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  His eyes made contact with the others, pausing at each face. “The Great Romance is for you. If only one of you would have followed me, the heavens would not have been able to contain my cries of joy.”

  Justin’s eyes grew impassioned. He hurried over to Johan, lifted his hand, and kissed it. “Johan . . .”

  Johan fell to his knees and sobbed before Justin could say more.

  “I forgive you.” He kissed the man’s head. “Now you will ride with me.”

  Justin stepped to the old man Jeremiah, lifted his hand, and kissed it. “You, Jeremiah, I called you out of the Horde like so many. But you came.”

  The old man dropped to his knees and began to weep.

  Justin ran to Lucy’s mother and kissed her hand. “And you, Alisha, I once told you that love would conquer death, but that it wouldn’t look like love; do you remember?”

  She dropped to her knees, lowered her head, and cried.

  “No, no, you followed me, Alisha! You all followed me!”

  He went down the line, kissing each of their hands. Their Creator had taken the form of a man and was kissing their hands. They could hardly bear it, much less understand it.

  Justin stepped back from the seventeen followers, all still on their knees. He walked to his left, then to his right, like a man overcome by his first viewing of a magnificent painting he himself had painted. “Wonderful,” he whispered to himself. “Incredible.” His face twisted with emotion. “Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.” He paced, face stricken with emotion.

  He suddenly spun from them, fell to his knees, threw his head back, and thrust both hands at the sky.

  “Father!” he cried. “My father, she is beautiful!” He burst into a joyful laugh, and his brilliant eyes, full of love, traveled around the small group. “My bride is beautiful! How I have waited for this day.”

  Thomas immediately understood the significance of what they were watching. He could hardly see it for his own tears, and he couldn’t hear too well over the crashing of his own heart, but he knew that this was about the Great Romance between Elyon and his creation. His people.

  Elyon was restoring the Great Romance. Teeleh had stolen his first love, but now Justin had reclaimed her. The price had been his own life. He’d taken her disease on himself and he’d drowned with it, inviting them to embrace his invitation to the Romance by following him into the lake to drown with him. To live as his bride!

  And Justin had called to his father. Until this moment, Thomas had never thought of such clear distinctions in Elyon’s character. But it could hardly be clearer—somehow Elyon the father had given Elyon, his son, a bride. They were the bride. Thomas couldn’t help but think that this very moment had been chosen long ago.

  Justin stood, rushed to his horse, and grabbed his sword. He thrust its tip into the sand and began to run, dragging the sword. He ran around them as they watched, drawing a large circle.

  This was the symbol they had once used to signify the union between a man and a woman. Half a circle on the man’s forehead for a betrothal, a full circle for their marriage. He was symbolically making them his bride.

  Justin finished the circle and threw his sword on the sand. “You are mine,” he said. “Never break the circle that unites us. Do you understand what I’m asking you to do?”

  They couldn’t speak.

  “Your lives have always been about the Great Romance, and in the days to come you will understand that like never before. Your love will be tested. Others will join you. Some will leave the circle. Some will die. All of you will suffer. The Horde will hate you because their hearts have been stolen and their eyes have been blinded by the Shataiki. But if you keep your eyes on me until the end”—he swallowed—“the lake will seem tame compared to what awaits us.”

  “None of us will ever leave you,” Lucy cried.

  Justin looked at her as if he himself was going to cry again. “Then guard your heart, my princess. Remember how I love you, and love me the same. Always.”

  He was looking at Lucy, but he was talking to all of them.

  “You won’t see me again for some time, but you will have my water. Go to the Southern Forest, then beyond to the farthest southern edge, where you will find a small lake. Johan knows it.” He looked over their heads at the forest beyond. “I charge you to bring them to me. One by one, if you must. Show them my heart. Lead them into the red water.”

  A hundred questions flooded Thomas’s mind. He found the courage to speak, though not to stand. “All the lakes are red?”

  “All of my lakes are red. To whoever seeks, this water will represent life, just as you found life by following me. To the rest, the lakes will be a threat.”

  “Are the wars over?” Mikil asked.

  “My peace is their war. The war will come against you. For a time, you will find safety in the Southern Forest.” He ran to his horse, pulled something out of his saddlebag, and faced them.

  “Do you recognize this, Thomas?”

  An old leather-bound book. A Book of History!

  Justin grinned. “A Book of History.” He tossed it to Thomas, who caught it with both hands. “There are thousands, not just the few that Qurong carries in his trunks. This is only one, but it will guide you.”

  Thomas felt its worn cover and drew his thumb along the title.

  The Histories Recorded by His Beloved

  He cracked the book open. Cursive text ran across the page.

  “Read it well,” Justin said. “Learn from it. Ronin will help you discover my teachings from the Southern Forest. He’ll show you the way.”

  Thomas closed the book. “What about the blank book?” He touched the small lump at his waist where the empty book still rested. “Does it have a purpose?”

  “The blank books. There are many of those as well. They are very powerful, my friend. They create history, but only in the histories. Here they are powerless. One day you may understand, but in the meantime, guard the one you have—in the wrong hands it could wreak havoc.”

  Justin took a deep breath. “Now I must go.” He put his hand on his chest. “Keep your hearts strong and true. Follow the way of the book I have left with you. Never leave the circle.”

  He eyed them each tenderly, and when his eyes rested on him, Thomas felt both weakened and strengthened by a stare that ran straight through him.

  Justin turned toward his horse.

  “Wait.” Thomas stood. “If this book works only in the histories, that means the histories are real? The virus?”

  “Am I a boy, Thomas?” Justin turned back, smiling. “Am I a lamb or a lion, or am I Justin?”

  “You are a father and a son?”

  “I am. And the water as well.”

  Thomas’s mind swam.

  “Will I dream again?”

  “Did you dream last night?”

  “Yes. But not about the histories.”

  “Did you eat the fruit?”

  “No.”

  “Well then.”

  He swung into his saddle and winked. “Remember, never leave the circle.” With a slight nudge of his heel, his stallion walked away, and then trotted.

  Then he galloped up the same dune from which he’d first come, reared the horse once at the crest, and disappeared into the horizon.

  33

  THIS HAD better be important,” President Blair said. “

  Kreet’s eyes darted around furtively. This wasn’t like the battle-hardened general.

  “Don’t tell me the Israelis have launched,” Blair asked.

  “They launched a missile into the Bay of Biscay. Cheyenne Mountain recorded a fifty-megaton blast fifteen minutes ago. It was a warning shot. The next one goes into the naval base at Brest. They’ve given France twenty-four hours to guarantee Israel’s survival.”

  Blair didn’t know what to say. They’d discussed this possibility, but hearing that it had actually happened immobilized him. Finally he cleared his throat and turned back for the door.

 
; “Any response from Paris?”

  “Too early.”

  “Okay, keep this quiet. As soon as I’m finished, I want our people out of here. The ambassador stays. Leave him uninformed.”

  “Excuse me, sir.” An aide interrupted by handing Kreet a note. “A priority message.”

  He took the note, glanced at it. Stared at it.

  “What now?” Blair asked.

  “It’s the French. They’ve answered Israel’s demands.”

  “And?”

  “They’ve reciprocated.”

  Someone had cracked the door, preparing to open it for him. One of the European delegates in the main hall was yelling about innocent citizens, but the voice sounded distant, muted by a ring that echoed through Blair’s head.

  “Cheyenne has picked up a missile headed over the Mediterranean. ETA, thirty minutes . . . that was four minutes ago.”

  Blair couldn’t think straight. Nothing, not even a week of anticipation, could prepare anyone for a moment like this. France had just launched nuclear weapons at Israel.

  “We don’t know their target. It may be a warning shot in return,” Kreet said.

  President Blair stepped to the door. “Or it may not be. God help us, Ron. God help us all.”

  This changed everything.

  THE BASEMENT room used to be a root cellar—cold enough to keep vegetables from rotting. They’d plastered the walls and sealed the ducts, but it was still cold enough to serve its purpose.

  Carlos stepped in, flipped on the lights, and walked to the gurney. A white sheet covered the body. He hesitated only a moment, then lifted the corner.

  Thomas Hunter’s blank eyes faced the ceiling. Dead. As dead as any man Carlos had ever killed. This time there would be no mistake; he’d gone out of his way to make sure of that. On both occasions that the man had seemingly come back to life, the circumstances were suspect. Carlos had never actually confirmed his death, for one thing. And the man’s recovery had been almost instantaneous.

  This time his body had rested in this sealed room for nearly three days, and he hadn’t so much as twitched.

  Dead. Very, very dead.

  Satisfied, Carlos dropped the sheet over Thomas’s face, left the room, and headed down the hall. It was time to finish what they’d all started.

  THE JOURNEY CONTINUES OCTOBER 2004

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  2004

  The Year of the Trilogy

  Fleeing assailants through an alleyway in Denver late one night, Thomas Hunter narrowly escapes to the roof of an industrial building. Then a silent bullet from the night clips his head and his world goes black. When he awakes, he finds himself in an entirely different reality—a green forest that seems more real than where he was. Every time he tries to sleep, he wakes up in the other world, and soon he truly no longer knows which reality is real.

  Never before has a trilogy of this magnitude—all in hardcover format—been released in an eight-month window of time. On the heels of The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings comes a new trilogy in which dreams and reality collide. In which the fate of two worlds depends on one man: Thomas Hunter.

  Each book in the trilogy is also available in abridged (CD)

  and unabridged (CD and cassette) editions.

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  A NOVEL OF GOOD, EVIL,

  AND ALL THAT LIES BETWEEN

  Imagine answering your cell phone one day to a mysterious voice that gives you three minutes to confess your sin. If you don’t, he’ll blow the car you’re driving to bits and pieces. So begins a nightmare that grows with progressively higher stakes. There’s another phone call, another riddle, another three minutes to confess your sin. The cycle will not stop until the world discovers the secret of your sin.

  THR3E is a psychological thriller that starts full-tilt and keeps you off-balance until the very last suspense-filled page.

  This novel is also available as an abridged CD audio edition.

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  THE FUTURE CHANGES IN THE

  BLINK OF AN EYE . . . OR DOES IT?

  Seth Borders isn’t your average graduate student. For starters, he has one of the world’s highest IQs. Now he’s suddenly struck by an incredible power—the ability to see multiple potential futures.

  Still reeling from this inexplicable gift, Seth stumbles upon a beautiful woman named Miriam. Unknown to Seth, Miriam is a Saudi Arabian princess who has fled her veiled existence to escape a forced marriage of unimaginable consequences. Cultures collide as they’re thrown together and forced to run from an unstoppable force determined to kidnap or kill Miriam.

  An intoxicating tale set amid the shifting sands of the Middle East and the back roads of America, Blink engages issues as ancient as the earth itself . . . and as current as today’s headlines.

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  The Blessed Child Series

  BLESSED CHILD

  By Ted Dekker and Bill Bright

  The young orphan boy was abandoned and raised in an Ethiopian monastery. When relief expert Jason Marker agrees to take Caleb from the monastery, they begin an incredible journey filled with intrigue and peril. Together with Leiah, a nurse who escapes to America with them, Jason discovers Caleb’s stunning power. Jason and Leiah fight for Caleb’s survival while the world erupts into debate over the source of his power. In the end nothing can prepare any of them for what they will find.

  A MAN CALLED BLESSED

  By Ted Dekker and Bill Bright

  In this explosive sequel to Blessed Child, Rebecca Solomon leads a team deep into the Ethiopian desert to hunt the one man who may know the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant.

  But the man in their sights is no ordinary man. His name is Caleb, and he too is on a quest—to find again the love he once embraced as a child.

  The fate of millions rests in the hands of these three.

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  The Martyr’s Song Series

  HEAVEN’S WAGER

  He lost everything he ever wanted—and risked his soul to get what he deserved. Take a glimpse into a world more real and vital than most people ever discover here on earth, the unseen world where the real dramas of the universe—and of our daily lives—continually unfold.

  WHEN HEAVEN WEEPS

  A cruel game of ultimate stakes at the end of World War II leaves Jan Jovic stunned and perplexed. He’s prepared for neither the incredible demonstration of love nor the terrible events that follow. Now, many years later, Jan falls madly in love with the “wrong” woman and learns the true cost of love.

  THUNDER OF HEAVEN

  When armed forces destroy their idyllic existence within the jungles of the Amazon, Tanya embraces God, while Shannon boldly rejects God, choosing the life of an assassin. Despite their vast differences, they find themselves in the crucible of a hideous plot to strike sheer terror into the heart of America.

  Discover more at TedDekker.com

 

 

 
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