Future Indefinite

by Duncan, Dave

• ISBN13: 9780380975860
• ISBN10: 0380975866
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-08-01
• Publisher: Avon Books

Summary

For five years Edward Exeter has resisted the destiny circumscribed in the Filoby Testament - a sacred and mystical text that has named him the one who will bring death to Death. For five years the young Englishman has passed back and forth through secret portals that link his world with the farthest flung outpost of British imperialism - a realm called Nextdoor, where earthborn mortals can live forever, possessing powers that make them gods. Through war and murderous intrigue on both sides of the magical boundaries, he has tried to escape the irresistible pull of a Great Game that has designated him its most important player. But Death has finally roused Edward Exeter, as was predicted. And now he has accepted the burdensome mantle that has been thrust upon his shoulders: that of D'ward, the Liberator foretold. For centuries, the ruling Pentatheon of human gods has held the people of Nextdoor in its sway through terror, magic and superstition - with Zath, its most fearsome member, accumulating powerful mana through ritual sacrifice and wholesale bloodletting. By opposing the tyranny of the Pentatheon, D'ward imperils not only himself, but the future of two distinctly separate yet strangely empathetic worlds. Now old friends have become foes, old enemies his acolytes. The guardian Service, which once welcomed Exeter into its ranks, now plots murderous gambits at formal affairs - and betrayals to be unwittingly enacted against him by Edward's closest companions and loved ones. And for the hundreds and hundreds of the devout who have joined the Liberator on his fateful trek across the Vales, doom surely awaits at the end of the journey. But D'ward Liberator is not the Edward Exeter who came naked into this world just a few short years ago. For he has lived the Game and learned it well - far better, in fact, than his adversaries could ever imagine. And he will play it boldly to its shocking, worlds-shattering conclusion - even if it means having to pay the devastating price of godhood.

Table of Contents

The Players	xiii	(2)
The Game So Far	xv
I. Behold! Exalted, I have come. I have escaped from the nether world. The roads of the earth and of the sky are open before me.	1	(8)
II. And he is the guardian of the world, he is the king of the world, he is lord of the universe--and he is myself, thus let it be known, yea, thus let it be known!	9	(26)
III. Rise up and get ye forth from among my people.	35	(58)
IV. Now this, O monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of pain: the cessation, without a reminder, of that craving; abandonment forsaking, release, non-attachment.	93	(20)
V. Where are the friends? Where are the worshippers of the friends? Where is the place whereon the friends rush together? What is the place whereon the troops of the friends come rushing along?	113	(74)
VI. And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him.	187	(64)
VII. And now we have sent down unto thee evident signs, and none will disbelieve them but the evildoers.	251	(18)
VIII. He leaves his own country and goes to another, But he brings the five evils with him.	269	(50)
IX. We can see why throughout nature the same general end is gained by an almost infinite diversity of means, for every peculiarity when once acquired is long inherited, and structures already modified in many different ways have to be adapted for the same general purposes.