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. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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. The Mercian Free Ports are the only confederacy yet to fall. Their only land link to the southern continent, a long and narrow isthmus, is protected by the city of Bar-Khos. For ten years now, the great southern walls of Bar-Khos have been besieged by the Imperial Fourth Army. 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 fulfil the Roshun orders – their journey takes them into the heart of the conflict between the Empire and the Free Ports . . . into bloodshed and death.

Presents a bibliographic reference to all Star Wars fiction, from film novelizations to ebook novellas, complemented by full-color artwork.

As the empire of Mann threatens the world with enslavement, only a single island nation continues to stand in its way - the Free Ports of the democras. For ten years they have held their own, but now the empire draws its noose even tighter over them. Rallying to its defence are those from the secretive network known as the Few, including the cripple and troubleshooter Coya Zeziké. Coya has hopes of enlisting the forest contrarè in the aid of the besieged city of Bar-Khos. With him is Shard, the only Dreamer of the Free Ports, a woman capable of manipulating waking reality or the strange dimensions of the Black Dream. The Roshun order of assassins have also engaged in the war at last. But Ash, their ailing farlander, has more urgent business to overcome. Facing him is a skyship voyage into the Great Hush, then further journeying to the fabled Isles of Sky, where he hopes bring his dead apprentice Nico back to life. Yet, his voyage into the unknown may save more than just Nico . . . it may save the Free Ports themselves.

When vengeance isn't enough . . . Riding at the head of her army, Holy Matriarch of Mann plans to conquer the fortress city of Bar-Khos, whose walls have held the empire at bay for ten long years of siege. Ash is a man who would see her dead before that. The ailing Roshun assassin is determined to seek vengeance for the Matriarch's previous crimes. But such a course of retribution goes against everything his life has taught him. Meanwhile, Ché, a trained killer of the state, watches as the Mannian army slaughters their way across the remnants of the free world, and questions whether he believes the doctrines he has been trained to follow. With the battle for the Free Ports intensifying, more lives are drawn into the bloody conflict: Bahn, the siege-shocked soldier; and Curl, a young woman determined to make a stand even if it costs her life. When the two armies clash all looks set to be decided. But sheer force alone will not be enough to win this war. Only the gruelling determination of one man seeking redemption may be enough to sway the final outcome . . . This is a reissue of Stands a Shadow, the second novel in the Heart of the World series by Col Buchanan, following on from Farlander.