{"id":189628,"date":"2025-08-31T16:14:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T16:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/189628\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T16:14:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T16:14:12","slug":"read-an-exclusive-excerpt-from-travis-baldrees-new-legends-lattes-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/189628\/","title":{"rendered":"Read an exclusive excerpt from Travis Baldree’s new Legends & Lattes book"},"content":{"rendered":"

Torchlight<\/a> and Rebel Galaxy<\/a> co-creator Travis Baldree published his first book, Legends & Lattes, in 2022, and quickly captured the hearts of fantasy fans. The cozy tale of Viv, an orc warrior who quits her adventuring career to start a coffee shop, was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for both the 2023 Nebula and Hugo awards for best novel.<\/p>\n

Baldree provided a look back at Viv\u2019s first days at a sword for hire in a second book in the series: his 2023 prequel Bookshops & Bonedust. In that book, Viv she spends her time recovering from a devastating adventuring injury by helping improve a ramshackle bookshop in a sleepy seaside town. Fern, the foul-mouthed rattkin owner of that bookshop, becomes the protagonist of the third book in his series, Brigands & Breadknives.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the book\u2019s release on Nov. 11, Tor Books offered Polygon an exclusive excerpt from Brigands & Breadknives.<\/p>\n

Fern awoke to the sight of an alligator grin and eyes the red of a harvest sunset in a round, green face.<\/p>\n

And daylight. Painful, painful daylight.<\/p>\n

Supine as she was in the back of the wagon, and boxed in on all sides by, well, boxes, there was nowhere to escape to but up, directly toward that fierce and deadly smile. A direction no right-thinking rattkin would choose.<\/p>\n

The hangover that battered Fern\u2019s skull confused the whole business to such a degree that up was exactly where she went, though, lurching to a sitting position, flailing with the satchel her arms were tangled in, and screaming her throat raw.<\/p>\n

The sharp grin and red glare were suddenly three feet away, at the very back of the wagon. Through the sick thumping of blood behind her eyes, Fern saw that both belonged to a goblin with a mop of orange hair and bottlebrush pigtails, clad in some sort of enormous coat made entirely of pockets in a riot of mismatched colors.<\/p>\n

Improbably, the goblin\u2019s hands were bound before her, and as if that weren\u2019t sufficient, several loops of cord were wrapped around her body, from her wrists all the way to her shoulders, and secured to a ringbolt on the back of the buckboard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2026 \u200bwhat in the faithless fuck?\u201d wailed Fern. With an ungainly leap, she tumbled sideways over the boxboards of the cart and landed hard on a rutted track, with her cloak flipped over her head and her tail pinned underneath her.<\/p>\n

She heard birdsong.<\/p>\n

And smelled sweaty horse.<\/p>\n

And heard a dimly familiar voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow long have you been in there?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Image: Tor Books<\/p>\n

Fern shoved her cloak out of her face and squinted upward, wishing not entirely hyperbolically that she were dead, for a variety of defensible reasons.<\/p>\n

Astryx One-Ear stared down at her from a great height, one hand on her hip, the other combing through her silver hair.<\/p>\n

Astryx narrowed her eyes in recognition. \u201cHang on, where do I know you from?\u201d<\/p>\n

With a mighty effort to keep the contents of her stomach inside her, Fern scrambled to her feet. She was aware that her fur was caked with the dust of the road and probably something horse-related.<\/p>\n

She shot a glance at the goblin in the back of the wagon, who hadn\u2019t moved an inch and still grinned benignly at the both of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m, uh\u2026 \u200bso, a few weeks ago I was in a carriage in some marshlands, and, er\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh. The pescadines. Mute couple in the wagon. That\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She sniffed the air and caught a whiff of Fern\u2019s regret, judging by the face she made. \u201cSo is this on purpose, or did you just pass out in the wrong wagon?\u201d<\/p>\n

Still hung up on the idea of herself and the coachman as a couple and her head aching too much to formulate a lie, Fern replied, \u201cBit of both?\u201d and winced.<\/p>\n

Astryx nodded, thought about that for a moment, and then seemed to dismiss her entirely, shifting her attention to the goblin in the wagon. She pointed. \u201cYou. Back up front.\u201d<\/p>\n

The goblin obliged, leaping nimbly across the cargo in the cartbed and up onto the buckboard, where she dropped onto her butt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs she\u2026 \u200bsome kind of prisoner?\u201d Despite the sharpness of her smile, she didn\u2019t seem particularly threatening.<\/p>\n

Fern crept gingerly off the road and found a grassy swell. She sank to the ground, hissing as every muscle along her spine shrieked in protest. She had no idea how she\u2019d slept through the night, given that she felt like one enormous bruise.<\/p>\n

\u201cBounty,\u201d replied Astryx as she tied the tarpaulin back down.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsn\u2019t that a lot of rope?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTrust me when I say it was not my first choice. You must\u2019ve come aboard in Thune. Yes?\u201d<\/p>\n

Fern nodded mutely. Astryx couldn\u2019t see her, facing away as she was, but it didn\u2019t seem to matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a day and a half out, and three days to the next town.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA day and a half?\u201d Fern exclaimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy cart.\u201d Astryx was unperturbed. \u201cThere\u2019s a village back that way that we passed in the night. You should be all right. Safe country. Warm spots to sleep.\u201d Astryx finished what she was doing and turned to look Fern over. \u201cAny food?\u201d<\/p>\n

It dawned on Fern what was happening. \u201cNo,\u201d she replied in a very small voice.<\/p>\n

Not that food sounded like something she wanted again anytime soon. Her eyes squeezed with every heartbeat, and her guts didn\u2019t like the rhythm.<\/p>\n

The elf rummaged under the buckboard and withdrew a hunk of thick-rinded cheese and a piece of bread that looked like it would clunk if dropped. Astryx held them out toward Fern without another word.<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t seem annoyed or angry. But she didn\u2019t seem interested, either.<\/p>\n

She might as well have been waiting for her horse to finish relieving itself.<\/p>\n

Which, yes, it was currently in the process of doing.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Image: Tor Books<\/p>\n

Fern performed some mental arithmetic. A day and a half by horse cart. On foot, that was\u2026<\/p>\n

With her head in her hands, she whispered, \u201cQuestioning my existence from the comfort of a warm bed sounds pretty gods-damned wonderful right about now. Fern, you ninny.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHm?\u201d<\/p>\n

The elf\u2019s hm was as precisely calibrated as Cal\u2019s.<\/p>\n

She hefted the food meaningfully.<\/p>\n

Fern tried for an endearing but slightly pitiable smile. \u201cIs there any chance I can convince you to take me to the next town or crossroads or someplace I could book passage back . . .\u201d Fern trailed off, and her eyes widened. She patted at her waist with the sudden realization that she was wearing neither her belt, nor her purse. In a wild burst of optimism, she flipped open the satchel and rifled through it, hoping against hope that\u2014<\/p>\n

Nope. Not so much as a lonely copper bit gathering dust at the bottom. Only parchment, pencils, and a book she\u2019d already read that was intended for somebody else.<\/p>\n

Astryx had no trouble guessing her thoughts. \u201cSeems like the walk might be the best bet.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was very clear that the legendary Astryx One-Ear had no intention of retracing her steps to return a hungover rattkin to her shambles of a life. In a story, the heroine would have gallantly changed her plans to usher a naive villager back to the safety of their own home, no matter how inconvenient or obviously impractical that might be.<\/p>\n

This clearly was not one of those stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuffing shunks!\u201d chirped the goblin.<\/p>\n

Both Astryx and Fern switched their attention to the girl on the buckboard.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy thoughts exactly,\u201d muttered Fern, who knew a lot of goblin profanity.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what she\u2019s saying?\u201d Astryx cocked a brow at her.<\/p>\n

Something canny in Fern that wasn\u2019t entirely debilitated by alcoholic low tide said, \u201cOh, sure. Why?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou speak goblin?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes she not speak Territories?\u201d Fern neatly avoided the question.<\/p>\n

Astryx frowned. \u201cNot so far as I can tell. What\u2019d she say?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d Fern hedged. \u201cNothing polite.\u201d Not that politeness had ever governed Fern\u2019s speech before.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever really got on with the goblin tongue myself. They didn\u2019t even have one five hundred years ago. I understand it\u2019s mostly curses, so, that sounds about right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fern thought that if she had lived for a thousand years, she might have picked up a few more languages that were relevant to her line of business, but was wise enough not to say so.<\/p>\n

Instead, she said, \u201cLook, I\u2019ve got a proposal. For the sake of argument, let\u2019s assume you take me with you to the next real stop. I can listen to what she\u2019s got to say? That\u2019s bound to make things easier for you, and as a bonus, I don\u2019t expire by the side of the road on my way home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The elf pursed her lips in speculation. \u201cYou still don\u2019t have any money. How are you planning to hire your way back?\u201d<\/p>\n

Fern spread her paws. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to worry about that, right? I\u2019ll just have to find a way to scrape together the silver when I get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMmm. What\u2019s your name?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFern.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what is it that you do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a bookseller,\u201d replied Fern, which didn\u2019t seem very useful at the moment.<\/p>\n

Astryx appeared skeptical. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t bode well for your prospects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fern privately agreed, but said, \u201cI\u2019m a very resourceful bookseller . . . ?\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a long silence, during which the draft horse cropped several mouthfuls of grass from the verge and flicked away a few bothersome flies.<\/p>\n

\u201cTa shunka,\u201d declared the goblin.<\/p>\n

Astryx glanced between the two of them and then raised both brows at Fern expectantly.<\/p>\n

Fern sighed. \u201cIt means, \u2018you\u2019re fucked.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Torchlight and Rebel Galaxy co-creator Travis Baldree published his first book, Legends & Lattes, in 2022, and quickly…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":189629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-189628","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115124271013732771","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}