Other Tor Books By John C. Wright:
The Golden Age
Phoenix Exultant
The Golden Transcendence
The Last Guardian of Everness
Mists of Everness
Orphans of Chaos
Fugitives of Chaos
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NOTE: If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book."
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
TITANS OF CHAOS
Copyright © 2007 by John C. Wright
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
Edited by Talis Winterborn
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
Fifth Avenue
New York, NY
www.tor.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7653-5560-7 ISBN-10: 0-7653-5560-
First Edition: April
First Mass Market Edition: March
Printed in the United States of America
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Acknowledgments
The fragment used of the "Homeric Hymn to Pythian Apollo" is the translation by Hugh G.
Evelyn-White, based on the edition of T. W. Allen.
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Dramatis Personae
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The Students:
(Primus) Victor Invictus Triumph • Damnameneus of the Telchine (Secunda) Amelia Armstrong Windrose • Phaethusa,Daughter of Helios and Neaera of Myriagon (Tertia) Vanity Bonfire Fair • Nausicaa, Daughter of Alcinuous and Arete (Quartinus) Colin Iblis mac FirBolg • Phobetor, son of Morpheus and Nepenthe Quentin Nemo • Eidotheia, child of Proteus and the Graeae
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The Staff:
Headmaster Reginald Boggin • Boreas, of the North Wind
Dr. Ananias Fell • Telemus, Cyclopes
Mrs. Jenny Wren • Erichtho the Witch
Miss Christabel Daw • Thelxiepia the Siren
Grendel Glum • Grendel, son of Echidna
Dr. Miles Drinkwater • Mestor of Atlantis
Taffy ap Cymru • Laverna, Lady of Fraud
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The Olympians
Lord Terminus • Zeus
The Great Queen, Lady Basilissa • Hera
Lord Pelagaeus, also called the Earthshaker • Poseidon
The Grain Mother • Demeter
Lord Dis, also called the Unseen One • Hades
The Maiden, also called Kore • Proserpine
Phoebus the Bright God, also called the Destroyer • Apollo
Phoebe, also called the Huntress • Artemis
Lord Mavors • Ares
Lady Cyprian • Aphrodite
Trismegistus • Hermes
Tritogenia, also called Lady Wisdom • Athena
Mulciber • Hephaestus
Lady Hestia
Lord Anacreon, also called Lord Vintner and the Vine God • Dionysus
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Of the Four Houses of Chaos
The Dark rule dreams and phantoms of Old Night;
Cimmeria their land, Morpheus their king.
The Fallen rage in Tartarus, lamenting lost delight,
And that virtue, which, betrayed, lost them everything.
The Lost fall through th'Abyss, silent and serene as rain,
Typhon is their eldest, and nothingness his whole domain.
The Telchine are their serfs on Earth,
Ialysus their golden isle, rich-laden with treasures fine.
The Nameless live before all birth,
In Labyrinths of Thousand-walled design,
And, prelapsarian, still laws recall
That Uranus knew before his fall.
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Ships of Sable, Dark and Swift
It was our fault.
We fled the old gods; fleeing, we drew our pursuers after us, so that the frail and mortal men we hid among were in the shadow of destruction meant for us, to be whelmed by the fury of heaven, and malice of the deep.
Here was the great luxury liner Queen Elizabeth II, an engineering marvel of seventy thousand tons and nine hundred sixty feet, as wealthy as a palace afloat, more opulent than what antique kings in Nineveh lavished on their splendors. For many idle days we five children lolled among the passengers, giddy with freedom as if with wine, and the equatorial sun hovered, weightless gold, above calm, blue Atlantic waves.
That was then. Now it was night, and the stars hid, and the wind howled, and trumpets sounded, echoing across the black abyss of storm-lashed waters. Clouds like boiling floodwaters fell past overhead, and waves like thunderclouds rose and trembled and collapsed down below.
The gods we fled did not want men to see them. The Queen Elizabeth II was struck with slumber: As if that archangel who had entranced Adam on the day when Eve was born without pain from his side had shaken dark wings above the ship, the mortals were drowned in oblivion. No one, young or old, could stir, but lay where chance tumbled him, in cabins or passageways, or heaped at the bottom of ladders.
No one human. I was alert, gripping the broken rail and staring out into the utter darkness.
"Why did you two come back?" I shouted. "I ordered you to abandon ship! We will all die if we don't follow orders. My orders! Didn't you vote for me as leader?"
I have heard that there are grown-ups who do not take seriously the ideas about voting, obeying authority, or acting with purpose and discipline. Lucky them. What soft and comfortable lives they must lead! Lives without foes.
Vanity Fair was shorter than me, a dress size smaller, but with more generous hip and bust measurements. We were closer than sisters, having been raised in the same, well, you can call it a jail cell, since that's what it was. The freezing rain had plastered her hair to her head, and her thin coat tight to her body. She was shivering. Her real name was Nausicaa, of the mythic land called Phaeacia, beyond Earth's shore, but our real names had been taken from us in youth and, until recently, we had only the names we chose for ourselves as children.