This week’s episode features a chapter from Lord of the Inferno, Volume Two of War of the Fathers. War of the Fathers is available as a free ebook if you sign up for the Dan Decker Newsletter. Here is an excerpt from the show:

The sun peeked out of the clouds and Adar relished the feel of it on his face. His clothes were soaked through, and he was chilled to the bone. He kept moving his wrists and alternating which hand held the blaster so that he didn’t become too stiff to respond to new threats. It didn’t help matters that he was tired and starving. He stumbled on a loose cobblestone and almost lost control. He was forced to skid to a stop.

The encounter with Isak’s men still had his heart pounding in his chest. The deadly efficiency of killing and wounding multiple men with one blast made him wonder again how things would change if the use of blasters became widespread.

Melyah. The only chance we have of making it through all this is to arm everybody that can handle one of these infernal weapons. What would happen afterward once the Hunwei had been dealt with?

He snorted. Even though he pretty much knew this was mankind’s last hurrah, he couldn’t help but hope that this wasn’t the end. Hope, even in the face of insurmountable odds, was the one thing that kept him going.

Things could change. The darkest night always had a sunrise. That was why he needed the tablet. The forgotten weapons of their fathers brought hope.

As Adar and Kura drew closer to the Arches, he noticed without surprise the dead tended to be men. Every now and then, they stumbled across a woman. Most of them Kura passed without comment, but there had been several where she’d stopped, forgetting the dangers that lurked all about them.

It had been a struggle for Adar to not say something that he would later regret, but his patience was stretched to the limit. Enough time had passed that the lone survivor from their encounter before would have found Isak. Tere could be half a continent away by now. Erro might come charging at him again like a wild man, determined to kill or die trying.

Adar gritted his teeth, furious that so many different things were all going on at once. On any given day, handling one of these issues would have been plenty, but to have all of them forced upon him in the same hour? He must have done something to piss off one of the gods.

Or perhaps they were testing him to see if he would be worthy to handle an even worse task.

“Hurry,” Adar said, glancing back over his shoulder. Kura’s eyes were red as she gripped her blaster in an almost challenging way.