Friends Like These (Shotguns & Sorcery Book 0)

I was just about to toss everyone the hell out of the party when the Imperial Dragon’s Guard came busting through front door of the Quill and took care of that unpleasant detail for me. One minute, everyone was hunting down my last nerve and jamming it with red-hot brands. The next, the door exploded into the main room, nearly taking off Thumper’s head. 

You’ve never seen a room clear out so fast....

Of course, the fact that every one of us was guilty of something or other countless times over didn’t help. Just being in a bar like this where they served dragonfire was enough. The question wasn’t whether or not we deserved to be locked up. It was which of our many crimes we’d be charged with in the end. 

“This is a raid!” said the captain of the squad, a humorless elf by the name of Yabair. “Freeze, or we’ll fire! No one needs to get — Hey!” 

No one listened to him. Not one of us. We scattered like cockroaches before an uncapped light."

The opening lines from “Friends Like These.”

This is the first story ever written for the Shotguns & Sorcery fantasy noir setting, featured in the novels Hard Time in Dragon City, Bad Times in Dragon City, and End Times in Dragon City. The story first appeared in Robin D. Laws's anthology THE NEW HERO 2. It has never available as a standalone story—until now.