The Darkness That Comes Before (The Prince of Nothing, #1)

by R. Scott Bakker

“No one’s soul moves alone, Leweth. When one love dies, one must learn to love another.”

Everywhere men grasped and grasped, as though the titles “king,” “shriah,” and “grandmaster” were simply masks worn by the same hungry animal. Avarice, it seemed to him, was the world’s only dimension.

At first glance she appeared to be the severed head of a woman, beautiful yet vaguely common, mounted on a pole.

Though stunned, Conphas replied without hesitation, “And dress them as my . . . as army regulars?” “Of course. The ceremony is as much for them as for you, no?” His heart thundering, Conphas knelt and kissed his uncle’s knee.