In the shocked aftermath, I said, "We'll give them a second chance." With my right hand, I reached to the… — Megan Whalen Turner
In the shocked aftermath, I said, "We'll give them a second chance."
With my right hand, I reached to the other pocket. I had known as soon as I lifted the false bottom of the gun case and looked underneath what it meant. I had tried without ceasing to find some alternative to Attolia's ruthless advice, and I had failed. Gen's fit reassured me that I had not failed for lack of trying. He had seen no other solution himself.
I lifted out the matching gun and read the archaic inscription. Realisa onum. Not "The queen made me," but "I make the king."
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"Ten thousand!" I shouted at the walls, back in the room with the wooden shutters, now open so that anyone could hear me, on the porch or probably across the compound. "That arrogant bastard landed ten thousand men at Tas-Elisa. In my port! Mine!" When I was a child and playmates snatched my toys out of my hands, I tended to smile weakly and give in. Years later I was acting the way I should have as a child. Probably not the most mature behavior for a king, but I was still cursing as I swung around to find a delegation of barons in the doorway behind me. My father, Baron Comeneus, and the Baron Xorcheus among them.
They thought it was how a king behaved.
Eschewing ceremony, Eugenides said, "You shot their ambassador?"
"You gave me the gun," protested Sounis.
"I didn't mean for you to shoot an ambassador with it!" Eugenides told him.
"Oh, how our carefully laid plans go astray," murmured the magus.
"You shut up!" said Gen, laughing.
"In my experience, the more you know of the gods, the more you know what you cannot understand."
