The Crippled God (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #10)

by Steven Erikson

‘God failed us.’

‘The Priests spoke of impostors and tricksters, Aparal.’ Kadagar’s tone was even, devoid of inflection. It was the voice he used when furious. ‘What god would permit that?

‘That is all faith is, you know. Pity for our souls. Ask my servant and he will tell you. God looks into your eyes, and God cringes.’

‘How did you feel, Edgewalker, when everything you held fell to pieces in your hands? Did failure arrive like a wall of fire?’

There are many forms of courage, I believe, most of which pass unseen by the majority of us. It’s not always about facing death, is it? Sometimes it’s about facing life.’

When did praying achieve anything but silence? Anything but the pathetic absence filling the air, building like a bubble of nothingness in the soul? Since when didn’t a prayer leave only empty yearning, where wishes burned and longing was a knife twisting in the chest?

To fit into a new thing you had to leave the old thing behind, and that wasn’t as easy as it sounded, since it meant accepting that the old thing was dead, for ever gone, no matter where you tried standing or how stubbornly you held fast.

‘A misunderstood people, the Stormriders.’ ‘No doubt. Abject terror leaves little room for much else.’

The things said and the things not said. In the space in between, a thousand worlds. A thousand worlds.

grieving had nothing to do with the ones gone, and everything to do with the ones left behind. We feel the absences in our life like open wounds, and they never really close, no matter how many years pass.’

‘What of me, Firehair?’ ‘Should the miraculous moment ever arrive when you can say something of value, Spax of the Gilk, be sure to leap right in. Meanwhile, I return to my point.

‘I’ll take your side when the time comes,’ he said. ‘In fact, I will die for you, dog. It’s the least I can do.’

‘Because the gods will not answer mortal suffering. It is too much…work.’

‘The world is vast yet—’ ‘—truths are rare. Just so.’ ‘And,’ Tulas added, ‘as the whores whispered about you, a man of giant aspirations but tiny capacities.’

And hail welcome to the dragon.

Nostalgia was like a disease, one that crept in and stole the colour from the world and the time you lived in. Made for bitter people. Dangerous people, when they wanted back what never was.

‘He was not a modest man. Contemplating suicide, he summoned a dragon.’

‘Even a man who has lived a life of sorrows will ask for one more day.’

A civilization was the means by which too many people could live together despite their mutual hatred.

The Wickan cattledog was not bred for its voice. It rarely barked, and never howled. Yet the cry that now came from Bent could have awakened the wolf gods themselves.

As the stranger dropped the limp arm he still held, Bent crawled over to his master’s side. He lay down, settling his heavy head across the man’s chest. The stranger looked at him, but said nothing. Bent showed his teeth to make his claim clear. He is mine.

‘It is not enough to wish for a better world for the children. It is not enough to shield them with ease and comfort. Lostara Yil, if we do not sacrifice our own ease, our own comfort, to make the future’s world a better one, then we curse our own children. We leave them a misery they do not deserve; we leave them a host of lessons unearned.

‘We should all live a life of hobbies. Doing only what gives us pleasure, only what rewards us in secret, private ways.’

‘You can’t steer anyone away from the path they’re going to take. You can show ’em that there’s plenty of other paths – you can do that much – but past that? They’ll go where they go.’

‘Say nothing. We are walls of silence, you and me. We are perfect reflections of the one we face, and we have faced each other for so long now. ‘And the meaning of that silence is none of the enemy’s business.’

‘Bonehunters. Yield only in death on this day.’

‘Compliments of Kalam Mekhar.’

‘They were marines. Everything of value they’ve already left behind. In fact, Korlat of the Tiste Andii, if Gesler and Stormy could, they’d be the first ones to loot their own grave goods.’ ‘And then bitch about how cheap we were,’ Fiddler said behind them.