Thick as Thieves Page 189
WINESHOP
BY MEGAN WHALEN TURNER
The Vine and the Cup was a reputable establishment, its wine served unwatered, its patrons honest, or mostly so. Nonetheless, conversation quieted at the sound of marching footsteps approaching its door; it was early for the city guard to be out patrolling for drunks. When the marching feet stopped just outside, conversation died away entirely and the room was otherwise silent as men in uniform clattered down the steps from the street. Not the city guard, these were the soldiers of the royal guard, gleaming breastplates and buckles, short swords at their waist, led by the captain himself. The crests of their helmets brushed the low ceiling.
Honest or not, those close enough to do so slipped through the doorway to the kitchens and out the back of the establishment. The rest of the room could only watch as Teleus approached a table in the corner where a young man sat alone, nursing the wine cup in front of him with one hand. The young man’s visits were infrequent, but he was known to many of the regulars and they thought even the captain of the guard might approach him with a little more care. He was wickedly dangerous with the hook on the end of one arm and they held their breaths.
“Your Majesty,” said Teleus.
Gudix behind the bar leaned forward, thinking he’d misheard. Merinus sitting only a few feet away rocked back, knowing that he hadn’t.
Letting the cloak slide from his shoulders, the King of Attolia rose to his feet.
Sitting in Teleus’s private quarters, Relius put his cup down with a thump. He looked at his friend in disbelief. “You didn’t.”
“I did. He has no business going into town with no guard,” Teleus said, sounding truculent even to himself.
“You walked into the wineshop with a squad and called him by name?”
“I said, ‘Your Majesty.’ I’m not calling him by name—he’s the king even if he refuses to act like it.”
“And he . . .”
Teleus began to look less confident. “He was wearing cloth of gold under his cloak. Looked like a statue of one of the old gods come to life. The entire shop dropped to its knees—mind you, knocking every single stool and bench over in the process. After that, you could have heard a mouse fart. We stood there like the twice-cursed stone pillars of Sia listening to Gudix behind the bar”—Teleus waved his wine cup—“trying to shuffle down to the end of it so he could still see.”
Relius shook his head. “Pour me more wine.”
Teleus went to fetch the amphora. “He has no business—”
Relius held up his hand. “I know. He has no business. But obviously he didn’t need to worry about being stabbed to death in that wineshop, did he?”
Teleus tilted the amphora over his own wine cup as well and grudgingly admitted that Relius was correct.
“I apologized,” he said.
“Well, I am sure he appreciated the wonder of that.”
“He said never mind, handed me this.” Teleus slid a solid gold coin onto the table. It was a double stater. All on its own, it would have bought any of the finest homes in the city. It was an outrageous sum and Teleus clearly had no idea what it meant.
“Oh,” said Relius.
“Oh, what. Is that my severance pay? Do I go back to Pomea now?”
“You could buy a small estate in the country with that, certainly, but I don’t think that’s what he was suggesting.” Relius flipped the coin over, turning the Lily side down and the heads side up. “It’s quite a good likeness, really.”
Teleus stared down at the king of Attolia.
“He did insist on putting it on the double staters first. I don’t imagine many will be minted, but still. The other coins will be coming.”
Teleus considered the gold piece. He nudged it with one meaty finger.
“It was something of a last hurrah, then.”
“I would say that is unlikely that a most private young man . . . will be hiding out in plain sight ever again.”
“I probably owe him a better apology.”
“Probably,” said Relius.
Teleus sighed.
Credits
Cover art © 2017 by Joel Tippie
Cover design by Joel Tippie
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used to advance the fictional narrative. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
THE KING OF ATTOLIA. Copyright © 2006, 2017 by Megan Whalen Turner. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
First published in hardcover in 2006 by Greenwillow Books; first paperback edition, 2007; second paperback edition, 2017.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Turner, Megan Whalen.
The king of attolia / by Megan Whalen Turner.
p. cm.
“Greenwillow Books.”
Summary: Eugenides, still known as the Thief of Eddis, faces palace intrigue and assassins as he strives to prove himself both to the people of Attolia and to his new bride, their queen.
ISBN 978-0-06-264298-1 (paperback)
EPub Edition © February 2017 ISBN 9780061968433
1. Kings, queens, rulers, etc.—Fiction. 2. Soldiers—Fiction.
3. Loyalty—Fiction. 4. Robbers and outlaws—Fiction.
5. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.T85565Ki 2006 [Fic]—dc22 2005040303
17 18 19 20 21 PC/LSCH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dedication
THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED
TO DIANA WYNNE JONES. THANK YOU
FOR THE STORIES AND FOR THE LEG UP.
Contents
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen