Return of the Thief
Page 32
Brinna: The head cook in Attolia’s kitchens.
Caeta: One of Attolia’s attendants.
Casartus: Admiral of Attolia’s navy.
Cassa: Owner of the honeyed hives in the Mede epic of Immakuk and Ennikar.
Cello: A mountain god. Lover of Alyta.
Chloe: A younger attendant of Attolia.
Cleon of Attolia: One of the king’s attendants.
Cleon of Eddis: A dim-witted, but not evil, cousin of Eugenides. Eddis proposed him as an attendant for the high king, but Cleon spectacularly rejected the king’s invitation.
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.
Drusis: A new attendant to the king. Motis and Drusis are brothers.
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: The Secretary of Attolia’s archives until his unexpected death. He was replaced by Orutus.
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 senior attendants.
Imenia: One of Attolia’s senior attendants.
Immakuk: One of the heroes from the Mede epic of Immakuk and Ennikar.
Ion: One of Eugenides’s attendants
Ion Nomenus: He was the faithless attendant to Sophos when he was held captive by the Mede ambassador Akretenesh and the Sounisian Baron Brimedius.
Iolanthe: One of Attolia’s senior 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.
Kununigadak the Devourer: A terrifying monster who guards the gates of the underworld in the stories of Immakuk and Ennikar.
Lader: A very unpleasant cousin of Eugenides. Deceased.
Laecdomon: A disruptive member of Aristogiton’s squad in the Attolian guard and an agent of Baron Erondites.
Laela: A slave in the househould of Nahuseresh. A friend of Kamet’s.
Lamion: One of Eugenides’s attendants.
Lavia: One of Attolia’s attendants.
Legarus: One of the men in Aristogiton’s squad in the guard. He is quite beautiful and uses it to what he thinks is his advantage.
Luria: One of Attolia’s attendants.
Lyopidus: The mortal brother of the god Eugenides. Jealous of his brother’s powers, he asked Eugenides to steal the Sky’s lightning bolts and died when they set the world on fire.
The magus: One of the king’s most powerful advisors; a scholar.
Marin: One of Nahuseresh’s dancing girls. He and Kamet were both in love with her.
Marina Erondites Susa: The only daughter of the Baron Erondites, she was disinherited when she married against her father’s will.
Medander: One of the king of Attolia’s attendants.
Melheret: The Mede ambassador to Attolia.
Meridite: An Eddisian goddess. Mother of armorer Horreon.
Minister of War: Eugenides’s father.
Minos: An Attolian baron. Publicly a supporter of the queen.
Miras: One of the new gods of Attolia, god of light and arrows. Worshiped by soldiers.
Moira: Messenger goddess of the Eddisian pantheon and also a record keeper. Her name means fate.
Motis: Became an attendant when two of the king’s attendants were retired. Motis and Drusis are brothers.
Nahuseresh: The Mede ambassador to Attolia. Nephew of the emperor; younger brother of the heir to the emperor. He attempted to woo the queen of Attolia as a means to her throne and failed.
Neheeled: Nahuseresh’s older brother, heir to the Mede Empire.
Ne Malia: Mede goddess of the moon, fertility, and rebirth.
Nine Gods: The main pantheon of the new Attolian gods. They defeated the giants.
Nuri: A Mede god of the river and the flood.
Olcthemenes: In the Eddisian stories of the old gods, Olcthemenes was the tailor who turned a blanket into a suit of clothes for the god Eugenides.
Olmia: In the Eddisian stories of the old gods, Olmia the weaver made a hat from bird feathers for the god Eugenides.
Onarkus: The head of the queen of Attolia’s kitchen.
Oneis: A heroic figure from the Epic of Oneis.
The Oracle: Oracle and high priestess at the new temple being built for Hephestia above the palace in Attolia.
Ornon: A minster to the queen of Eddis. Ambassador to Attolia. Subsequently Attolia’s ambassador to the Mede empire.
Orutus: Secretary of Attolia’s archives, which is to say, her master of spies.
Pegistus: Attolia’s Minister of War.
Pelles: One of Eugenides’s attendants.
Periphys: A goddess, one of the lighter winds.
Permindor of Nilos: Also called Perminder of Sounis, he was proposed by Sophos to be a new attendant to the high king.
Petrus: Attolia’s personal physician for years.
Pheris Mostrus Erondites: The nephew of Dite and Sejanus, and the firstborn grandson of Marina, the only daughter of the Baron Erondites. He shares his name with his grandfather who is Erondites.
Philia: One of the goddesses of the Attolian pantheon. She is goddess of mercy.
Philologos: Youngest but highest ranking of Eugenides’s attendants.
Phoros: A baron in Eddis; father of Agape, Hegite, and two other daughters.
Phresine: Oldest of Attolia’s attendants.
Piloxid
es: A general of Attolia’s armed forces.
Pol: Captain of Sophos’s father’s guard; a soldier.
Polemus: A new attendant to the king.
Polyfemus: One of the giants who supposedly built the old walls of Sounis’s prison and the roads of Eddis.
Proas: An Eddisian god of green and growing things.
Prokep: A Mede god; a statue of him was made by the sculptor Sudesh.
Queen of the Night: Sister of Death and mother of Unse-Sek.
Relius: He was the secretary of the Archives, with many, many, lovers; one of whom turned out to be a spy for the Mede Emperor.
Roamanj: A caravan master who hires Costis and Kamet as guards.
Sejanus: The youngest child of Baron Erondites.
Senabid: A character in skits, a slave who makes a fool of his master.
Shef: A slave dealer in the Mede Empire.
Shesmegah: In the Mede pantheon, goddess of mercy, forgiveness, and second chances.
Silla: One of the Queen of Attolia’s attendants.
Sky (god): Created by Earth, he is the second god in the Eddisian pantheon.
Snap: Also called Pepper. Pheris’s pony.
Sophos (Useless the Younger): Apprentice of the magus; future duke; nephew of the king and his heir. He becomes king of Sounis.
Sotis: One of Eugenides’s senior attendants.
Sounis: Sophos’s uncle and king of Sounis. He had no children of his own. In exchange for his half-brother’s support he has named his nephew, Sophos, as his heir.
Stadicos: One of Attolia’s barons, corrupted by the Mede ambassador, Nahuseresh.
Stenides: Eugenides’s brother, a watchmaker.
Susa: One of Attolia’s barons. Devious, but not necessarily an enemy of the queen. He is baron over the lands where Costis’s family has their farm.
Teleus: The captain of the Royal Guard. He only has one lover.
Temenus: Gen’s brother, a soldier.
Tenep: Usually the most gentle of the gods, she turns her anger on the world when Ennikar steals from her.
Thales: Wrote about the basic elements of the universe; Eugenides was copying his scroll before he went on his mission to Attolia.
Thalia: Costis’s younger sister.
Themis: Erondites recruits Themis and hopes to make her the king’s mistress, but Eugenides only dances with Themis’s younger sister, Heiro.
Therespides: An Eddisian known for his philandering. Also known for selling information to anyone who will pay him.
Timos: Cousin of Eugenides and Eddis. He dies stopping Attolia’s advance up the main pass into Eddis.
Titus: Gen’s cousin who once broke several of Gen’s ribs in a beating.
Trokides: A general of Sounis’s armed forces
Ula: Goddess of the hearth and healing.
Unse-Sek: A terrible monster that roamed the isthmus in the stories of Immakuk and Ennikar, child of the Queen of the Night.
Verimius: One of the king’s attendants. He has a wife and various lovers until he was sent home from the Attolian court.
Witch of Urkell: In the Epic of Immakuk and Ennikar, she is Ennikar’s lover and the daughter of Ninur.
Xanthe: Eddis’s most senior attendant.
Xenophon: One of Eddis’s generals.
Xikander: One of the king’s less pleasant attendants. Poor Gen has so many unpleasant attendants. Xikander and Xikos are brothers.
Xikos: Another one of the king’s unpleasant attendants. Xikander and Xikos are brothers.
Zerchus: A cook in Attolia’s kitchens.
About the Author
MEGAN WHALEN TURNER is the New York Times–bestselling and award-winning author of five previous stand-alone novels set in the world of the Queen’s Thief. Return of the Thief marks her long-awaited conclusion to the epic and unforgettable story of the thief Eugenides—a story more than twenty years in the making. She has been awarded a Newbery Honor and a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature. She has twice been a finalist for the Andre Norton Award and won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Books by Megan Whalen Turner
THE QUEEN’S THIEF NOVELS
The Thief
The Queen of Attolia
The King of Attolia
A Conspiracy of Kings
Thick as Thieves
World of the Queen’s Thief Collection
Return of the Thief
SHORT STORIES
Instead of Three Wishes
Back Ad
DISCOVER
your next favorite read
MEET
new authors to love
WIN
free books
SHARE
infographics, playlists, quizzes, and more
WATCH
the latest videos
www.epicreads.com
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used to advance the fictional narrative. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
RETURN OF THE THIEF. Text copyright © 2020 by Megan Whalen Turner. Illustrations copyright © 2020 by Paul O. Zelinsky. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.epicreads.com
Cover art and design © 2020 by Joel Tippie
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020943465
Digital Edition OCTOBER 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-287448-1
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-287447-4 (hardcover)
FIRST EDITION
20 21 22 23 24 25 PC/LSCH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
GREENWILLOW BOOKS
An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Bay Adelaide Centre, East Tower
22 Adelaide Street West, 41st Floor
Toronto, Ontario, M5H 4E3
www.harpercollins.ca
India
HarperCollins India
A 75, Sector 57
Noida
Uttar Pradesh 201 301
www.harpercollins.co.in
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand
Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive
Rosedale 0632
Auckland, New Zealand
www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF, UK
www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
www.harpercollins.com
-ms-filter: grayscale(100%); filter: grayscale(100%); " class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share