" Since when did you care about the enemy? You know what that word means, don’t you? Or would it help if you looked it up?”

“I know what it means,” she said. “It means what you want it to mean. It means you can do what you damn well like. Do you like having people killed, Notker? Does it make you feel big and strong?”

“Enemy means someone who wants to hurt you,” I said. “Them or us, simple as that.”

“Simple.” She gave me a look I won’t forget in a hurry. “I don’t think there’s any point talking to you. Remember Andronica in The Golden Mask? That’s you, just the wrong way round. "

― K.J. Parker , How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It (The Siege #2)