Search Worlds Without End

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Off Limits: Tales of Alien Sex (1996), edited by Ellen Datlow. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourteenth Annual Collection (1997), edited by Gardner Dozois, Year's Best SF 2 (1997), edited by David G. Hartwell, Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology (2007), edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel, and Dangerous Games (2007), edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collection The Universe of Things (2011).

The warrior Red Sonja, the famous fiery She-Devil of Hyrkania, has never concerned herself with the consequences of her actions. She's taken what she wanted, from treasure to drink to the companionship of bedfellows. She's fought who deserved it (and sometimes those who didn't). And she's never looked back.

But when rumours start bubbling up from her homeland - rumours of unknown horrors emerging from the ground and pulling their unsuspecting victims to their deaths - and a strange voice begins whispering to her in her sleep, she realizes she may have to return to the country that abandoned her. And finally do the only thing that has ever scared her: confront her past.

The fiercest herioine of the Hyborian kingdoms battles dark sorceries and her own dark soul.

She lived in a savage world in an uncivilized age-a world ruled by men and governed by the sword. They called her Red Sonja-for her flame-red hair, for the smouldering fire of her pride which gave her sword-arm strength that few men could match and none had ever defeated.

The fiercest heroine of the Hyborian kingdoms, caught in a web of sorcery by her own doom-laden distiny...

She lived in a savage world in an uncivilized age - a world ruled by men and governed by the sword. They called her Red Sonja - for her flame red hair and the smoldering fire of her pride.

Falsely charged with the murder of a commander to whom she had sworn allegiance, Red Sonja must flee or be killed without a chance to clear her name. Deep in the desert she encounters the city of Elkad, and, exhausted, seeks shelter there. She enters the city against her better judgment, for hanging before the gates are the shriveling bodies of six young women, clearly the victims of some blood-thirsty ritual.....

Armed with only a sword and her untamed spirit, she went against the flames of hell itself!

She lived in a savage world in an uncivilized age-a wovid ruled by man and governed by the sword. They called her Red Sonja - for her flame-red hair, for the smouldering fire of her pride which gave her sword arm a strength few men could match and none had ever defeated.

In the very land where Conan the Cimmerian wields his powerful blade, this beautiful and deadly warrior-maid battles dark sorceries... and her own dark soul. On the prison Isle of Os Harku, where the sweepings of Aquilonian society are thrown-traitors, murderers, thieves, and those whose crimes are too terrible to name-a dark force lies entrapped that feeds on the evil of the men around it An ancient demon, the life force of one of Hell's own, it snares Athu, a vena! Shemite sorcerer, and drives him to attempt escape from the Isle, and to quest for the entrance to Hell. With the aid of a sorcerous storm, the prisoners of Os Haiku take a ship, and make their escape. But on that ship is the flame-haired woman warrior, the only Aquilonian brave enough, or bitter enough, to try to stand between a demon and the gates of Hell.

From the barbaric lands where Conan roams comes a warrior even he cannot best...

She lived in a savage world in an uncivilized age-aworld ruled by men and voerned by the sword. They called her Red Sonja-for her flame-red hair, for the smoldering fire of the pride which gave her sword arm a strength noman had ever defeated.

In Shadizar, however, her greatest enemies are not men. One is not even human. Sonja in drawn into a web of intrigue, pitting her wits against two of the most deadly creature on earth: an ancient vampire, and a woman burning with a desire for vengence.

From Robert E. Howard's savage Hyborian Kingdom comes a mercenary who is as beautiful as she is deadly...

She lived in a savage world in an uncivilized age, a world ruled by men and governed by the sword. They called her Red Sonja--for her flame-red hair, for the smouldering fire of her pride which gave her sword arm a strength few men could match and none had ever defeated.

In the very lands where Conan the Cimmerian roams, this dangerous warrior-maid pits herself against a power-mad wizard who rules a city poised precariously above the door to the Seven Hells...

She lived in a world ruled by soldiers and sorcerers, and she was more than a match for any of them...

From the savage, sorcery-ridden lands of the Hyborian Kingdoms comes a warrior as beautiful as she is deadly. They call her Red Sonja-for her flame-red hair, for the smouldering fire of her pride which gives her sword arm a strength that even the barbarian known as Conan cannot best.

Many there are who have sought to bring her down-with steel, with treachery, with the arts of balck magic. But now she faces an enemy armed with the most dangerious weapon of them all... love.