The Hounds of Avalon (Gollancz S.F.) (61 page)
Read The Hounds of Avalon (Gollancz S.F.) Online
Authors: Mark Chadbourn
After all his failures and his weaknesses, here was his chance to redeem himself, the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to find the true strength inside him. Briefly, he had a vision of himself flashing back across time, appearing to Poussin to plant the message that he would eventually find in his real life, manifesting to the Dilettante Society and all the others he would guide so that at this point in time he would have already assimilated the information he needed to make his choice.
In truth, he had made the decision long ago.
The doorway was crystal clear now, manifested and held in place by the combined power of the Caretaker and the Fabulous Beast.
‘Will you accept this quest, Brother of Dragons?’ the Caretaker asked.
Hal smiled and stepped towards the light.
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly
.’ Martin Luther King, Jr.
A Gollancz eBook
Copyright © Mark Chadbourn 2005
All rights reserved.
The right of Mark Chadbourn to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in Great Britain in 2005 by
Gollancz
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Orion House
5 Upper Saint Martin’s Lane
London, WC2H 9EA
An Hachette UK Company
This eBook first published in 2010 by Gollancz.
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 0 575 10561 4
All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.