Chapters (132)
- COVER PAGE
- CHOSEN: LOST BOOK 1
- BEGINNINGS
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- INFIDEL: LOST BOOK 2
- BEGINNINGS
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- RENEGADE: LOST BOOK 3
- BEGINNINGS
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- CHAOS: LOST BOOK 4
- BEGINNINGS
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
“And it’s Thomas we will have,” the traitor who would be called Martyn said. He took a long breath, then explained with soft confidence, “The ring I left for them to find belonged to the Chosen One’s mother.”
And then Qurong understood. They’d taken the woman months earlier and learned only recently that she was the mother of the young recruit whom Thomas believed had been chosen to deliver the Forest Dwellers: Johnis.
“You’ve lured Johnis with his mother?”
“Yes.”
“And then you’ll lure Thomas with Johnis.”
No answer. Clearly, that was his intent.
“And if you fail?”
“I won’t. The trap is sprung.”
The traitor’s brilliance made Qurong wonder if he himself should be concerned for his power.
“This is why we turned our army back at the western cliffs, because of this plan you’d hatched? It would have been better for you to tell me this sooner.”
“No, we turned back because the Chosen One survived the desert and warned them with the fire—don’t ask me how, but he did. The Guard had higher ground and would have cut us to ribbons at the cliffs. That’s why I turned back. That and the fact that there is always more than one way to skin a cat.”
“Skin a cat?”
The traitor who would be called Martyn shrugged. “An expression that Thomas brings from his dreams of the ancient time. You’ll have Thomas within the week. Excuse me.” He turned to go. “I have a battle to attend to.”
“Bring me Thomas’s head, Martyn. Just his head.”
SEVEN
SEVEN
There, another!” Silvie whispered, pointing to a second torch on their left.
“It’s a signal.” Boris spun for his men. “They’ve seen us!” The fighters in the valley below immediately scrambled for the high ground on the dune behind them.
Silvie and Hilgard flew down the dune. “They knew we were coming! Get out. Back!”
Johnis heard all of it behind him as if in a dream. The captain snapping orders in hushed tones, the horses snorting as their riders kicked them into sudden motion, the creak of five hundred saddles as fighters twisted in retreat.
His own breathing was heavy in his nostrils as he lay on the dune’s crest, staring at the huge Horde camp ahead. He couldn’t understand why, but the sight of so many tents, filled with so many diseased Scabs, froze him.
Two thoughts crashed through his mind. The first was that, Scab or not, these beings lived in tents and had homes. Whenever he’d imagined the Horde, he’d thought of axes and battle and fire-breathing beasts bearing down on the forests. Not this sleeping camp made from canvas tents.
The second thought was that his mother, Rosa, was in there somewhere, maybe watching him now. And she was a Scab.