Grown more confident of the queen's humor, Relius said, "I had not pictured you for a fishwife." "Lo, the… — Megan Whalen Turner

"Who knows but that you will get up to find that the world has inverted itself yet again?" He looked around the room at the other attendants as if in warning, but spoke to Philologos. "Remember, the love of kings and queens is beyond the compass of us lesser mortals."

If anyone noticed, no one commented that he had called the Thief of Eddis a king.

As the queen raged at him, he responded, first calmly, then with his own heat. "Is there no one that you will see punished?" the queen shouted. "Are you fond of Teleus now that you preserve his life at all costs?"

"I only asked you to reconsider."

"There is nothing to reconsider!"

"You know why I need him."

"Not anymore," the queen declared with finality.

The king ignored the finality. "Now more than ever," he insisted.

"He has failed-"

"That was not entirely his fault!"

"Then you will unmake my decisions?" Attolia dared him to try.

"You said that I could," Eugenides flatly replied.

Pushed too far, the queen lashed out. The king made no effort to avoid the blow. His head snapped around and his forehead struck the doorjamb. He staggered and caught himself. By the time he opened his eyes, she was at the door and then she was gone.

The king lifted a hand to her cheek and kissed her. It was not a kiss between strangers, not even a kiss between a bride and groom. It was a kiss between a man and his wife, and when it was over, the king closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the hollow of the queen's shoulder, like a man seeking respite, like a man reaching home at the end of the day.