Best Served Cold

by Joe Abercrombie

They don’t see that the higher you climb, the further you have to fall.” “Men rarely see that ’til the ground’s rushing at ’em.”

So it always is with military splendour. Hubris made flesh.”

Though she didn’t look like celebrating. Hardly any more than the man crying over his dead friend. It weren’t much of a joyous occasion for anyone, even on the winning side. There’s vengeance for you.

He scratched at the scar on his cheek. Ever so gently, just with his fingertips. He winced, scratched harder. And harder still. He stopped himself, hissing through his teeth. Now it itched worse than ever, and hurt into the bargain. He’d yet to work out a way to scratch that itch that didn’t make matters worse. There’s vengeance for you.

You make yourself too hard, you make yourself brittle too. Crack once, crack all to pieces.

“You are generosity itself, General Cosca.” “I am avarice itself, which is not quite the same, but will do in a pinch.

Nothing but big excuses. I never saw men act with such ignorance, violence and self-serving malice as when energised by a just cause.”

But she’d seen enough to know that no battle is ever the last, whatever people might want to believe. Life goes on. Every war carries within it the seeds of the next, and she planned to be good and ready for the harvest.