by Alex Janaway
REDOUBT
By
Alex Janaway
This edition Published by Browncoat Books 2014
First published by The Book Guild in Great Britain 2008
Copyright © 2008 Alexander S Janaway
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 0992813700
ISBN 13: 978-0992813
To the Corps of Royal Engineers – who continue to put up with me
The Jedah Sea - Nations and City States
Despatch from Graves dated 12 June 698lc
For the attention of the Executive Assembly.
We have successfully held the border and Graves remains a sovereign territory. Having quickly captured the ringleaders of the insurgency, we were able to force the hand of their client state Shifter. A medium-sized force made of insurgent units and Shifter regulars made a push for the capital. We pushed back.
The civil unrest within Graves has quietened and our preferred candidate has been installed as the new Regent in the City of Cauker. Whilst elements of the old Aristocratic Party remain, for the most part any organised local support has melted away and their military and financial backing has faded with Shifter pulling back its troops. Shifter seemed pretty shocked by how vigorously we pursued this campaign. I anticipate that our forces will be able to withdraw itself within another month or so and I have ordered the fleet to prepare for the trip home. It is now highly unlikely that Graves will be subject to any further military incursions for the foreseeable future. During our final weeks here, I have established a chain of small border units to monitor any remaining mischief from insurgents who don’t know when they are beaten.
However, on a personal note, I think it reprehensible that the Assembly felt the need to re-establish the Regency after the last one was assassinated. Having spent some time talking with key merchant families, they really couldn’t give a rat’s ass who was in power. The Aristocrats had (surprisingly) popular support and from what I can tell there was no plot by Shifter to create a client state. Seems to me we completely messed up the intelligence on this one. However I’m just a public servant and not party to the wider considerations of political expedience, commerce and the need to prop up failing allied states.
General McKracken.
Commander Ashkent Expeditionary Force
PROLOGUE
The clansman pulled back the leather curtain and entered the hut. It was dark inside and he allowed his eyes time to adjust to the gloom. He glanced around at the small room. It contained nothing special, just a sleeping mat and bedroll in one corner, a small chest in another. The floor was earthen but it was well kept for all of that. There were no windows. Any daylight would have to come from the doorway behind him, but he did not recall a time that he had ever come here and found the curtain pulled back. The witch did not deliberately shun the daylight; it was rather that she shunned the outside world. He approved of that, better for her to know her place, to know that he controlled the boundaries of her life. It would not do for her to begin to question him, she had power and rather than see it used against him, he would end her life quickly.
She was sat before him now, on the far side of the small fire pit she used both for cooking and to perform her arts. Smoke curled up from the pit and he could see the soft glow of embers within it.
“What do you see, Lissa. Is the time right?” he asked.
“There is much death.”
“That is obvious,” he scoffed. “There is always death. That is our life. Do not toy with me, witch. Not this day.”
He studied the slight form of the witch as she sat cross-legged on the ground. She was clothed in homespun rags and wore a black cloak, the hood pulled up. She raised her head and looked at him. She had a hard face, though it was not aged, and she, like her small dwelling, was fastidiously clean. Her black eyes had a distant quality; she looked at him but she was watching a different scene playing out before her. She blinked and focussed on the clansman.
“I can see the future but it is not always clear, Vorgat. I can tell you nothing of the outcome of your plan. I can tell you only of what will happen in the pursuit of it.”
“And that would be?” he pressed. Often he would become annoyed and angry with her. It seemed to him that she was mocking him, believing that her knowledge was special, that it made her better than him. But to see her, huddled on the floor, dressed in rags, it was clear he was the master. Damn but this wench played games! He owned her. In the past he had taken her too. Just to prove that everything of hers was his. He had become bored of her body, always cold, always without passion. Now he punished in simpler ways. Bruises healed but inside the scars remained.
“That many lives will be lost, innocent and guilty alike,” she replied.
“And the bridge?”
“Yes, that will fall to you, Vorgat. As will the men defending it.”
The man called Vorgat smiled.
“Then that is a good start, witch. So I should go?”
The witch blinked and cocked her head.
“Oh yes, you should go, my lord.”
“Then you shall come also. Perhaps as we go your vision will clear. I will have need of it.” Turning he swept the curtain aside for a second time and returned to the light. The witch called Lissa watched him leave. The embers from the pit flared brightly and her black eyes glittered in the dark.
