Search Worlds Without End

It is the ultimate quest for the ultimate treasure. Chasing a map tattooed on human skin. Across an omniverse of intersecting realities. To unravel the future of the future.

Kit Livingstone’s great-grandfather appears to him in a deserted alley during a tumultuous storm. He reveals an unbelievable story: that the ley lines throughout Britain are not merely the stuff of legend or the weekend hobby of deluded cranks, but pathways to other worlds. To those who know how to use them, they grant the ability to travel the multi-layered universe of which we ordinarily inhabit only a tiny part.

One explorer knew more than most. Braving every danger, he toured both time and space on voyages of heroic discovery. Ever on his guard and fearful of becoming lost in the cosmos, he developed an intricate code—a roadmap of symbols—that he tattooed onto his own body. This Skin Map has since been lost in time. Now the race is on to recover all the pieces and discover its secrets.

But the Skin Map itself is not the ultimate goal. It is merely the beginning of a vast and marvelous quest for a prize beyond imagining.

The Bright Empires series—from acclaimed author Stephen R. Lawhead—is a unique blend of epic treasure hunt, ancient history, alternate realities, cutting-edge physics, philosophy, and mystery. The result is a page-turning, adventure like no other.

ONE PIECE OF THE SKIN MAP HAS BEEN FOUND. NOW THE RACE TO UNRAVEL THE FUTURE OF THE FUTURE TURNS DEADLY.

An avenue of Egyptian sphinxes, an Etruscan tufa tomb, a Bohemian coffee shop, and a Stone Age landscape where universes collide …

Kit Livingstone met his great grandfather Cosimo in a rainy alley in London where he discovered the reality of alternate realities.Now he's on the run – and on a quest, trying to understand the impossible mission he inherited from Cosimo: to restore a map that charts the hidden dimensions of the multiverse while staying one step ahead of the savage Burley Men. The key is the Skin Map – but where it leads and what it means, Kit has no idea. The pieces have been scattered throughout this universe and beyond. Mina, from her outpost in seventeenth-century Prague, is quickly gaining both the experience and the means to succeed in the quest. Yet so are those with evil intent, who from the shadows are manipulating great minds of history for their own malign purposes. Across time and space, through manifest and hidden worlds, those who know how to use ley lines to travel through astral planes have left their own world behind in this, the second quest: to unlock the mystery of The Bone House.

The quest for the Skin Map, originally tattooed on The Man Who is Map is now in pieces and scattered across time and space in universe of multiple realities.

But what if the true treasure isn't the map at all... what if the map marks something far greater? Those wanting to unlock that mystery are in race to possess the secret – for good or evil. Kit Livingstone is mastering the ability to travel through the Omniverse using ley lines and has forged link from the Bone House, sacred lodge made of animal bones, to the fabled Spirit Well, place of profound power.

His friend Mina, still determined to find Kit, is beginning to experience greater destiny than she can fathom.Enter Cassandr Clarke. She is overseeing an archaeological dig in Arizon when chance encounter transports her to 1950s Damascus. There, she finds herself pursued by the Seekers—members of the Zetetic Society who need her help to track down the missing Cosimo Livingstone and his grandson Kit.They're all desperate to gain the ultimate prize in treasure hunt where ancient history, alternate realities, cutting edge physics, eternal mystery, and philosophy intersect. The next clue might reside at The Spirit Well.

Well of Souls, from medieval Oxford to modern-day Spain, from the pyramids of Egypt to an ancient shrine in China, the race continues for prize beyond all imagining.

The quest for answers hinges on finding the cosmic link between the Shadow Lamp, the Skin Map, and the Spirit Well.

The search for the map of blue symbols started in a rainy alley in London, but has since expanded through both space and time.

Mina, Kit, Gianni, Cass, Haven, and Giles have gathered in Mina's 16th-century coffee house and are determined to find a path back to the Spirit Well. Yet with their shadow lamps destroyed and key pieces of the map still missing, the journey will be far costlier than they imagine. And when one of their own disappears with the coveted green book, they no longer know who to trust.

At the same time, the Zetetic Society is on the verge of a most disturbing discovery. The expansion of the universe is slowing and soon will begin to reverse. And when it does, the effect will be far more than a setback. It will be the systematic annihilation of all that exists . . . the end of everything.

The quest for answers is no longer limited to treasure. Now everything depends on cracking the code.

Kit stared at his fellow questors. "Is this it?"

It started with small, seemingly insignificant wrinkles in time: A busy bridge suddenly disappears, spilling cars into the sea. A beast from another realm roams modern streets. Napoleon's army appears in 1930s Damascus ready for battle. But that's only the beginning as entire realities collide and collapse.

The questors are spread throughout the universe. Mina is stuck on a plain of solid ice, her only companion an angry cave lion named Baby. Tony and Gianni are monitoring the cataclysmic reversal of the cosmic expansion--but coming up short on answers. And Burleigh is languishing in a dreary underground dungeon--his only hope of survival the very man he tried to kill.

Kit and Cass are back in the Stone Age trying to reach the Spirit Well. But an enormous yew tree has grown over the portal, effectively cutting off any chance of return. Unless someone can find a solution--and fast--all Creation will be destroyed in the universal apocalypse known as The End of Everything.

In the final volume of the fantastic Bright Empires series, Stephen R. Lawhead brings the multi-stranded tale to a stunning and immensely satisfying conclusion.