Novelists From The United States

"The queen turned back to face him. "I could hang you," she said. Eugenides looked up at her. "You missed your chance for that," he said."

"Unable to guess the answer, she asked, "Who am I, that you should love me?" "You are My Queen," said Eugenides. She sat perfectly still, looking at him without moving as his words dropped like water into dry earth. "Do you believe me?" he asked. "Yes," she answered. "Do you love me?" "Yes." "I love you." And she believed him."

"Nothing mortals make lasts; nothing the gods make endures forever."

"You must choose now. Between the two of us we can reach a treaty without a wedding. You don't have to marry him, but if you choose to marry him, you have to believe him." Attolia turned, and Eddis thought that behind her mask the queen might be afraid, and so she finished lightly. "You have to believe him, because he's going to have you entire palace up in arms and your court in chaos and every member of it from the barons to the boot cleaners coming to you for his blood, and you are going to have to deal with it." Attolia smiled. "You make him sound like more trouble than he's worth." "No," said Eddis thoughtfully. "Never more than he is worth."

"He lies to you?" Attolia asked. "Constantly," said Eddis. "He lies to himself. If Eugenides talked in his sleep, he'd lie then, too." Attolia looked stunned. "And you can't tell?" Eddis thought for a moment. "I sometimes believe his lies are truth, but I have never mistaken his truth for a lie. If he needs me to believe him, he has his own way of showing his veracity."

"Least said, soonest mended isn't the advice for every occasion, Your Majesty, isn't the advice for every occasion."

"...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."

"If it is an affliction, it is as you said: The gods know me so well they can predict my behavior. They don't control it. They could know I would love her, but they don't make me. I've watched her for years, you know. All those times when you didn't know where I went, mostly it was to Attolia."

"He looks--" Attolia hunted for the word. "Defenseless" came to mind, but it wasn't the one she wanted, nor was "young," though he looked even younger when he was asleep. "Quite guileless," she said at last. "Oh, yes," said Eddis. "I'm always willing to forgive him anything - until he wakes up."

"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."

"You don't understand your weakness, if you think the greater nations will protect you. We will see how much longer you rule your backwater, Your Majesty. You will soon enough discover the limits of your resources." "Will I? I think you underestimate me still, Nahuseresh. While we are being forthright with each other, I admit I find it tedious."

""Treachery," said the Mede. "Diplomacy," said Attolia, "in my own name," as the rest of her guard rose up from the grass behind their captain."

"They are mice, Nahuseresh, hiding in their mouseholes, hoping their own familiar cat will come home to drive you away. At least when I hang people from castle walls, it is because they are traitors, not because they drive hard bargains. You seem willing to hang anyone who is displeasing to you. How kind of you to show my barons that if I am a hard ruler to cross, you are a worse one to serve. I must thank you for that as well as your emperor's gold. They will be most mousy and well behaved for months."

"Nahuseresh, if there is one thing a woman understands, it is the nature of gifts. They are bribes when threats do not avail." The queen shook her head. "The problem with bribes, Nahuseresh, is that after your money is gone, threats still do not avail."

"And now we wait," she said, not bothering to hide her smile of delighted anticipation as her guards conveyed the messenger out of the door. "Wait for what?" the Mede asked. "Hmm?" Attolia focused herself on the present. "Good heavens, I don't know," she said. "Eddis produces such lovely threats when her Thief is concerned."

"The Thief leaned close to the queen to speak almost in her ear. "From shadow queen to puppet queen in one rule," he whispered. "That's very impressive. When he rules your country, and tells you he loves you, I hope you believe him." He anticipated her blow and leaned back. Her hand only brushed his cheek in an entirely unsatisfying manner. "At least that's one lie I didn't tell you," Eugenides said."

"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."

"The moon disappeared behind a cloud. Eugenides was only a dark form against the darker water behind him. "Before you make a decision," he said, "I want you to know that I love you.""

"Think of it as stealing not you but the king's faith in you." "And what happens to me without the king's faith?" "If you're smart, you leave Sounis," said Eugenides. "Quickly."

""I didn't come to Sounis to blow up His Majesty's warships. I told you someone else had to do that." "What did you come for 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." He took a step forward into the moonlight and waggled his fingers. The smile on his face made the magus feel worse, not better."

""You said I should do something." Eugenides smiled in the dark, twisting the knife of his revenge a little deeper into the magus. "I did?" "As you were leaving, after your extremely edifying visit in the spring. You said ‘You could still do something.’ Your exact words." "I meant talk your queen into surrendering, not destroy our navy in its own harbor!" the magus shouted."

""Eugenides," he said. He had recognized the voice. "Yes." "What have you done?" "Not much yet," answered the Thief from the darkness. "I remain fairly limited in my physical activities." He held up his right arm, and the magus started before realizing that the hand he saw had to be a wooden one, concealed by a glove. Another booming explosion filled the air, and the magus turned back to the window but could see only a glare reflecting on the whitewashed walls of the buildings below. "I had to send someone else to light the fuses," Eugenides said behind him. "Fuses?" asked the magus, with a sick feeling. "In the powder magazines of your warships," Eugenides explained. "Powder magazines?" "You sound like the chorus in a play," said Eugenides. "And the play is a tragedy, I suppose?" "A farce," Eugenides suggested, and the magus winced."

"It matters, because I can't do anything more for this country, and it matters," he yelled as he threw the papers back to his desk, "because I only have one hand and it isn't even the right one!"

"How could you come once a week to talk about the weather and not mention a war?" Eddis sighed. "Will you sit down and stop shouting?" "I'll stop shouting. I won't sit down. I might need to throw more inkpots."

"I'll be your minister--" "Of the exchequer? You'd rob me blind." "I would never steal from you," he'd said hotly. "Oh? Where is my tourmaline necklace? Where are my missing earrings?" "That necklace was hideous. It was the only way to keep you from wearing it." "My earrings?" "What earrings?"

"We invoke the Great Goddess in our hour of need for her wisdom and her mercy," Teleus said in the demotic. "Ere translates as love, a rather ruthless love, not mercy, Teleus. The Great Goddess of Eddis not known for her mercy."

"The second night you repeated the same words over and over. I think the fever had set in by then. Do you remember what you said? "No." She knew every one of them. His voice, broken and stumbling, had filled her dreams until she had wept in her sleep, crying tears for him that she'd never been able to cry for her father or for herself. "Oxe Harbrea Sacrus Vax Dragga..." she began. Eugenides's chin lifted as he recognized the opening words. "It's the invocation of the Great Goddess at her spring festival," he said calmly, "calling her to the aid of those that need her. Those words are archaic."

"Be cautious," said the other. "Do not offend the gods."

"If you want to keep something safe from thieves, hide it carefully and keep a close watch over it."

"While the magus, realizing his error, was trying to word an apology, my father came to look in at me. "I thought I heard you laughing up your sleeve," he said."

"I stifled a snort of my own in the silence that followed. The magus must have still been tired. He must have once known, but forgotten, that the minister of war had married the daughter of the previous King's Thief. He was talking to my father. The magus might have remembered this, might have recognized me from the first time he'd seen me in Sounis, but we had never been introduced. When he'd come with Sounis's marriage proposals, I had been sulking in my rooms."

"The minister of war snorted. The magus didn't recognize this as high praise, and he said stiffly, "I've been told that his father wanted him to be a soldier. I'd be happy to inform his father that he has a son to be proud of.""

"The magus described the fighting with the guard in detail and made me look very good indeed."

"The magus might have heard me thinking. "He does have other skills to be proud of," he said. For instance, I thought, stealing Hamiathes's Gift not once but twice. Who else in history had done that? But the magus referred to the fight with the Queen's Guard at the base of the mountain. That wasn't a skill I appreciated much. If I'd been as inept with a sword as I was in a saddle, my father might not have driven me so hard to be a soldier and to let the title of King's Thief lapse forever. It had been meaningless for so many generations, and he'd felt strongly that it should disappear for good."

"The queen laughed, and I flushed in the privacy of my bedroom. I do hate horses. That was the first sign that I wasn't going to be the soldier my father hoped for."

"The minister of war snorted. "Not if he had to follow you on a horse," he said."

"He couldn't have found the whereabouts of the stone from the papers in my study," the magus went on. "I was careful to destroy any records. But he could have followed us and stolen the Gift once it was located."

"As the son of a son of a sailor, I went out on the sea for adventure. Expanding the view of the captain and crew Like a man just released from indenture."

"Cheeseburger is paradise. Heaven on earth with an onion slice. Not too particular, not too precise. I'm just a cheeseburger in paradise.I like mine with lettuce and tomato, Heinz Fifty-seven and French fried potatoes. Big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer. Well, good God Almighty, which way do I steer? For my cheeseburger in paradise."

"Enduring echoes call out from his past. Time ain't for saving, no time's not for that. Chasing false echoes like a lost legionnaire, He waltzes on memories while he fades like a flare."

"As a dreamer of dreams and a travelin' man, I have chalked up many a mile. Read dozens of books about heroes and crooks, And I've learned much from both of their styles."

"I blew out my flip flop, Stepped on a pop top, Cut my heel, had to cruise on back home. But there's booze in the blender, And soon it will render That frozen concoction that helps me hang on."

"I went down to Captain Tony's to get out of the heat When I heard a voice call out to me, "Son, come have a seat." I had to search my memory as I looked into those eyes; Our lives change like the weather but a legend never dies"

"We're gypsies in the palace, he's left us here alone. The order of the Sleepless Knights will now assume the throne. We ain't got no money, we ain't got no right, But we're gypsies in the palace, we got it all tonight."

"I used to rule my world from a pay phone And ships out on the sea. But now times are rough And I got too much stuff; Can't explain the likes of me.But there's this one particular harbour, So far but yet so near. Where I see the days as they fade away, And finally disappear."

"Son of a son, son of a son, son of a son of a sailor. Son of a gun; load the last ton, One step ahead of the jailer."

"I'm growing older but not up. My metabolic rate is pleasantly stuck. Let those winds of time blow over my head. I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead."

"Boat drinks. Waitress, I need two more boat drinks. Then I'm headin south 'fore my dream shrinks. I gotta go where it's warm."

"Wasted away again in Margaritaville, Searchin' for my lost shaker of salt. Some people claim that there's a woman to blame, But I know it's nobody's fault."

"Now, I don't know, I don't know where I'm a gonna go When the volcano blow."