The Thief (The Queen's Thief, #1)

by Megan Whalen Turner

In the days before the invaders came, the king’s magus was supposed to have been a sorcerer, but not even the most superstitious believed that anymore. A magus was a scholar.

It’s a funny thing that the new gods have been worshiped in Sounis since the invaders came, but when people need a truly satisfying curse, they call on the old gods.

For my part, I wanted Ambiades to understand that I considered myself a hierarchy of one. I might bow to the superior force of the magus and Pol, but I wasn’t going to bow to him. Neither of us moved.

my father is a soldier, and it’s a bloody, thankless, useless job for people who are too stupid and too ugly to do anything else.”

My capacity for tact sometimes surprises even myself.

“I’m a lot more important than anyone else here,”

While we ate, I picked at the magus. I liked to watch him lose his temper and then regain it when he remembered that I was supposed to be beneath his contempt.

“Why should they suffer because you are angry with each other?

I was also pleased that I’d held my tongue. Saying things I shouldn’t has been the origin of most of the painful episodes in my past, and it would certainly be an improvement in my character if I had a little more control over my own tongue.

I again felt like a bug caught out in the open. My upbringing was making itself felt, and I longed to have more of the sky shut out.

There was an obvious solution, but I was a thief, not yet a murderer.

It hadn’t occurred to me that the gods that I’d seen silent and unmoving in their temple might still be taking an interest in me.

I hadn’t wanted to be a soldier. I’d become a thief instead, to avoid the killing. See where that had gotten me.

There were certainly no love affairs written up in my record at the king’s prison. I was sure because I had written the record myself.

“Gen,” he said under his breath, “you viper.”