A LOST BOOK TED DEKKER THOMAS NELSON Since NASHVILLE DALLAS 1798 MEXICO CITY RIO DE JANEIRO BEIJING ©2008byTedDekker All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc. Published in association with Thomas Nelson and Creative Trust, Inc., 5141 Virginia Way, suite 320, Brentwood, TN 37027. Thomas Nelson books may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail
[email protected] Publisher's Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or usedfictitiously.All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental. Page Design by Casey Hooper Map Design by Chris Ward Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dekker.Ted, 1962Chaos / Ted Dekker. p. cm. — (The lost books ; bk. 4) Summary: The four heroic young Forest Guard recruits embark on their last mission to recover the lost Books of History before the Dark One unleashes their power to enslave humanity. ISBN 978-1-59554-372-1 (hardcover) [I. Fantasy. 2. Christian life—Fiction.] I. Title. PZ7.D3684Ch 2008 [Fie]—dc22 2008002896 Printed in the United States of America 08 09 10 11 QW 6 5 4 3 2 1 6) 5ecSir}rii(!3S O our story begins in a world totally like our own, yet completely different. What once happened seems to be repeat- ing itself thousands of years later. But this time the future belongs to the young, to the warriors, to the lovers. To those who can follow hidden clues and find a great treasure which will unlock the mysteries of life and wealth. Thirteen years have passed since the lush, Colored Forests were turned into desert by Teeleh, enemy of Elyon and vilest of all creatures. Evil now rules the land and shows itself as a painful, scaly disease that covers the flesh of the Horde living in the wasteland. The powerful green waters, once precious to Elyon, with the exception of seven small lakes surrounded by seven small forests, have vanished from the earth. Those few who have chosen to follow 1 TED DEKKER the ways of Elyon are now called Forest Dwellers, bathing once daily in the powerful waters to cleanse their skin of the disease. The number of their sworn enemy, the Horde, has grown, and the Forest Guard has been severely diminished by war, forcing Thomas, supreme commander, to lower the army's recruitment age to sixteen. A thousand young recruits have shown themselves worthy and now serve in the Forest Guard. From among the thousand, four young fighters—Johnis, Silvie, Billos, and Darsal—have