Ruin and Rising (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy, #3)

by Leigh Bardugo

“You are on your knees,” I said. “We are not negotiating.”

Men fight for Ravka because the King commands it, because their pay keeps their families from starving, because they have no choice. They will fight for you because to them you are salvation. They will starve for you, lay down their lives and their children’s lives for you. They will make war without fear and die rejoicing. There is no greater power than faith, and there will be no greater army than one driven by it.”

And yet I didn’t think pain like that ever faded entirely. Grief had its own life, took its own sustenance.