“What does it say?” she panted from the doorway.
“We’re leaving Cython.” He put his nose on the page, inhaling the tantalising odour he could not get enough of. It was ecstasy. He turned the page. The rest of the book was blank, yet that did not matter—in his inner eye the future was unrolling all by itself. “It’s a new story,” Wil whispered. “The story of tomorrow.”
“Are you in shillilar ?” Her voice was desperate with long ing. “Where are the Solaces taking us? Are we finally going home?”
“We’re going—” In an instant the world turned crimson. “It’s the one !” Wil gasped, horror overwhelming him. “Stop her.”
Ady stumbled across and took him by the arm. “What are you seeing? Is it about me?”
Wil let out a cracked laugh. “She’s changing the story—bringing the Scribe to the brink—”
“Who are you seeing?” cried Ady. “Speak, lad!”
How could the one change the story written by the Scribe Wil worshipped? Surely she couldn’t, unless… unless the Scribe was fallible. No! That could not be. But if the one was going to challenge him, she must have free will. It was a shocking, heretical thought. Could the one be as worthy as the Scribe? Ah, what a story their contest would make. And the story was everything—he had to see how it ended.
Ady struck him so hard that his head went sideways. “Answer me!”
“It’s… it’s the one.”
“Don’t talk nonsense, boy. What one?”
“A Pale slave, but—”
“A slave is changing our future?” Ady choked. “Who?”
“A girl.” Wil tore his gaze away from the book for a second and gasped, “She’s still a child.”
“What’s her name?” “I… don’t know.”
Wild-eyed and frantic, Ady shook him. “When does this happen?”
“Not for years and years.”
“When, boy? How long have we got to find her?”
Wil turned back to the last written page, tore open his finger on the rough edge and dribbled blood across the page. The story was terrible but he had to know who won. “Until… until she comes of age—”
“What are we to do?” said Ady, and he heard her hobbling around the table. “We don’t know how to contact the Scribe. We must obey The Consolation of Vengeance.”
The letters brightened until his eyes began to sting, to steam. Wil began to scream, but even as his vision blurred and his eyes bubbled and boiled into jelly that oozed out of his sockets, he could not tear his gaze away. He had longed to be special, and now he was.
She tottered back to him, wiped his face, and he heard her weeping. “Why didn’t you listen to me?”
He took another sniff and the pain was gone. “Stupid old woman,” sneered Wil. “Wil can see so much more clearly now. Wil free! ”
“Wil, what does she look like?”
“She Pale. She the one.”
“Tell me!” she cried, shaking him. “How am I to find this slave child among eighty-five thousand Pale—and see her dead.”
Publications by John R. Fultz
Books of the Shaper
Seven Princes
Seven Kings
Seven Sorcerers
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Map
Prologue: The Earthborn
Chapter 1: Those Who Listen
Chapter 2: The Shaper
Chapter 3: The Axe
Chapter 4: The Feathered Serpent
Chapter 5: Daystar
Chapter 6: The Dreaming Ones
Chapter 7: Valley of the Dead
Chapter 8: The Whelming
Chapter 9: Duality
Chapter 10: The Maker of Mountains
Chapter 11: Invasion
Chapter 12: Colossi
Chapter 13: Citadel of Bone
Chapter 14: The Gates of Uurz
Chapter 15: Seven Sorcerers
Chapter 16: The Scroll
Chapter 17: The Siege
Chapter 18: Phantoms
Chapter 19: The New Seraphim
Chapter 20: Vows
Chapter 21: Vengeance
Chapter 22: The Truth
Chapter 23: The Living Empire
Dramatis Personae
Extras
Meet the Author
A Preview of Vengeance
Publications by John R. Fultz
Orbit Newsletter
Copyright
Copyright
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 2013 by John R. Fultz
Excerpt from Vengeance copyright © 2011 by Ian Irvine
Cover design by Lauren Panepinto
Cover illustrations by Richard Anderson
Cover copyright © 2013 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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First ebook edition: December 2013
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ISBN 978-0-316-23549-5
Seven Sorcerers: Book Three of the Books of the Shaper Page 41