A Malazan Book of the Fallen Collection 4

nothing for us. The Abyss comes to deliver
its own arguments, against which we cannot stand.
    Fener, I have doomed you. And you, old god, you have
doomed me.
    Yet, I no longer regret. For this is as it should be. After
all, war knows no other language. In war we invite our own
destruction. In war we punish our children with a broken legacy
of blood.
    He understood now. The gods of war and what they
meant, what their very existence signified. And as
he stared upon those jade suns searing ever closer, he
was overwhelmed by the futility hiding behind all this
arrogance, this mindless conceit.
    See us wave our banners of hate.
    See where it gets us.
    A final war had begun. Facing an enemy against whom
no defense was possible. Neither words nor deeds could
fool this clear-eyed arbiter. Immune to lies, indifferent to
excuses and vapid discourses on necessity, on the weighing
of two evils and the facile righteousness of choosing the
lesser one – and yes, these were the arguments he was
hearing, empty as the ether they traveled.
    We stood tall in paradise. And then called forth the gods of
war, to bring destruction down upon ourselves, our world, the
very earth, its air, its water, its myriad life. No, show me no
surprise, no innocent bewilderment. I see now with the eyes of
the Abyss. I see now with my enemy's eyes, and so I shall speak
with its voice.
    Behold, my friends, I am justice.
    And when at last we meet, you shall not like it.
    And if irony awakens in you at the end, see me weep with
these tears of jade, and answer with a smile.
    If you've the courage.
    Have you, my friends, the courage ?
    Read the complete book –
coming soon from Bantam Press