Reaper's Gale (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #7)

by Steven Erikson

Sprawled there on his throne, Rhulad was indeed a metaphor made real. Armoured in riches and armed with a weapon that promised both immortality and annihilation, he was impervious to everything but his own growing madness. When Rhulad fell, the Errant believed, it would be from the inside out.

Yikes

Fiddler, the last great saboteur, went to work.

Mmmm

‘I am probably the last living High Priest of D’rek, the Worm of Autumn. The face of the aged, the dying and the diseased. And of the all-devouring earth that takes flesh and bone, and the fires that transform into ashes—’ ‘Yes, fine, I grasp the allusions.’

Rhulad Sengar, Emperor of a Thousand Deaths, stood above the corpse of his third victim.

Open to them your hand to the shore, watch them walk into the sea. Press upon them all they need, see them yearn for all they want. Gift to them the calm pool of words, watch them draw the sword. Bless upon them the satiation of peace, see them starve for war.

‘It’s all right, Beak, to die alongside your comrades. It’s all right. Do you understand me?’ ‘Yes sir, I do. It is all right, because they’re my friends.’ ‘That’s right, Beak.’ And that’s why no-one needs to worry, Captain.

Hard af