“What a strange world it is, where prisoners are left their weapons and the written word is a mortal danger.”

“The prison keeper choose an inopportune time to look around the doorway into the cell. He and the king locked gazes, and the king's eyes narrowed while the prison keeper's widened.”

“We are taught to treat a practice sword with all the respect of a real weapon, so no thoughtless mistakes are made""Oh... In Eddis, we learn to keep tack of the weapon we have in our hand.”

“A little danger adds spice to life.”

“She's like a prisoner inside stone walls, and every day the walls get a little thicker, the doorways a little narrower.""And?" Eddis prompted."Well," said Eugenides, "it's a challenge.”

“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?”

“That prison," I said with heartfelt sincerity, "Was absolutely the most awful thing that has happened to me in my entire life." I could tell by the way he looked at me that he thought my life had been filled with one awful thing after another.”