Blog Tour – Master Artificer by Justin Call – Extract

Master Artificer by Justin Call (The Silent Gods #2)
Fantasy | Adult | 866 pages
Published on 18th May 2021 by Gollancz

Synopsis

I really enjoyed Master of Sorrows when it came out, so when Gollancz contacted me to see if I’d be on the blog tour I was thrilled to say yes! I’ll be reading it ASAP and sharing my thoughts when I do, but in the meantime – have an extract!

Extract from Master Artificer by Justin Call

Kenton crashed against the door just as the drop-bar fell into place.

A heartbeat later, the peephole slammed shut and the key turned in the lock.

‘Ainnevog!’ Kenton shouted, pounding on the metal. ‘Keos burn your bones! I’m going to kill you. If I
ever see you again, I will kill you!’

His vision blurred and he stepped back from the door, his retinas burning with an increasingly
intense pain. He screamed as he rubbed his eyes and wondered what damnable liquid Annev had
splashed in his face.

‘Ainnevog!’ he howled, cursing. The pain spiked, as if twin daggers had suddenly plunged into
Kenton’s skull, and he collapsed backward to the ground. He wrestled with the pain for several long
minutes, trying to wipe away the burning liquid that was consuming his vision, but every second
brought a new level of agony, a new torment that sought to rule him.

Kenton wept, his salty tears searing like acid. He sobbed and clawed at his eyelids as he begged for
the pain to end.

But it did not – it would not. Instead, Kenton felt the pain seep deeper into his skull. He shrieked,
imagining the acid boring through his brain, and he abandoned his remaining sanity. His bloody nails
tore again at the flesh covering his eyes, now peeling back the lids as though they were molten wax.
This brought a new sensation of pain, but it was quickly swallowed in the ocean of agony consuming
his lidless eyes. Kenton’s fingers groped for the epicentre of his torture, straining to pluck the first
orb from his skull even as his mind reeled at the horror of the idea. It was a desperate act, but
blindness would be a mercy – even death was preferable to this. His bloody fingers were pressed
around his eye, his body tensing in anticipation of what was coming… and then he stopped. In one
lucid moment, Kenton realised he was no longer touching the soft membrane of an eyeball, but the
smooth, unyielding surface of a glass sphere.

My eyes…? Kenton flinched, his face twitching as if to blink, yet unable to do so for lack of eyelids.
He probed again, disbelieving, and felt the truth of it. He would have cried out – would have sobbed
again, this time in the knowledge he would spend the rest of his life as a lidless freak, a monster
whose eyes could never close – but a second revelation stopped him: the pain had finally ceased.
Kenton sucked in a chestful of air, gasping in relief, and softly touched his eyes again. It was a
wonder they had not dried out, but the glass spheres seemed to require no lubrication, no tears or
moisture. Kenton consciously tried to blink again and found the action both unnatural and
unnecessary.

Damn you, Annev, he thought. What have you done to me… and what have I done to myself? His
fingertips drifted to the remnants of his eyelids and he found the tissue foreign; instead of ragged
chunks of bleeding flesh, they felt wreathed in hard leather, his own skin now stiff and inflexible. The
sensation faded as he moved his fingers over his eyebrows and cheekbones, and disappeared
completely when he touched his cheeks, nose, lips and forehead. The old scar on his cheek remained
– the liquid Annev had thrown into his eyes had not reached the mottled flesh – but the horror of
Kenton’s lidless gaze would trump any scars the masters had left him.

Kenton looked around the empty cell, surprised that he could still see. He cautiously dabbed the
blood from his eyes, expecting his prodding to provoke another bout of pain, but it had disappeared
entirely. Even his missing eyelids didn’t seem to bother him. His vision had grown clearer. With each
passing minute, his eyesight seemed to grow stronger.

Buy Master Artificer by Justin Call from Waterstones or Blackwells.

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Don’t forget to check out the other stops on the tour!