Elyon
ELYON
teddekker.com
DEKKER FANTASY
BOOKS OF HISTORY CHRONICLES
THE LOST BOOKS
Chosen
Infidel
Renegade
Chaos
Lunatic
Elyon
THE CIRCLE SERIES
Black
Red
White
Green
(SEPTEMBER 2009)
THE PARADISE BOOKS
Showdown
Saint
Sinner
Skin
House
(with FRANK PERETTI)
DEKKER MYSTERY
Kiss
(WITH ERIN HEALY)
Blink of an Eye
MARTYR’S SONG SERIES
Heaven’s Wager
Heaven’s Wager
When Heaven Weeps
Thunder of Heaven
The Martyr’s Song
THE CALEB BOOKS
Blessed Child
A Man Called Blessed
DEKKER THRILLER
THR3E
Obsessed
Adam
© 2009 by Ted Dekker
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Published in association with Thomas Nelson and Creative Trust, Inc., 5141 Virginia Way, Suite 320, Brentwood, TN 37027.
Thomas Nelson books may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].
Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.
Page design by Casey Hooper
Map design by Chris Ward
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dekker, Ted, 1962-
Elyon / Ted Dekker and Kaci Hill.
p. cm. -- (Lost books ; bk. 7)
"A Lost Book."
Summary: The Chosen Ones need Elyon's grace to face their greatest threat yet, but Darsal is torn between her new mission, trying to love the Horde as Elyon asked her to, and her original one, especially now that Johnis and Silvie no longer seem to be on her side.
ISBN 978-1-59554-374-5 (hardcover)
[1. Fantasy. 2. Christian life--Fiction.] I. Hill, Kaci. II. Title.
PZ7.D3684Ely 2009
[Fic]--dc22
2009007891a
Printed in the United States of America
09 10 11 12 13 QW 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
o
ur story begins in a world totally like our own, yet completely different. What once happened seems to be repeating itself two thousand years later.
Twenty years have passed since the lush, colored forests were turned into desert by Teeleh, enemy of Elyon and vilest of all creatures. Evil now rules the land and shows itself as a painful, scaly disease that covers the flesh of the Horde.
The powerful green waters, once precious to Elyon, vanished from the earth. Those few who chose to follow the ways of Elyon bathed once daily in those waters to cleanse their skin of the scabbing disease. For thirteen years, the number of their sworn enemy, the Horde, grew, and the Forest Guard was severely diminished by war, forcing Thomas, supreme commander, to lower the army’s recruitment age to sixteen. A thousand young recruits showed themselves worthy and served in the Forest Guard.
From among the thousand, four young fighters—Johnis, Silvie, Billos, and Darsal—were handpicked by Thomas to lead.
Unbeknownst to Thomas, the four heroes were also chosen by the legendary white Roush, guardians of all that is good, for a far greater mission, and were forbidden to tell a soul. Braving terrible battles, crushing defeat, capture, death, and betrayal, they pursued their quest to find the seven original Books of History, a mission that took them from one reality into another.
From their world to the histories, two thousand years into their past, into a city known as Las Vegas, their journey ended deep in the mountains of Romania. On the day after their great victory, having secured all seven books—thereby foiling the plans of the Dark One, who would use the books to destroy humankind—they left our world to return to Thomas and the Forest Guard, two thousand years from now.
But five years have passed since they left their home in the distant future. The world they once knew has changed in favor of their sworn enemy, the Horde. Qurong now rules the city. He has a new high priest—Sucrow, a ruthless servant of Teeleh—to replace Ciphus, who killed Witch. He also has a new general by the name of Marak, sworn to kill every albino on the face of the earth.
Forced to flee the city, Darsal, Johnis, and Silvie have become separated. Worse, Elyon’s water, once green, is now red and has apparently lost its healing properties. Johnis and Silvie are soon consumed by the scabbing disease.
To further complicate matters, the Shataiki have mated with some of the Horde, creating a strange race of predatory creatures known as the Leedhan. Insanely jealous of the Leedhan’s half-human appearance, Teeleh banished them to the far side of a great river. Outcast and despised, the Leedhan are thought to be gone forever.
But one of them, their embittered queen, named Shaeda, has returned. She has come to seize control of the Horde, and to overthrow Teeleh himself. To do so she needs a human, and she has chosen none other than Johnis as her agent for revenge.
Shaeda seduced Johnis and has fully possessed him. Completely deceived, both Johnis and Silvie have made an alliance with the priest Sucrow with promises of destroying Thomas Hunter and the Circle in three days. But to do so they must acquire a legendary amulet that gives its owner control over the Shataiki.
Meanwhile, Darsal has encountered a different fate. She’s discovered the secret of the new red waters—that drowning in its depths heals one of the scabbing disease. Having drowned in the red waters, Darsal has accepted a mission from Elyon: to return to the Horde . . . and love them.
Now our three fallen heroes—Darsal, Johnis, and Silvie—find themselves pitted against each other while the world awaits its fate.
M
arak of Southern, Qurong’s general over all the Horde army, paced inside one of the bunk rooms reserved for the officers. Two narrow beds stacked on top of each other jutted out of each wall. No windows. Just a torch stand and the candles on his desk. Behind him was a narrow shelf of books.
His captain and best friend, Cassak, was taking too long to bring in the prisoners. He had said he would be here by now. Marak’s patience was running out.
“Where is he?” Marak grumbled to himself, storming over to the two open books on the desk. One had once belonged to the long-gone general Martyn, who’d trained him; and the other, to his dead betrothed, Rona.
How, in Teeleh’s name, had everything gone wrong in a week? He was a general, for goodness’ sake, respected and trusted and feared. He’d been a good man with a loyal brother and a soon-to-be wife.
And now . . .
General Marak had sequestered himself in the officers’ hall at the north end of Middle, with fifty warriors standing guard. For two days they had roasted in the hot sun, choosing loyalty to their general over the orders of the Dark Priest. And for two days all of Middle remained tense, caught in the battle lines drawn between High Priest Sucrow and Marak.
Marak took a long swig of his drink and continued his trek around the room. The meal his slave had brought him earlier sat untouched on the table. He couldn’t eat; his stomach felt as if it were full of knives.
He went to the door and swung it open. “Is Darsal here yet?”
“No, sir,” the warrior replied, falling into his salute. “We’ve not yet seen—”
“Find her.”
“My lord—”
“Find her!” Marak shut the door and went back to his inner tirade. This was a mistake. All of it. He’d had everything under control a week ago. At least, as much as the mess left by his predecessor allowed.
In less than a week, the priest had undone everything Marak had built, all in a bizarre sense of revenge and power play. Marak hadn’t wanted to defy Qurong—and technically he hadn’t. He had no reason to. But a series of events had led him to defy the Dark Priest and sequester himself in the officers’ quarters. Now Qurong, the supreme commander, must hear him out on the absurd notion of a general taking orders from a priest. He had to.