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The Amtrak Wars - Cloud Warrior - Book 1 [046-4.9]

By: Patrick Tilley

Synopsis:

Ten centuries ago the Old Time ended when Earth's cities

melted in the War of a Thousand Suns. Now the lethal high technology

of the Amtrak Federation's underground stronghold is unleashed on

Earth's other survivors - the surface-dwelling Mutes. But the

primitive Mutes possess ancient powers greater than any machine...

An Orbit Book First published in Great Britain by Sphere Books Ltd

1983

Reprinted 1986, 1987 (twice), 1988 (twice), 1989 (twice), 1990, 1991

Reprinted by Warner Books 1995

Reprinted 1996, 1997

Reprinted by Orbit 1998

Copyright ?Patrick Tilley 1983

All rights reserved.

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 be otherwise circulated in

any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published

and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed

on the subsequent purchaser.

ISBN 1 85723 535 5

Printed in England by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc

Orbit

A Division of Little, Brown and Company (ilK) Brettenham House

Lancaster Place

London we2E 7EN To Nick Austin, who made it all possible. This one's

for you.

ONE

Cadillac sat on the ground near Mr Snow and listened with half-closed

eyes as the white-haired, bearded old man told the naked clan-children

the story of the War of a Thousand Suns.

Cadillac knew the story off by heart. It was the two hundred and

eighth time he had heard it, and it was not new to the sixty young

children of the settlement that squatted in a half-circle before

them.

It did not matter. The children sat spellbound, hanging on every word,

just as they had the first time. Most of them didn't remember Mr Snow

telling them the story before. But then, most of them hardly

remembered anything for very long - and never would.

But Cadillac could.

Cadillac remembered everything. All he had ever seen and heard, down

to the minutest detail. That was why he had been chosen by Mr Snow to

learn all that had happened to his people from the beginning of the New

Time. When Mr Snow left them to go to the High Ground, Cadillac would

take his place as the clan's wordsmith. It would then be Cadillac's

task to find a young child capable of memorising the series of events

that made up the nine hundred year history of the Plainfolk.

Before that, stretching back beyond the reach of even Mr Snow's memory,

was the uncounted span of years known as the Old Time when the world

trembled before the feats of Heroes with Names of Power.

Mr Snow knew a few tales of the Old Time, when there were as many

people on the earth as there were blades of grass. When huts were

built on top of one another to form settlements that rose high in the

sky like the distant mountains. When the crumbling hardways, that once

ran across the land like veins along his arm were choked with a

never-ending stream of giant beetles that carried people from one

place to another so that no one would ever find himself alone.

As Mr Snow rippled his fingers up the length of both arms to describe

how, in the War, the falling Suns had burned the flesh from every

living thing, Cadillac stood up and walked away down the slope towards

the settlement.

The morning sun warmed his bare back and cast a slim, broad-shouldered

shadow in front of him.