Manhouch used enough of their taxes for his personal amusement.

Tonight the gardens were dark.Īdamat was fine with this. Skyline had so many lanterns, it could be seen all the way from the city even on the cloudiest night. Odder still, as they continued along the wide path amid the fountains, there were no lights. Adamat clutched at his pantlegs and peered out the window. The carriage approached the front gate of Skyline and moved on without a stop. Yet who listened to soothsayers these days? Adamat reasoned it would give him a cold and wondered why he had been summoned out on a pit-made night like this. The soothsayers in Noman's Alley said it was a bad omen. It was humid even for early spring in Adopest, and chillier than Novi's frozen toes. The morning was not far off but dawn would have a hard time scattering the fog. Yet this summer coat provided no defense against the chill snaking through the carriage window. It'd been half a decade since he'd even seen this jacket, but when summons came from the king at this hour, there was no time to get his good one from the tailor.

He tugged at his sleeves, trying to coax more length, and picked at the front of the jacket where it was too close by far around the waist. Read ExcerptĪdamat wore his coat tight, top buttons fastened against a wet night air that seemed to want to drown him. Winner of the David Gemmell Morningstar Award for Best Debut Fantasy. No modern educated man believes that sort of thing. Just old peasant legends about the gods waking to walk the earth. Now, as attacks batter them from within and without, the credulous are whispering about omens of death and destruction. Stretched to his limit, Tamas is relying heavily on his few remaining powder mages, including the embittered Taniel, a brilliant marksman who also happens to be his estranged son, and Adamat, a retired police inspector whose loyalty is being tested by blackmail. But it also provoked war with the Nine Nations, internal attacks by royalist fanatics, and the greedy to scramble for money and power by Tamas’s supposed allies: the Church, workers unions, and mercenary forces. It’s a bloody business overthrowing a king.įield Marshal Tamas’ coup against his king sent corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brought bread to the starving. Now, Field Marshal Tamas and his lieutenants must confront the true cost of freedom in book one of the Powder Mage Trilogy. Civil unrest cripples the citizens of Adro in the aftermath of the revolution that obliterated the monarchy.

Promise of blood by brian mcclellan