Wrath of Kerberos
T
WILIGHT OF
K
ERBEROS
The
W
RATH
of
K
ERBEROS
By Jonathan Oliver
T
WILIGHT
of
K
ERBEROS
G
ABRIELLA
D
E
Z
ANTEZ
The Light of Heaven
L
UCIUS
K
ANE
Shadowmage
Night's Haunting
Legacy's Price
(Coming in 2012)
K
ALI
H
OOPER
The Clockwork King of Orl
The Crucible of the Dragon King
Engines of the Apoclaypse
The Trials of Trass Kathra
S
ILUS
M
ORLADER
The Call of Kerberos
The Wrath of Kerberos
T
WILIGHT OF
K
ERBEROS
The Children of the Pantheon
(Coming in 2012)
For Maia Rose Oliver,
who arrived halfway through
and changed everything
An Abaddon Books
TM
Publication
www.abaddonbooks.com
First published in 2012 by Abaddon Books
TM
, Rebellion Intellectual Property Limited, Riverside House, Osney Mead, Oxford, OX2 0ES, UK.
Editor-in Chief: Jonathan Oliver
Desk Editor: David Moore
Cover Art: Mark Harrison
Design: Simon Parr & Luke Preece
Marketing and PR: Keith Richardson
Creative Director and CEO: Jason Kingsley
Chief Technical Officer: Chris Kingsley
Copyright © 2012 Rebellion. All rights reserved.
Twilight of Kerberos
TM
, Abaddon Books and Abaddon Books logo are trademarks owned or used exclusively by Rebellion Intellectual Property Limited. The trademarks have been registered or protection sought in all member states of the European Union and other countries around the world. All right reserved.
ISBN (ePUB): 978-1-84997-335-9
ISBN (MOBI): 978-1-84997-336-6
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
P
ART
O
NE
A W
ORLD
A
WAY
F
ROM
H
OME
C
HAPTER
O
NE
W
HEN THE FIRST
boot crashed against the door, Stanwick Tassiter dropped the candle. The flame caught the folios he had been reading, and the scholar was caught between the horror of the unexpected intrusion and the sight of his precious scriptures burning. As he batted at the pages, a blade appeared through a rent in the wood panelling of the door. He looked up, dismayed to see the design on the weapon. He now knew exactly who had come for him, and he wasn’t at all surprised; the texts he had been poring over were high on the Final Faith’s list of prohibited works. Stanwick had thought himself well guarded. Was it possible that Tremayne and Finch had given him away? They had always been amongst the most weak-willed of his acolytes.
Whatever. Stanwick had known the risks when he had taken up his studies, and so had made sure to create copies of his most important tomes. Those, the Faith would never find.
The door finally gave way and four heavily-armoured members of the Order of the Swords of Dawn burst into the subterranean archive. One of them rushed across the room and pressed a sword to his throat, while another forced Stanwick’s arms so far up his back that he let out a high-pitched squeal.
The commander – judging by the intricate designs on her breastplate – riffled through the charred pages on the desk and grunted with satisfaction.
“These will make a fine addition to the archive of forbidden literature at Scholten cathedral. Thank you for your help in taking such dangerous works out of circulation, Stanwick.”
Stanwick chose not to respond. He knew what awaited him now. He would spend a short amount of time in the depths of Scholten, at Katherine Makennon’s pleasure, before being sent to the gibbet. There would be no trial. Makennon probably wouldn’t even be aware of his passing.