I am very good at groveling.

Her queen danced like a flame in the wind, and the mercurial king like the weight at the center of the earth.

Staring at the wall opposite him he presented the queen with a view of his ear and awaited her orders.

I stayed only two days in the capital. I was welcomed by a cheering citizenry, who threw flowers at my head. It was disconcerting to think I could have put almost any young man in my retinue on a white horse and they would have thrown flowers at him instead. It was not me they cared about, only what I meant to them: a cessation of hostilities, a chance for prosperity, food on the table.

I didn't really care much about anything, so I guess I felt fine.

Oh, that," said the king with a shrug. "That isn't your honor, Costis. That's the public perception of your honor. It has nothing to do with anything important, except perhaps for manipulating fools who mistake honor for its bright, shiny trappings. You can always change the perceptions of fools.

I'm dying of boredom. Or maybe just dying.