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Authors: Stephen Baxter

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Weaver

BOOK: Weaver
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Table of Contents
 
 
 
 
Time’s Tapestry Books
EMPEROR
CONQUEROR
NAVIGATOR
WEAVER
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Tor
onto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England
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Penguin Books Ltd.)
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(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.)
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sebank, Johannesburg 2196,
South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
WEAVER
Copyright © 2008 by Orion Books.
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No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only aut
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Time’s Tapestry
AD 1492
‘As mapped by myself; in which the long warp threads are the history of the whole world; and the wefts which run from selvedge to selvedge are distortions of that history, deflected by a Weaver unknown; be he human, divine or
satanic ...’
FRIAR GEOFFREY COTESFORD OF YORK
The Prophecy
of Nectovelin
4BC
(Free translation from Latin, with acrostic preserved.)
Ah child! Bound in time’s tapestry, and yet you are born free
Come, let me sing to you of what there is and what will be,
Of all men and all gods, and of the mighty emperors three.
Named with a German name, a man will come with eyes of glass
Straddling horses large as houses bearing teeth like scimitars.
The trembling skies declare that Rome’s great son has come to earth
A little Greek his name will be. Whilst God-as-babe has birth
Roman force will ram the island’s neck into a noose of stone.
Emerging first in Brigantia, exalted later then in Rome!
Prostrate before a slavish god, at last he is revealed divine,
Embrace imperial will make dead marble of the Church’s shrine.
Remember this: We hold these truths self-evident to be -
I say to you that all men are created equal, free
Rights inalienable assured by the Maker’s attribute
Endowed with Life and Liberty and Happiness’ pursuit.
O child! thou tapestried in time, strike home! Strike at the root!
The Menologium of the Blessed Isolde
AD 418
(Free translation from Old English, with acrostic preserved.)
Prologue
These the Great Years
Whose awe and beauty
Light step by step
An Aryan realm
I
The Comet comes
Each man of gold
In life a great king
Nine-hundred and fifty-one
II
The Comet comes
Number months thirty-five
See the Bear laid low
Nine-hundred and eighteen
III
The Comet comes
The blood of the holy one
Empire dreams pour
Nine-hundred and thirty-one
IV
The Comet comes
In homage a king bows
Not an island, an island
Nine-hundred and seven
of the Comet of God
in the roof of the world
the road to empire
THE GLORY OF CHRIST.
in the month of June.
spurns loyalty of silver.
in death a small man.
the months of the first Year.
in the month of September.
of this Year of war.
by the Wolf of the north.
the months of the second Year.
in the month of March.
thins and dries.
into golden heads.
the months of the third Year.
In the month of October.
at hermit’s feet.
not a shield but a shield.
the months of the fourth Year.
V
The Comet comes
Great Year’s midsummer
Old claw of dragon
Nine-hundred and twenty-one
VI
The Comet comes
Deny five hundred months five
Even the dragon must lie
Nine-hundred and five
VII
The Comet comes
Less thirty-six months
Know a Great Year dies
Nine-hundred and twenty-six
VIII
The Comet comes
A half-hundred months more.
Match fastness of rock
Nine-hundred and eighteen
IX
The Comet comes
End brother’s life at brother’s hand.
Noble elf-wise crown.
The north comes from south
Epilogue
Across ocean to east
Men of new Rome sail
Empire of Aryans
New world of the strong
in the month of May.
less nine of seven.
pierces silence, steals words.
the months of the fifth Year.
in the month of February.
Blood spilled, blood mixed.
at the foot of the Cross.
the months of the sixth Year.
in the month of July.
the dragon flies west.
Know a new world born.
the months of the seventh Year.
in the month of September.
At the hub of the world
against tides of fire.
the months of the eighth Year.
in the month of March.
A fighting man takes
Brother embraces brother.
to spill blood on the wall.
and ocean to west
from the womb of the boar.
blood pure from the north.
a ten-thousand year rule.
The Testament
of Eadgyth of
York
(Free translation from Old English.)
(Lines revealed in AD 1070)
In the last days
To the tail of the peacock
He will come:
The spider’s spawn, the Christ-bearer
The Dove.
And the Dove will fly east,
Wings strong, heart stout, mind clear.
God’s Engines will burn our ocean
And flame across the lands of spices.
All this I have witnessed
I and my mothers.
Send the Dove west! O, send him west!
(Lines revealed in AD 1481)
The Dragon stirs from his eastern throne,
Walks west.
The Feathered Serpent, plague-hardened,
Flies over ocean sea,
Flies east.
Serpent and Dragon, the mortal duel
And Serpent feasts on holy flesh.
All this I have witnessed
I and my mothers.
Send the Dove west! 0, send him west!
BOOK: Weaver
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