I still don’t know where this series is going, and I am loving the journey.

Nicholas is coming into his own. There is a mission for him and the Charetty company (it’s mission of trade, naturally). He gets to assemble a team, and make people into a team. Thoughts on leadership and what people expect from their leader are woven into the book. It’s fascinating.

”For leadership was a dangerous drug. To watch other men’s errors was once an idle amusement; now it was an ache.”

Everything that makes Dunnett novels so special is here: the glories of her descriptive writing; historical details and settings that make you want to read up on so much (or to scour Wikipedia, at the very least); the adventures; the danger; the intrigues; the wonderful dialogues; the heartbreak… The villains are great – you love to hate them. Yet Dunnett writes such an unexpectedly poignant scene when one of them meets his end! Just like in the first book, the underlying intrigue is not revealed until the very end. At this point, I felt for Nicholas who wished to be free of both conscience and responsibility.

Games people play is another recurring theme in Dunnett’s books – games and their consequences. Yes, horrible things with overarching consequences may happen, even if you were ”only playing a game”. (Nicholas has now made toys for quite a few people, too. And none of them has had good things happen to them after that. What is this pattern about, I wonder?)

In this book, Nicholas shines a lot more than the supporting characters. I don’t mind this narrative choice, but I wanted to see more of everybody. Catherine de Charetty was an exception, she evolved in interesting ways. The company’s lawyer, Gregorio, had excellent POV chapters as well.

Oh, did I mention that Dunnett took me to Trebizond? To Trebizond! How cool is that? And I could see the city, the Citadel, the Emperor’s court, it was all right in front me. Thank you, book.

”The court spent much of the day making itself beautiful, in order to spend much of the rest of the day in a state of physical gratification.”

”Today, the sun was hazily warm, and the tulips lining the water channels seemed made of scarlet satin: the scent of narcissus and hyacinth was dizzying.”

The latter chapters were thrilling. I guessed some of the events at the very end, but not all, not all… One thing in particular left me reeling – not because I greatly cared for this character, but because of the consequences for all the others. I am guessing we’ll be seeing this play out in the next book!

I have written down too many wonderful quotes not to share at least some of them:

”He went to sea: the earth fell away and instead there was space, into which he sprang vividly whole.”

”Perfection would spoil you,” said John le Grant. ”The passengers knifing the crew, half the galley in holes, two priests and a whistle on board and the Turkish army ahead. It’s not a ship. It’s a nervous wreck, laddie.”

”You’re still planning. You’re up to something, aren’t you?”
”Yes, I am binding my bleeding arm,” said Nicholas.

”Do you not think me altruistic?”
”I didn’t think your highness knew the word,” Nicholas said.

”Nicholas formed the opinion that my lord Simon was untouched by time and probably by experience.”

”He wondered, drawing the new, shining blade, what other skills Simon would force him to master. Finding a method of resurrection, perhaps.”