The City of Mirrors
Advance Reader’s Copy — Not for Sale
THE CITY OF MIRRORS
A Novel (Book Three of The Passage Trilogy)
Justin Cronin
Ballantine Books
This is an uncorrected ebook file.
Please do not quote for publication until you check your copy against the finished book.
Tentative On-Sale Date: May 24, 2016
Tentative Publication Month: May 2016
Tentative Print Price: $28.00
Tentative ebook Price: $14.99
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randomhousebooks.com
Ballantine Books
An imprint of Random House
1745 Broadway • New York, NY • 10019
By Justin Cronin
The Summer Guest
Mary and O’Neil
The Passage Trilogy
The Passage
The Twelve
The City of Mirrors
This is an uncorrected eBook file. Please do not quote for publication until you check your copy against the finished book.
The City of Mirrors
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Justin Cronin
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
BALLANTINE and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
ISBN 978-0-345-50500-2
eBook ISBN 978-0-8041-7764-1
randomhousebooks.com
For my family
And how am I to face the odds
Of man’s bedevilment and God’s?
I, a stranger and afraid
In a world I never made.
—A. E. HOUSMAN,
LAST
POEMS
Contents
Cover
ebook Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
XIII: The Mountain and the Stars
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
Dramatis Personae
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Prologue
From the Writings of the First Recorder (“The Book of Twelves”)
Presented at the Third Global Conference on the North American Quarantine Period
Center for the Study of Human Cultures and Conflicts
University of New South Wales, Indo-Australian Republic
April 16–21, 1003
A.V
.
[Excerpt 2 begins.]
Chapter Five
1 Thus did it come to pass that Amy and her fellows returned to Kerrville, in the place of Texas.
2 And there they were to learn that three among them had been lost. And these were Theo and Mausami, his wife; and Sara, who was called Sara the Healer, wife of Hollis.
3 For in the place of Roswell, where they had taken shelter, a great army of virals had laid siege, killing every kind. And only two of their company survived. And these were Hollis the Strong, husband of Sara, and Caleb, son of Theo and Mausami.
4 And a great sadness was upon them all, for the friends that they had lost.
5 And in the place of Kerrville, Amy went to live among the Sisters, who were women of GOD. And likewise did Caleb do the same, to be cared for by Amy.
6 And in that same period, Alicia, who was Alicia of Blades, and Peter, the Man of Days, took up arms with the Expeditionary, who were soldiers of Texas, to search for the Twelve. For they had learned that to kill one of the Twelve was to kill his Many also, sending their souls unto the LORD.
7 And many battles were joined; and many lives were lost. But neither could they slay the Twelve, nor find the places wherein they dwelled. For such was not the will of GOD at that time.
8 And in this manner did the years pass, five in sum.
9 And at the end of that time, Amy received a sign; and this sign was a dream. And in that dream Wolgast came to her, appearing as a man. And Wolgast said:
10 “My master is waiting; and the place of his waiting is a great ship in which he dwells. For a change is upon the land. Soon I will come for you, to show you the way.”
11 And that man was Carter, Twelfth of Twelve, who was to be called Carter the Sorrowful; a man righteous in his generation, and beloved of GOD.
12 And thus did Amy wait for Wolgast’s return.
Chapter Six
1 But there was also in that time another city of mankind, in the place of Iowa. And this was known as the Homeland.
2 And in that place abided a race of men who had drunk the blood of a viral, so that they might live, ruling for many generations. And these were called Redeyes. And the greatest of these was Guilder the Director, a man of the Time Before.
3 And the viral from which they took their sustenance was Grey, called the Source. For in his blood was the seed of Zero, father of the Twelve. And Grey abided in chains, wherein he suffered greatly.
4 And in that place the people lived as captives to serve the Redeyes, doing all they wished. And one of these captives was Sara the Healer, taken at the place of Roswell, whose friends knew not that she lived.
5 And Sara had a daughter, Kate; but the child was taken away. And the Redeyes told Sara that her daughter had not survived, causing a great woe in her heart.
6 And it came to pass that the child was given to a woman of the Redeyes. And this was Lila, wife of Wolgast.
7 For Lila’s daughter had died in the Time Before; and though many years had passed, the wound was still sharp in her mind. And she took comfort in Kate, imagining her to be the daughter she had lost.
8 And it came to pass that certain people of the Homeland rose up against their oppressors; and these were the Insurgents. And Sara joined with them. And she was sent to Lila to serve her in the Dome, wherein the Redeyes dwelled, that she might learn more about their ways. And in this manner did she discover that her daughter yet lived.