By the time they passed between the scimitar arms of the breakwater, the sail had gone up and had caught the offshore wind. She tacked starboard, coming around the outside of the southerly breakwater arm, until they were headed due west.
Moonlight fell upon the water like shards of ice. The stars sparked and twinkled. The water was pitch-black. Haya let her fingertips trail in the water. Her mother breathed deeply of the salt air and, for the first time in many years, felt the ecstatic brush of freedom against her cheek.
There were no boats about. She had placed them in an area free of both the fishing fleet and the shipping lanes. They were all alone in the night.
“Are you happy, my darling?” she said to Haya, though she could just as well have been talking to herself.
“Yes, Mama,” her daughter answered. “Oh, very yes.”
“Excited to meet your father?”
Haya screwed up her face. “I don’t know my father.”
“But, my darling, that’s part of the excitement, isn’t it?”
Haya, safe and secure in her mother’s arms, allowed that it was.
The wind shifted and the sail needed tending to. The wind blew wide the open edges of Haya’s jacket, lifted up her thin cotton shirt, exposing her belly to the moonlight. It was as smooth and unruffled as a porcelain vase. No navel indented its perfect velvet surface.
Her mother, finished with her brief tacking maneuver, raised her eyes to the moon, noting its position in the sky. A shiver of presentiment passed through her as the last barrier to her freedom was left behind.
“He’s coming, my darling.” She held out one arm, gripping her daughter tighter with the other. “Your father is here.”
There, directly in front of them, loomed a darkness deeper than the night. Overhead, a flock of cormorants circled. As they closed with it, its six wings became apparent, then its massive upper body. For Haya’s sake, the face was entirely angelic. No trace of the demonic was visible.
“Greetings, my husband.” She put her hands on Haya’s shoulders, presenting her. “Meet your daughter. Her name is Haya.”
“How beautiful you are, Haya, just like your mother,” Leviathan said. “And soon you will be strong like me.” Then, he turned his gaze upon his beloved. “At last, Chynna. We are together again.”
And with that, he scooped up the boat, gathering it and its passengers into his effulgent embrace.
We hope you enjoyed this book
Eric van Lustbader’s next book is coming in summer 2018
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The History Behind the Fiction
Further Reading
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The Sunset Warrior Cycle
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The History Behind the Fiction
The Franciscan Observatines, here known as the Gnostic Observatines, are recorded in history, as are the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, who inspired the story’s Knights of St. Clement of the Holy Land. In those early days, the pope was the most powerful monarch in Europe. Like all monarchs, he was obliged to maintain his power in the face of rivals and enemies. Thus were the Knights created, as a form of papal army, who fought in the pope’s name both at home and in the Levant.
From as far back as the early 1300s, there was a deep division within the Franciscans regarding the strict vow of poverty demanded by Saint Francis upon the founding of the Order in the beginning of the thirteenth century. The Observatines believed in it; the Conventuals did not. The dispute came to a head in 1322 when Pope John XXII sided with the Conventuals and their allies, the more established Dominican Order.
The papal bull Cum inter nonmullos, which stated, among other things, that the rule of poverty was “erroneous and heretical,” was likely a subterfuge. It seems far more plausible that the pope wanted to stamp out a faction of the Franciscans bent on roaming the world, spreading their gospel and, in the process, their power and influence, rather than staying put intramuros, within the walls of their monasteries, as the Conventuals were bound to do.
However, the papal bull was hardly the end of the Observatines. Quite the opposite, in fact. In the latter part of the fifteenth century and the first two decades of the sixteenth century, a good number of Observatines who had accepted the pope’s ruling were settled in the Middle East, especially the area in and around Trebizond and Istanbul, serving as emissaries of Christ, proselytizers of Catholicism. It is here that I have imagined my Gnostic Observatines discovering many of their secrets, including the Quintessence, which is recorded in history as the so-called fifth element, sought after by every alchemist on earth, but perhaps created by the cadre of alchemists employed by King Solomon.
Gnosticism is, in and of itself, anathema to the Vatican and its staunchly traditionalist orders. The name derives from the Greek word for knowledge. Gnostics, to put it simply, believe that the physical world is corrupt, evil, and that the true path to salvation lies in adhering to spiritual truth and goodness. Some Gnostics pursue study in the so-called esoteric mysteries, which lie beyond normal human comprehension. The Church, in its infinite wisdom, has, sight unseen, always judged these mysteries to be magic and, so, heretical.
The Knights, champions of both Christ and the pope, would naturally be predisposed to despise and fear the Order as much as the Holy See. It’s entirely logical that the Knights would be only too happy to do the pope’s bidding in dismantling the Order’s power.
Further Reading
HIERARCHY OF THE FALLEN
LUCIFER
FIRST SPHERE
Seraphim
Cherubim
Thrones
• Leviathan
• Azazel
• Focalor
• Belial
• Beelzebub
• Forneus
• Berith
• Gressil
• Lauviah
• Mammon
• Marou
• Murmur
• Salikotal
• Nelchael
• Phenex
• Purson
• Raum
• Sonneillon
• Sytri
• Verrine
SECOND SPHERE
Dominions
Virtues
Dominions
• Balam
• Agares
• Amy
• Marchosias
• Ariel
• Beleth
• Nilaihah
• Barbatos
• Carnivean
• Oeillet
• Belial
• Carreau
• Paimon
• Lelaliah
• Crocell
• Rosier
• Purson
• Gaap
• Sealiah
• Lehahiah
• Senciner
• Uvall
• Uzziel
THIRD SPHERE
Principalities
Archangels
Angels
• Belphegor
• Adramelech
• Arakiba
• Imamiah
• Ananael
• Arakiel
• Ian
• Basasael
• Araxiel
• Nisroch
• Dagon
• Arioch
• Nithael
• Mephistopheles
• Armans
• Verrier
• Moloch
• Asael
• Rimmon
• Asbeel
• Rumjal
• Astoreth
• Sarfael
• Caim
�
�� Thammuz
• Iuvart
• Zagiel
[After the list compiled by the Order of Lux Lucis of Rose]
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939), one of the greatest poets of the English language, received the 1923 Nobel Prize for Literature. His work was greatly influenced by the rich mythology and turbulent politics of Ireland.
The Song of Wandering Aengus
(Based on an Irish folktale)
W. B. Yeats
I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.
When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire a-flame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And someone called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.
Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.
About Eric Van Lustbader
ERIC VAN LUSTBADER is the author of 25 international bestsellers, as well as twelve Jason Bourne novels, including The Bourne Enigma and The Bourne Initiative. His books have been translated into over 20 languages. He lives with his wife in New York City and Long Island.
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The Testament Series
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The Jack McClure Series
Jack McClure is an ATF agent who has lost everything but his job. His daughter was killed in a terrible accident and his marriage disintegrated shortly after. And even in the ATF he is an anomaly: as a guy who grew up on the streets, he always has one foot on each side of the law. But he’s also a very gifted agent, with analytical talents that are unsurpassed in the service.
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The first three books are available as an omnibus edition:
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The Shadow Warrior Series
The ancient Japanese art of death is practiced by a select few. Of those young men who are chosen to train in the way of the shadow warrior, most will fail. Those who pass these trials, the Ninja, become the silent assassins, lonely guardians, and unseen watchers of legend. But rarer still are those masters of the shadow craft, the Shiro – those whose fearsome abilities are matched only by their rigid code of honour. Men like Nicholas Linnear…
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The Sunset Warrior Cycle
Centuries after an ecological calamity coated the surface of the planet with ice, mankind has retreated deep beneath the earth’s crust. In the claustrophobic environment of the Freehold, civilization has reverted to feudalism and lords known as Saardin enforce their rule through the strength of their Samurai-like Bladesmen.
But the Freehold is crumbling and war threatens. Ronin is a rogue warrior who lives by his blade alone. To prevent what remains of humanity from destroying itself, he will embark on a quest that takes him out of the darkness to the frozen surface of a forgotten world to see for the first time the light of the sun.
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The Jason Bourne Series
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Also by Eric Van Lustbader
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An Invitation from the Publisher
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First published in the United Kingdom in 2018 by Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © Eric Van Lustbader, 2018
The moral right of Eric Van Lustbader to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. 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 both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (E) 9781788541084
ISBN (HB) 9781788540186
ISBN (TPB) 9781788540193
Jacket Design: Rory Kee | Images © Shutterstock
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Four Dominions Page 38
