316 pages
"Sophos, under the guidance of yet another tutor, practices his swordplay and strategizes escape scenarios should his father's villa come under attack. How would he save his mother? His sisters? Himself? Could he reach the horse in time? Where would he go? But nothing prepares him for the day armed men, silent as thieves, swarm the villa courtyard ready to kill, to capture, to kidnap. Sophos, the heir to the throne of Sounis, disappears without a trace.
In Attolia, Eugenides, the new and unlikely king, has never stopped wondering what happened to Sophos. Nor has the Queen of Eddis. They send spies. They pay informants. They appeal to the gods. But as time goes by, it becomes less and less certain that they will ever see their friend alive again.
Across the small peninsula battles are fought, bribes are offered, and conspiracies are set in motion. Darkening the horizon, the Mede Empire threatens, always, from across the sea. And Sophos, anonymous and alone, bides his time. Sophos, drawing on his memories of Gen, Pol, the magus - and Eddis - sets out on an adventure that will change all of their lives forever." -Dust Jacket
{SPOILERS}
Megan Turner doesn't disappoint in any of the books in this series, including this one, but it wasn't my favorite of the four. I liked Sophos in the first book and enjoyed learning more about him in this one, but I really missed Gen. Sophos is not like Gen at all. He's weak. He's unsure of himself. He's a scholar not a fighter. He's not arrogant. There are no moments when you know he'll get the better of the people around him and you as a reader will thoroughly enjoy it when he does. He feels inferior and questions himself not only as a future king but also as a man. He finds himself quite content to hide as a slave for a period of time, until he realizes that he must rise up and become who he's supposed to be. By the end he's definitely grown up and holds great potential as the king of Sounis. Regardless of his self-doubt he's always likable though. I love the part when he tells Eddis that his strength is that he knows when he's made a complete fool of himself.
Behind the scenes - so behind the scenes that you never read of the bribes, spies and informants the book's description hinted at - Gen, Attolia and Eddis manipulate and choreograph the events of the book. They want a united Attolia, Eddis and Sounis (the sovereigns are called by the names of their respective countries) to ward off the threats of the Medes so they basically trick their friend into swearing loyalty to Attolia, thereby forcing an alliance upon Sophos. They make him feel so inferior that he never once considers that he might be able to win his country on his own. In a way it's for his own good as he needs to learn valuable lessons and learn to trust his own ability.
I'm glad that there are apparently two more books coming in this series. I don't think this would have been a good place to end the story. I hope that the next ones will have more Gen and Attolia. I hope that Sounis, Eddis, Gen and Attolia will conspire against the Medes and there will be more trickery and brilliance. Books three and four hint that Gen is ill in some way. He's attended to by the court's physician and Eddis says something about how he walks between two worlds and there is a thin veil between him and the gods. That's an interesting part of the story for me, that supernatural part of it. I just hope it doesn't mean that Gen will die. He's grown to be larger than life. Even when he's wounded he seems invincible. Yet all along the author has made us aware that the Thief's fate has always rested in the hands of the gods. I can't wait to read this series again.
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