Home > Work > The King of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #3)
1 " He didn't marry you to become king. He became king because he wanted to marry you. "
― Megan Whalen Turner , The King of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #3)
2 " These people make my family look easy to get along with. "
3 " Sometimes, if you want to change a man's mind, you have to change the mind of the man next to him first. "
4 " It isn't an easy thing to give your loyalty to someone you don't know, especially when that person chooses to reveal nothing of himself. "
5 " If we truly trust no one, we cannot survive. "
6 " But there are other words for privacy and independence. They are isolation and loneliness. "
7 " He whines, he complains, he ducks out of the most obvious responsibility. He is vain, petty and maddening, but he doesn't ever quit. "
8 " No man can choose to serve only himself when he has something to offer his state. No one can put his own wishes above the needs of so many. "
9 " No 'Glory shall be your reward' for me. Oh, no, for me, it is, 'Stop whining' and 'Go to bed'. "
10 " 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 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 in the hollow of the queen's shoulder, like a man seeking respite, like a man reaching home at the end of the day. "
11 " Oh, that," said the king with a shrug. "That isn't your honor, Costis. That's the public perception of your honor. It has nothing to do with anything important, except perhaps for manipulating fools who mistake honor for its bright, shiny trappings. You can always change the perceptions of fools. "
12 " I CAN DO ANYTHING I WANT! "
13 " ...her queen danced like a flame in the wind, and the mercurial king like the weight at the center of the earth... "
14 " Safety is an illusion, Costis. A Thief might fall at any time, and eventually the day must come when the god will let him. Whether I am on a rafter three stories up or on a staircase three steps up, I am in my god's hands. He will keep me safe, or he will not, here or on the stairs. "
15 " Ornon said, "I have seen him jump across atriums four stories above the ground, a distance that would make your blood freeze, and I heard him once confess that he sometimes thinks the distance is beyond him. He always jumps, Your Majesty. The Thieves are not trained in self-preservation. I beg you would take my advice. "
16 " Then come out," said the king, helping him, "knowing you'll never die of a fall unless the god himself drops you. "
17 " 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. "
18 " 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. "
19 " 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. "
20 " Because not wanting the prize the gods have arranged for you - that just might offend the hell right out of them. "