Wrath-Bearing Tree

by James Enge

Overview

Gods Clash with Gods, and the powers beyond gods, as the origin story of Morlock Ambrosius continues! The masked powers of Fate and Chaos are killing gods in the land of Kaen, facing the Wardlands across the Narrow Sea. Vocates Aloê Oaij and Morlock Ambrosius cross into the unguarded lands, seeking to uncover the reasons for the godslaying, and to avert any threat to the lands the Graith of Guardians has sworn to protect. After crash-landing on the hostile coast of Kaen, the two Guardians confront vengeful frightened gods, a calmly murderous dragon, a demon called Andhrakar, and a bitter old necromancer named Merlin Ambrosius. Amid these dangers they find that they can trust no one but themselves—and each other. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781616147822
Publisher:	Start Publishing Llc
Publication date:	08/20/2013
Series:	A Tournament of Shadows , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	377
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

James Enge is the author of Blood of Ambrose (nominated for a World Fantasy Award), This Crooked Way, The Wolf Age, Travellers' Rest, A Guile of Dragons (A Tournament of Shadows Book One), Wrath-Bearing Tree (A Tournament of Shadows Book Two), and The Wide World's End (A Tournament of Shadows Book Three) . His fiction has appeared in Black Gate, Flashing Swords, and Every Day Fiction. He is an instructor of classical languages at a Midwestern university. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Read an Excerpt

WRATH-BEARING TREE

A Tournament of Shadows, Book Two

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By JAMES ENGE

Prometheus Books

Copyright © 2013 James Enge
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61614-782-2

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CHAPTER 1

The Balancer, Balked

With hands that were not hands the man that was not a man made a machine that was not a machine. All the while he muttered words that were not words with his mouth that was no mouth: "Keep me clean. Keep me clean. Keep me clean."

But he knew it was too late. He was stained with memories, with hopes, with life. He would never be clean again. He said "me" and meant it. He was infected with the idea of self.

There was a way out of this hell that was not hell. If he could cleanse this world of life and make the way clear for the ever-strangers who waited beyond the Soul Bridge, beyond the end of the world, if he could do that he could also be cleansed of life and return to the selfless being he was meant to be, that he should have remained forever.

He made his machine that was not a machine and laughed. He would sweep them all away, everything that lived. He would make them pay for making him care about them, about himself, about everything.
(Continues...)

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Excerpted from WRATH-BEARING TREE by JAMES ENGE. Copyright © 2013 James Enge. Excerpted by permission of Prometheus Books.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Part One: Dramatis Personae....................     15     

Chapter One: The Balancer, Balked....................     17     

Chapter Two: The Necromancer Leaves Home....................     19     

Chapter Three: Vesper's Prey....................     23     

Chapter Four: Fire, Water, and Thorns....................     35     

Chapter Five: Maintaining the Guard....................     53     

Part Two: Guarded and Unguarded Lands....................     65     

Chapter Six: A Thousand Towers....................     67     

Chapter Seven: The Graith....................     73     

Chapter Eight: Under Weigh....................     105     

Chapter Nine: Encounter off Tenagöros....................     113     

Chapter Ten: The Wreck of the Flayer....................     129     

Part Three: The Gods of Kaen....................     131     

Chapter Eleven: The Purple Patriarchy....................     133     

Chapter Twelve: Many Mouths....................     159     

Chapter Thirteen: The Sheep and the Goat....................     175     

Chapter Fourteen: God in Exile....................     197     

Chapter Fifteen: The Golden Road....................     213     

Part Four: The Shadows of Old Azh....................     219     

Chapter Sixteen: The Way Forward....................     221     

Chapter Seventeen: Making....................     229     

Chapter Eighteen: Old Azh Above....................     243     

Chapter Nineteen: Old Azh Below....................     251     

Part Five: A Masque of Powers....................     259     

Chapter Twenty: The Sisters....................     261     

Chapter Twenty-One: Voyage of the Boneglider....................     281     

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Waste Lands....................     287     

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Temptation of St. Danadhar....................     301     

Chapter Twenty-Four: Sleigh Ride....................     313     

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Binding of Andhrakar....................     331     

Chapter Twenty-Six: Between Two Thrones....................     343     

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Supple Confusions....................     355     

Appendices....................     361     

A. The Lands of Laent during the Ontilian Interregnum....................     363     

B. The Gods of Laent....................     365     

C. Calendar and Astronomy....................     367     

D. The Wardlands and the Graith of Guardians....................     373     

E. Note on Ambrosian Legends....................     375     

Editorial Reviews

Enge continues the tales of the hunchback Morlock Ambrosius, son of Merlin Ambrosius, in the satisfying second entry in the Tournament of Shadows series. In this intrepid adventure of magic, god-killing, and romance, Morlock and vocate Aloê Oaij are sent by the Graith of Guardians to investigate new trouble brewing in the land of Kaen. It appears to be the work of the Two Powers, the enigmatic twin gods Fate and Chaos, who had pestered Morlock in A Guile of Dragons. This time, Morlock and Aloê face perils both physical and mental as they confront gods lesser and greater, dragons, sea-sickness, inhospitable country, and even Merlin himself. Enge’s swift-moving story offers both depth and classic sword-and-sorcery questing to create a solid addition to the series. Agent: Onyxhawke Agency. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

A brilliant, inventive, arresting piece of work from a master craftsman. This novel captivated me from the very opening pages, and I suspect the same will be true for you. I dare you to prove me wrong.”
—Bradley P. Beaulieu, author of The Winds of Khalakovo and The Straits of Galahesh

"Enge’s swift-moving story offers both depth and classic sword-and-sorcery questing to create a solid addition to the series.”
—Publishers Weekly

"Enge is in fine form again.... What could be a wild storm of confetti and mayhem is anchored beautifully by Morlock’s pragmatic idealism, and everything comes together in a satisfying conclusion.”
—Locus

Praise for A Guile of Dragons (A Tournament of Shadows Book One):

"Efficiently excellent epic fantasy…. Enge's engaging portrait of Morlock…will have readers hunting down earlier books to learn more about the adventurer and his history."
-Publishers Weekly starred review

"Enge is not only a writer of fantasy, he's a devoted fan educated in its history and evolution. That's no more apparent than in his adventures of Morlock Ambrosius, a swordsman wandering a world rife with various magical disciplines. In A Guile of Dragons, Enge takes us back to show us the origins of his hero, as the Longest War-the war between dwarves and dragons presumed to have been over and done with-reignites with the return of the dragons."
-Kirkus Reviews feature "11 'Not-to-miss Science Fiction and Fantasy Books for August"

"Providing a back door into the Arthur/Merlin mythos, Enge creates a fascinating counterpoint to the familiar legends."
-Library Journal

From the Publisher