MASK OF DRAGONS short excerpt

Now 50k words into MASK OF DRAGONS! Time for an excerpt:

Mazael rolled his eyes. Sigaldra would have flown into a rage at Earnachar’s remark. Romaria only looked back at him and grinned.

“If you need a wolf’s nose to see a soliphage’s web,” said Romaria, “then you had best fall upon your sword now, for if you cannot see a soliphage then you are too impossibly stupid to live.”

Earnachar snorted again. “You Marcher women are bold. No Tervingi woman would speak to me that way.”

Romaria laughed. “I’ve faced the Old Demon and runedead and San-keth serpent priests, Earnachar. A bald barbarian from the middle lands is hardly frightening after all that.”

“Will you let your wife speak to me that way?” said Earnachar.

“You provoked her,” said Mazael.

“You should intervene,” said Earnachar.

“If I intervene,” said Mazael, “it will be to stop her from killing you, which would depend on my mood at the time. Now shut your damned mouth and watch the path.”

-JM