The Retired Swordsman Turns Blacksmith 3
(2026)(The third book in the Quiet Forge series)
A novel by Clay Whitlock
Summer has reached the quiet forge, and the village’s retired swordsman has more work than will fit on his bench. An ash-grey cat has claimed the best shade. Before midsummer, Kellan Hale means to leave the shop in other hands and knock on his father’s door.
For twelve years, Kellan trusted his life to other men’s steel. When it failed the friends he loved, the road brought him to Tindale and a forge gone cold. There, a dwarf master with ruined hands taught him the trade he had walked away from as a boy. (Start with Book 1: The Retired Swordsman Turns Blacksmith.) Now Durran still corrects every heat, and the baker keeps the household in bread. Fenn has a room upstairs and a small fire of his own to tend.
Orders keep coming down from Dunmere. Its master mason needs new iron for the town crane before the late-summer stone deliveries, a job that calls for patient fitting as much as a good hammer. Meanwhile, Tindale brings its oven-rakes and gate hinges through the open door. Kellan wants to make time for every customer. He has also given his brother a date, and every day spent finding one more thing to mend brings it closer.
Then a mountain smith arrives with a master’s hammer wrapped in white hide. He has come to see what Durran has taught a human. The old dwarf means to stand beside his pupil’s work, and Kellan must be willing to let a guest watch the awkward stages as well as the finished pieces. There is plenty to discuss over the keg afterward.
South in Corven, his brother is keeping room at the family table. Their father is waiting there too, with twenty years Kellan cannot answer by repairing a latch. Maren, the copper-haired farrier, has horses to shoe before she can travel with him. Fenn wants to see another forge, though he still listens whenever a soldier speaks of the road. The boy who once came begging for sword-stories is beginning to ask where a smith’s work might take him.
Kellan has promised to come by midsummer. This time, he means to be there.
The Retired Swordsman Turns Blacksmith 3 is the third 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 summer:
For twelve years, Kellan trusted his life to other men’s steel. When it failed the friends he loved, the road brought him to Tindale and a forge gone cold. There, a dwarf master with ruined hands taught him the trade he had walked away from as a boy. (Start with Book 1: The Retired Swordsman Turns Blacksmith.) Now Durran still corrects every heat, and the baker keeps the household in bread. Fenn has a room upstairs and a small fire of his own to tend.
Orders keep coming down from Dunmere. Its master mason needs new iron for the town crane before the late-summer stone deliveries, a job that calls for patient fitting as much as a good hammer. Meanwhile, Tindale brings its oven-rakes and gate hinges through the open door. Kellan wants to make time for every customer. He has also given his brother a date, and every day spent finding one more thing to mend brings it closer.
Then a mountain smith arrives with a master’s hammer wrapped in white hide. He has come to see what Durran has taught a human. The old dwarf means to stand beside his pupil’s work, and Kellan must be willing to let a guest watch the awkward stages as well as the finished pieces. There is plenty to discuss over the keg afterward.
South in Corven, his brother is keeping room at the family table. Their father is waiting there too, with twenty years Kellan cannot answer by repairing a latch. Maren, the copper-haired farrier, has horses to shoe before she can travel with him. Fenn wants to see another forge, though he still listens whenever a soldier speaks of the road. The boy who once came begging for sword-stories is beginning to ask where a smith’s work might take him.
Kellan has promised to come by midsummer. This time, he means to be there.
The Retired Swordsman Turns Blacksmith 3 is the third 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 summer:
- A retired swordsman with a busy shop and a long-promised journey home
Patient ironwork at the fitting bench and an apprentice taking on his own customers
Cinder the forge cat, claiming the shade and inspecting every visitor
Summer market suppers and family at both ends of the road
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
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Used availability for Clay Whitlock's The Retired Swordsman Turns Blacksmith 3