In what promises to be a dark, irreverent and fun follow up to his 2012 sword and sorcery novel The Hammer and the Blade, author Paul S. Kemp will soon be releasing A Discourse in Steel. This novel will continue the adventures of Egil and Nix set in Kemp's own fantasy world.
Here is a taste of the excerpt that Kemp released for May as a teaser. The first taste is free, after that you gotta buy the book.
Nix took a length of thin, strong rope from his satchel of needful things – he always carried several lengths of the best line he could buy – and bound the man’s hands and ankles. Then he went back up to the bar, half-filled a tankard with ale, returned to the cellar and threw it in the man’s face. The man sputtered and blinked awake. He had small eyes, too close together, a large nose and a narrow chin specked with a day’s growth of whiskers.
He eyed Nix, Egil, the cellar, swallowed hard. Nix could see thoughts moving behind his eyes.
“Yeah, you’re in a bit of it,” Nix said. “I’ve been there.”
“It was just a burn job,” the man said, his voice nasally. “I do it, I get paid, and I don’t know nothing more than that.”
Egil harrumphed and Nix tsked.
“Burn jobs don’t call for barring doors, now do they?”
The man colored but his expression remained defiant.
A symbol hung from a leather lanyard around the man’s neck. Nix grabbed it, yanked it off, and eyed the charm: a stiletto with a coin balanced on the tip. Aster’s symbol. Nix shared a knowing look with Egil.
“This here’s a guild boy, Egil.”
“Fakkin’ sneak priests and fools,” Egil said.
“I don’t know nothing about a guild,” the man said.
Nix tossed the charm at the man and hit him in his overlarge nose. “Not too smart, are you?”
To read the rest of the excerpt visit Paulskemp.com
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