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  The Teacher's voice came muffled from behind the

  silver mask as he looked out at the massed army

  beyond the wall.

  “I shall be interested to watch this.”

  Nobody had ever seen the Teacher unmasked. Many claimed he must be horribly disfigured, perhaps suffering from leprosy; then again, those might have been rumors fostered by the Teacher himself. Omra considered it more likely the man merely wanted to keep his identity secret: it added to his mystery, increased fear, kept others off balance.

  Omra responded with a grim nod. “It will be a bloody battle, and we will be hard-pressed to defend Ishalem. I know how well those Aidenists can fight.”

  “You have nothing to fear, Soldan-Shah. Urec will take care of his faithful. Without their leaders, even an army of that size will be impotent. Tell your own swordsmen and riders to be ready to charge out onto the battlefield when the moment is right.”

  “Charge?” Omra looked back at the enormous Aidenist army. “Why should I order the men to leave the protection of the wall?”

  “You want to destroy the Tierrans, don't you?” With a swirl of dark garments and a glint of sunlight on the silver mask, the Teacher stalked off down the wall.

  Praise for The Edge of the World:

  “A spectacular adventure on the high seas, with excellent world-building that makes you feel like you're on board.”

  —Romantic Times

  Books by Kevin J. Anderson

  TERRA INCOGNITA

  The Edge of the World

  The Map of All Things

  The Key to Creation (forthcoming)

  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)

  Copyright © 2010 by WordFire, Inc.

  Excerpt from The Key to Creation copyright © 2010 by WordFire, Inc.

  Map by Richard Ware

  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

  237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

  www.HachetteBookGroup.com

  First Edition: June 2010

  Orbit is an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc. 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.

  eISBN: 978-0-316-08851-0

  To Darren Nash and Tim Holman at Orbit, for their excitement and

  support on my voyage into new territory.

  Contents

  Copyright Page

  The Story So Far

  Part I Six Years After the Burning of the Arkship

  1 Shipbuilders' Bay, Calay Harbor

  2 Ishalem

  3 Olabar Palace

  4 Olabar Harbor

  5 The Pilgrims' Road, Outskirts of Ishalem

  6 Calay Castle

  7 Southern Ocean, Position Unknown

  8 At the Edge of the Great Desert, Missinia Soldanate

  9 The Wall of Ishalem

  10 Windcatch

  11 Corag Mountains

  12 Gremurr Mines

  13 Nunghal Ship, Position Unknown

  14 Saedran District, Olabar

  15 Ishalem

  16 Calay

  17 Calay

  18 Calay

  19 Middlesea Coast, Outside of Olabar

  20 Calay

  21 Bora's Bastion, Alamont Reach

  22 Calay, Military District

  23 Olabar

  24 Calay

  25 Olabar Harbor

  26 Calay Harbor

  Part II

  27 Sioara, Inner Wahilir

  28 Calay, Military District

  29 Lillotha, Yuarej

  30 Olabar Palace

  31 Nunghal Ship

  32 Calay

  33 Military Camp, Alamont Reach

  34 Olabar Harbor

  35 The Dyscovera

  36 The Al-Orizin

  37 The Dyscovera

  38 Calay

  39 Calay

  40 Olabar Palace

  41 Kiesh, Abilan

  42 The Dyscovera

  43 Peliton, Erietta Reach

  44 Calay

  45 Ishalem

  46 Fashia's Fountain

  47 Windcatch

  48 The Dyscovera

  49 Calay

  50 Iboria

  51 Stoneholm, Corag Reach

  52 The Great Desert

  53 Ishalem

  54 The Al-Orizin

  55 The Dyscovera

  56 Windcatch

  Part III

  57 Peliton, Erietta Reach

  58 Gremurr Mines

  59 Olabar Palace

  60 Main Urecari Church, Olabar

  61 The Dyscovera

  62 The Al-Orizin

  63 Reefspur

  64 Fashia's Fountain

  65 Ishalem

  66 The Dyscovera

  67 Calay, Saedran District

  68 Off the Coast of Tierra

  69 Ishalem, Ra'vir Compound

  70 Calay, Main Aidenist Kirk

  71 Calay Castle

  72 Ishalem, Governor's Residence

  73 Olabar, Main Urecari Church

  74 The Great Desert

  75 Southern Ocean

  76 The Dyscovera

  77 The Al-Orizin

  78 Olabar Palace

  79 Olabar, Main Urecari Church

  80 The Great Desert

  81 Gremurr Mines

  82 Iboria

  83 Corag Mountains

  84 Ishalem

  85 The Great Desert

  86 The Border of Uraba

  87 Calay Castle

  Part IV

  88 Olabar Harbor

  89 Calay

  90 Soeland Patrol Ship

  91 Alamont Prison Camp

  92 The Al-Orizin

  93 Olabar

  94 Olabar, Main Urecari Church

  95 Ishalem Wall

  96 Calay Castle

  97 The Dyscovera

  98 Iyomelka's Island

  99 Uraba

  100 Olabar

  101 Olabar, Main Urecari Church

  102 Corag Foothills

  103 Calay Castle

  104 Iyomelka's Island

  105 The Dyscovera

  106 Farport, Soeland Reach

  107 Ishalem

  108 Iyomelka's Island

  109 Calay

  110 Corag Mountains

  111 Gremurr Mines

  112 The Dyscovera

  113 Iyomelka's Island

  114 Calay Harbor

  115 The Dyscovera

  116 Gremurr Mines

  117 Oceansea, Near Ishalem

  118 Iyomelka's Island

  119 The Dyscovera

  120 Calay Harbor

  121 Gremurr Mines

  122 Off the Coast of Ishalem

  123 Olabar, Main Urecari Church

  124 The Al-Orizin

  125 The Dyscovera

  Glossary

  Author's Note

  Acknowledgments

  extras

  meet the author

  introducing

  The Story So Far

  According to legend, before ONDUN (the creator of all things
) departed from the world, He sent out His sons AIDEN and UREC each in a separate great arkship to explore His entire creation, while His third son, JORON, remained behind in the Eden-like land of Terravitae.

  Today, the known world has two continents, Tierra and Uraba, connected by a thin isthmus of land, on which the sacred city of Ishalem was built. The people of Tierra believe themselves to be the descendants of Aiden's crew, while Urabans are convinced that their ancestors originally sailed on Urec's ship. The wreck of an ancient vessel sits on a high hill in Ishalem, and each people insists it belongs to them.

  After generations of strife, KING KORASTINE of Tierra and SOLDAN-SHAH IMIR of Uraba agree to sign an Edict that divides the world in half, above and below Ishalem. This will remove all need for conflict, and both leaders look forward to peace at last. Korastine sails from Calay, the capital of Tierra, with his young daughter PRINCESS ANJINE and her childhood friend, MATEO. Soldan-Shah Imir sails from Olabar, Uraba's capital, for the formal signing ceremony.

  King Korastine and Soldan-Shah Imir meet at the wreck of the Arkship on the hill above Ishalem, accompanied by PRESTER-MARSHALL BAINE (representing the Aidenist church) and UR-SIKARA LUKAI (representing the Urecari church). The Edict is signed, peace is declared between the two continents, and the celebrations begin.

  Back at the Olabar palace, Imir has left his son and heir, OMRA, in charge. Omra's beloved wife ISTAR is pregnant and will soon bear their first child. The sikaras—priestesses of the church of Urec—bless the unborn baby, and Omra is very happy. His cousin BURILO comes from the distant soldanate of Missinia to deliver the head of a slain bandit leader from the Great Desert; the bandits have been plaguing the soldanate for years, but though their leader is dead, Omra knows the problem isn't solved. Before Soldan-Shah Imir can return from signing the Edict in Ishalem, tragedy strikes: Istar collapses and dies from a difficult miscarriage. Omra is devastated.

  In Ishalem, we meet PRESTER HANNES, a fanatical follower of the Aidenist church, who has spent years in disguise among the Urecari. He was given this spying mission by Prester-Marshall Baine to gather information about the rival religion. Hannes hates the followers of Urec with a passion. During the celebrations after the signing ceremony, an accidental fire starts and quickly spreads across the city. Both Tierrans and the Urabans assign blame for the disaster and spend more time fighting each other than trying to extinguish the fire. As flames rage through the main Urecari church, Prester Hannes breaks in to steal a religious relic. In the process, he is caught in the inferno, terribly burned, and barely manages to stagger away, delirious.

  Korastine flees the city with Anjine and Mateo, while Soldan-Shah Imir calls for an evacuation of his people. On her way to the harbor to escape the fire, ASHA (one of Imir's wives) finds the injured Prester Hannes; believing him to be a devout follower of Urec because of his tattered clothes and the Urecari relic he took from the burning church, she decides to bring him along and nurse him back to health. As Korastine and Imir sail away in opposite directions, the holy city of Ishalem burns behind them, and both leaders know the war is just beginning….

  The young Tierran sailor CRISTON VORA and his new wife ADREA sail his cargo boat from the coastal fishing village of Windcatch to Calay. Criston dreams of sailing the seas and visiting new lands and, though he hates to leave lovely Adrea behind, joins the crew of the new exploration ship, the Luminara; CAPTAIN ANDON SHAY plans to sail to the edge of the world and find the lost land of Terravitae and Holy Joron. Criston sells his boat so Adrea will have money to support herself while he's away; she gives him a lock of her hair, and he promises to write her letters, which he'll throw overboard in bottles. The sympathetic magic binding the hair to Adrea should bring the bottles to her. She says farewell, and the Luminara sails off. Only after she goes back to Windcatch to live with her younger brother CIARLO (who has a lame leg) and Criston's old mother does Adrea discover that she's pregnant….

  Another group of people, followers of neither Aiden nor Urec, are the Saedrans—scientists, craftsmen, philosophers. They believe their ancestors left Terravitae voluntarily, long after the two brothers sailed, and settled on another continent, from which they established a maritime civilization. But the Saedran continent sank beneath the waves, and the only survivors are the descendants of traders who were away from home at the time of the catastrophe. Saedrans have settled in both Uraba and Tierra but don't espouse either religion.

  One young Saedran in Calay, ALDO NA-CURIC, is being trained by the old scholar SEN LEO NA-HADRA to become a chartsman (a navigator much in demand by ship captains). Aldo passes his test, having memorized all of the generations of navigational data as well as volumes of the Tales of the Traveler—journals written by a mysterious wandering stranger, said to be either Aiden or Urec himself. Excited to become a chartsman, Aldo goes to the Calay docks, where he meets the con man YAL DOLICAR, who sells him a fake map of unexplored lands. When Aldo eagerly shows Sen Leo his discovery, the scholar denounces Dolicar's map as a forgery, and then proves it by taking Aldo to a secret chamber beneath the Saedran temple. There, covering the walls and ceiling, is an intricate map of everything the Saedrans have compiled about the world: the Mappa Mundi, or the Map of All Things.

  In Olabar, Asha nurses the burned Prester Hannes back to health, praying over him, giving him Urecari sacraments. When he recovers his strength and learns that she has fouled him with the hated rival religion, Hannes becomes enraged, kills her, and escapes into the night. Grief-stricken to learn that his young wife was murdered by the mysterious man she tried to help, Soldan-Shah Imir calls out his guards… but Hannes is gone.

  Omra is despondent over having lost his own young wife Istar, but his father arranges another wife for him, CLIAPARIA, the daughter of the Yuarej soldan. Though she is beautiful and ambitious, he cannot bring himself to love her. Instead, Omra fixes his anger on the Tierrans for burning Ishalem. Many in Uraba feel the same rage and call out for war. Soldan-Shah Imir increases production of metals at the Gremurr mines, a secret facility on a rugged coast that should technically belong to Tierra, but is inaccessible to them due to a mountain range. Because Uraba is poor in metals, the people are forced to mine the ores in enemy territory.

  Hoping to rebuild Ishalem, Prester-Marshall Baine and a group of volunteers from Tierra set up camp in the burned ruins and set to work clearing away the rubble. They are beset by an angry Uraban soldan, who feels the Tierrans are further desecrating the holy city. Baine and his followers are murdered horribly, and only one man, an Iborian shipbuilder named KJELNAR, escapes to tell the tale. When King Korastine learns what has happened to the well-meaning Aidenists, he has no choice but to prepare for all-out war. Though his ward Mateo is still young, he sends the young man off to be trained in the Tierran military, while his daughter Anjine will have to study to be a leader, the next queen.

  Learning of the ill-advised massacre at Ishalem, Soldan-Shah Imir dispatches a diplomat with an apology and a proposed peace treaty to Korastine, but the diplomat is intercepted by TAVISHEL, destrar of Soeland Reach, who brashly takes his revenge against the Uraban man for the slaying of Prester-Marshall Baine and his followers. The retaliatory murder of the diplomat is an atrocity that further inflames the Urabans.

  Ignoring his new wife Cliaparia, Omra leads violent raids along the Tierran coast. In Windcatch, as her pregnancy progresses, Adrea misses Criston, who has sailed far away in the Luminara; her brother Ciarlo is training to become the next prester of the village. Everything seems at peace, until Omra and his raiders strike Windcatch, setting fire to the buildings, massacring many of the townspeople, and destroying the small Aidenist kirk. Ciarlo, unable to run with his injured leg, barely escapes and hides. The men are about to kill Adrea, but when Omra sees she is pregnant, he thinks of his own wife Istar who died in childbirth, and he spares her. Omra takes Adrea captive, along with many Tierran children, who are herded aboard the Uraban raiding ships. They sail away, leaving the wounded Windcatch behind. Eventua
lly, they reach Olabar, and Omra tells Adrea that this is her new home.

  Meanwhile, voyaging aboard the Luminara, Criston sees many new and strange things. Captain Shay takes him under his wing, showing off the journal in which he sketches the sea serpents he has encountered. Criston also becomes close with PRESTER JERARD, a kindly old priest. He writes his letters to Adrea, seals them with a strand of her hair, and throws the bottles overboard. The ship has been gone for months, seeing no sign of Terravitae, when they encounter a terrible storm—along with the most terrifying sea monster of legend, the Leviathan. The Leviathan attacks and destroys the Luminara.

  Criston and Prester Jerard are the only survivors. For days, they drift on a makeshift raft, fighting off sharks. Then a black-and-gold sea serpent devours the prester, but Criston manages to snag it with an iron hook. The enraged beast races through the water, dragging Criston's hodgepodge raft for many leagues before the rope breaks. Fortunately, the serpent has towed Criston back into Tierran shipping lanes, and he is rescued. When he finally makes his way home to Windcatch, desperate to see Adrea, he finds the town recovering from the Uraban raid. Ciarlo reveals that Adrea was either kidnapped or killed; she is long gone and there is no chance of getting her back. A broken man, Criston leaves Windcatch, rejects the sea, and goes up into the mountains to live alone.

  Four years later, Aldo na-Curic is an experienced Saedran chartsman and has sailed on many Tierran ships. When his captain ventures south of the Edict Line, however, the ship is surrounded by Uraban war vessels. Aldo, with his rare talent as a chartsman, is captured and taken to Olabar, where Soldan-Shah Imir asks a wise Saedran woman, SEN SHERUFA NA-OA, to convince the young man to serve Uraba. But both Aldo and Sherufa owe their loyalty to the Saedran quest to complete the Map of All Things, and she gives him all of her information about Uraban geography, then secretly helps him escape back to Tierra, where he can share his knowledge.

  Since recovering from his burns and murdering his benefactor Asha, Prester Hannes has adopted a new mission: stranded in a foreign land, he vows to harm the enemy as much as possible. Moving like a shadow, he burns churches, poisons wells, and wreaks havoc among the followers of Urec. They are spooked and assume that the Tierrans have sent many spies and saboteurs among them.

  Over the years, Omra has kidnapped many Tierran children and—under the guidance of a sinister and mysterious masked figure, the Teacher—has brainwashed and transformed them into zealous assassins and saboteurs, called ra'virs, which he intends to turn loose on Tierra. Adrea is a household slave at the palace, and all this time she has pretended to be unable to speak. She has given birth to Criston's son, SAAN, whom she is allowed to raise; the boy is now almost four, and is being schooled in Uraban ways and the teachings of Urec. Ur-Sikara Lukai informs her that when the boy turns four, Saan will be taken away from her and sent to a special training camp to become a ra'vir. Adrea is panicked, but there is nothing she can do.