The Bonehunters (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #6)

by Steven Erikson

‘The intruders who have come here, witch, believe themselves civilized. And so they kill Anibar. Why? Because they can. They seek no other reason.

The gentler and kinder the god, the more harsh and cruel its worshippers, for they hold to their conviction with taut certainty, febrile in its extremity, and so cannot abide dissenters. They will kill, they will torture, in that god’s name. And see in themselves no conflict, no matter how bloodstained their hands.

‘I said good news, Bottle. Like, we’re all about to drop off the world’s edge. Something like that.’ ‘Oh. Well,’ he called out as the man slithered across the deck, ‘there’s seals!’

He stepped to the entranceway, looked out, and saw Cotillion, the Patron of Assassins, the god, sitting on a shelf of stone that had slipped down from one wall, sitting, alone, with his head in his hands.