All right, book nerds. We have one more installment to go, and that means we’re about to lose our collective minds over everything Return of the Thief could possibly have in store. Have you seen this tease? We are not well.
Details are crucial in this series, so make sure you’re completely refreshed and ready to go with our book-by-book recaps. We’ve been re-reading the series for your benefit (and, let’s be real, our own pleasure), so we hope these recaps have been helpful. And before we dive into Thick as Thieves, we feel obligated to warn you once more…
Are you ready? Grab your book and get reading—or just journey down memory lane with us below!
You should already know the three nations at the center of the Queen’s Thief series (find more about them here and, especially, here), but you should also know:
• Medea: Separated from the Little Peninsula by the Middle Sea, the Medes nevertheless have been attempting to make in-roads. Though free with what they see as their superior culture and intelligence, offers of Mede alliances are viewed with suspicion by the wise, as all of their past allies have “coincidentally” been swallowed whole by the ever-growing empire.
• Braels: A country to the far north, Braels is one of the Greater Powers of the Continent. The Continental Powers usually leave the Little Peninsula alone, but they have a vested interest in keeping the Medes at bay.
• On the Little Peninsula: The three kingdoms of the Little Peninsula—Sounis, Eddis, and Attolia—are now joined under the annux, the king of kings, Attolis Eugenides, and his wife, Attolia Irene. Sounis Sophos and Eddis Helen are married, and with the wars between their countries settled, all four monarchs are turning their attention back to the looming threat of the Mede Empire.
• Across the Sea: After returning home in disgrace, ex-ambassador Nahuseresh is trying to claw his way back into the good graces of the emperor and the emperor’s heir, his uncle and brother, respectively. He is also trying to pacify his wife, who was not happy to learn Nahuseresh had tried to marry the Attolian queen. None of his projects are going well.
You can find more information about the characters we’ve met so far in our previous recaps, so head to The Thief and The Queen of Attolia for the bulk of those introductions.
• Kamet: Our narrator. Slave and secretary to Nahuseresh since childhood, Kamet has convinced himself he’s happiest as a slave to a powerful man, where he can hold some small power himself. Kamet is well-read, a cultural snob, and very nearsighted.
• Laela: Former dancing girl in Nahuseresh’s household, now a matron over the girls. She owes Kamet a debt.
• Melheret: Mede ambassador to Attolia.
• Goedekker: A runaway slave living in Zaboar.
• Hey, Remember How Much We Hate Nahuseresh?: Kamet is bleeding. His owner, Nahuseresh, has beaten him with a statuette after the emperor failed to give Nahuseresh a governorship. Another slave, Laela, finds Kamet and tends to his injuries. Kamet replaces his master’s statuette. Laela feeds him news from the household of Ornon, the Attolian ambassador. Kamet is well on his way to healing when he runs into a member of that household, an Attolian soldier. The Attolian tells Kamet that his king, Attolis, blames Nahuseresh for the loss of his right hand and wants to take Nahuseresh’s in return—meaning Kamet! The Attolian tells Kamet to meet him at the docks after sunset. He would smuggle Kamet out of the city to Attolia and make him a free man. Kamet waits until the Attolian leaves to dissolve into a laughing fit. To Kamet, Attolia is a backward sewer of illiterate barbarians, and he believes the Attolian is lying anyways. Kamet has no interest in dying.
• A Totally Unsuspicious Wine Merchant: Kamet is on his way home when Laela finds him. Nahuseresh is dead. Poisoned. Kamet suspects the emperor, which means no one will seek the true culprit. When a Mede slave owner is murdered, his slaves are tortured, then executed, so none will be tempted to win their freedom through revolt. If one confesses, they will all still die but escape torture. If Kamet escapes, the blame will fall on him and his peers will be granted a quick death. He decides to run but has nowhere to go. As a slave, he can’t leave the walled city by himself. A stranger, a man missing his right eye, calls Kamet by name. The man says he’s a wine merchant with deliveries for Nahuseresh and Kamet must follow him to the dock immediately. He’s clearly lying, but Kamet follows, fearing the worst. The man leads him to the dock, then says never mind, and leaves. Kamet turns and runs straight into the Attolian soldier from before. It is afternoon, not sunset, but the phrases sound similar in Mede, so Kamet lies and says the less-than-fluent Attolian mixed them up. He doesn’t want the Attolian to know he’s fleeing his master’s death.
• Boarding Anet’s Chariot, I Mean Dream: They go to the theater, the only place in town a free Attolian and enslaved man can stand together without raising suspicion. The actors perform the story of wily Senabid, the clever slave who mocks and tricks his master, then follow it with the story of Immakuk and Ennikar stealing Anet’s Chariot. When Kamet and the Attolian leave, it is sunset. The Attolian takes Kamet to a ship called Anet’s Dream, where Kamet must pretend to be his slave and get them both aboard without revealing that the soldier is Attolian. Instead of going downriver, they’ll head north, in the opposite direction of where they’re most likely to be tracked, and take the longer route to Attolia. Kamet still doesn’t believe the Attolian’s intentions, but he’s cautiously optimistic that the soldier doesn’t mean to gut him immediately. Kamet convinces the Attolian they have to keep up the ruse of master and slave so the sailors don’t suspect his nationality. While they travel, the Attolian asks Kamet about the play they watched at the theater.
• Immakuk and Ennikar: Immakuk was the king of Ianna-Ir. One year, the spring floods didn’t recede and his people suffered, so Immakuk and his friend Ennikar steal the chariot of the sun god, Anet, and shut the floodgates of heaven. They are never seen again, but the floods recede and never rise that high again, so the two are presumed to still be at the gates of heaven, protecting the city. Kamet recites an Attolian translation of the first tablet of their tale to the soldier—one he translated himself, though he doesn’t say so—which describes how goddess of mercy Shesmegah led wise Immakuk to meet strong Ennikar for the first time. The Attolian also asks about the tale of Senabid, but Kamet won’t tell it. The mocking slave makes him uncomfortable.
• Blub Blub Blub: The ship docks in the river outside Sherguz overnight. Kamet wakes to shouting. The boat is on fire! The Attolian pushes Kamet overboard, but Kamet can’t swim. He panics and begins to drown… until the Attolian jumps in and tells him to stand up. They wade to shore, but the Attolian’s purse and their clothes are gone. The Attolian suggests they sell Kamet’s gold chain, the one sealed around his neck that marks him as a slave and owned by Nahuseresh. Kamet refuses. He still considers himself a slave, as, according to him, only a master may free a slave, and any attempt by anyone else is punishable by death.
• Kamet Gets Pants: They find room at an inn after Kamet lies their way in. While the soldier eats and chats with other patrons, Kamet schemes the best way to run away. But then the one-eyed wine merchant from before enters, so he must grab the Attolian and slip upstairs so they won’t be spotted. Kamet tries to wait for the Attolian to fall asleep, but falls asleep himself, and when he wakes up, the other man is gone. Worse, the innkeeper realized he had been tricked and kicks Kamet out. The Attolian returns and doesn’t seem bothered. He has booked them working passage on a caravan. He has also bought Kamet a free man’s clothes. Kamet still refuses to remove the chain.
• Attack of the Namreen: The caravan is halfway to its destination when two armed horsemen ride up from behind. The Attolian falls back, promising to take care of them while the caravan rides ahead. Kamet stays with him, unsure what else to do. He’s horrified to see the men are Namreen, members of the emperor’s own bodyguard. The Attolian kills them both, but not before one hits Kamet over the head with his sword. Kamet has a panic attack, and the Attolian hugs him until he’s done. Kamet knows it’s his fault, that they’re pursuing him because of Nahuseresh, but he doesn’t tell the Attolian. The soldier hides the dead Namreen and takes their supplies, and then he and Kamet start walking. They don’t get very far with Kamet’s head injury, so the Attolian hides him in a cave.
• 🎶 In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle…: The Attolian cleans Kamet’s head, but there is a strange scratching outside. Kamet panics as he realizes that the Attolian has hidden him in a lion’s den. The Attolian recites a surgery song as a distraction as he stitches Kamet’s wound, and then Kamet sleeps. He wakes to the lioness screaming outside, trying to get in. The Attolian stabs at her until she stops, but the Attolian is clawed on the forearm.
• The Familiar Attolian Backstory: The next day, they leave the den and start walking for the nearest town. When they make camp that night, Kamet asks how the Attolian came to Ianna-Ir. He punched the king, the Attolian explains, and the king was kind to him. Because the king was kind, others thought the Attolian was a favorite and tried to kill him, so the king sent him away for his own safety. Kamet is aghast at the weakness of the king who forgave too easily and couldn’t protect his favorite soldier. But Kamet had actually been asking what physical route brought the soldier to Ianna-Ir, because he has another myth to share.
• The Story of Unse-Sek: Unse-Sek, son of the Queen of the Night, stalked the Isthmus, eating men in their sleep. One man was the prince of Hylas, and his father and mother promised glory to anyone who would slay Unse-Sek. Immakuk and Ennikar answered the call. The mighty warriors chased Unse-Sek as he howled his mother, but then Unse-Sek caught Immakuk in his teeth. Ennikar rescued his friend, but not before Immakuk lost his eye. The two friends killed Unse-Sek and brought his head back to the court of Hylas to hang above the gate.
• Immakuk and Ennikar in the Underworld: Kamet and his companion travel on, but they are running low on water. The Attolian offers Kamet the last of their supply in exchange for another story. Kamet accepts the gift. The Queen of Night, angry over the death of her son, sent her brother Death to steal Ennikar away to the underworld. Grieving Immakuk begged the gods for aid, so the goddess of the moon took him to the stepwell of Ne Malia, where he must descend to follow the eternal river into the land of Death. Once there, Immakuk found the oil that would allow him to pass back through the gates to the land of the living, but Death would not give it up. Kamet explains no one knows how Immakuk eventually gets the oil or what trade he makes with Death, because that tablet was broken. Immakuk found Ennikar but the Queen of Night would not let him go until Ennikar gave her a son to replace the one he killed. Immakuk and Ennikar anointed each other with the oil of the gods, but the shades of the dead chased the heroes to steal the bottle of oil. They caught Ennikar, so Immakuk threw the bottle to lure them away. Immakuk and Ennikar escape the underworld, but the bottle was lost, so no man has escaped Death since.
• As Errand Boys Do: The Attolian liked the story very much, and Kamet confesses he was the one who translated it, first from its original translation of Ensur into Mede, and then from Mede into Attolian while he and Nahuseresh were in Attolia’s palace. One of the palace errand boys would nag Kamet for a translation of the story until he completed it.
• Kamet the Setran: Once they reach Traba, the Attolian finds a disreputable money changer to break Kamet’s chain and pay them for the gold. Kamet keeps the plaque with Nahuseresh’s seal. On the road again, the Attolian asks if Kamet has always been enslaved. Kamet says no, he was stolen by raiders as a child. He was not Mede himself, but from Setra, in the highlands to the northeast. Kamet’s mother, little sister, and younger brothers had been taken by one man, Kamet by another. His ability to write set him apart, and Nahuseresh bought him in Ianna-Ir to be an apprentice and eventual replacement for his current secretary. The long years of paperwork and figures weakened Kamet’s eyes. Though not blind, he can’t make out faces from across the room.
• The Stepwell of Ne Malia: Kamet and the Attolian travel partway with a chatty onion farmer whose eye was turned white with cataract. The farmer brags of Koadester, the city they were approaching, which contained the stepwell of Na Malia, the same from the myth of Immakuk’s journey to the underworld. Ne Malia, goddess of the moon, would tell a man’s fortune in exchange for a sacrifice left at her altar in the well. The Attolian insists on visiting the stepwell. Kamet receives the fortune “Your journey will take you farther than you imagine,” while the Attolian is told, “Remember Immakuk. Pay the fastener.” On their way out, the Attolian’s sandal strap breaks. Kamet notices one of the leatherworker’s slaves being bullied by the others and brings it to the leatherworker’s attention. After they’ve left, the bullied slave finds them and warns that the Namreen are looking for a pair of men matching their description. The Attolian wants to hurry out the front gate, but Kamet is afraid he’ll see the wanted bill posted and read the part that accuses Kamet of murder. The Attolian does see the bill, but he doesn’t accuse Kamet. Instead, he apologizes for the unnecessary risk of coming in to visit the stepwell. Kamet assumes the Attolian is illiterate.
• Expand or Die: They leave Koadester safely and while they travel, the Attolian tells Kamet more of his king. The Attolian king says that once the ailing emperor dies, if his heir does not expand the empire into the Little Peninsula, the resulting internal war will destroy the Mede empire. The Attolian king also pretends he doesn’t recognize the current Mede ambassador every time they meet and forces the man to reintroduce himself, sometimes twice in one day. Kamet defends Medea, listing all the benefits that come from being absorbed into the empire, as his own Setra was.
• Caught: Kamet and the Attolian are in the foothills when they are spotted—not by Namreen, but by slavers and bounty hunters. They are trapped. Thinking quickly, Kamet makes the Attolian hide his armor and sword. If they present as two escaped slaves, they cannot be the prize the bounty hunters seek. Kamet quickly tells the Attolian how to behave as a slave, then berates him loudly as the slavers approach so they can hear the story of the house slave who escaped with the mistress’s pet fieldhand. The Attolian forgot to take off his earring, so he quickly pops it in his mouth as the slavers approach. Angry they are not a profitable bounty, the slavers beat Kamet and the Attolian before binding them and leading them back to camp. A dozen other slaves, all emaciated and destined for the mines, waited there.
• Soldier Sings Soprano: The slavers grow drunk by the fire and Kamet is concerned by the looks they give the handsome Attolian. When one approaches, Kamet quickly starts berating the Attolian. Confused, the Attolian tries to apologize and nearly mentions Nahuseresh by name. Kamet donkey-kicks him between the legs. The Attolian screams, then threatens to kill Kamet. Kamet believes him and stays as far away as possible, but the slaver has gone back to the fire. Crisis averted… except the Attolian grabs Kamet’s chain, drags him close, and tries to choke him to death. The slavers pull the Attolian off and spike a link in his chain so he can’t move toward Kamet again.
• Escape!: Once the slavers sleep, the Attolian works the spike out of the ground, creeps toward the watchman (who had also fallen asleep), and breaks his neck. One by one, the slaves all lift their chains to give the Attolian more slack. The Attolian breaks two more necks, pausing only to glare at Kamet when the sickened man tries to stop him. The remaining men he clubs with a log and then has the other slaves restrain their captors while he works on their chains. Kamet is unchained last. The Attolian then hammers the cuffs around the ankles of the living slavers. Kamet directs the freed men to a local temple that will protect them.
• A Heart-to-Heart: Once they are safely away, the Attolian apologizes to Kamet. Kamet doesn’t know how to respond. He had thought the Attolian’s earlier apologies were insincere, like Nahuseresh’s, and wasn’t sure how to receive one that was genuine. He asks if it was easy to kill the slavers because they were enemies. The Attolian confesses that the act of killing is easy, much easier than he had thought before becoming a soldier, but the deaths will linger. The Attolian then asks if there was nothing Kamet liked about Attolia. Eventually, Kamet admits that he chafed at how much of an anomaly he had been there, and how unappreciated he had felt. He told the Attolian about the errand boy he had mentioned before, the one he had translated the tablets for. Kamet had hoped the boy would be impressed, but instead he had said it was something any idiot could do. The same boy had been a poor servant—he had bitten the head cook twice—but the insult had still stung at the time. The boy had told Kamet a wild story about running away and being chased by the Queen’s Guard. When he ran a second time, Kamet slipped him a coin. The boy returned the favor later by sending Kamet a copied scroll of a story Kamet had never seen before. It was the only thing Kamet had taken with him when fleeing Attolia.
• Ennikar and the witch of Urkull: Kamet tells another story. The witch of Urkull seduced Ennikar and persuaded him to steal a sphere of light from the goddess Tenep, so Tenep cursed the land with drought and famine and Ennikar with a deadly fever. Immakuk pleads to Shesmegah for aid on behalf of his land and his friend Ennikar. Shesmegah goes to goddess Cassa and sends her bees to sting the witch and drive her out of hiding. The witch tells Shesmegah how Ennikar had left her to return to Immakuk, so the witch had grieved, then sent him after the sphere. Shesmegah chastises the witch, who returns the sphere to Tenep, rejoins Ennikar, and together the witch and Ennikar stay in her forest until he must return to Immakuk again.
• Fools in Love: The Attolian and Kamet swap stories of their own troubles with love—the Attolian of lovely city girls used to lure fresh country recruits into debt, and Kamet of Marin, Nahuseresh’s favorite dancing girl. Kamet had asked Marin to run away with him. The Attolian asks if that was when Kamet had been flogged. He had seen the scars. No, Kamet had been flogged for daring to take a piece of cake from Nahuseresh’s plate. Kamet defends Nahuseresh, telling the Attolian of the times his master was kind, but even he isn’t sure why the defense is necessary. When Nahuseresh found out about Marin, he’d had Kamet beaten until nearly dead and sold Marin.
• Respite: Kamet and the Attolian must now cross a salt pan, but their water is running low, and they are out of food. They find a dilapidated farm run by a farmer and his shepherd brother. The well is shallow and the farmer can’t drink coin, so their payment is useless. The Attolian offers his skill as a tinsmith instead—that was his grandfather’s work, and he had picked up some skills. His work pleases the matron of the house, and he and Kamet are invited to spend the night in the goat shed. They are also given food packages to take with them. The farmer also quietly gives them a path to follow that will let them avoid the emperor’s roads.
• The Fall: The Attolian and Kamet are officially out of the Mede Empire, but not safe. Not yet. They must reach the city on the coast of the Shallow Sea, where a contact at the trading house will put them on a ship home. On the way, they run out of water again and stop by a mill to refill. The mill is in disrepair, and their welcome is hostile at best, but when they try to leave, they are attacked by half a dozen men. Kamet and the Attolian fight their way free, but are attacked by the miller’s massive dog. The Attolian and the dog fall into the well. There is a heavy fall, a yelp, and silence. The well was dry, with no water to cushion the fall. Kamet runs.
• More Like a Reluctant Acquaintance, Surely: Kamet reaches the next town. He is grieving the loss of his companion, and surprised by his grief. He had planned to abandon the Attolian anyways. He had never planned to go all the way to Attolia. His thoughts are interrupted by an elegant, bearded stranger who asks, “Are you certain he’s dead?” Kamet is startled and confused. The stranger repeats his question, then says, “Be certain before you let go of him. I once was lost, and my friend came for me.” Kamet struggles with his own conscience. After all, the Attolian was not his friend. Right? But he pictures the Attolian not dead but dying, legs broken in the well, waiting for Kamet to save him.
• Rise Like the Ghost of Paul Hollywood: Kamet returns to the mill. The Attolian is alive but still trapped in the well. Kamet finds a rope and has just dropped it down when the miller reappears and tries to kill Kamet. The Attolian rises from the well, glowing white in the moonlight. The miller runs screaming from the ghostly figure, but the Attolian is merely covered head to toe in flour. As they run from the mill, the Attolian explains that the dog broke his fall, but something is wrong. He can’t keep pace with Kamet, which was never a problem before, and his forehead is hot. Unfortunately, the closest town is under plague precautions, and though those are not the symptoms he has, Kamet doubts the inspectors will listen. Kamet and the Attolian sneak into the city by hiding behind a camel. Its driver is none other than the bearded stranger. The Attolian takes one look at him and greets him. “Ennikar!” The stranger does look like the mythological figure and seems startled but not offended. When he leaves, he calls Kamet by name. The Attolian asks if Kamet saw him, too.
• Goedekker. No, Really, Just Go: The trade house the Attolian needs to go home is closed because of the plague. The Attolian is quickly worsening. They are approached by an extremely dirty, short man who recognizes Kamet as a runaway slave. He offers them both a place to hide for a price. His name is Goedekker, a slave name. He takes them to a portion of the city damaged in an earthquake, to a tiny courtyard with a chained gate and filled with junk. He threatens to turn them in anyways, but Kamet points out that Goeddeker himself as a runaway slave, so he would doom himself.
• The Good Kush, Emotionally Speaking: When Goedekker learns the Attolian isn’t also a slave, he’s livid. He accuses Kamet of being a whimpering dog, that the Attolian isn’t helping him but stealing him with the intent of being Kamet’s new master. He tells Kamet he should bash the Attolian’s head in with a rock and be done with it. Kamet also wonders why he doesn’t leave while the Attolian is too ill to stop him. Maybe Goedekker was right. Goedekker insinuates that the Attolian’s interest is purely sexual and that he will tire of Kamet. Kamet explains the Attolian isn’t stealing him because he loves him, but because he is valuable and it is the will of the Attolian’s employer. Goedekker calls him an idiot. The Attolian wakes the next morning and asks what is troubling Kamet. Kamet tells him a little of his conversation with Goedekker. The Attolian asks if Nahuseresh were the one struck with fever, would Kamet have stayed? No.
• Crafty Kamet: The next morning, Goedekker arrives with a squadron of soldiers. Kamet shouldn’t have let slip that they were valuable. Thinking quickly, Kamet quickly insists that the “other slave” hidden in the back does not have the plague. Accusations fly, and the squad leader throws Goeddeker behind the gate, cracking his head on the ground. Once the soldiers leave, Kamet ties the traitor up with strips of cloth, then goes out to buy food and water. He brings back skewers of grilled meat. Goedekker cries when he is given one. Finally, the Attolian is well enough to leave, so they do, but not before the kindhearted soldier leaves the rest of their money with Goedekker.
• Homeward Bound: At last, they find an Attolian ship, and the Attolian shows the captain the earring he has kept safe their entire journey. The bottom is engraved with the private seal of Attolis Eugenides. The captain is skeptical but agrees to take them as far as Sukir. The Attolian is unhappy, but Kamet is relieved, because it means he has one more chance to escape. He’s finally admitted to himself that he doesn’t want to leave the Attolian, but he knows that once the other man learns of Nahuseresh’s death and Kamet’s many deceptions, their friendship will be over. In Sukir, Kamet waits until the Attolian and the captain leave, then packs his things and slips away, but the labyrinthine city streets keep leading him back to the dock. Before Kamet can try again, the Attolian reappears and they return to the ship. The Attolian shows Kamet the seal on the bottom of the earring, an engraving meant to symbolize Hamiathes’s Gift. When the ship reaches the channel, the Attolian will fly a matching sail, a signal only the king will recognize and know they are coming. Kamet’s anxiety only deepens, and he prays that the king’s wrath will fall only on him, not the Attolian.
• Immakuk or Senabid: They are met in the channel by two war galleys. The Attolian wonders why, when secrecy was so important before. Kamet, at last, confesses. There is no need to hide him from his master with his master dead. The Attolian is very still. He asks if Kamet poisoned Nahuseresh. Kamet says no. He asks if Kamet meant to disappear on Anet’s Dream, and again at Sukir. He had noticed more than Kamet realized. The Attolian says he had thought they were Immakuk and Ennikar, but really, they had been Senabid and his master all along. He thinks Kamet has been laughing at him the entire time. As the soldiers from the war galleys board the ship, he tells Kamet that if Kamet had just told him, he would have let him go, even though it would be treason. Then Teleus, captain of the palace guard, enters the room and arrests both the Attolian and Kamet.
• Grief and Anger: Once ashore, the Attolian and Kamet are surrounded by palace guards and hurried through the city. The streets are empty and the guards are on edge. The queen, a soldier says. She miscarried. A son, the rumors say. The country is in mourning for the child, but fearful for their queen. Late miscarriages are often deadly. They are led below the palace and locked into separate cells. Kamet apologizes, using Costis’s name for the first time. Costis explains the other guards at the waterfront were decoys and he had been too blindsided by Kamet’s confession to realize it. Kamet, for the first time, allows himself to be angry and asks why Costis would ever think he’d want to come to his stinking backward country and scrabble for a living on a street corner. Costis is flabbergasted and insists his king wouldn’t do that. They argue back and forth, then withdraw in a huff until the guards return.
• Attolis Greets a Friend: They are taken to the throne room where a crowd has gathered, hoping to see the king and hear news of the queen. The king enters, too far away for Kamet and his weak eyes to make out, but Kamet is amazed by the control he has over the room. This is not the weak and ineffective king he expected. Attolis tells the court that the queen will be well, and there’s a sigh of relief. Kamet is in a panic. A weak king might forgive Costis’s error for bringing the useless slave of a dead master, but not a man like this. And one look at Costis’s face confirms that the fool means to lie to his king. Kamet speaks quickly, addressing Attolis with the archaic term for great king. Kamet pushes on, confessing that Nahuseresh is dead and he has deceived Costis, so all punishment should be his. Costis has to be restrained from following Kamet as Kamet approaches the throne and kneels. Attolis has a confession of his own to make. Nahuseresh is not dead. His ambassador, Ornon, conspired with Laela to deceive Kamet to make him leave. Costis hadn’t known. Laela had lied to give Kamet his freedom, and Kamet had believed it, as Attolis had known he would. After all, he had heard so much about Laela from Kamet’s own lips.
• For Love and Spite: Kamet rushes the throne. Attolis waves off the alarmed guards and waits, patiently, as Kamet studies the face of his friend, the bratty little errand boy who bit the master of the kitchens. Twice. Kamet asks why. Because of spite and because Kamet is his friend. Kamet asks if he sent the wine merchant that led him to the docks. Attolis says he didn’t. He promises to repay Kamet for upending his life. Freedom or not, it hadn’t been Kamet’s choice, and Attolis’s motivation had been spite even more than friendship. He hands Kamet a coin, the same coin Kamet had given him long ago, and he promises to get Kamet a new copy of the story he lost and to rebuild his library in Attolia, scroll by scroll. On his way out, Kamet passes Melheret, who knows all about Kamet’s escape, the Namreen, everything. He mentions they’d almost been caught in Sherguz. Only the arrival of the wine merchant at the inn had shooed Kamet out in time. He offers Kamet a way home, back to his old life with his comfortable powers and familiarities. At last, Kamet is able to make the choice for himself. He declines.
• Kamet’s Hidden Value: Kamet falls asleep in his room, and when he wakes, Attolis is sitting on his footboard, and he’s brought a friend—Yorn Fordad, ambassador from Braels. Attolis’s reasons for stealing Kamet went beyond just spite or friendship. Everyone knows the Medes are planning to invade the Little Peninsula… except the Braelings and the rest of the Continental Powers. They will not act without proof. Attolis asks where the Mede have been hiding ships for the invasion. If the ambassador can see those ships, the Continental Powers will be forced to act. Kamet realizes this is why the Namreen chased him, because the emperor feared what the king hoped—that Kamet would know the location. Kamet thinks he doesn’t, then remembers the governorship Nahuseresh had failed to secure, the one that had gotten Kamet beaten with the little statuette. That’s where the fleet is hidden. A month later, the allied fleet “happens” to stumble upon the Mede ships hiding in the bay Kamet named and an unknown gunner fires without orders. A firefight ensues and 80+ of the Mede ships are sunk and thousands of men die.
• Kingnamer: Kamet, now freed and due a surname, struggles to rename himself. He is visited by Relius, Attolia’s former spymaster and an acquaintance from Kamet’s last stay in Attolia. He asks if Kamet will share information about his emperor, but stresses that he’s under no obligation. Attolis has named him guest and free man regardless. Though Kamet liked the Eugenides he thought he knew, he doesn’t trust him. But Kamet does trust his own estimation of Relius. He agrees and gives every detail he can remember, which, as Nahuseresh’s most trusted slave, is a lot. Relius also asks him to write down his travels with Costis, so he does. Kamet wanders the palace and is startled to discover that the court has already given him a name—Kamet Who Called Eugenides the Great King, which is soon shortened to Kamet Kingnamer. He also befriends the youngest of the king’s attendants, the heir to Erondites.
• The River Knows Its Time: In one of his wanderings, Kamet crosses paths with the queen as she is resting in the gardens. Attolia is still recovering, her health fragile. She asks if it’s true that Attolis bit the head cook twice. She also asks if it’s true that the Attolian saying the river knows its time originally came from the land of Ianna, from a longer piece of writing. Kamet says it did and quotes the text for her. The queen finds comfort in it, murmuring that it had not been their child’s time and that they would welcome her when she came again. Attolia then warns Kamet not to wait too long to visit the kitchens or he’ll have his ear boxed in greeting as the king did. Kamet does as he’s told, recognizing old and familiar faces, but he hesitates, unsure of his welcome. He’s embraced and scolded simultaneously. It seems he had not been as lonely in Attolia as he remembered. He starts making acquaintances in the Attolian court and begins a correspondence with the magus of Sounis at Relius’s suggestion. But he is unhappy. He hasn’t seen Costis since his arrival, and he misses having a purpose.
• An Alternative Future: Kamet decides to leave, but before he can, Attolis visits again. He offers an alternative to Kamet’s aimless plan to leave: Go to Roa, to a temple that overlooks the Ellid Sea, and work as a scribe there. Attolis lost his observers there and needs someone to watch what ships come and go. But if Kamet does this, it must not be a favor. He owes Attolis nothing. Attolis also says that an agent of his had purchased and freed Laela, so she is safe and away from Nahuseresh. Kamet asks why he sent Costis. Because Costis is honest and Kamet would have evaded a cunning man.
• “Idiot. Us.” 😭: A week later, Kamet boards the ship to Roa. He is thinking how much he will miss Costis when Costis boards as well. He asks if Kamet would like company on the journey. Kamet asks about his position with the king. Costis says it was Eugenides’s suggestion that he go, and the king had sent him home to say goodbye to his family. Kamet says he can come. Immakuk and Ennikar, Costis declares. Kamet looks around for the mythological figures, but Costis nudges him and says, “Idiot. Us.”
• Thief: Melheret is on a ship headed home. The emperor has recalled his ambassadors. His secretary approaches and says his figurine of Prokip, a valuable statue except for its missing right hand, is gone. Inside the locked case, which had never left the secretary’s sight, is a handwritten note from the King of Attolia, wishing Melheret a safe voyage home. Such is the power and the cunning of Attolis Eugenides. Melheret dismisses the secretary, who goes belowdeck and locks the cabin door. The secretary thinks it’s a shame to throw such a beautiful statue away, but Attolis pay well and is too dangerous to cross. He drops the statue through the porthole and into the sea.
Want to read more in the Queen’s Thief series?
- Find more recaps here
- Buy Thick as Thieves now, or the previous books in the series
- Prepare for the epic finale, The Return of the Thief