The new Sultan frowned on the ornate rituals favoured by his predecessors. After a quick search – his pistol and sword were confiscated – Henry found himself being lead into the Viceroy’s former throne room. The Ottoman Empire’s Viceroy had been powerless; the Mamelukes had kept all the power concentrated in their own hands, even as they swore loyalty to Istanbul. Now...the man standing in the centre of the chamber, surrounded by his green-clad soldiers, was the absolute master of Egypt. Resistance would be crushed mercilessly.
Henry stopped and bowed, using the moment to study the Sultan. He was shorter than Henry had expected from the tales that had been told of his deeds, with bright, almost hypnotic eyes. Rumour attributed all kinds of powers to this man, but even if he didn’t have magic, he was clearly a man to be reckoned with. He’d risen from a humble Corsican Janissary to absolute control of the Ottoman Empire. Who else could claim such a climb to power?
“Your Excellency,” he said. For once, he found himself tongue-tied. Charm wouldn’t work on the Sultan – and would almost certainly lead to his death. England would probably be quietly relieved if the Sultan ever informed them that he’d had one of their people executed. It certainly wouldn’t lead to war. “Thank you for granting me this audience.”
The Sultan smiled – and in his smile, Henry saw boundless ambition. Who knew how far he could go? The Barbary States, still reeling from the thrashing Lord Nelson had handed out to them, would be easy prey. Or there would be the advance northwards against Austria, or Russia...or Persia. And if the Ottomans crushed the Persians, they’d have a gateway to British India.
“You are welcome,” the Sultan said, quietly. His English was perfect, without even a trace of an accent. “And why do you wish to seek asylum with us?”
Henry bowed his head. He hated being a supplicant – let alone having his life depend on someone else – but there was no choice. Remaining in exile would be nothing, apart from a slow death.
“That is a long story, Your Excellency,” he said, finally. They could help each other, one to build the greatest empire the world had ever known, the other to return home and extract revenge for his humiliation. “It will take some time to explain.”
The Sultan’s smile widened. “We have all the time in the world,” he said. “Why don’t you begin?”
The End
The Royal Sorceress Will Return In:
The Great Game
Elsewhen Press
a small independent publisher specialising in Speculative Fiction
Visit the Elsewhen Press website at elsewhen.co.uk for the latest information on all of our titles, authors and events; to read our blog; to find out where to buy our books and ebooks; or to place an order.
Elsewhen Press
LiGa™
Sanem Ozdural
Have YOU had your invitation yet?
Literary science fiction, LiGa™ tells of a game in which the players are, literally, gambling with their lives. Sanem Ozdural’s debut novel is set in a near-future where a secretive organisation has developed technology to transfer the regenerative power of a body’s cells from one person to another, conferring extended or even indefinite life expectancy. Access is limited to those invited to play.
At once fantastic, yet credible, the familiarity of the contemporary setting gives a definite slipstream feel to Sanem’s debut novel, providing a fascinating insight into the motivation of those characters who win the possibility of virtual immortality and of those who will lose some of their life expectancy.
epub, kindle, paperback (400pp)
visit http://bit.ly/LiGaBook
Elsewhen Press
The Lost Men, an allegory
David Colón
A world where the human population has been decimated. For the few remaining people, the only human contact is their counsel, a mentor who guides them to find ‘the one’, their life mate as decreed by Fate. The only threats to this stable, if sparse, existence are the ‘lost men’ - mindless murderers, living outside the confines of counsel and Fate.
Is Fate a real force, or is it totally imagined, an arbitrary convention, a product of mankind’s self-destructive tendency? In this allegorical tale, David Colón uses an alternate near-future to explore the boundaries of the human condition and the extent to which we are prepared to surrender our capacity for decisions and self-determination in the face of a very personally directed and apparently benevolent, authoritarianism. Is it our responsibility to rebuke inherited ‘wisdom’ for the sake of envisioning and manifesting our own will?
epub, kindle, paperback (192pp)
visit lost-men.com
Elsewhen Press
Entanglement
Douglas Thompson
Best described as philosophical science fiction, Entanglement explores our assumptions about such constants as death, birth, sex and conflict, as the characters in the story explore distant worlds and the intelligent life that lives there.
Entanglement is simultaneously a novel and a series of short stories: 24 worlds, 24 chapters, 24 stories; each one another step on mankind’s journey outwards to the stars and inwards to man’s own psyche. Yet the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts; the synergy of the episodes results in an overarching story arc that tells us more about ourselves than about the rest of the universe.
epub, kindle, paperback (336pp)
visit bit.ly/EntanglementBook
Elsewhen Press
[Re]Awakenings
an anthology of new Speculative Fiction
• Alison Buck • Neil Faarid •
• Gingerlily • Robin Moran •
• PR Pope • Alexander Skye •
• Peter Wolfe •
[Re]Awakenings are the starting points for life-changing experiences; a new plane of existence, an alternate reality or cyber-reality. This genre-spanning anthology of new speculative fiction explores that theme with a spectrum of tales, from science fiction to fantasy to paranormal; in styles from clinically serious to joyfully silly.
All of life is within these pages, from birth to death (and in some cases beyond). In all of these stories, most of them specifically written for this anthology, the short story format has been used to great effect. If you haven’t already heard of some of these authors, you soon will as they are undoubtedly destined to become future stars in the speculative fiction firmament.
Remember, you read them here first!
epub, kindle, paperback(288pp)
visit bit.ly/ReAwakenings
Elsewhen Press
Queens of Antares
Bloodline returned
Volume 1 of the Bloodline Trilogy
PR Pope
What would you do if you found out your dotty old Gran wasn’t from Surrey after all, but from a planet 600 light years away across the galaxy? Not only that, but she’s really an exiled Princess from a Royal family that has been virtually wiped out by a tyrannical usurper. Would you believe it? That’s the question being asked by Caroline, Alex and Emily Wright. But you might find it easier to believe, if you were actually standing on that self-same planet looking into a sky with two suns. That’s the situation in which Caroline, Alex and Emily find themselves when they accidentally get transported across the galaxy. Would you join the fight for freedom against the tyrant, if that was the only way to get back home to Earth? You now understand the dilemma facing them. What would you do?
epub, kindle, paperback (224pp)
visit www.queensofantares.co.uk
Elsewhen Press
Blue Friday
Mike French
Dystopian science fiction, Blue Friday tells of a future where many live in fear of the Family Protection Agency, a special police division enforcing strict legislation introduced to protect the family unit. Combining dark humour with a nightmare vision of the future, Mike French follows in the tradition of great satirists such as Jonathan Swift. Thoughtful, while at the same time prompting a wry smile in the reader, it reverses the usual per
ception of a future regime driven by productivity and industrial output at the expense of family, demonstrating that the converse may be no better.
epub, kindle, paperback (192pp)
visit bit.ly/Blue_Friday
About the author
Christopher Nuttall has been planning sci-fi books since he learned to read. Born and raised in Edinburgh, Chris created an alternate history website and eventually graduated to writing full-sized novels. Studying history independently allowed him to develop worlds that hung together and provided a base for storytelling. After graduating from university, Chris started writing full-time. As an indie author, he has published five novels (so far) through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. The Royal Sorceress is his first novel to be professionally published. Chris is currently living in Borneo with his wife, muse, and critic Aisha.
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