The Queen's Executioner Read online

  The Queen’s Executioner

  Christopher Mitchell is the author of the epic fantasy series The Magelands. He studied in Edinburgh before living for several years in the Middle East and Greece, where he taught English. He returned to study classics and Greek tragedy and lives in Fife, Scotland with his wife and their four children.

  By Christopher Mitchell

  * * *

  The Magelands Epic

  * * *

  From the Ashes

  The Queen’s Executioner

  The Severed City

  Needs of the Empire

  Sacrifice

  The Trials of Daphne Holdfast

  Retreat of the Kell

  Copyright © Christopher Mitchell 2019

  Cover Illustration by Irina French

  Cover Typography by Deranged Doctor Design

  Cover Copyright © Brigdomin Books Ltd 2019

  * * *

  Christopher Mitchell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  * * *

  All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

  * * *

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems (except for the use of brief quotations in a book review), if you would like permission to use material from the book please contact [email protected]

  * * *

  Brigdomin Books Ltd

  First Edition, May 2019

  Ebook Edition © May 2019

  ISBN 978-1-912879-02-1

  For my wife

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to thank the following for all their support during the writing of the Magelands - my wife, Lisa Mitchell, who read every chapter as soon as it was drafted and kept me going in the right direction; Graeme Innes for reading the manuscripts and sharing many discussions over whisky; my parents for their unstinting support; Amy Tavendale, Sandra and Donna Wheat and Vicky Williams for reading the books in their early stages; James Aitken for his encouragement; and the Film Club and Stef Karpa for their support.

  * * *

  Special thanks goes to Irina French, whose incredible artwork for the maps and covers brought my characters and world so beautifully to life.

  * * *

  Thanks also to my Magelanders ARC team, for all your help during the last few weeks before publication.

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  Building a relationship with my readers is very important to me.

  * * *

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  Dramatis Personae

  Rakanese

  The Kanawara Siblings

  Shella, Flow Mage

  Obli, Sister

  Sami, Brother

  Pavu, Brother

  Tehna, Sister

  Clodi, Sister

  Klebo, Brother

  Dannu, Sister

  Noli, Sister

  Chapu, Sister

  Lenni, Brother

  Zonnie, Sister

  Asta, Sister

  Marru, Brother

  * * *

  Others

  Janno, Obli's husband

  Thymo, Noli's husband

  Thelo, Flow worker

  Pannu, Flow worker

  Barro, Flow worker

  Joanie, Flow worker

  Lorri, Commuter

  Jayki, Shella's guard

  Braga, Shella's guard

  Cano, Flow Mage

  Polli, Shella's assistant

  Bowda, Shella's advisor

  Tanni, Officer of the Wardens

  Darra, Army Commander

  Barri, Army Commander

  * * *

  Rahain

  Politicians

  Laodoc, Capital City Councillor

  Niuma, Centrist Councillor

  Riomac, Centrist Councillor

  Juarad, Centrist Councillor

  Ziane, Conservative Party Councillor

  Myella, Conservative Party Councillor

  Yaelli, Merchant Party Councillor

  Pleonim, Liberal Councillor

  Nueillin, Liberal Councillor

  Wyenna, Liberal Councillor

  Ruellap, Patriot Party Cllr, son of Laodoc

  Heoran, Patriot Party Councillor

  Kaeotip, Patriot Party Councillor

  Flanouac, Patriot Party Councillor

  * * *

  Others

  Stoelica, Laodoc's ex-wife

  Simiona, Slave in Laodoc's household

  Niniat, Professor at Laodoc's Academy

  Likiat, Army Officer, son of Laodoc

  Douanna, Entrepreneur from Jade Falls

  Jaioun, Douanna's butler

  Teolan, Douanna's husband

  Meiolan, Friend of Douanna

  Paeotan, Young Student at Laodoc's Academy

  Geolaid, Professor at Laodoc's Academy

  Baoryn, Renegade Peasant

  * * *

  Kellach Brigdomin

  Killop, Captive from the Clan Wars

  Kallie, Captive from the Clan Wars

  Bridget, Captive from the Clan Wars

  Kylon, Terrorist/freedom fighter

  Bedig, Terrorist/freedom fighter

  Leah, Terrorist/freedom fighter

  Klai, Terrorist/freedom fighter

  Kilynn, Terrorist/freedom fighter

  Keira, Fire Mage

  Lacey, Keira's Aide

  Kalayne, Crazy old man

  * * *

  Holdings

  Daphne Hold Fast, Exile, Vision Mage

  Quentin Hold Terras, Ambassador to Rahain

  Joley Hold Vale, Embassy Official

  Shayba Hold Elance, Embassy Official

  Getherin Hold Liant, Embassy Guard

  Brookes, Embassy Official

  Dale Hold Anster, Embassy Official

  Rijon, Mage-Priest

  Ghorley, Mage-Priest

  The Peoples of the Star Continent

  There are five distinct peoples inhabiting the Star Continent. Three are descended from apes, one from reptiles, and one from amphibians. Their evolutionary trajectories have converged, and all five are clearly ‘humanoid’, though physical differences remain.

  * * *

  1.The Holdings – the closest to our own world’s Homo sapiens. Excepting the one in ten of the population with mage powers, they are completely human. The Holdings sub-continent drifted south from the equator, and the people that inhabit the Realm are dark-skinned as a consequence. They are shorter than the Kellach Brigdomin, but taller than the Rakanese.

  * * *

  2.The Rakanese – descended from amphibians, but appear human, except for the fact that they have slightly larger eyes, and are generally shorter than Holdings people. They are descendants of a far larger population that once covered a vast area, and consequently their skin-colour ranges from pale to dark. Mothers gestate their young for only four months, before giving birth in warm spawn-pools, where the infants swim and feed for a further five months. A dozen are born in an average spawning.

  * * *

  3.The Rahain – descended from reptiles. Appear human, except for two differences. Firstly, their eyes have vertical pupils, and are often coloured yellow or green, and, secondly, their tongues have a vestigial fork or cleft at their tip. Their heights are comparable to the Holdings and the Sanang. Skin-colour tends to be pale, as the majority are cavern-dwellers. Their skin retains
a slight appearance of scales, and they have no fingerprints. They are the furthest from our world’s humans.

  * * *

  4.The Kellach Brigdomin – descended from apes, and very similar to the Holdings, they are the second closest to our world’s humans. Their distinguishing traits are height (they are the tallest of the five peoples), pale skin (their sub-continent drifted north from a much colder region), and immunity to most diseases, toxins and illnesses. They are also marked by the fact that mothers give birth to twins in the majority of cases.

  * * *

  5.The Sanang – descended from apes, but evolved in the forest, rather than on the open plains that produced the Holdings. As a consequence, their upper arms and shoulders are wider and stronger than those of people from the Holdings or Rahain. They are pale-skinned, their sub-continent having arrived from colder climates in the south, and they occupy the same range of heights as the Holdings and Rahain. The males bear some traits of earlier Homo sapiens, such as a sloping forehead and a strong jaw-line, but the brains of the Sanang are as advanced as those of the other four peoples of the continent.

  Contents

  1. The Blockage

  2. Requisition Form

  3. Jade Falls

  4. Ice Bath

  5. Party of One

  6. Leaving Home

  7. Bars Between

  8. Bridget in Chains

  9. Cinders

  10. Ash

  11. Double Down

  12. Dreams of Daphne

  13. Waylaid

  14. Silverstream

  15. Summons

  16. Slateford

  17. Rendered

  18. At the River

  19. Dreams of Killop

  20. Keira, Fire Mage

  21. The Bear and the Bloody Hem

  22. Shella, Flow Mage

  23. The Woman from the Prophecy

  24. Daphne, Vision Mage

  25. Radical

  26. The Heights

  27. Kissed

  28. Distracted

  29. Stripped

  30. Wall to Wall

  31. From On High

  32. Extinguished

  33. Asylum

  34. Survivor

  Author’s Notes

  About the Author

  The Magelands Series

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  Chapter 1

  The Blockage

  Arakhanah City – 5th Day, First Third Summer 504

  ‘Stop fidgeting, Shella. Keep your hands still, and quit making that noise.’

  The teenage girl tutted. Her arms were folded, and she wore a sullen expression on her face. Her mother sat next to her, frowning as they waited in the draughty hallway.

  An office door opened, and a young man walked out.

  ‘Missus Kanawara?’ he said to the girl’s mother. ‘Please come in.’

  ‘Thank you doctor,’ the woman said as she stood, her back straight. She gestured to her daughter, and the girl got to her feet, slouching. The young man smiled, and went into the office.

  ‘Behave yourself in here,’ the woman said as she and the girl entered the room. The young man closed the door and took a seat behind a desk.

  ‘Please,’ he said, gesturing at two chairs.

  The mother and girl sat.

  ‘Feet off the chair,’ the mother said, glaring at the girl until she complied.

  The young man smiled again. ‘I have some good news for your family,’ he beamed. ‘Your daughter here has tested positive for flow mage abilities, all the way up to grade four.’

  The mother arched her eyebrows. ‘Well, well. I always knew there was something funny about her. Still, my great uncle had flow powers, so I suppose it’s not completely unexpected.’

  ‘I’ve been in contact with the district council to register her as a new flow mage,’ the young man went on. ‘It means that you’ll be able to claim vouchers for her healthcare and education.’

  ‘She’ll be schooled with the rest of her brothers and sisters,’ the mother said. ‘She doesn’t need to go to some fancy academy. She already wastes her days dreaming. Still, at least I know that she’ll be an earner for the family. Grade four, eh? What does a grade four make working for the council these days?’

  The young man frowned. ‘Considerably more than me.’

  ‘Hear that, Shella?’ her mother laughed. ‘In a few years you’ll be supporting the family. Your old dad will be able to retire at last. That should put a smile on his miserable face.’

  The girl shuffled in her chair. ‘But I don’t want to.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter what you want,’ her mother said. ‘You’re a registered flow mage, you have to get a job, it’s written in the law. You’ve a life of hard work ahead of you, my girl, putting rice on the table for all your brothers and sisters, until one of them gets a licence to spawn. It’ll be Noli, I reckon. That girl…’

  Shella scowled, dread filling her as her mother mapped out her future.

  It sounded like a nightmare.

  Shella lay on her back, floating in the warm water. Above her, the vast open sky was endless, its colour a deep, hot, summer blue. Her ears were submerged, and she felt the silence permeate her, the raw, rare and beautiful silence. She welcomed it.

  Peace.

  At last.

  The sun had climbed halfway up the eastern side of the sky, and she could feel its warmth on her skin. Another gorgeous day in the Rakanese wetlands. If only she could lie there and enjoy it for a bit longer.

  Hands grabbed hold of her shoulders, and she was hauled out of the water, and up onto a brick-built pier, where she lay, drenched.

  ‘Shella!’ a man shouted in her face. ‘Are you okay?’

  A crowd was forming around her on the wide retaining wall.

  ‘What happened?’ someone asked.

  ‘Mage fell in,’ came one reply.

  ‘Is she alive?’

  The overseer pushed his way through the surging bodies, and approached Shella.

  He stared down at her, tapping his foot on the ground.

  ‘Get up, Mage Kanawara,’ he said. ‘It’s not break-time.’

  She sat, pushing her wet black hair from her face. Her overalls were soaked through.

  ‘Maybe I should go and get changed, boss,’ she said.

  ‘No time for that,’ he scowled, ‘the sun’ll dry you off soon enough.’ He stuck out his hand to help her up, but she ignored him, and got to her feet unaided.

  ‘Right everyone,’ the overseer shouted, ‘the mage is fine. Back to work!’

  The disappointed crowd of workers dispersed, leaving Shella and her team of twenty alone on top of the wide brick wall.

  ‘You really okay?’ asked the man who had pulled her from the water.

  ‘Yeah, Barro,’ she said. ‘Just slipped. Tired.’

  ‘Not surprised, mage,’ Barro said, ‘this is your eighth double-shift in a row.’

  She stared at him, her eyes narrow.

  ‘I checked the rota,’ he said, shrugging.

  ‘Need the pay,’ she muttered.

  She didn’t need the pay. Truth was, she just wanted to get out of the house, and its crushing, suffocating atmosphere, and she couldn’t think of anything else to do but work. She looked over at Barro. He was kind enough, though a little neurotic at times, but he wasn’t someone she was about to confide her troubles in.

  Barro nodded, his attention having drifted back to the water-lock, and the job they were supposed to be getting on with. Eight workers in overalls were clambering on top of the giant structure, which separated two large pools. Shella walked along the top of the retaining wall that ran between the artificial basins, her clothes dripping and her shoes squelching on the rough brick surface. The pool on her left, the one she had fallen into, was filled to the top with clean, treated water, almost ready to be fed back into the city’s waterways. The basin on the right held all of the contaminants that had been extracted from the cleaned and treated p
ool.

  The valve in the water-lock was blocked, stopping the last of the toxins from being flushed out of the clean pool. As she approached the lock, she found herself standing where she had been when she had fallen. She had been leaning over the pool, concentrating on identifying and pulling the waste from the water, and flowing it through the valve. She remembered something large being pulled in, and jamming, and it was this abrupt break in her concentration that had made her topple over.

  ‘It’s big,’ she said to her crew. ‘Whatever’s blocking the valve. Someone’s going to have to go down there.’

  The workers looked at the water, the wall, anything but meet her eyes.

  ‘Uh, mage,’ Thelo said, ‘seeing as how you’re already wet and all...’

  A few others sniggered.

  ‘What’s the point of being a bloody mage,’ she muttered, picking up one end of a rubber breathing pipe, ‘if you have to do all the work?’