Book excerpt: Welcome to Tremontaine, where ambition, love affairs, and rivalries dance with deadly results. In 1987 Ellen Kushner swept readers away to a world of scandal and swordplay with her novel Swordspoint that quickly became a cult-classic. Now joined by a team of writers, she returns to her beloved world with this prequel serial. Tremontaine follows Diane, Duchess Tremontaine, whose beauty is matched only by her cunning; Rafe Fenton, a handsome young scholar with more passion than sense; Ixkaab Balam, a tradeswoman from afar with skill for swords and secrets; and Micah, a gentle genius whose discoveries herald revolution. Sparks fly as these four lives intersect in a world where politics is everything, and outcasts are the tastemakers – so tread carefully, dear reader, and keep your wit as sharp as your steel.