Free The Cerberus Rebellion (A Griffins & Gunpowder Novel) by Joshua Johnson

nation.
    Kerberos had never been the largest nation native to this side of the world. They had carved out a niche on the southeastern coast of the continent, an area rich in resources and land that was ready to be tilled and planted. They had controlled a great deal of the iron trade when swords and spears were the weapons of the world. Their fields had produced overflows of grain that they had sold to the nations around them.
    When he removed Ansgar’s boot from his nation’s neck, Magnus was confident that their overflowing granaries and highly regarded forges and foundries would provide the income necessary for the nation to get back to its former glory.
    Over the past one hundred years his family, and the nobles that swore their allegiance to it, had rebuilt the strongholds in their western reaches. They had done it slowly so as not to attract the attention of Aetheston. Castles had been reconstructed and reinforced, earthen fortresses had been built, and trenches dug. Natural defenses had been strengthened and improved with constructions as well.
    Magnus had also put great effort into the diplomatic ties with the nations that shared this side of the world with them. He had formed quiet alliances with Steimor and plans had been made to betroth his youngest child, Talia, to the son of Herzog Renwyk, Grand Duke of Beldane.
    Both of the eastern nations had promised armed forces to help secure the reconstitution of Kerberos, a fact that was not lost on Magnus. They wanted Ansgar’s power checked and they were willing to provide soldiers and arms to make sure it happened.
    Steimor disliked the taxes and transit fees that the Ansgari crown charged ships that passed through the Kerberos Islands. Southern Steimor, the part across the Straits from the main part of the nation, didn’t have the ports or the massive rail network to support the transport of goods from the Anvil to the lucrative markets in the City States of the Rhon or the nations beyond. The channels between the islands were the only way for ships to pass from Steimor to the South.
    Beldane disliked the Ansgari foreign policy, how they forced their will on all of the surrounding nations. While the freedom of Kerberos would not end that hegemony outright, it would show that the Ansgari crown was weak and could be resisted.
    And if I can get my nation’s freedom out of their selfish interests, all the better, Magnus thought as he rested the pieces in their felt lined box.
     

Chapter 5 - Hadrian
     
    Hadrian woke to a nudge.
    The train still moved; the swift, rhythmic click-clack click-clack of the wheels told him that they were still at full steam.
    “ What’s wrong?” he asked.
    Auberon Strait pointed out the window. “Look there, my lord.”
    A thick cloud of gray smoke hung low over rows and rows of starched white tents set up outside the city’s walls. Thousands of tents that could house tens of thousands of soldiers.
    “ He’s called his full levies,” Hadrian observed as he took in the camp.
    “ His reaction to the King’s summons is extreme,” Auberon suggested. “His full levies are more than eighty thousand soldiers.”
    “ He knows as well as we do that the required levies will not suffice,” Hadrian said. “I’m impressed that he was able to call so many together so quickly.”
    “ The majority of his population is right here in Arndell,” Auberon noted. “It would take three days for him to collect sixty thousand soldiers.”
    The tents stretched for as far as the eye could see. Broad avenues ran between divisions and narrow rows separated the regiments. Deep latrine trenches had been dug to carry the sewage away, and long horse-lines marked the cavalry contingent of the duke’s levies.
    The train finally pulled past the last of the camp: massive tent pavilions set up by the lesser lords that commanded the common soldiers. The train passed through the walls of Arndell, thirty feet thick and seventy feet tall.
    The train screeched