Search Worlds Without End

"It crouches near the center of creation. There is no night where it waits. Only the riddle of which terrible dream will set it loose. It beheaded mercy to take possession of that place. It feasts on darkness from the minds of men. No one has ever seen its eyeless face. When it sleeps we know a few moments of peace. But when it breathes again we go down in fire and mate with jackals. It knows our fear. It has our number. It waited for our coming and it will abide long after we have become congealed smoke. It has never heard music, and shows its fangs when we panic. It is the beast of our savage past, hungering today, and waiting patiently for the mortal meal of all our golden tomorrows. It lies waiting."
--Harlan Ellison

15 stories by Harlan Ellison

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: The Waves in Rio - (1969) - essay
• The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World - (1968) - novelette
• Along the Scenic Route - (1969) - shortstory
• Phoenix - (1969) - shortstory
• Asleep: With Still Hands - (1968) - novelette
• Santa Claus vs. S.P.I.D.E.R. - (1969) - novelette
• Try a Dull Knife - (1968) - shortstory
• The Pitll Pawob Division - (1968) - shortstory
• The Place with No Name - shortstory
• White on White - (1968) - shortstory
• Run for the Stars - (1957) - novelette
• Are You Listening? - (1958) - shortstory
• S.R.O. - (1957) - shortstory
• Worlds to Kill - (1968) - novelette
• Shattered Like a Glass Goblin - (1968) - shortstory
• A Boy and His Dog - (1969) - novella

The Heart of the World is a land in strife. For fifty years the Holy Empire of Mann, an empire and religion born from a nihilistic urban cult, has been conquering nation after nation. Their leader, Holy Matriarch Sasheen, ruthlessly maintains control through her Diplomats, priests trained as subtle predators.

Ash is a member of an elite group of assassins, the Roshun, who offer protection through the threat of vendetta. Forced by his ailing health to take on an apprentice, he chooses Nico, a young man living in the besieged city of Bar-Khos. At the time, Nico is hungry, desperate, and alone in a city that finds itself teetering on the brink.

When the Holy Matriarch's son deliberately murders a woman under the protection of the Roshun; he forces the sect to seek his life in retribution. As Ash and his young apprentice set out to fulfill the Roshun orders, their journey takes them into the heart of the conflict between the Empire and the Free Ports... into bloodshed and death.

Still grieving the death of her son, the Holy Matriarch of Mann has ordered her troops to embark on a mission to the Mercian Free Ports. Riding at the head of her army she plans to finally conquer the city of Bar-Khos, whose walls have kept them at bay for ten long years.

Ash has other plans for her. The old Roshun warrior is determined that he will have vengeance for the crimes she has committed. But such a course of retribution is in direct opposition to everything he has lived for – this isn't a Roshun vendetta – it's personal.

While Ash battles with his conscience, Ché, the Matriarch's personal Diplomat and assassin, is questioning his own path. Watching as the Mannian army slaughters their way across the world, he wonders whether he believes any of the doctrine he has been taught to follow.

As the battle for Bar-Khos intensifies, more and more lives are affected: Bahn who leaves all he loves in the city to try to protect it from the ravening Mannian empire, Bull the murderer who senses a chance to make things right, and Curl, the young prostitute who is determined to seek her own retribution on the field of battle.

When the two armies clash – all looks set to be decided. But it's not sheer force that will win this battle. But the tormented determination of one man seeking redemption...