The King of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #3)

by Megan Whalen Turner

Short of throwing a dinner roll at him, there was no way to get his attention.

She is ruthless.” He leaned forward, pointing a finger in Costis’s face. “And it is a good thing she is, because she wouldn’t be queen if she weren’t. She is brilliant and beautiful and terrifying. It’s a fine way to feel about your queen, not your wife,” he added.

“Costis, I am speechless.” “Not noticeably, Your Majesty.”

The king lifted a hand to her cheek and kissed her. It was not a kiss between strangers, not even a kiss between a bride and a groom. It was a kiss between a man and his wife, and when it was over, the king closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the hollow of the queen’s shoulder, like a man seeking respite, like a man reaching home at the end of the day.

“He didn’t marry you to become king. He became king because he wanted to marry you.”

He has had very little company in his life, and he isn’t used to it. But there are other words for privacy and independence. They are isolation and loneliness.

“No ‘Glory shall be your reward’ for me. Oh, no, for me, it is, ‘Stop whining’ and ‘Go to bed.’”

“Because the king will not quit, Teleus,” said Ornon as he joined them. “You must have noticed,” he said. “He whines, he complains, he ducks out of the most obvious responsibility. He is vain, petty, and maddening, but he doesn’t ever quit.” Ornon shrugged. “Ever.”

“Sometimes, if you want to change a man’s mind, you change the mind of the man next to him first.”