The Edge of the World
Copyright © 2009 by WordFire, Inc.
Excerpt from
The Map of All Things
copyright © 2010 by WordFire, Inc.
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced,
distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
Orbit
Hachette Book Group
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First eBook Edition: June 2009
Orbit is an imprint of Hachette Book Group. The Orbit name and logo are trademarks of Little, Brown Book Group Limited.
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and
not intended by the author.
ISBN: 978-0-316-05287-0
Contents
2 The Royal Cog, Sailing to Ishalem
3 The Soldan-Shah’s Galley, on the Middlesea
9 Ishalem, Urecari Main Church
102 The Edge of the Great Desert
A Preview of
The Map of All Things
Criston unlashed himself and swung down, clinging to ratlines that were slick from the pounding rain.
With hands that were strong and callused, he worked his way to the first yardarm, hooked his arm through the ropes for stability,
and looked out again. Yes, the beacon was still there—and brighter now. Surely other crewmen had noticed it! He stared, yearning
for that light, knowing what it represented. He wasn’t looking down at the sea. Even if he could have sounded an alarm, it
was far too late.
The monster that rose from the black depths was impervious to the storm, greater than ten sea serpents. Its bullet-shaped
head was as large as the
Luminara
’s prow, and when it opened its maw, Criston saw row upon row of sharp teeth, each one as long as an oar. It had a single
round squidlike eye in the center of its forehead, and spines like a mane around its neck and ringing its gills. Armfuls of
tentacles sprouted from each side, lined with wet suckers, each with a barb in its center. The tentacle ends were blind sea
serpents, opening to show fang-filled mouths.
For a moment, Criston could not speak, could not breathe. He found his voice and bellowed with all his strength and all his
soul, projecting his voice with enough power to call the attention of the sailors on deck.
“Leviathan!”
Books by Kevin J. Anderson
TERRA INCOGNITA
The Edge of the World
THE SAGA OF SEVEN SUNS
Hidden Empire
A Forest of Stars
Horizon Storms
Scattered Suns
Of Fire and Night
Metal Swarm
The Ashes of Worlds
Veiled Alliances
(graphic novel)
To Neil Peart,
A friend for nearly twenty years, and his music has given me tremendous inspiration for much longer than that. Without those
lyrics triggering a cascade of ideas, many of my stories would never have been conceived.
“When you reach the edge of the world, you can fly.”
— The Book of Aiden
1
Off the Coast of Uraba
These foreign seas looked much the same as the waters of home, but Criston Vora knew the lands were different, the people
were different, and their religion was contrary to everything he had been taught in the Aidenist kirk. For a twenty-year-old
sailor eager to see the world, those differences could be either wondrous or frightening—he wouldn’t know which until he met
the people of Uraba, which he was about to do.
The
Fishhook
had made this voyage several times, and Criston’s captain, Andon Shay, was confident in his abilities to negotiate another
trade deal with the Uraban merchants. The young man kept his eyes open and studied the unfolding coastline as the ship sailed
far, far south of everything he had known.
From his fishing village of Windcatch, he had always felt the call of the sea, wanting to see what lay beyond the horizon,
yearning to explore. Though he had signed on for only a short trading voyage, at least he was seeing the other continent:
Uraba
. A place of legends and mystery.
Though connected by a narrow isthmus, the world’s two main continents, Uraba and Tierra, were separated by a wide gulf of
history and culture. Ages ago, at the beginning of time, when Ondun—God—had sent two of his sons in separate sailing ships
to explore the world, the descendants of Aiden’s crew had settled Tierra, while those from Urec’s vessel colonized Uraba.
Over the centuries, the followers of Aiden and the followers of Urec developed separate civilizations, religions, and traditions;
despite their differences, they were bound together by ties of trade and necessity.