Half a King (Shattered Sea, #1)

by Joe Abercrombie

The food of fear is ignorance, Mother Gundring used to say. The death of fear is knowledge.

The fool strikes, she had said. The wise man smiles, and watches, and learns. Then strikes.

“Mercy is a feature of greatness,” Yarvi managed to croak.

“Your mother was right.” He saw Nothing’s eyes glint in the darkness of his helmet’s slot. “You have become a deep-cunning man.”