Creation demands destruction. Survival demands that something else fails to survive. No existence was truly benign.
Something awaits me. I do not mean this mad Emperor. Something else. Answer me this. How does one measure time?’ ‘By the course of the sun, the phases of the moon, the wheel of the stars. And, of course, in cities such as this one, the sounding of a bell at fixed intervals – a wholly absurd conceit and, indeed, one that is spiritually debilitating.
Autumn rains drumming overhead, they had squatted in a half-circle, facing north, and watched as seven robed and hooded figures approached.
The guard’s gaze was on him, the eyes hard and piercing.
Cultures can die, Hull, but the people live on, and what they carry within them are the seeds of rebirth –.
He strode down the empty street, cleaving the low-lying mists that swirled like incandescent cloaks in the gaslight.
And then he saw the chains, snapping down through the clouds to crack thunderously on the horizon. Hundreds of chains, impossibly huge, black, whipping in the air with explosions of red dust, crisscrossing the sky. Horror filled his soul.
A small whimper escaped her throat, then she desperately pulled her eyes away.
The creature spun, tumbling, then twisted round to face its attacker, rage blazing in its skull.
Around Karsa Orlong, I suspect, only Karsa Orlong has his way.
For the wise, even joy was tinged with sorrow.
All right. Let’s try something else. I take it you see no point in history.’ He grunted. ‘If by that you mean that there is no progress, that even the notion of progress is a delusion, and that history is nothing more than a host of lessons nobody wants to pay attention to, then yes, there is no point. Not in writing it down, not in teaching it.
Some roads were easier to leave than others. Many walked to seek the future, but found only the past. Others sought the past, to make it new once more, and discovered that the past was nothing like the one they’d imagined.
Do you like shiny things? I do, even though they hurt my eyes. Maybe it’s because they hurt my eyes. What do you think?’ ‘I don’t think much of anything any more, lad.’ ‘I think you do too much.’ ‘Oh, really?’ ‘Father thinks the same. You think about things there’s no point in thinking about. It makes no difference. But I know why you do.’ ‘You do?’ The lad nodded. ‘The same reason I like shiny things.
Language was war, vaster than any host of swords, spears and sorcery. The self waging battle against everyone else. Borders enacted, defended, sallies and breaches, fields of corpses rotting like tumbled fruit. Words ever seeking allies, ever seeking iconic verisimilitude in the heaving press.
No one could claim that Preda Norlo Trumb was the most perceptive of individuals, and the half-dozen Letherii guards under his command, who stood in a twitching clump behind the Preda, were now faced with the very real possibility that Trumb’s stupidity was going to cost them their lives.
Bad tactics, and whoever this Caladan Brood is, he’s shown himself adept at making us pay for our mistakes.” “Caladan Brood,” Calot murmured. “I swear I’ve heard that name somewhere before. Odd that I’ve never given it much thought.” Tattersail’s eyes narrowed on Tayschrenn. Calot was right: the name of the man commanding the Tiste Andii alongside the Crimson Guard did sound familiar – but in an old way, echoing ancient legends, perhaps, or some epic poem.
Only a soul that has surrendered utterly gives up on notions of redemption.
The final aspect of Kruppe to complete this dream’s array of those faces facing him which are Kruppe’s own. Or so you would proclaim. You are Humility but, as everyone knows, Humility has no place in Kruppe’s life, remember that. So here you will stay.
A man possessing power must act decisively, Ganoes Paran, else it would trickle away through his fingers.