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

by Megan Whalen Turner

Costis didn’t think it was a bluff. Aulus looked very little like a prince, but that meant nothing—Eugenides

didn’t look like a king. Ornon needed someone to sit with the king and restrain him, someone who would be safe from Eugenides’s retaliation. A prince of the house of Eddis would be a natural choice if there was one on hand.

He called Costis his watchdog when the queen visited. The queen actually smiled at Costis, which warmed Costis right down to his toes.

even they were faked. What they really think is that you and Teleus killed the men who attacked the king and he’s taking the credit.” “They think he lied?” “After all, he is a l—” “THEY THINK I LIED?”

He’d been nothing but blindsided by every tortuous twist in his life since the Thief of Eddis became king.

He reminded himself that he was better off than the king’s attendants, who were laughingstocks for their

persisting wariness and deference to Eugenides. No one believed the warnings they’d sounded after the fall of Erondites. If the members of the court were more cautious in dealing with the king, it was because they believed

he was now the instrument of the queen. To the court, Costis had heard, the king seemed as harmless as ever and t...

“Gen is still acting the buffoon?” “Yes, but Ornon has begun to worry more about getting what he wished for. You’ve

Eugenides will be King of Attolia.” “And this is not happy news?” “King,” Eddis emphasized, “of Attolia.” “I see,” said the magus, and he did. “We will have a very powerful king, and a powerful

queen as well, as our neighbors. But also, a committed ally,” the magus pointed out. “You did not release him from his oaths of loyalty to you.” Eddis shook her head. “Eugenides never took any oaths of loyalty to

me. The Thieves never swear loyalty to any ruler of Eddis, on...

“The Thieves of Eddis have always been uncomfortable allies to the throne, Magus.

There is the niggling fear that if you fall out with a Thief, he might see it as his right and his responsibility to remove you. There are some checks, of course. There is only ever one Thief. They are prohibited from owning any

property. Their training inevitably generates the isolation that makes them independent, but also keeps them from forming alliances that might become threats to the ...

“Why didn’t I know this?” the magus asked, his sense of his own scholarship deeply offended. Eddis laughed. “Because no one ever talks ...

The magus nodded. He had registered the superstitious reluctance to discuss the Thief or anything to do with the past Thieves of ...

They both understood that if Eugenides was King of Attolia, he would face difficult and painful decisions that he would make in the best interests of nations, not individuals,

“Perhaps we could forgive each other?” the queen suggested. Relius pressed his lips together, but nodded. He would accept a pardon he knew was undeserved if by doing

so he could relieve his queen of any part of her burden. The queen asked, “What do you think of my king now. Is he impetuous? Inexperienced? . . . Naive?” She repeated his words back to him. Her voice,

reassuringly calm, achingly familiar, eased a little of his distress and shame. “He is young,” Relius said hoarsely. It was Attolia’s turn to look surpri...

Attolia understood. “A golden age?” Relius nodded. “He doesn’t see it. He doesn’t want to be king.” “Did he say so?” Relius shook his head. He hadn’t needed to be told. “We talked about

“He didn’t marry you to become king. He became king because he wanted to marry you.” “He says he will not diminish my power or rule over my country. He intends to be a figurehead.”

“Don’t let him,” Relius said, and then pulled himself back, in case he had overreached. Gently his queen waved away his concern. “Am I not sovereign enough, Relius?” she said. There was no smile on her face, but it was

there in her voice, and Relius, who knew her every intonation, heard it and breathed more easily. The queen said, “No matter how securely I hold the reins of p...

had to fight, afraid that someone else might seize that power. Only if they could be certain that that goal was out of their reach, and out of their neighbors’ reach as well, wo...

men among them, and a few warmongers, but mostly, you and I know that they fight me because they are afraid of each other. If there were a king, sec...

“I have bought all the time I can against the coming of the Mede,” she said. “If Attolia is not united when they strike again, then we are all, king, queen, patronoi, and ok...

whether or not Eugenides will be king or just appear as one.” “He refuses?” “He refuses to either defend or assert his position. He just . . . looks the other way an...

or driven. The Eddisian Ambassador has tried everything, I think, including extortion, and failed. I think he is afraid.” “Ornon or the king?” “Both. Ornon loo...

precipice every day. But I think Eugenides is afraid.” “Of what?” “Of failing,” said Attolia, as if that fear, at least, Relius should have rec...

“You would only be stronger.” “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 un...

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,” ...

“I am confident, My Queen, that if you have met your match, so has he.” “He is stubborn,” Attolia reminded him, “and very strong.”

“Surely he revealed himself in the fall of Erondites?” Relius asked. “The barons have come trooping through my bedchamber, to have a new look at him.” “And?” prompted Relius.

“He simpers. He preens.” Relius snorted. “I suppose that the barons reported that the plan must have been yours all along, that the king was your witless tool....

Relius imagined the scene the king must have enacted, no different from the scenes he himself had witnessed whe...

“You must force him into the open,” Relius warned her. She raised her head, and he was aghast to see her eyes bright with tears. “I am tired of driving people and forcin...

bladed wheels, scything down those closest to me, enemies and my dearest friends alike.” “I failed you, My Queen,” Relius reminded her. “You served me. I...

his intervention, with death. 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 da...

through the room. The court thinks he is trying to be gracious, sharing his attention. Only I see that he moves always toward the empty spot and the court moves always after him. H...

indulged himself in one brief moment of privacy and almost died of it. Relius...

“The Thieves of Eddis have always been set apart, Your Majesty. 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. Drive him out. Whether he wants to or not, he belongs in the open. The world needs to see what a king he is.” “Whatever the cost to him?”

“I am an exceedingly effective scythe,” the queen said. Relius smiled wanly back. “And I offer you justification out of my own mouth. There is no house waiting for me in some obscure village

“Or you could stay with me. I need you still. Attolia needs you still.” The tears rose in Relius’s silent eyes.

“I am what you have made of me,” the queen said softly. Relius smiled through his own tears. “And you

may mow me down a hundred times, My Queen, with my best wishes. But I am a failure and a wreck. I cannot see how I could be of any use to you.” “You are not a failure, and for my sake, I hope you are not a wreck. As

Attolia asked if he had changed his opinion on whether the king should be driven to a task he hated, now that he himself had been manipulated by the queen.

“I only hope you can be as effective with the king,” Relius said. Attolia admitted the challenge. “The whole Mede Empire was easier to redirect,” she said. “Ornon was right to say that he could not be driven. I don’t know why he continues to try.” “I think he is providing a foil for you, My Queen,