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41 " That prison," I said with heartfelt sincerity, "Was absolutely the most awful thing that has happened to me in my entire life." I could tell by the way he looked at me that he thought my life had been filled with one awful thing after another. "
― Megan Whalen Turner , The Thief (The Queen's Thief, #1)
42 " Then come out," said the king, helping him, "knowing you'll never die of a fall unless the god himself drops you. "
― Megan Whalen Turner , The King of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #3)
43 " Dying would have been so much easier. "
44 " I hate horses. I know people who think that they are noble, graceful animals, but regardless of what a horse looks like from a distance, never forget that it's as likely to step on your foot as look at you. "
45 " Costis bowed stiffly. “I am here to make sure that you stay in bed, Your Majesty, because if this offends you and you order me summarily executed, it is no loss. Politically speaking. "
46 " A little danger adds spice to life. "
47 " Discretion prevented me from saying that I thought she was a fiend from the underworld and that mountain lions couldn't force me to enter her service. "
48 " I have a whole guard room full of brawny veterans who'd enjoy a chance to drag two Eddisians out of here, particularly if you kicked a lot and they could kick you back. "
49 " And the Earth had no name. The gods know themselves and have no need of names. It is man who names all things, even gods. "
50 " After one moment of gripped immobility, the queen bent to kiss the king lightly on one closed eyelid, then on the other. She said, 'I love your eyes.' She kissed him on either cheek, near the small lobe of his ear. 'I love your ears, and I love'-she paused as she kissed him gently on the lips-'every single one of your ridiculous lies.' The king opened his eyes and smiled at the queen in a companionship that was as unassailable as it was unfathomable. "
51 " 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. "
― Megan Whalen Turner , The Queen of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #2)
52 " Because not wanting the prize the gods have arranged for you - that just might offend the hell right out of them. "
53 " She thought of the hardness and the coldness she had cultivated over those years and wondered if they were the mask she wore or if the mask had become her self. If the longing inside her for kindness, for warmth, for compassion, was the last seed of hope for her, she didn't know how to nurture it or if it could live. "
54 " We are not philosophers, we are sovereigns. The rules that govern our behavior are not the rules for other men, and our honor, I think, is a different thing entirely, difficult for anyone but the historians and the gods to judge. "
― Megan Whalen Turner , A Conspiracy of Kings (The Queen's Thief, #4)
55 " 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 dances with others or moves from place to place through the room. The court thinks he is trying to be gracious, sharing his attention. Only I see that he moves always to the empty spot and the court always moves after him. He is like a dog trying to escape his own tail. He indulged himself in one brief moment of privacy, and almost died of it. Relius, he hates being king. "
56 " He should have said something, why hadn't he? Costis wondered. In fact, the king had. He had complained at every step all the way across the palace, and they'd ignored it. If he'd been stoic and denied the pain, the entire palace would have been in a panic already, Eddisian soldiers on the move. He'd meant to deceive them, and he'd succeeded. It made Costis wonder for the first time just how much the stoic man really wants to hide when he unsuccessfully pretends not to be in pain. "
57 " Being six feet off the ground does give one a sense of superiority. "
58 " I can't leave her there all alone, surrounded by stone walls... She's too precious to give up. "
59 " Anyone who can steal the king's seal ring can manage the locks on his record room. "
60 " What a strange world it is, where prisoners are left their weapons and the written word is a mortal danger. "