A Little Hatred (The Age of Madness, #1)

by Joe Abercrombie

“Guilt is a luxury reserved for those still breathing and with no unbearable pain, cold or hunger demanding all their fickle attention.

Orso’s father worked his mouth unhappily and the old scar through his beard twisted. “The Northmen don’t fool about when it comes to bloodshed. I could tell you some stories about my old friend Logen Ninefingers—”

The Arch Lector glanced up at a huge, dark portrait on the wall. Some fearsome bald bureaucrat of the past, glowering down watchfully upon the little people.

(Magni Bayez)

“Believe it or not, we all want what’s best. The root o’ the world’s ills is that no one can agree on what it is.”

“I saw a bald weaver with a purse that never emptied.”

“I saw an old woman whose head was stitched together with golden wire.”

“I saw a lion… and a wolf… fight in a circle of blood.

“The lion was the winner!”

“Lord Marshal West?”

“Leo?” He turned back. His mother stood there against the grey sky, fists clenched tight. “Give those bastards hell,” she snarled.

I saw a wolf eat the sun and a lion eat the wolf then a lamb eat the lion then an owl eat the lamb.”

No sooner did I engineer a suspension of hostilities with a troublesome brother in the South than two siblings in the West chose to become… difficult.”

“You weren’t there.” The king’s fingers dug painfully into his wrist. “When the Eaters came. You didn’t see… what he is capable of.” His eyes had the strangest, haunted look. “You must promise me never to defy him.”

“Whatever they ask for, whatever they offer, refuse, do you understand?” He looked up at her now. She was not sure she had ever seen him look scared before. “Refuse and come to me at once.” “What the hell has Bayaz to do with anything—” “Everything!”

“I saw a white horse prancing at the top of a broken tower.”

“I saw a great door open but on the other side there was only an empty room.”

“I saw an old chieftain dead.”

He looked sideways, to Wonderful. “Kill her.”

“The king is dead,”