New ‘A Discourse In Steel’ Excerpt

November 28, 2012 at 1:42 pm | Posted in Books, Fantasy | Leave a comment
Tags: a discourse in steel, angry robot books, paul s. kemp, tales of egil and nix

Paul S. Kemp has posted an excerpt from his upcoming Egil and Nix novel A Discourse In Steel. Features some wonderful dialog from his colorful characters.

Paul S. Kemp: A bit of Egil and Nix from A DISCOURSE IN STEEL, the follow up to THE HAMMER AND THE BLADE. Unedited, of course. Forgive any awkwardness or typos.

“Smells like wet dog,” Nix said, just to say something.

“Bah,” Egil said, and raised his hammers as if he could smite the offending stink with them. “It smells like a diseased dog that bathed in the Deadmire and then rolled in its own shite. I’d breathe deep the smell of a merely wet dog.”

“No doubt,” Nix said, unable to resist. “Your people are said to have a….well, let’s call it a ‘fondness’ for their herd dogs.”

Egil stomped his boot in the muck, splashing Nix with mud and wet.

“These are new trousers!” Nix protested.

“My people are likewise said to be impatient with sharp words from small men with dull minds.”

“Dull minds?” Nix said, his pride pricked. “Me?”

Egil shrugged under a wet cloak that hugged his mountainous form. “If it’s apt. And by small, I spoke of girth, of course.”

Nix stopped in the street and turned to face his friend, pointing at Egil’s broad nosed face, barely visible under the cloak hood. “What? Small you say? Me?”

“Lacking in girth, I said. And I made only a general observation.” The priest waved a hammer noncommittally and started walking gain, the mud of the street audibly sucking at his boots. Over his shoulder he said, “But again, if you think it apt to you….”

Nix ran after him, further splashing his trousers with mud. “I don’t.”

“Ah,” Egil said insincerely. “Well enough, then.”

“Well enough what?”

“It’s inapt. So you say.”

“So I say? There’s not a woman in Dur Follin who’d attest to your claim of small girth. Kiir only the most recent. And as for the rest, I was enrolled in the Conclave before I’d seen twenty winters. No one of small mind could have done so. And, I’ll add, only a hillman of infinitesimal mind would think otherwise.”

“Infinitesimal,” Egil said, with a smile and a tilt of his head. “Nice. But you quit the Conclave, Nix.”

“Now I know you’re just trying to be irritating. You know well that I was expelled.”

“So you say.”

“So I say?” Nix stomped his own boot in the muck, trying to splash Egil, but instead spattering himself with mud. He cursed and the priest ignored him.

“So I say? That’s what you say?”

Egil nodded. “So. You. Say. That’s what I say.”

They both stopped, turned, and stared at one another a long moment. The rain beat down. Thunder rumbled. Each broke into a grin at the same moment.

“You did call my people fakkers of dogs,” Egil said.

“I meant nothing,” Nix said with a tilt of his head. “Trying to distract myself. And it warranted a rebuttal, I concede. But small of prick and small of mind? One or the other would be fair, but both? That’s bringing a blade to a fist fight.”

A Discourse In Steel is the second novel in the Tales of Egil and Nix. It is set for release on June 25, 2013 in paperback and digital formats. You can pre-order it here.

Posted By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.