Chapter 1: A Body Among the Tides
The Abarat, a mystical land where there are 25 islands each for one hour of the day, and one to watch over them. Each island has a specific hour that it is located at, and on that island it is that hour perpetually. Each of these islands is bordered by the great and mighty Sea of Izabella, populated by a number of strange and wondrous sea creatures, such as the sea-skipper. The islands are filled with just as many magical beasts, as well as phantasmagorical people and locales, each Island peculiar and mind-boggling in it’s own unique way.
After being thrown over the side of the Wormwood by his grandmother, Mater Motley, Christopher Carrion fell into the waters of the Sea of Izabella, that were flowing through the streets of Chickentown, called here by his grandmother to speed the her ship towards it’s target. He struggled to fight back against his descent into the deep, but the wounds his grandmother inflicted made it difficult to swim, eventually he felt everything go black, as he was consigned to the deep, absolute darkness of death…
Days after the great battle between Candy Quackenbush and Mater Motley, that had flooded the Hereafter and all but destroyed Chickentown, the waters of the mighty Izabella had receded back into the Abarat. As they receded, they carried Mater Motley back to her domicile, on the isle of Gorgossium at the midnight hour; a dark and foreboding place, of spearlike towers, and great hills wreathed in crimson smoke, while at the base there are entire forests of gallows. As the thunderous waves crashed on Gorgossium’s shore they also carried something else with them, a gaunt, bloated, pallid body of a man that washed up near the base of the 13 towers of the Iniquisit. Then the waters of the Izabella receded back into their natural flow as the Abarat returned to a semblance of normalcy. There the body lay at the top of the great hill, obscured from all but the most scrutinizing eye by the crimson smoke that covered most of the island, until the day when 12 of the 13 towers came crashing down, the rubble crumbling to pieces and crushing the mysterious body under tons of wreckage. When the dust had settled, only one of the 13 towers remained intact and unscathed. This tower; a needle unto the heavens; was the new headquarters of Thant Yeyla Carrion, otherwise know as Mater Motley, and had been established after Mater Motley ordered destruction of the other 12 towers as well as all those still aligned with her grandson, Christopher Carrion, a sign that he was no longer a prince or anything to the island of Gorgossium, and that she was now it’s sole ruler.