The Retired Swordsman Turns Blacksmith 2
(2026)(The second book in the Quiet Forge series)
A novel by Clay Whitlock
Snow lies deep on the vale, and the forge burns warm against it. An ash-grey cat has claimed the anvil for the winter and rules it like an empress. And on the mantel sits an unanswered letter, come farther than any commission: the first word in twenty years from the brother Kellan Hale left behind.
For twelve years Kellan trusted his life to other men’s steel, and when it broke, the people he loved died for it. Carried half-dead into the green vale of Tindale, he hung up his sword and relit a forge that had stood cold for years, learning the trade he ran from as a boy at the elbow of Durran Truehand: a dwarf master with two centuries of craft in his head and hands too ruined to use it. (Start with Book 1: The Retired Swordsman Turns Blacksmith.) Now the mill runs sweet on Tindale iron, and for the first time in twenty years, Kellan Hale has an address.
Then word of his work travels the north road. The walled town of Dunmere wants new iron for the river bridge its trade depends on, and it asks for Truehand’s mark by name. It is more iron than the smithy can buy, so they will smelt it themselves from the vale’s own bog; more charcoal than the collier can sell, so they will burn their own in the winter woods; and the delivery clock belongs to the river, because iron this heavy travels only on frozen roads, and the bridge must stand before the spring melt comes down.
The letter is harder than the bridge. Tomas is the brother who stayed: twenty years at their father’s side, at the forge Kellan walked away from. Now he is coming south through the snow to see whether the rumor is true. Kellan can read a flaw in iron at a glance. Finding one true sentence for his brother is harder work.
Winter closes in warm around the labor. Fenn is bound apprentice at the anvil before half the village, and on the year’s longest night every hearth in Tindale is relit from the forge’s own flame. Maren, the copper-haired farrier, goes on keeping exactly one debt open between them, on purpose.
The mill ground grain for neighbors who know Kellan’s face. The bridge must hold for strangers who never will.
The Retired Swordsman Turns Blacksmith 2 is the second book of The Quiet Forge: a warm, clean, slow-living cozy fantasy for readers who loved Legends & Lattes, The Spellshop, and Beware of Chicken. Each book tells a complete story.
What’s waiting at the quiet forge this winter:
For twelve years Kellan trusted his life to other men’s steel, and when it broke, the people he loved died for it. Carried half-dead into the green vale of Tindale, he hung up his sword and relit a forge that had stood cold for years, learning the trade he ran from as a boy at the elbow of Durran Truehand: a dwarf master with two centuries of craft in his head and hands too ruined to use it. (Start with Book 1: The Retired Swordsman Turns Blacksmith.) Now the mill runs sweet on Tindale iron, and for the first time in twenty years, Kellan Hale has an address.
Then word of his work travels the north road. The walled town of Dunmere wants new iron for the river bridge its trade depends on, and it asks for Truehand’s mark by name. It is more iron than the smithy can buy, so they will smelt it themselves from the vale’s own bog; more charcoal than the collier can sell, so they will burn their own in the winter woods; and the delivery clock belongs to the river, because iron this heavy travels only on frozen roads, and the bridge must stand before the spring melt comes down.
The letter is harder than the bridge. Tomas is the brother who stayed: twenty years at their father’s side, at the forge Kellan walked away from. Now he is coming south through the snow to see whether the rumor is true. Kellan can read a flaw in iron at a glance. Finding one true sentence for his brother is harder work.
Winter closes in warm around the labor. Fenn is bound apprentice at the anvil before half the village, and on the year’s longest night every hearth in Tindale is relit from the forge’s own flame. Maren, the copper-haired farrier, goes on keeping exactly one debt open between them, on purpose.
The mill ground grain for neighbors who know Kellan’s face. The bridge must hold for strangers who never will.
The Retired Swordsman Turns Blacksmith 2 is the second book of The Quiet Forge: a warm, clean, slow-living cozy fantasy for readers who loved Legends & Lattes, The Spellshop, and Beware of Chicken. Each book tells a complete story.
What’s waiting at the quiet forge this winter:
- A retired swordsman and his first great commission from beyond the vale
Iron born from the vale’s own bog and charcoal burned in the winter woods
Cinder the forge cat: empress of the warm anvil, unimpressed by snow
An apprentice bound at the anvil and a brother at the forge door
Low, craft-bound magic in the steel; no stat screens, no chosen one, no war to win
Clean, low-stakes, no harem, closed-door comfort from the first page to the last
New to the series? Start with Book 1: The Retired Swordsman Turns Blacksmith.
Read free in Kindle Unlimited.
Genre: Fantasy