The Black Song (Raven's Blade, #2)

by Anthony Ryan

The great fortress city of Keshin-Kho lay under an ashen grey miasma that seemed immune to the stiff northerly wind sweeping off the Iron Steppe.

I learned then that power does not derive from wealth; wealth and power derive from knowledge.

The rewards of power are always empty in the end.

“An ancient legend spoke of a mighty sorcerer who laid waste to the Opal Islands, long before the foundation of the first kingdoms.

‘Time,’ he told me, ‘is both precious and worthless. It is eternal and fleeting. Like clay, you may make of it what you will, if your hands possess the skill to do so.’”

“The true master must always be tested,” Vaelin replied. “Or he is a master of nothing.” “I see the philosophers of your lands are just as fucking pretentious as ours.”

The old woman stood in the doorway to her home, arms crossed and face unmoved by Sherin’s attempts at persuasion.

“Stone and wood can always be gathered and built into something new,” Vaelin replied. “Corpses can’t.”

The collective cry of thousands of voices inevitably recalled the prayer-chants of the Redeemed as they charged to their deaths, making him wonder if, in seeking to bring down one false god, he may have helped create another.

In war, only the final victory should be celebrated.

I had noticed throughout the horde’s rampages that children didn’t always cry when faced with horrors that would have driven an adult mind to madness.

“I had thought him merely an irritant, but every time I worry the Darkblade’s tale might descend into tedium, he writes me another chapter.”

Conquest brought many rewards, it was true, mainly in loot and renown, but I was beginning to understand that a conqueror can suffer almost as much as the conquered.

I never met a coward who could resist a bribe.”

“Do it again,” he said. “Get it right and the Darkblade will show his mercy by only taking one of your fingers.”

“Unfurl all sheets and tighten all lines! Bosun, toss every empty barrel in the hold over the side! Helm, steer two more points to starboard!”

“Yes, it’s often been my experience that a woman’s first love will triumph over all others.”