Megan Whalen Turner Quotes

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.

I can't steal things without two hands," Eugenides said bitterly. "That's why she cut one off."
The queen of Attolia was only ever "she." The name Attolia rarely passed his lips, as if Eugenides couldn't bear the taste of the word in his mouth.
"There are a lot of things that a person with two hands couldn't steal," Eddis said.
"So?"
"Surely if it's impossible to steal them with two hands, it's no more impossible to steal them with one. Steal peace, Eugenides. Steal me some time.

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.