The Martyr (Covenant of Steel #2)

by Anthony Ryan

Failure was, of course, to be his lot in life, but given the tribulations he faced the fact that he survived so long should be regarded as a triumph of sorts.

This—” he jerked his chin at the bodies “—is the kind of scheme dreamt up by an arrogant fool who thinks he’s cunning.”

I have often reflected upon the notion that the worst thing about having true friends is the missing of them when they’re gone.

Some of those I killed seemed to die over the course of moments, reeling away from my slashing blade in a slow pirouette, their screams lost to my ears. Others fell in mere seconds, their demise rich in the grating crunch of sundered bone or gurgle of blood.

He frowned. “Where was I?” “In a dungeon,” I said, possessed of the fervent wish he had stayed there.

“It is the inevitable fate of those who think themselves wise to suffer the starkest evidence of their folly.”

Dogmatic exhortations are like a plague, easily spread and hard to extinguish.

A direct challenge demanding compliance required a brutal and unhesitant response.

Faith may be real, but I am forced to the conclusion that ritual is, and always has been, mere farce.

A surfeit of courage can often be a deadly affliction.”