you brought it on yourself miss twiddle

Loosely related to the gender issue: there's the wonderful passage where Sounis and Eddis are talking:

"I thought, when I first met you, that you would marry Gen."

"I would sooner have strangled him," said Eddis.

"I didn't see that," said Sounis. "I still don't honestly. He has saved Attolia."

"Gen and I are too close to marry. If he has saved Attolia, then she has saved him, as well..."

When Sophos first says that Gen has "saved Attolia" you think he means the country (and maybe he does?). But then Helen takes it to mean the queen.

And that brings up the problem that when Gen is "King of Attolia" is he ruling the country or ruling the woman?