Red Seas Under Red Skies (Gentleman Bastard, #2)

by Scott Lynch

“The world is cruel enough without our compounding it;

“I gave an oath of service and imagined that oath was binding in both directions. I was a fool.

‘Man! What a mouse he is made by conversation,’ ” Ezri recited. “ ‘Scorns gods, dares battle, and flinches from a maid’s rebuke! Merest laugh from merest girl is like a dagger felt, and like a dagger, makes a lodging of his breast. Turns blood to milkwater and courage to faint memory.’ ” “Ohhhhh, Lucarno, is it?” Jean tugged at his beard thoughtfully. “ ‘Woman, your heart is a mapless maze. Could I bottle confusion and drink it a thousand years, I could not confound myself so much as you do between waking and breakfast. You are grown so devious that serpents would applaud your passage, would the gods but give them hands.’ ”

I’ll give you a hint. ‘I have held the world from meridian to meridian in my hands and at my whim. I have received the confessions of emperors, the wisdom of magi, the lamentations of generals.’ ” “You had a library? You have a library?”

I faked every second of composure anyone glimpsed this morning.” “The fact that you consider that extraordinary only tells me that it really was your first actual battle.” “But—” “Ravelle, anyone in command feigns ease when death is near. We do it for those around us, and we do it for ourselves. We do it because the sole alternative is to die cringing.

“Alas that the biggest bitch on this ship isn’t even Drakasha or myself, but duty.”

“What a curiously theatrical bent you Brass Sea reavers seem to have,” said Jean. “I knew Ezri had a taste—” “I only quote Lucarno for her,” said Rodanov. “I myself hate the bastard. Mawkish sentiment, obvious self-satisfaction, and so many little puns about fucking so all the Therin Throne’s best-dressed twits could feel naughty in public.

“I am hard pressed on my right; my center is giving way; situation excellent. I am attacking.” General Ferdinand Foch