, just comforted with his presence. Other nights he related the events of his day, spewing out his insights and analyses of the Attolian c..
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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fbdb38e
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I will forgive him because I have heard him scream when someone pulled a sword out of him that could have just as easily gone into me. --Sophos
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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f97493b
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We could make a treaty without a marriage." "No," he said. "You are sure?" "Yes," he said."
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eugenides
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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a447cea
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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 spine is all wobbly now, but it doesn't hurt."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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ccbe52a
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I am so sick of people who all seem to be smarter than I am and know more than I do. I wanna go back to the farm. These people make my family look easy to get along with.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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b0b1518
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If there is anything else you desire, Your--" "I desire"--the king interrupted in a level voice--"never again to see your living face."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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82510c2
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Power. What men like best for themselves and least in their women.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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c939ba9
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Ridiculous to think what indignities I would suffer in silence, if I knew that I was to be rewarded with an oversize bucket of hot water," the magus said as he settled into the bath the servants had filled for him."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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eb1d4af
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Oh, Lady," said the woodcutter, "my hurt is overwhelming because it is someone else's pain that makes me cry."
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sadness
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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4e312b9
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We might someday attain a relationship of mutual respect," he said softly. First, I thought, I will see gods walking the earth. He went on. "For now I will have your obedience." His ability to convey a world of threat in so few words was remarkable."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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5b35771
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I did not say that I am afraid. He is, though, I think. Afraid of his own desire for power.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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e106ed7
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My gift is that I always know when I've made an ass of myself.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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7514ad2
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Costis followed, telling himself that it wasn't true that he and the king and even the stone under their feet were nothing but tissue, transparently thin, and that for a moment, the only real thing in the universe had been there on the parapet with the king.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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94d12b0
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He looked at their shabby clothes in puzzlement. "We were traveling anonymously for safety--" explained the magus. "But surely--"
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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5d91655
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I'll stop shouting. I won't sit down. I might need to throw more inkpots.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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8967375
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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 expression grave, his eyes like pools of darkness deeper than Costis could penetrate. For a moment Costis could see, not so much what was hidden but that there were things hidden that the king did not choose to reveal. Things that were not for Costis to..
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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dcc8be4
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to be underestimated by an enemy is the greatest advantage a man can have.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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480094d
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Attolia had brushed Eugenides's cheek almost shyly before sending him with a wave back to his own couch.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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80d1200
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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 his failures and his unworthiness. He hadn't felt it in months, but the pinprick of its claws was instantly familiar. They informed him with their tiny tattoo that he had almost certainly done something immensely, irrevocably, and unforgivably ..
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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2608381
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my opponent's self-confidence is usually my best asset.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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15fbf02
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Finally I went and found my hat and skewered it on my head with a four-inch hat pin. I wore the hat because I knew my mother never visited without one. The pin I thought would be a comfort in case of emergency.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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51a22c6
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You don't know what I mean. She is so strong, and you assume that strength has no end, no breaking point. You and Teleus are among the few she still trusts enough to love, and you say yes, she should have you tortured and killed. What were you thinking?
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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7526952
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To make war you need three things: one, money; two, money; and three, money.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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989b012
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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, of course, command him to be king. He will give me anything I ask." "That would only confirm your sovereignty, not his," Relius objected.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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f46272b
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It was a race between the tortoise and the hare, but the tortoise had just enough head start, and he had the magus to drag him along.
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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3dbc158
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I never understood why she didn't marry you." The king settled further into the seat with a snort. "Maybe the prospect of being driven out of her mind put her off."
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Megan Whalen Turner |
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0bfeb0f
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I woke to find I had not been murdered in my sleep.
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Megan Whalen Turner |