John Gregory Betancourt - Chaos and Amber
Here you can read online John Gregory Betancourt - Chaos and Amber full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. genre: Detective and thriller. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:
Romance novel
Science fiction
Adventure
Detective
Science
History
Home and family
Prose
Art
Politics
Computer
Non-fiction
Religion
Business
Children
Humor
Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.
- Book:Chaos and Amber
- Author:
- Genre:
- Rating:3 / 5
- Favourites:Add to favourites
- Your mark:
Chaos and Amber: summary, description and annotation
We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "Chaos and Amber" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.
John Gregory Betancourt: author's other books
Who wrote Chaos and Amber? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.
John Gregory Betancourt
John Gregory Betancourt
John Gregory Betancourt
John Gregory Betancourt
John Betancourt
John Betancourt
John Betancourt
Michael Rajczak
Betancourt Ingrid
Roger Zelazny
Ingrid Betancourt
John Gregory Betancourt
John Gregory Betancourt
John Gregory Betancourt
Katherine John
Chaos and Amber — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work
Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Chaos and Amber" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.
Light
Font size:
↓
↑
Reset
Interval:
↓
↑
Bookmark:
Make
Annotation
In CHAOS AND AMBER, Dworkin and his son Oberon arrive at the Courts of Chaos to discover, and confront, their hidden enemies. But things don't go as planned. Oberon has a terrible physical reaction to being in Chaos, while assassination attempts are made on both his and Dworkin's live and the traitor in their family remains a hidden but quite real threat. Dworkin takes Oberon on a desperate journey, pressing deeper into Shadow than ever before. Here, Oberon discovers more of the true nature of his father... and of his real mother. But they have been followed, and a horde of hell-creatures attacks. Ultimately, Dworkin must create a new Pattern with his own blood to save himself, his family, and the future.
John Gregory Betancourt
Chaos and Amber
Chapter 1
"Oberon!"
Over a roaring wind, I heard a distant calling of my name. I had been dreaming of sailing a small boat across a churning, wind-swept sea; the dream clung to me, and I could not easily shake its tendrils away.
Where was I? My eyes were closed, but I sensed no light beyond them. Could it be nighttime, or was I in a dark room? I heard what might have been either the rush of wind or the beating of a thousand wings around me. My skin prickled all over with goosebumps, and I felt at once cold and hot, wet and dry.
When I tried to sit up and open my eyes, however, I could not. I found my lack of strength vaguely troubling. But it was so easy not to care, to let myself slide back into the dreaming--
"Oberon! Wake up!"
Ships. I had just begun to dream of ships for a second time when that nagging voice broke in again. The motion around me--a gentle rocking as from waves--reminded me of a ship's deck... but there came no susurrant lap from the waves, no cries of gulls nor smell of briny sea.
No, not a ship, I decided, trying to focus my attention on the problem. Also not a horse; no stamping hooves nor neighs nor smells of dung and horse-sweat. A moving carriage, perhaps? That almost made sense. My father had a magnificent carriage, like a giant pumpkin made of spun glass. I remembered my first and only ride in it; we had passed through dozens, maybe hundreds of nightmare worlds. But that didn't explain why I felt both hot and cold. It didn't explain a lot of things.
What was that roaring noise?
And why couldn't I open my eyes?
"Oberon!"
I tried to turn my head toward that distant voice but couldn't quite figure out where it came from. Above me? Below? I had gotten turned around; every direction felt wrong, as though I teetered on the edge of a cliff, about to fall. I shivered, and an impulse to flee came over me. I didn't like this place. I didn't like the sensations of being here. I had to get out, now, before something horrible happened.
Once more I tried to rouse myself from sleep. With that effort, colors suddenly pulsed in my head; lights sang and danced before my closed eyelids, and strange tastes and smells and textures flooded my senses. The flavors of lemon and salt and roast chicken and straw all mixed together, the smells of mud and sweat and honey--
If I dreamed, I dreamed strangely. Yet, somehow, I knew I was not dreaming... not quite, anyway. This was something else, something strange and unnatural and unpleasant.
"Oberon!" that distant voice bellowed. "Get your lazy ass out of bed! The king needs you! Now!"
The king. Yes, King Elnar needed me. I was one of his lieutenants. I tried to reach for my sword. It must be time to muster the men
No, that was wrong. King Elnar had died a long time ago... it now seemed a lifetime past. A sour, discordant note crept into the sounds in my head; the dancing lights pulsed, bright and dark, dark and bright. I reached for the memory, found it, shuddered at the sudden chill it brought. Yes, I remembered too well... remembered how King Elnar fell at the hands of hell-creatures in Ilerium. I had seen his severed head stuck on a pole in the mud outside of Kingstown, a warning and a trap for me when I returned there unexpectedly.
"You killed me!" I had heard his accusing voice say, impossibly coming from that severed head on the pole. "Traitor!" it called. "Traitor...!"
I'd opened my mouth to argue, but the words disappeared in a sudden roar of wind. In my mind, I pressed my eyes shut, refusing to see, but the image lingered. And I knew he had been right.
King Elnar, the entire population of Kingstown, and countless thousands of soldiers--all had died because of me. Hell-creatures had invaded Ilerium to find and kill me because my father was a Lord of Chaos, commanding powers I could barely begin to understand.
Now, with King Elnar gone, I no longer served anyone but myself. I didn't have to listen to his accusing voice. I didn't have to wake up. I didn't have to do anything I didn't choose to do.
"Oberon! On your feet!"
I tried to answer, to tell the voice to go to hell, but I could not make my body obey. That vaguely bothered me. Had I been drugged? Had I been sick or grievously injured? Everything I remembered--could it all have been some nightmare or wild fever-dream?
It all seemed so clear. I remembered my Uncle Dworkin, who had swept back into my life after ten years' absence. Dworkin had saved me from a band of hell-creatures, announced himself as my true father, and carted me off to a magnificent castle on another world... a castle full of people who claimed to be my half-brothers and half-sisters. Aber and Freda... Locke and Davin and Blaise... too many for me to take them all in at once.
And I was one of them; I had known it the moment I saw them. We all shared many traits with Dworkin; clearly he had sired us, though with different mothers. I had never suspected my true heritage, but now I recognized the truth of it: Dworkin really was my father.
In Juniper Castle I had learned I was born to a noble line of sorcerers. My family had its roots in a place called the Courts of Chaos, the center of the universe, where magic was real. As I understood it, all other worlds were mere Shadows cast by the Courts.
These sorcerers used something called the Logrus, which was a kind of shifting pattern or maze--I wasn't quite clear on how it worked or what it looked like, since different people described it in different ways. All I knew was it granted them miraculous powers, including the ability to move between Shadows and summon objects from distant places. I hoped to be able to travel through it myself, but it seemed I didn't have the ability to do so. I was a magical cripple as far as my family was concerned... even though I had already learned to do a little bit of magic on my own. I could change my appearance for short periods of time when I tried.
Unfortunately, our family was at war with an unknown enemy. This mysterious foe had been tracking down and murdering all of Dworkin's offspring, and when he (whoever he was) discovered me in Ilerium, I had become his next target. That was why Dworkin returned and rescued me. My father had gathered all his surviving children together in Juniper, his castle stronghold, guarded by a hundred thousand soldiers under the command of his eldest son, Locke.
Unfortunately, an even larger army of hell-creatures showed up to wipe us all out, and an epic battle ensued. We carried the first day, but at a terrible cost. Our army was decimated, Locke died, and dark sorceries had cut off everyone's access to the Logrus. With no magical means of escape remaining, it seemed we were about to lose. Home, fortune, life; everything.
Fortuitously, it turned out I had a different sort of magic within myself... a Pattern--different from the Logrus and yet related to it. Calling on its power, and with Dworkin's guidance, my siblings fled into other Shadows, scattering like dust in the wind, hopefully to places where they would remain safe from harm... at least for now. With our enemy's attention and troops focused on Juniper, we had at least a short time to be safe.
Light
Font size:
↓
↑
Reset
Interval:
↓
↑
Bookmark:
Make
Similar books «Chaos and Amber»
Look at similar books to Chaos and Amber. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.
John Betancourt
John Betancourt
John Betancourt
Michael Rajczak
Betancourt Ingrid
Roger Zelazny
Ingrid Betancourt
John Gregory Betancourt
John Gregory Betancourt
John Gregory Betancourt
Katherine John
Reviews about «Chaos and Amber»
Discussion, reviews of the book Chaos and Amber and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.