Needs of the Empire Read online

  Needs of the Empire

  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 Magelands Origins

  (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, June 2019

  Ebook Edition © June 2019

  ISBN 978-1-912879-08-3

  For my parents

  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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  Dramatis Personae

  Holdings

  Daphne Holdfast, Vision Mage

  Chane, Advisor in Broadwater

  Giles, Courtier in Broadwater

  Rijon, Mage-Priest

  Celine, Daphne's sister in law

  Emperor Guilliam, Holder of the World

  Mirren Blackhold, Queen of the Realm

  Prior, Chamberlain of the Realm

  Arnault, Lord Vicar to the Prophet

  Yosin, Deacon in the One True Path

  Suthers, Captain, Plateau City Port

  Niall, Trooper, Alliance Force

  Flora, Trooper, Alliance Force

  Millar, Deacon assigned to Slateford

  Joley, Embassy Official

  Pieper, Church Agent in Sanang

  Robban, Imperial Legate in Sanang

  Benel, Mage-Scout

  Ghorley, Mage-Priest - Rahain Capital

  Rakanese

  Shella, Flow Mage and Princess

  Sami, Brother of Shella

  Jayki, Shella's guard

  Jodie, Embassy Staff, Plateau City

  Daly, Shella's Secretary

  Onna, Rakanese Labour Minister

  Noli, Shella's sister

  Zonnie, Shella's sister

  Lenni, Shella's brother

  Thymo, Noli's son

  Drappo, Rakanese Prime Minister

  Kellach Brigdomin

  Keira, Fire Witch

  Killop, Chief of the Severed Clan

  Bridget, Herald of the Severed Clan

  Draewyn, Severed Clan leader

  Dyam, Severed Clan leader

  Kalden, Militia Commander, Severed Clan

  Brodie, Head Brewer, Severed Clan

  Conal, Freed Slave

  Koreen, Freed Slave

  Liam, Sparker

  Lilyann, Young Fire Mage

  Dean, Young Fire Mage

  Kylon, Fugitive

  Leah, Fugitive

  Kalayne, Crazy old man

  Bedig, Daphne’s Babysitter

  Duncan, Chief of the Plateau Clan

  Sanang

  Agang Garo, King of Sanang

  Echtang Gabo, Agang's nephew

  Gadang Gabo, Agang's nephew and heir

  Mandalecht Naro, Regimental Commander

  Hodang Tipoe, Agang's Chief Minister

  B'Dang D'Bang, Tattooed warlord

  Badranga Lecht, Warlord - South of Tritos

  Fern, Princess of Sanang

  Drechtan Goe, Warlord - Western regions

  Rahain

  Laodoc, Chancellor of Rahain

  Douanna, Leader of Old Free

  Ruellap, Old Free Councillor

  Jaioun, Douanna's Servant

  Pleonim, Old Free Councillor

  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 o
ccupy 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. Lucid

  2. Dressing Down

  3. King

  4. Tolerance

  5. Not a Date

  6. Paranoid

  7. Food for Crows

  8. Service

  9. Choking

  10. Courtesy Call

  11. Slow Burn

  12. Dreams of Karalyn

  13. Investiture

  14. The Scalding

  15. Winning

  16. Sense of Self

  17. Sister’s Son

  18. Twenty-Five

  19. Speaking to Power

  20. The Offer

  21. Full House

  22. Back to Work

  23. Watching the Firewitch

  24. Holiday Visitors

  25. The First Cracks

  26. Dawn Rising

  27. Showing Off

  28. Disagreements

  29. Graveside

  30. Burnt Out

  31. The Last Time

  32. Promises

  33. Incarnation

  34. Bereft

  35. Risen

  36. Separate Ways

  37. Out of Luck

  38. Family

  Author’s Notes

  About the Author

  The Magelands Series

  Receive a FREE Magelands Book

  Chapter 1

  Lucid

  P lateau City, The Plateau – 2 nd Day, Last Third Summer 506

  ‘She has the eyes of a killer,’ whispered Kalayne to the baby in the pram. ‘Fast and lean. Look at her go. Punching that leather bag like it was a nasty priest come to take you away.’

  Daphne paused for a moment, the sweat rolling off her dark skin. She kept her bound right fist raised, her left arm ensconced within its protective Rahain armour, as the huge bag spun in the air before her. She summoned a thread of battle-vision, and as it surged through her she unleashed a powerful blow, battering the punch bag and splitting the leather down the middle; its innards bursting out in a cloud of sawdust.

  The baby laughed, a throaty gurgle.

  ‘Show off,’ Kalayne said.

  Daphne picked up a towel from a rack against the wall of her basement gymnasium and wiped her face.

  ‘Feels good to be fit again,’ she said. ‘It’s been a year since I could move this fast.’

  ‘Well I don’t like it,’ the white-haired old Kellach said.

  ‘You preferred me out of shape? ’

  Kalayne frowned. ‘I’m too conflicted with mother feelings to think about you in a carnal manner.’

  ‘That’s good to know.’

  He watched her as she picked up a jug of water and poured herself a drink.

  ‘A fit Daphne is a Daphne able to journey to Rahain,’ he said.

  ‘You going to miss me?’

  ‘No,’ he shrugged. ‘To be frank, you’re not ready. There is still much I need to teach you…’

  Daphne snorted. ‘No, there isn’t. You showed me pretty much everything in the first couple of thirds after you arrived. Since then, you’ve just been recycling the lessons.’

  The old man’s pale cheeks flushed.

  ‘Nonsense.’

  Daphne smiled. The baby raised her arms, and Daphne leant over and picked her up.

  ‘I think there might be someone else your uncle’s going to miss,’ she said to the infant.

  ‘I’m not her bloody uncle,’ Kalayne muttered, looking away. ‘I don’t even like children.’

  ‘She can tell when you’re lying, you know,’ Daphne said, gazing into her daughter’s eyes.

  ‘I’ve changed my mind,’ the old man scowled. ‘I’ll be happy to see you go. As soon as possible. Immediately, in fact.’

  The door opened.

  ‘I thought you’d be down here,’ Celine said, her summer dress flowing in the breeze from the corridor. ‘Looking good, sister.’

  ‘Maybe you should come down here more often,’ Kalayne grinned. ‘I’d like to see you work up a sweat.’

  Celine rolled her eyes.

  ‘You get a letter from home this morning?’ she asked Daphne.

  ‘From father,’ she nodded.

  ‘Well?’ Celine said. ‘Is he coming? ’

  Daphne shook her head. ‘Mother’s too ill. The estate needs him there. He asked me to go north again, travel to Hold Fast.’

  ‘It’s funny,’ Kalayne smirked, ‘how your mother is always sick when your father is due to leave.’

  ‘Don’t start, old man,’ Celine snapped. ‘Don’t listen to him Daphne. He knows your weak spots.’

  Daphne frowned.

  ‘It makes no difference,’ she said after a while. ‘I don’t have time to visit the old realm. It’d be winter by the time I got back, and then I’d have to wait until next spring for a boat to Rainsby. I told Killop to stay in Rahain, and I’ve kept him waiting long enough.’

  She sat down by a small table, and lit a cigarette, balancing the baby on her knee.

  ‘I wish you wouldn’t go,’ Celine said, sitting next to her. ‘Could you not stay until Karalyn is at least one, or see if Killop could move up here?’

  ‘You won’t be evicted Celine,’ Daphne sighed. ‘We’ve been over this.’

  ‘Your family are not going to keep paying the enormous rent on this place just for me,’ Celine said.

  ‘At worst we’ll lay off a few servants and rent out a couple of floors, but the Holdfasts will want to keep their presence in the capital.’

  Celine shook her head. ‘If you say so.’

  ‘Where’s Bedig?’ Kalayne asked.

  ‘How should I know?’ Celine replied.

  ‘He’s at the Kellach market,’ Daphne said.

  Celine nodded. ‘Booze run.’

  She glanced at Kalayne, and the old man smirked.

  Daphne frowned. ‘Is there something I should know?’

  ‘Poor Celine was wondering,’ Kalayne said, ‘how she’ll get her hands on a drink once you and Bedig have departed for Rahain.’

  ‘I was not,’ Celine said.

  ‘You could always come with us,’ Daphne said. ‘Vince is posted somewhere in Rahain with the alliance forces. I could help you find him. ’

  Celine looked away. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Is everything all right between you and Vince?’

  ‘I have no idea,’ Celine snorted. ‘He hasn’t written to me in thirds.’

  ‘Then you can ask him to his face.’

  Celine looked down, her eyes in shadow. ‘Maybe.’

  Kalayne chuckled.

  Celine scowled at him. ‘Anyway,’ she said, turning to Daphne, ‘shouldn’t you be getting ready?’

  Daphne sighed. ‘I suppose so. I’ve been waiting a long time for this meeting, and now I just want to get it over with.’

  ‘I wish I could be there,’ Kalayne muttered.

  ‘Me too,’ Daphne said, ‘but you’ll have to stay hidden while they’re here. We can’t risk them finding out about your mage powers.’

  ‘Foolish girl,’ Kalayne cried. ‘Now I’ll have to fix Celine’s memory again.’

  ‘Oops,’ Daphne said. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘What?’ said Celine.

  Kalayne raised his hand towards the young Holdings woman, and stared into her eyes. She blinked, and nearly fell off the chair.

  ‘All done,’ Kalayne said. ‘Nothing in there that will cause any suspicions.’

  Celine gazed around. ‘I feel a bit dizzy. What were we talking about?’

  ‘The visit from the priests,’ Daphne said. ‘We need to get ready to greet them when they arrive.’

  ‘Oh yes,’ Celine said.

  Daphne stood, and placed Karalyn into the pram, pulling a cover over her legs.

  ‘Could you
watch her while I get washed and changed?’ she said. ‘Bring her to the blue room about ten minutes after our guests get here.’

  Celine nodded, her eyes still blinking.

  Daphne went upstairs to her rooms, and took a cool shower. The heat of the summer hung over the city like a humid shroud, stifling the air in the streets, and sending the upper classes out onto their sea-facing balconies each evening. The loud call of gulls came through her open window, as they swooped over the ships gathered outside the busy harbour. The sea was glassy still, and the sails of the great galleys hung limp as they waited to enter the city’s port.

  She was buckling on her arm-guard when a bell rang through the townhouse. She pulled on the rest of her clothes, and tied her hair back.

  There was a knock at her door.

  ‘Ma’am?’ her housekeeper said, opening the door. ‘Our guests have arrived. I had them shown to the blue room as you requested.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Daphne said. ‘How many came?’

  ‘Two, ma’am.’

  Daphne nodded. ‘I’ll be down in a moment. Please see that they’re offered refreshments.’

  The housekeeper nodded, and backed out of the room.

  Daphne stared at her reflection in the long mirror, Kalayne’s training echoing through her mind.

  She smartened the front of her tunic, and made her way down to the first floor of the townhouse. The blue room was a small, informal study, with a few chairs by a long bookcase. Sat on the chairs were two men, who got to their feet as Daphne entered.

  ‘Welcome to my home,’ she said.

  ‘Good morning, Miss Holdfast,’ the older man said. ‘I am Father Hattin, and my companion is Deacon Fields.’

  The younger man bowed, while the priest held Daphne’s gaze.

  She felt it, just as Kalayne had shown her how. Knowing what to look for was the key, and Daphne could feel the strand of inner-vision coming from the priest. Sensing it made it easy to block or push aside, but Daphne allowed the priest to see a certain part of her mind that she had prepared with the old Kellach’s assistance. All the priest would see there was calm, friendly and unthreatening.

  Father Hattin looked away, and Daphne smiled.