As a young child, Morgan Rein was taught by Mother Kalavela the curative powers of White Witchcraft. Ancient arts and skills employed in the service of mankind. The greatest of these elemental talents is the ability to control fire. Now, from out of her tortured past, comes a deadly threat in the form of a psychotic warlock bent on murder and destruction. A cruel, sadistic soul who also happens to be her brother. It will take all of Morgan's arcane skills, and the aide of a wisecracking cynical scientist, to combat the Dark Forces unleashed against her. To survive shw willhave to summon the purest flame of all, Witchfire

In the tradition of the old "Ace Doubles," two-in-one books (flip one over to read the second title), here is the seventh Wildside Double. SLAUGHTERHOUSE WORLD: A Tale of the Human-Knacker War, by Ardath Mayhar The Knackers looked like a cross between a spider and a crab, except bigger--much bigger, and meaner--much meaner--and they never stopped coming Joel Karsh is just a grunt slugging it out on Plant 3G 789, a bug factory world, where fresh protein (i.e., human flesh) is being processed for reshipment to enemy depots throughout the cluster. All he wants to do is make it back to the SpaceForce pick-up point. But as his buddies are killed, one by one, and the Knackers swarm ever closer, he's beginning to wonder if he'll even live through the next day A rousing SF military adventure by a master storyteller. KNACK' ATTACK: A Tale of the Human-Knacker War, by Robert Reginald On the farming planet of Terr'ferme, Rabbs din Chorest has been sent to the hills to tend a herd of clorses (cloned horses) and beefers. Not far distant is the ruin of Spiretown, a long-abandoned place of the Old-uns, a race that had once inhabited this world. Then the Knack's invade, destroying settlements, devastating ranches, and harvesting human and animal flesh. Rabbs is cut off from all contact with the civilized world. When a group of refugees appears, they become Rabbs's responsibility as well. Trapped by a bug troop in a cave near the ruined city, the humans have nowhere to go and no one to ask for help. Will anyone survive the Knack' attack?

Two short novels published for the first time: "Born Rebel" tells the story of a woman in 1825 who's sold by her father to the neighboring farmer, and flees to Texas with her beau, with a hunter-killer dogging their every step. "The Guns of Livingston Frost," the third Washington Shipp mystery, finds Sheriff Shipp investigating a series of brutal crimes against antique gun dealers in East Texas.

When their parents, the owners and performers of the Gannelli Family Circus, are murdered by a Yankee Captain in rural Arkansas during the Civil War, young Gian-Carlo and his cousin Magda barely escape with their lives into the surrounding woods. From then on, they have only one purpose in life: a VENDETTA against the Union officer. Their cat-and-mouse game finally reaches its climax in East Texas. Will this be their final performance?

Granary--the breadbasket of the United Worlds--becomes enmeshed in civil war when its Commander, Theron Standish, attempts to impose his will over the independent granges. Only Theron's elderly grandmother and predecessor, Seleva Karmann, can stop the Commander from destroying his own world!

When Marise Dering marries Ben Clarrington, and moves into the old mansion where the rest of the Clarringtons live, she's ordered to keep out of the closed-off sections of the third floor--but never told why! As the family members begin perishing in odd circumstances, Marise must try to uncover the secret of...The Clarrington Heritage.

When two bodies are spit out by the local swamp, Police Chief Washington Shipp knows he has a drug problem--and the druglords will do ANYTHING to retrieve their missing stash. Only Wash, together with an unlikely crew of swamp denizens and misfits, stand in their way. They don't stand a chance--do they?

A delightful memoir of the fantasy, science fiction, mystery, western, and young adult writer, Ardath Mayhar, whose seventy books and hundreds of short stories have charmed readers throughout the world.

When the Stonor family joins the last wagon train to Oregon in the 1840s, little do they realize that disaster awaits. Suddenly 17-year-old Maryla Stonor is left to fend for herself in the mountains of Wyoming, just before the onset of winter. And even if she does survive the endless blizzards and numbing cold, when spring finally arrives, how will she find her way back to civilization? A gripping tale of survival.

Twenty-seven scintillating stories of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, all but two of which are published here for the first time. Robert Reginald says: "Ardath Mayhar is able to evoke eerie, otherworldy settings and creatures with just a few strokes of her subtle pen. Great stuff "

In prehistoric Europe, Bain of the Hunting Clan flees his people, eventually encountering Arma of the Farming Clan. But the Hunters have followed their lost sheep, and when the two peoples clash, Bain and Arma rescue the Farmers' clan healer, Kalva, and flee with her to the east. There they must overcome many dangerous challenges to establish a brand new society. "Another marvelous fantasy by a master writer"--Robert Reginald.

Seven-foot-tall Grittel, daughter of the Lord of Sundoth, has refused the impossible marriage arranged by her domineering mother. Now an embarrassment to her family, she is sent forth to make her own way in the world. But Grittel Sundotha is no shrinking maiden. Along the way she castrates a noble noted for his lechery; defeats the assassins he sends after her; and, having been trapped by a sorceress in an enchanted forest, winds up boiling the witch in her own cauldron, taking with her the spell book she finds there. This proves invaluable, for she finds that she has an innate gift for sorcery. When she meets a space ship's crew whose vessel has been pulled from their own dimension (where magic is impossible), into Grittel's (where technology does not work), she attempts to prove her abilities by "clearing" the Captain's head--and instead, inadvertently makes it invisible. She knows that she must find the wizard whose spell has trapped the ship, for only he can send the vessel home. But not all mages on this world practice white magic

The Ancient Race of enhanced humans in Damaria has been all but destroyed by a revolt of the New People. The two survivors, Riddle the Poet and his nephew, young King Lute, flee to the City of the Mist. There they and the many other refugees plan to build a great ship to ferry them to safety in the Western Isles, where some of their kin remain. But the evil worm Dinorm, their old enemy, is not finished with them yet. The longest and best-realized of all of Ardath Mayhar's epic fantasies, the first half of which was previously published as Riddles & Dreams.

The Nadicha, also known as the Mound Builders, lived in the westernmost outpost of their kind in the woods and swamps of what is now East Texas. The Turtle Woman, their healer and seer, was disturbed when the Alligator Man appeared in their forest home, doing his best to ingratiate himself with her people, particularly with the children. Although she had no proof, she had a deep feeling that he meant them no good -- and she was right

A child escapee from an Aztec sacrificial ceremony far to the south, Ootenec has taken refuge on an island in a large lake, where he hunts alligators in personal combat and intends to create a tribe of his own based around his mythos . . . if, that is, his recurrent madness doesn't destroy the children first

"Another superb vision of preshistoric AmerIndian America by a master writer. Great reading " -- Robert Reginald.

When Robert Willingham, alias Robert Evans, came to Dry Wells, Texas, he was answering a job advertisement. Jed Cobb, a rancher, had chosen Robert because of his name on a WANTED poster -- which told Robert (now an ex-con man) that the old Texan probably needed some shady business done. He didn't dream that this included the murder of Cobb's two nephews in order to secure title to the ranch they had inherited from their aunt, Cobb's long dead wife. But Evans was no murderer, and he concocted a plot of his own, complicated by the intrusion of the vengeful Comanche leader, Buffalo Hump. Can he save the lives of the two innocent boys and preserve the heritage of the Three Oaks Ranch? "Mayhar's novel gives you a genuine feeling for the old west, from the cadence of the language to the situations themselves. A grand adventure with real people in a western setting " -- Robert Reginald.

Olive is the most unlikely of secret agents, a professional assassin in her sixties who's known only as "The Knit Lady." When Islamic terrorists take control of the cruise ship on which she's traveling, Olive decides to fight back, with knitting needle, scalpel--and plastic explosives. Don't underestimate Little Old Ladies!

The upper-class inhabitants of the locked-gate community called Holroyd Square in Templeton, Texas, are used to their sedate, private lives-and the equally private secrets that each of them keeps hidden from the others. But when a vicious blackmailer rudely interrupts their existence, and then is found murdered in the Square, the police must be called, and only Assistant Chief Wash Shipp can uncover the killer and save their tattered reputations. A psychodrama in the best Agatha Christie tradition!

"Created by the powerful Hasyisi, yet missing for centuries from its home world, the Lyre just hangs in a willow tree, waiting.. Hasyih, the Heart of the Worlds, links contiguous dimensions, many worlds invisible to each other, yet accessible through doors on Hasyih, one of the keys to which is the Lyre. Now danger threatens both Hasyih and Ranuit, the only inhabited worlds in the group, and when a young girl takes the Lyre from the willow tree, a set of interlinked activities is set into motion. Moving from world to world, going into the hands of the one who needs it most at the time, the Lyre reveals its nature as not only a Key, but also as a Weapon, an Enigma, an Answer, and a resolution, affecting both Hasyih and Ranuit. And the girl Queen Yisri is the center of it all."

A new collection of 29 scintillating tales of horror and fantasy, many of them never before published.

Gripping tales of fantasy, mystery, and horror set in the piney woods of East Texas.

"Ardath Mayhar is a neglected writer, and that is criminal. She is one of those born storytellers and natural writers who has done so much so well that it is easy to take her for granted. Trust me, as the spider said to the fly: read Ardath's work. Be captivated by her worlds. They will never let you go. Promise."--from the Introduction by Joe R. Lansdale.

When Annie is forced to resettle from Los Angeles to an East Texan farm, she saves her money to buy the "Absolutely Perfect Horse." But the nag she actually gets is a 35-year-old Appaloosa nicknamed "Dogmeat." In the end, though, this worn-out old steed proves his valor when a pack of wild dogs attacks the farm.

"I defy anyone to read this story without a tear springing to one's eye "--Robert Reginald.

As the Civil War lurches to a close, the Lintons of East Texas are waiting anxiously for their menfolk to return. But the stranger Finis Krim is attempting to extort land from the local women by claiming fraudulent commitments from their absent husbands. Krim's agent, Joshua Birdsong, is sent to the Linton home to search for relevant documents to wrest their farm away. Then Fate, in the person of five-year-old Julia, intervenes.

"A wonderful story "--Robert Reginald.