A/N This fic is based off of what we learn of Eugenides's plan in The Thief and acts as a prologue to the action of the novel. The only information from the other books is the name of the Queen of Eddis- which is Helen.
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I was used to better.
As a member of the royal family in Eddis, I was used to good wine- nothing in Sounis could match it, no matter where it was found, but I certainly was not used to cheap Sounisian wine.
I took another gulp, letting a bit run onto my chin. I wiped it off with the back of my hand and swallowed without letting a hint of a cringe pass over my face. I had been touring the wineshops since early in the week, listening more than I spoke, letting people get used to seeing me. When I started talking, when my plan went into motion, I didn't want people thinking of where I had come from. I took another swig of the wine and turned to my neighbour. I swayed a tiny bit as I turned, appearing more drunk than this watered junk would get me.
"You know," I said to the thin man beside me, dropping my vowels deliberately so that I had the accent of the city's poor. I was proud of my ability to fit into this place, so well that no one had asked me where I was from. The thin man looked me over with thinly veiled contempt, and I grinned, raising my voice deliberately so that it would carry to the other patrons of the wineshop. "I can steal anything."
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I had been reading a text, translating it slowly from one of the more unfamiliar languages of the Peninsula when he walked in. I didn't look up and he didn't interrupt, which wasn't unusual in itself. My father was a patient man; I had inherited that trait from him and not my mother, who never had been able to sit still for a moment. I would have ignored him until he spoke, but he shuffled his feet and cleared his thought quietly and I realized that he was hesitating, not observing. I turned to study him. Eddis's minister of war didn't ever hesitate. He stood just inside the closed door, looking towards the fireplace instead of at me.
"Helen is not secure on her throne," he said finally, still not looking at me.
"Eddis loves her," I protested.
"Not enough that if Sounis came here with Hamiathes's gift, she would be able to hold the country together. You know about the letter," he said, and it wasn't a question. My father had long ago acknowledged exactly how much of the 'secret' politics of Eddis I was aware of, even if he didn't approve of it. "The people here…" he sighed and turned to face me, holding his hands clasped behind his back in a soldier's stance. "They believe too hard, Eugenides. When Sounis brings the stone, they will believe. And we will lose everything," he paused, closing his eyes. "If Helen marries Sounis-"
"No."
"We will maintain some autonomy. We will control our own fates enough to survive. The Council was unanimous in its decision for supporting the marriage," he said, firmly. I opened my mouth to argue against his betrayal- of Eddis, of his own niece- when he met my eyes. The indecision, the pain, the intensity there stilled my tongue.
"Sounis has given us until autumn for Eddis to reach her decision before he presents the Gift publicly," my father said as he walked towards me, taking the pouch off his belt and setting it on the desk beside me.
"Until autumn," he repeated. Then he was gone, the door shut firmly behind him and his footsteps retreating into silence.
I opened the pouch, looking at the pile of double heavy coins it held.
Until autumn
There was enough to get me to Sounis in disguise, to set me up in the capital.
Until autumn.
I stood, the text forgotten as I rushed into the library. There were blueprints of Sounis's megaron in here, somewhere. One of my grandfathers had designed it, after all. I had to prepare quickly if I only had until autumn to secure my cousin's throne. I prayed to the gods that it was enough time.
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The megaron had been ridiculously easy to get into. I had spent the first week in Sounis searching for the Gift in its depths: hiding in dark, stuffy places as I looked for a rock that matched the descriptions I had read in the legends. At the end of the week I lay in the dark, on top of trunks in the King's treasury, looking up at the shifting grey-black of darkness and admitted to myself that it wasn't here. Sounis had never actually said that he had the stone, although I didn't believe he would be foolish enough to attempt to bluff his way into a marriage with my Queen. So, he didn't have it yet, but he was confident that he would by autumn. It meant a change to my plan. And, more importantly, it meant finding a way to steal something when I had no idea where it was.
I would just have to find someone who did. Because if it was not here, that meant they had not retrieved it yet. And I knew what they would need to get it from its ancient hiding place, even though I had never come across any documents describing just where that hiding place was.
The magus was not a stupid man. He would know a rare opportunity when he saw it, and he would use it to his advantage because he loved his country and was loyal to his King. I just had to make it seem like the plan I was conceiving was believed- especially by the magus- to belong to the magus himself.
By the time the grey-black turned to grey, and then the filtered light of morning my new plan had been formed, one full of what I had decided to call 'reasonable risks'. I slipped out of the palace and into the streets of the capital, stopping to buy some clothes to replace the thief-gear I had. Then I went to find a cheap wineshop and put my plan into motion.
That first day passed uneventfully. So did the next. I stayed quiet, nursing a drink as I took in the faces and habits of the regulars- noting who would pass along the gossip the fastest, who could be talked into making a bet, the ones who knew the city. As soon as I could, I slipped into the megaron again and found the files kept on the city's criminals, creating a story for myself that wouldn't be too out of place. A mountain-born mother, to explain away any mannerisms I couldn't hide. A family history similar to my own, including the careers of my siblings and father. All Sounisian born, of course. I could picture Sounis's magus coming here after I got caught, reading the files and realizing I was perfect. Of course I was perfect. That was the point.
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After that first day, when I turned and announced my skill, I began to make a name for myself. Bets were made that I couldn't steal the watch off a man's wrist, the coins out of a man's pocket, and the wine from a man's cup. I did each and every task, grinning like a fool and taking all of the wine I was bought (although I certainly didn't drink it all- my slight of hand tricks worked both ways). Finally, someone really called me on my boast.
"You can't steal anything," the man called, leaning against the back of his chair.
"Yes, anything," I said, leaning against the counter. There was a crowd today, to the delight of both the wineshop's owner and myself. I needed as many witnesses as possible, in order to guarantee that the Kind hear about my accomplishment before the magus could cover it up. "I can steal anything," I repeated, louder, and some in the crowd, including the man who had spoken up to challenge me scoffed or laughed. "In, fact, I will make you a bargain," I said, jumping up on stool so that the entire room could see and hear the fool and his promise. "I bet you that tomorrow I will walk into this shop with the King's seal on my finger. Then you'll see," I wiggled my fingers at the crowd and jumped off my stool to shake the hands of those around me. Someone called for a round and I hid my groan behind a simpleton's smile.
The magus wouldn't be able to ignore me if I stole something so important right from under his nose. I was sure it had not yet occurred to him that he would need a thief, but it would, and soon. How coincidental that a stupid, but skilled, thief would be arrested and waiting in the King's prison right when he needed one…
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I had come across the seal in his study in the first few days of my time in the city, while I searched it for the Gift- or any documents that could lead me to the location of it. His office was small, although that didn't limit the places where the Gift could be hidden- the walls were lined with bookcases, any one of which could hold a book with the stone concealed inside. The desk was large and beautifully constructed, the kind with dozens of drawers and the potential for a dozen more secret compartments.
I unlocked a cupboard in his desk, found the hidden panel dividing the drawer in half, and opened the small carved box hidden there. I was then looking at the engraved ruby, set in gold, of the King's seal. I set it back exactly as I'd found it, relocking the drawer and finishing my search. I felt very little temptation to pocket it then: rings weren't my jewelry of choice, anyway.
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I picked the lock again in the dead of night- hours after making my bet- listening for movement outside the room while I felt the pins fall into place. I had considered making it a rough job, but I did want the magus to think I had skills. Maybe not skills equal to my real ones, but enough that he would think of me when he realized what he needed. I scratched the wood beside the lock a little, a clumsy pick-job. I also moved objects around in a few of his other drawers. It was possible that he might not even notice, in the panic that would erupt once he realized the ring was gone, but I had heard the magus's reputation. I was sure he would notice the slightest thing out of place in his private rooms, and he would immediately check on the seal- the object his King had placed into his care.
He would be quiet in his inquiries in the city, hoping to get it back and kill the thief before his King even knew that it was missing. But by morning I would be in the wineshops, showing the people there what I had managed to steal. The rumour would spread throughout the city by midday- that the King's seal had been stolen and the thief was stupid enough to show it off.
It will prick my pride to do it, I admitted as I climbed from the magus's window and made my way along the narrow stone drain that directed water from the roof. But there were bigger things at stake here. Just as the magus would do anything to get this stone for his King, I would go to the boundary of all that was possible to steal it back for my Queen.
It would be like a game- one of the war games played upon the board- a chess game with an infinite realm of possibility. His loyalty to his King against that of mine for my Queen. His desire to expand the Sounisian border against mine of protecting my country's autonomy. His knowledge against my cunning. But, I was at an advantage: I knew that the game was in motion, and I knew who played. He would be playing a game of power between himself and the King and country, with a thief as just one of many pawns in the ranks. My board would look very different- a checkers game where, at an opportune moment, the normal piece could transform into one with dramatically different possibilities.
I had never been one for the pawn's role.
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As I slipped through the crowds on the street the next morning with the ring clutched tight in my hand, I repeated my plan in my mind again. By mid-afternoon I would be arrested. All part of the plan. A necessary risk. I could see the holes in it, of course I could- my grandfather taught me to be thorough in all things. If this had been for anything else, I would have studied the plan and I would have backed off. I never would have attempted it for all the riches, all the fame, all the knowledge in this part of our world.
If it had been for anything else I would have backed down. Even though I had the speech in my head already, the picture of myself before that hateful Eddisian court, showing them how useful I was. I had in my mind's eye the image of my glory. But I could have turned down even that.
I would have faced perils a thousand times greater than these because Eddis was My Queen. This was for her, and so I walked into the wineshop- which was packed tight with those who had heard the rumours. I stood just inside the door, looking around at the anticipation on the faces around me. Then I raised my right hand out of my pocket and the crowd erupted as they recognized the seal upon my thumb.
The thin man to whom I had first bragged pushed past me and slipped out the door as the rest crowded around me to get a look. As I laughed and bragged and grinned, I pictured the magus and his guards searching for me.
Come and get me, I thought at him. The game has already begun.
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