Conn Iggulden

There is no escape from me, not even in death.

You have a powerful army, Kublai, but the best force is one you do not have to use.

Sung Win smiled to himself, enjoying the tension across his shoulders and the way his pulse beat in his veins. All life involved risk.

It's all you can say, when the end comes: 'I did not waste my time.' I think that matters. I think it may be all that matters.

Predators did not need mercy.

God had mercy, he knew. The Mongols had none.

The man attempted to salute and Renius forced himself to smile, biting back his temper at the sloppy manners. He watched the fat figure run away into the buildings and wiped the first beads of sweat from his brow. Strange that such men as that should understand loyalty where so many others threw it aside at the first hint of freedom.

The wisdom of age is bitter when those you have failed have gone.

I am the rightful khan of the nation. I am the gur-khan. My word is iron and my word is law.

Kublai went on as if he had not spoken.__efore you all, in the lands of my enemies, I declare myself great khan of the nation, of the khanates under my brothers, Hulegu and Arik-Boke, of the Chagatai khanate and all others. I declare myself great khan of the Chin lands and the Sung. I have spoken and my word is iron!

As he prepared to ride on, he chuckled at the thought of the wolf entering the sheepfold. He would not ride with fire and destruction. The shepherd did not frighten his own pretty lambs.

If he had learned anything in manhood, it was that it didn__ matter what other people thought of him__ven the ones he respected. In the end, he would patch together a life, with its sorry errors and its triumphs, just as they had.

If he had learned anything from his father__ fate, it was to win, no matter how you did it. It was not important if someone else was hurt, or killed. If you won, you would be forgiven anything. You could be taken from a stinking ger and forced through the ranks until a thousand men followed your orders as if they came from the khan himself. Blood and talent. The nation was built on both.

I am not you and all my choices have already been made, good and bad.

A man needs to feel a little fear, Tolui, if only to have the pride of conquering it.

The nation of my father is too strong for a man who cannot command even his own body.

A brave man could conquer fear, he had learned that, but perhaps only for a time. It was something the young did not understand, the way it could gnaw at a man, the way it came back stronger every time, until you were alone and gasping for breath.

If a man has gold, he lives with the terror that someone will take it away from him, so he builds walls around it. Then everyone knows where the gold is, so they come and take it. That__ the way it always goes, brother. Fools and gold, together.