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 stolenproperty. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher, and neither the author northe 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 novelare 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 NepentheQuentin 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 wehid 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 thousandtons and nine hundred sixty feet, as wealthy as a palace afloat, more opulent than what antiquekings in Nineveh lavished on their splendors. For many idle days we five children lolled among thepassengers, 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 pastoverhead, 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 fromhis 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 heapedat 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 wedon'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, obeyingauthority, or acting with purpose and discipline. Lucky them. What soft and comfortable lives theymust lead! Lives without foes.

Vanity Fair was shorter than me, a dress size smaller, but with more generous hip and bustmeasurements. We were closer than sisters, having been raised in the same, well, you can call it ajail cell, since that's what it was. The freezing rain had plastered her hair to her head, and her thincoat tight to her body. She was shivering. Her real name was Nausicaa, of the mythic land calledPhaeacia, beyond Earth's shore, but our real names had been taken from us in youth and, untilrecently, 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 eyesseemed to glow like emeralds when she was angry. I could see only her silhouette, but from hertone of voice I knew her eyes blazed.

"If the leader orders a retreat, you retreat!" (I was screaming louder than regulation for a Britishmilitary 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 gaveme a stiff-armed Roman salute. "Sieg Heil mein Obergruppenfraulein! But we thought you weredead! Didn't Echidna kill you?"

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

Speaking summons her!"

Colin shrugged. "Is she going to get through that fleet?" To me, he said: "Besides, Leader, we