Chadwick Yates and the Anuran Contest: The Adventures of Chadwick Yates, #3

By Bradley Verdell

“We're deep in a land not made for men.”

Knife-edge Negotiations.

Deep in the tropical swamps of Tanzia, where anacondas and crocodiles thrive just out of sight and mosquitoes thicken the air, dwell the mysterious Anurans. The frog-like tribe is isolated, distrustful, and the guardians of a powerful form of sorcery no others can claim.

Chadwick Yates’ powers of wilderness survival and diplomacy are put to the ultimate test in his quest to know how they vanish and where they go. Yates and his long-suffering companion, Thurston Sharp, have one way forward: compete in a very dangerous Anuran sport...

About the Series

“Yates shouldered his shotgun and poured cartridge after cartridge of triple-aught shot into the minotaur. The monster howled and turned to face him, ruby eyes alight like coals.”

Monsters and elephant guns face off as Ambassador Chadwick Yates and Navy Commander Thurston Sharp explore the Forbidden Continent of Tanzia. The pair must adapt to the curious cultures of Gremlins, Faeries, Anurans, and others to make allies, and fight off the evil creatures that serve an ancient sorcerer.

The Adventures of Chadwick Yates is for readers who love action in exotic locales. The series blends the Lost World literary genre of Indiana Jones and King Solomon's Mines with the magic and monsters of epic fantasy.

Featuring real 19th century gadgets and a gorgeously-realized world, the series was inspired by such works as Allan Quatermain, Sherlock Holmes, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Heart of Darkness, The Most Dangerous Game, and The Lost World.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bradley Verdell
• Release date: Oct 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9781536560244

Book preview

Artwork and Lore

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For a collection of illustrations, including the world map, races, firearms, potions, and majik sigils, please visit www.chadwickyates.com. The website serves as a field guide to the world of Chadwick Yates, featuring: Weapons, Equipment, Majik, Monsters, Locations, Races, Characters, Cavendian History, and more.

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Your ship awaits. Enjoy your expedition.

Foreword:  A Declaration of Unavailability

By Mr. Thurston Sharp, former commander in Her Majesty’s Royal Navy

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The two histories I have already sent to print, which sketch in a limited way the lives and habits of Gremlins and Faeries, respectively, have stirred up a great response in my letterbox.  Yet, I have neglected to reply to even such esteemed bodies as the Zoological Society and Charleston Cartographers Guild, not from any disrespect, I assure you, but because I have yet a very long tale left to write, and I need all my time to pen it down.  Already I sense that my time for this endeavor is not elastic. I ought not linger in reporting the adventures of Mr. Chadwick Yates for the world to remember.

Independently of this reason, I, who am not a scientist, do not feel qualified to weigh in on the topics these greater men are inquiring about.  Had I the presumption to approach the lectern before experts, I could only stutter, sweat, and display my own ignorance more fully than I ever should like to.

I like to think I know my strengths well and my limits with exactitude.  The price paid is understanding the length, width, and breadth of my flaws better than I should like.

Rather than embarrass myself as a scientist, I will just say now that I lack the faculties needed to be consulted on any scientific matter. There I shall let all issues rest.  Like a witness summoned before the judge’s bench, I can merely state what I saw and heard as exactly as I am able.

Further, I could not send a letter of response to each of my received correspondences even if I were inclined to. There have been many hundreds.

My accounts as they appear in this paper, edited by Mr. Kingsford, are my final word until I have completed the lot of them, flawed as they are. I humbly apologize and ask for understanding from all those who have been generous enough to write to me.  I am so very greatly honored, and yet I am really unworthy.

It is well that I declare this now, for my first two installments have met with no skepticism.  Not a single individual has expressed any disbelief in the accuracy of my statement, and I am overwhelmed by the trust of my readers.

Now, I fear we come hard upon some of the strangest and most fantastical experiences I have ever undergone, and I doubt if all shall believe me from here on. Gremlins and wild Faeries are curious in their ways, but the plainest logic is enough to understand why their cultures must be as they are.

Now I shall tell you of Anurans, and after that, the Altaica.  Be forewarned that what I am about to divulge will be difficult to believe. 

I swear now upon my honor as a gentleman that I tell you the truth.

Chapter One:  The Bracken Fens

Following our stay with the Faeries in the spring and early summer, Yates took me in the hot, late summer of 1880 to central Tanzia and to the fens of the Anurans, the frog-like people.

Anurans, as it transpires, are the least populous race on Tanzia, their numbers being severely restricted by the limited lands they can survive in.  Like the komodos, echidnas, and black devil-bears of Sutherbury, Anurans exist nowhere outside of the exact conditions that sustain their odd lives.  Vulnerable though they seem, I have no doubt their society will endure the next few centuries without challenge, for reasons the reader will soon learn.

To return plainly to the point, an Anuran without his swamp is a fish without water or a koala without eucalyptus; they simply cannot survive without their favored environment. Let me tell you, it is not an environment men can long stand.

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At the border of the Faerie lands, we left our pack goats. We paid a southerly tribe of Faeries to tend to them for a few pearls a week.  We had no choice, for the swampy country ahead was unsuitable for them ... and us for that matter.

Mosquitoes hold the muddy fens like a host of ten thousand legions, turning all that country into a dismal pit of irritation.  Knowing we were headed to the swamps, I had gone and bought a bulky bundle of sage and rosemary from the Faeries, with the plan that we should throw the herbs upon the campfire.  We could at least eat our supper free of the incessant buzzing of those bloodsucking pests, and if we bathed ourselves in camp smoke, we might even get off to sleep better.  We had mosquito curtains of course, but they only allowed us to make our little tarp tent free of insects.

Chadwick Yates supported my purchase of the herbs, but he stopped me from buying garlic, from which I aimed to make a topical repellent.

The ambassador’s linguistic ability proved to save the day, for by it he was able to get hold of oil from the neem tree. Though not found in Cavendia, some readers will know it, for it grows in Sutherbury. Of course Yates knew the tree from his time living with the aboriginals of Sutherbury’s Outback. He’d been delighted to discover the Tanzian species of it on his last journey to the Anurans.

On this trip, he chatted up the farmers of the southernmost Faerie settlement where we left Elliot, Colonel Rochester, and Huckleberry, and they sold us a preparation of this oil which could be rubbed on the skin and clothes to ward off dangerous insects.  Not only that, but they claimed it could kill any insects which did land upon us.  They said no majikal potion was superior to this natural, pure preparation.  Needless to say we bought all the stock