The Books of the South (The Chronicles of the Black Company, #3.5-5)

by Glen Cook

This is where command really gets you. When you make a choice that feels like you’re taking the easy way out. When you think you are taking convenience over obligation.

the Radisha had a will of sword steel and the conscience of a hurtling stone.

More evil gets done in the name of righteousness than any other way. Few villains think they are villains. But I left him his illusion. If he had one. I doubted he did. No more than a sword’s blade does.