Quotes from work

The Queen of Attolia

“I am very good at groveling.”

“Calf love doesn't usually survive amputation, Your Majesty.”

“There are a lot of things a person with two hands couldn't steal," Eddis said.
"So?"
"If it's impossible to steal them with two hands, it's no more impossible to steal them with one. Steal peace, Eugenides. Steal me some time.”

“He could tell her he loved her. He ached to shout it out loud for the gods and everyone to hear. Little good it would do. Better to trust in the moon's promises than in the word of the Thief of Eddis. He was famous in three countries for his lies.”

“She's like a prisoner inside stone walls, and every day the walls get a little thicker, the doorways a little narrower."
"And?" Eddis prompted.
"Well," said Eugenides, "it's a challenge.”

“This is the stupidest plan I have ever in my career participated in," Xenophon said.
"I love stupid plans," said Eugenides.”

“He lies to himself. If Eugenides talked in his sleep, he'd lie then, too.”

“I sometimes believe his lies are the truth, but I have never mistaken his truth for a lie.”

“I would very much like to strangle someone. Why don't you go away until I decide it isn't you?”

“If I am the pawn of the gods, it is because they know me so well, not because they make my mind up for me.”

“Before you make a decision," he said, "I want you to know that I love you.”

“I can't leave her there all alone, surrounded by stone walls… She's too precious to give up.”

“I love stupid plans.”

“That was the message. For me, alone among mortals, the gods send their messenger to tell me to stop whining. That’ll teach me to go hide in a temple.”

“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.”

“Why did you come if not to murder my king?"
"I came to steal his magus."
"You can't," said the magus in question.
"I can steal anything," Eugenides corrected him, "even with one hand.”

“She was the stone-faced queen, then and ever after. She had needed the mask to rule, and she had been glad to have it. She wondered if Eugenides was glad of his.”

“Eddis looked at her minister, curious. “Your head?” she asked.
Attolia explained. “He had to be forcibly dissuaded from strangling his son.”
“So have we all from time to time,” Eddis said seriously.”

“Nothing mortals make lasts; nothing the gods make endures forever.”