The gunslinger on a mission of mercy. The friend willing to help him. And the noble who'd set them against each other. “No,” I told Riina. “Out of the question. I will absolutely not do it.” “You will,” she said, so softly that I had to lean in to hear. Nothing soft in her voice, though. It was like tungsten gravel laced with pure fluorine. “Not because I say so, not because you would do it anyhow if you just thought about it, but because if you don’t, everyone on board the Belithain will starve, and then they will freeze, and then they will suffocate. Think about that.” Jake – the Warded Gunslinger – doesn’t enjoy mingling with the rich kids. Not his style, not his battlefield. But when going begging from one of the Galaxy’s most notoriously thin-skinned group of nobles, he’d better shut up, dress up, and put up. Either that, or figure out how to gun down an entire planet. A Duel Among Friends is a short novel of guns and magic in a distant future, where dragons are real, warp-stone ships roam the galaxy, and too much money means slights of honor are settled with cold, hard steel. It’s got cowboys and touchy, gun-totting nobles, found family, true companions, and magitech in a sprawling space opera. A Duel Among Friends is the fourth standalone novel in the Warded Gunslinger series: short, action-packed novels/novellas in the style of the old SF and Western pulps – an equal mix of Star Wars and the Clint Eastwood/Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns, that you can read in an hour or two. Read it now!