John Wright - Titans of Chaos

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.

"You are not going to run away and get killed!" She was a green-eyed redhead, and her eyes seemed to glow like emeralds when she was angry. I could see only her silhouette, but from her tone of voice I knew her eyes blazed.

"If the leader orders a retreat, you retreat!" (I was screaming louder than regulation for a British military officer, but I was still new at this, and was outshouting the storm-wind.) Colin mac FirBolg was blue-eyed, with unruly hair and ruddy skin, built like a wrestler. He gave me a stiff-armed Roman salute. "Sieg Heil mein Obergruppenfraulein! But we thought you were dead! Didn't Echidna kill you?"

Vanity hissed, "Stupid! No matter how far away, she hears whenever her name is spoken!

Speaking summons her!"