QSFer Gabrielle Harbowy has a new FF fantasy book out:
When a powerful evil artifact is stolen from a crusader stronghold, romantic partners Keren and Zae, newly arrived in the city to train in their respective callings, are caught up in the clandestine search for it. With legendary champions and undead graveknights battling in their race to recover the artifact, who’ll notice one young knight, a gnome healer, and her dog? All they have to do is stay alive long enough to outsmart a thief capable of evading both heroes and gods. No big deal, right?
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Excerpt
Zae blinked. At times like this, when the course of events took a turn she wasn’t expecting, she felt like a clock that had just started to run down and would be fine again after a bit of winding. While it was a relief to see that, once again, Appleslayer’s wary instincts had been correct, Zae felt strangely betrayed. There had been something endearing about the guide who didn’t know the city.
Three men and a woman in leather armor and shrouding hoods converged on them, weapons drawn. Rather, they converged on Keren — she had the big sword, and had held Kala’s attention. Zae and Appleslayer hadn’t registered as a threat. This was something Zae could use to her advantage; she retreated a few steps and dropped her hand to her side, palm back, signaling for Appleslayer to wait. She called upon Brigh to bless her allies, and saw courage surge through Keren and the dog.
Keren drew her long, straight-bladed sword up into a parry, deflecting an attacker’s blade with a clang of angry metal. “I don’t know what you think I have, but I swear to you I don’t have it. We’re just here to train.”
“Unlikely,” Kala said, drawing a sword from the folds of her robe. “We’ve been waiting for the Knights of Ozem to get involved. How convenient that they always arrive at the same place. So. Lead us to the artifact and we’ll spare you. Defy us and we’ll kill you both, and the next knights they send after you, and the next.”
Author Bio
Gabrielle Harbowy got her start in the publishing industry as a Pricing Analyst at Scholastic. Since leaving the corporate side of publishing in 2006, she has edited for publishers including Pyr, Lambda Literary, and Circlet Press, and spent a decade as the managing editor at Dragon Moon Press. She copyedits professionally and is a submissions editor at the Hugo-nominated Apex Magazine. With Ed Greenwood, she co-edited the award-nominated When the Hero Comes Home anthology series; their latest anthology endeavor is Women in Practical Armor, from Evil Girlfriend Media. Her short fiction can be found in several anthologies, including Carbide Tipped Pens from Tor. She’s also the author of two novels: Hellmaw: Of the Essence (TEGG), and Gears of Faith (Paizo). For more information, visit her online at @gabrielle_h or gabrielleharbowy.com.
