More deadly than a bronze sword, more powerful than black sorcery, is an iron will!
From Greece in 1200BC, where gods still take a hand in mortals’ bloody struggles for supremacy, comes Phalerus the Achaean to strive and slay from the green hills of Atica to the blood-red waters of the Nile. In “Day of the Boar,” Phalerus, son of a warrior clan, faces a demon of destruction that will force him to confront the dark truth at the heart of his origin. “Killers in the House of Life” sees Phalerus in Egypt of the pharaohs, where tomb robbers ply their deadly trade in haunted crypts and black sorcery rules the underworld. In a world of treachery, blood-feud, mayhem, and magic, a cold heart is more deadly than sharp bronze and a man’s loyalty may be worth his life.
“Eh, you Egyptians don’t need me,” Phalerus said. “I’m done here.”
“Just you wait, Achaean,” a thug growled. “I’ll say when you can leave.”
Just then the Canaanite strumpet arrived. “Hey, lover! Where’s my money!”
“Get lost, woman!” A thug pushed her.
“Hey, it costs money to touch!” she snapped. “You’re the one who’s been extorting money from the girls at the Temple of Ishtar.” She snatched a dagger from her dress and stabbed the Egyptian. “Take that, you Egyptian dog!” The thug howled and struck back a savage blow with his sword.
In an instant Phalerus had his long-sword out and attacked the thugs. He ran the wounded thug through and then wheeled on the others. The stranger was desperately fighting to hold his own against the two remaining thugs. He wielded a kopesh, an Egyptian sword with an odd dog-leg curve. Phalerus engaged one of the thugs. The thug was game, but the long-sword outreached him and he died on Phalerus’s sword-point.
Phalerus turned to fight the other just as the stranger made a feint to the man’s head. In mid-stroke he reversed his attack and cut the thug’s belly open.
Phalerus and the stranger stood facing one another amid the blood and filth of the alley.
“I am Basti,” the man said. “May Aten-Ra bless you for helping me.” He knelt by the strumpet and shook his head. “Too bad about your woman.” “I just met her,” Phalerus said. “She was a whore after my money. Poor lass, she didn’t deserve that, even if she had a short temper.”
“I know a good embalmer,” Basti said. “I can get you a discount.”
- Word Count: 13,500
- Author: David Hardy
- Website: David Hardy
- ISBN: 978-1-61937-287-0
- Cover Artist: Kelly Shorten
- Editor: Alisa Carter
