Sounis stared. “Were you behind the negotiations on Lerna and Hannipus?” he asked.

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” answered Eugenides with a straight face.

Sounis glanced at the attendants and let the subject drop. “We would have died without the additional men,” he admitted matter-of-factly. “But we would have taken the entire Mede army with us. Poets would have written about us, and songs would have been sung about us—”

“For all the good that would have done your dead bodies,” Eugenides cynically interrupted.

“Well, I wasn’t looking forward to it,” said Sounis caustically. “But over our dead bodies the Medes would never have been accepted by the people of Sounis. Much more likely that they would have allied with Attolia.” He looked at Eugenides, who was still eyeing him in surprise. “I didn’t expect to die,” he said. “I knew you would send help.”

“Why?”

It was Sounis’s turn to be surprised. He said, “You told me you needed me to be Sounis. I am. I needed my king to send me help. You did. There had to be reinforcements at Oneia, so they were there.” To him it was obvious.

Eugenides swallowed. “I see.”

They both returned to looking out over the city. Sounis’s thoughts turned to Eddis. He had given up his sovereignty to Attolis for reasons anyone could understand. He wasn’t sure that anyone would ever know how Eugenides had become king over Eddis. If he couldn’t bring himself to speak of the gods aloud to Eugenides, who would he ever tell? Who else would ever know of Eddis’s dreams of fire and death from the Sacred Mountain?

“She would have married your uncle,” Eugenides said, as if sensing his thoughts and turning them in a new direction.

“I am glad she will not,” said Sounis.

“Me, too.” Eugenides smiled.

“The Medes will find us united against them,” said Sounis.

“I should hope so,” said Eugenides. “You shot the ambassador.”

“You gave me the gun.”

They both laughed.

Map

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.

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

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 and supporter of the Queen of Attolia.

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: An Attolian baron enmeshed in the schemes of Baron Erondites. At the baron’s suggestion, he misreports 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.

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

Chloe: A younger attendant of Attolia.

Cleon: One of Eugenides’s attendants.

Cleon (the other Cleon): Gen and Eddis’s cousin.

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.

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: An Attolian baron. He becomes the secretary of the archives after Relius is arrested for treason.

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 younger attendants.

Imenia: Among the most senior of Attolia’s attendants.

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

Ion: One of Eugenides’s attendants

Ion (the other Ion): He is a faithless attendant of Sophos, king of Sounis.

Iolanthe: One of Attolia’s attendants.

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

Kamet: An enslaved Setran, private secretary to Nahuseresh.

Kepet: A Setran slave dealer in the Mede empire.

Kununigadek the Devourer: A terrifying monster who guards the gates of the underworld in the stories of Immakuk and Ennikar.