“And in return, you will have your heart’s desire, little Thief,” she had promised, and bent to kiss his cheek before she’d sent him blinking into the sunlight where, when his eyes cleared, he found his grandfather waiting.

“Took you long enough,” the old man said, and they went to sell the horse.

He’d thought he knew his own heart’s desire. He wanted to be the Thief of Eddis. When his cousins mocked him, when his father shouted at him, when his grandfather shouted at him, for different reasons, all he wanted was to be the Thief someday. But he’d had other desires since, and he could only wonder which of them had been granted by the goddess.

She’d called him “little Thief” then. He’d been so overwhelmed by the sight of her, he hadn’t even noticed. He’d staggered out of the dark temple into the bright day, thinking the spots in front of his eyes had been caused by the sun.

He did not see Moira when she arrived, did not sense her presence until she settled next to him on the bench. “Asking more humble questions, Eugenides?” she teased. Then she relented. “No, I see. You haven’t asked because you are so afraid of the answer. Does she really love you? Did she have any choice?” Gentler than she had ever been before, Moira leaned close and spoke quietly in his ear. “Alyta, goddess of the mountain rain, goddess who fills the streams in summer, loves all her children and all who descend from them, and she is ever gentle in their care.”

When Eugenides did not respond, she went on. “Ask yourself, Eugenides: why that orange tree? Why that tamarisk bush? She had promised you your heart’s desire while a child of hers was alone in the world and unhappy. See, Eugenides,” Moira said, holding out a finger from each of her hands and interlinking them. “Only two threads brought together, two threads that touched,” she reassured him. “Nothing more than that. And everything else left up to you.”

Some Persons of Significance:

A List of Characters in The Queen’s Thief Novels

Agape: Youngest daughter of the Eddisian baron Phoros. She is a cousin to the queen of Eddis and to Eugenides the thief. She is nicer than her sister Hegite.

Aglaia: One of Attolia’s attendants.

Akretenesh: The Mede Ambassador to Sounis.

Alenia: A duchess in Eddis who was incensed when Eugenides stole her emerald earrings.

Alyta: A gentle goddess of welcome rain, rain in the distance, and rain in the mountains. She is known for having many lovers and many children, mortal and immortal.

Ambiades: The Magus’s apprentice. His grandfather was executed for conspiring against the king of Sounis. Gen calls him Useless the Elder.

Anacritus: An Attolian baron with a wife and a lover. He is a strong supporter of the queen.

Anet: The sky god in the Mede pantheon.

Ansel: Free servant of Melheret, the Mede ambassador to Attolia.

Aracthus: An Eddisian god. Associated with the River Aracthus.

Aristogiton: A friend of Costis and a soldier in the Attolian guard. Costis borrows his name when he needs an alias.

Artadorus: Another baron with a wife and a lover. He’s been roped into Baron Erondites schemes before. At the Baron’s suggestion, he misreported the kind of grain he grows in order to pay less in taxes.

Attolia: Irene, queen of Attolia.

Aulus: An Eddisian soldier and minor prince of Eddis enlisted as an ad hoc nanny for the king of Attolia.

Benno: A guard hired by Roamanj to accompany his caravan.

Boagus: An Eddisian soldier and babysitter of Eugenides.

Brinna: The head cook in Attolia’s kitchens.

Caeta: One of Attolia’s attendants.

Casartus: Admiral of Attolia’s navy.

Cassa: Owner of the honeyed hives in the Mede epic of Immakuk and Ennikar.

Cello: A mountain god. Lover of Alyta.

Chloe: A younger attendant of Attolia.

Cleon of Attolia: One of the king’s attendants.

Cleon of Eddis: A dim-witted, but not evil, cousin of Eugenides. Eddis proposed him as an attendant for the high king, but Cleon spectacularly rejected the king’s invitation.

Cletus: An Attolian baron, supporter of the queen.

Costis: Costis Ormentiedes, a soldier in the Attolian guard. He is unwillingly embroiled in the politics of the court by Eugenides.

Crodes: A soldier of Eddis. Cousin to the queen and to Eugenides.

Death: Lord of the Underworld. Brother of the Queen of the Night.

Dionis: One of Eugenides’s attendants.

Diurnes: A member of Costis’s squad in the Attolian guard.

Drusis: A new attendant to the king. Motis and Drusis are brothers.

Earth: The origin goddess in the Eddisian creation stories.

Eddis: Helen, queen of Eddis.

Efkis: An Attolian baron. Because of Eugenides’s schemes, he was thought to have betrayed the Queen of Attolia.

Elia: One of the queen of Attolia’s attendants.

Enkelis: An ambitious lieutenant in the Attolian guard, briefly promoted to captain by the queen of Attolia.

Ennikar: One of the heroes in the Mede epic of Immakuk and Ennikar.

Ephrata: An Attolian baron.

Erondites: An Attolian baron, one of Attolia’s oldest enemies. Father of Erondites the Younger and Sejanus.

Erondites the Younger, called Dite: Baron Erondites’s son and one of Attolia’s most fervent supporters.

Eugenides: An Eddisian who served as the queen’s thief of Eddis before becoming king of Attolia. Also called Gen.

Eugenides: The Eddisians’ god of thieves.

Galen: Eddis’s palace physician.

Ghasnuvidas: Emperor of the Mede. He has been diagnosed with an incurable disease that leaves lesions on the skin, and he has passed over his own sons in order to name his nephew as his heir.

Godekker: An escaped slave living in hiding in Zaboar. He agrees to hide Kamet and Costis.

Hamiathes: A mythological king of Eddis. To reward him, he was given Hamiathes’s Gift, which conferred immortality and the throne of Eddis.

Hegite: Daughter of the Eddisian baron Phoros. Older sister of Agape.

Heiro: Daughter of one of the barons in the Attolian court. Eugenides dances with her but not with her older sister, Themis.

Hemke: A shepherd on the salt flats of the Mede empire.

Hephestia: The Great Goddess. Head of the Eddisian pantheon. Goddess of volcanoes. She is the daughter of Earth and Sky. They have given her the power of their lightning bolts and earthquakes.

Hespira: In the Eddisian story of Hespira and Horreon, she was lured to the underworld by the goddess Meridite, who wanted her to marry Horreon, Meridite’s son.

Hilarion: The oldest of Eugenides’s attendants.

Hippias: The Secretary of Attolia’s archives until his unexpected death. He was replaced by Orutus.

Horreon: An Eddisian god, the son of the goddess Meridite. He was a blacksmith who made magical armor forged in the fire of the Hephestial Mountain.

Ileia: One of Attolia’s senior attendants.

Imenia: One of Attolia’s senior attendants.

Immakuk: One of the heroes from the Mede epic of Immakuk and Ennikar.

Ion: One of Eugenides’s attendants

Ion Nomenus: He was the faithless attendant to Sophos when he was held captive by the Mede ambassador Akretenesh and the Sounisian Baron Brimedius.

Iolanthe: One of Attolia’s senior attendants.

Jeffa: The former secretary of Nahuseresh. When he died, Kamet took his place.