QSFer Melissa Scott has a new MM fantasy-mystery romance out, a novel of Astreiant: Fairs’ Point.
Murder, magic and a day at the races…
The City of Astreiant is full of fair goers for the annual fair and the Dog Moon dog races are one of the main attractions. So a young noble going spectacularly bankrupt in a way that results in rules changes and widespread anger, a couple of suspicious deaths and former soldier Philip Eslingen suddenly finding himself the owner of an unproven racing dog couldn’t be happening in a worse conjunction for Adjunct Point Nicolas Rathe.
Once again, lovers and partners Nico and Philip must navigate magic, murder, love and politics to save their beloved city from itself. Throw in new pet ownership and a job offer for Philip from Prince Coindarel in his new city guard and what more can their stars hold for them?
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Excerpt
The circular arrived before the station’s runners returned with breakfast for the daywatch. Nicolas Rathe, the senior adjunct at Point of Dreams, had just set his teapot on the little summer-stove, and turned frowning at the knock on his door.
“Sorry, Adjunct Point, but I thought you should see this straightaway.” That was Lievreth Maeykin, just out of his apprenticeship and serving his time on the night shift. He held out a sheet of paper, closely covered in a neat scrivener’s hand, and Rathe took it, feeling his frown deepen.
“Aren’t you off duty yet?”
“Just going,” Maeykin answered. “Passile said she’d bring me back a nightmeal to take home, so I’m waiting for that.”
Rathe nodded, relaxing, and took the sheet from him. “Right, then. Thanks.”
Maeykin backed away, and Rathe turned his attention to the paper. It was a typical circular, the issuing station’s name at the top and the chief point’s seal and signature at the bottom—from Fairs’ Point, this one, and that was no surprise. With so much of the city’s business passing through the linked markets that were the Great and Little Fairs and the New Fair, there was always some warning or appeal coming out of the district. This one was a request for information about a missing person, someone not seen in his usual haunts and whose friends had made formal representation to the points that they feared some mishap. All that was standard enough, the stilted formal phrases taken from the Pointswoman’s Handbook, and he skimmed over the names of the friends-at-law and the circumstances of the appeal until the name caught his eye. Aardre Beier should not be missing at this time of year.
He looked back at the standard text, picking out names he should have noticed: the friends-at-law were all dog trainers or veterinarians, and their concern was not just that Beier hadn’t been seen at his usual haunts but that there had been no broadsheets from the man in the moon-month before the Dog Moon races. And that was, Rathe admitted, worthy of notice and probably of concern. It was no wonder Guillen Claes, the chief at Fairs’ Point, had been willing to have the circular drafted.
He heard familiar footsteps on the stairs, and pushed himself away from his worktable, reaching the door just in time to see his own chief, Trijn, reach the top of the stairs. She gave him a wary look, and he matched it with an apologetic shrug.
“Got a minute, Chief?”
She gave him the look that deserved: if he couldn’t wait until she’d had time to reach her own office, or even put down the lunch that was surely in the basket tucked under her arm, she had the time to hear him. “Come on in.”
Rathe followed her into the largest of the station’s offices, the paneling a bit better polished here, though the table and sideboard were no less piled with papers. Trijn eyed him unhappily, but motioned him to the visitor’s chair. “Trouble?”
Rathe held out the circular, and she took it with a sigh. She was a handsome woman, neatly dressed as any merchant-resident—and indeed her family had been leaders of that class for several generations—with greying hair pinned up beneath a fine lace cap. She made a face as she read, then set the sheet aside and reached for her pipe. “Do we know anything?”
“Not that I’ve heard,” Rathe answered. “But I haven’t had a chance to ask more closely. I’d just read it when you came in.”
“Beier’s hardly the sort to hide himself,” Trijn said. “I can see why his friends are worried.”
Rathe nodded. Beier was an eccentric rarity, a University-trained astrologer who had chosen to focus his skill on the peculiar art of dog racing. He cast veterinary horoscopes for the breeders and trainers, published pamphlets on the fine art of handicapping the races, and over the last few years had also had a sideline in scurrilous but clever broadsheet commentary on the racing scene in general. Two years ago, a trainer had lost her temper and taken a shot at him with a thoroughly unlicensed firelock pistol—Rathe suspected Beier had provoked her, perhaps with some printed disrespect. “We’re sure he hasn’t published anything this year?”
“So his friends say, but we can check it.” Trijn’s stove was unlit; she worked a striker until she could get a spark, then puffed hard to get her pipe to draw. “I don’t believe I’ve seen anything from him, though.”
“I haven’t been looking,” Rathe said.
Author Bio
Melissa Scott is from Little Rock, Arkansas, and studied history at Harvard College and Brandeis University, where she earned her PhD in the Comparative History program. She is the author of more than thirty original science fiction and fantasy novels, most with queer themes and characters, as well as authorized tie-ins for Star Trek: DS9, Star Trek: Voyager, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Star Wars Rebels.
She won Lambda Literary Awards for Trouble and Her Friends, Shadow Man, Point of Dreams (written with her late partner, Lisa A. Barnett), and Death by Silver, with Amy Griswold. She also won Spectrum Awards for Shadow Man, Fairs’ Point, Death by Silver, and for the short story “The Rocky Side of the Sky” (Periphery, Lethe Press) as well as the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She was also shortlisted for the Otherwise (Tiptree) Award.
Her latest short story, “Sirens,” appeared in the collection Retellings of the Inland Seas, and her text-based game for Choice of Games, A Player’s Heart, came out in 2020. Her most recent solo novels, The Master of Samar and Fallen, were published in 2023.
| Author Website | https://www.melissascottwrites.com/ |
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| Author Mastodon | @blueterraplane |