Synopsis: From the back cover of the Bantam mmpb: In Nothing Sacred "Nebula Award-winning author Elizabeth Ann Scarborough wrote of spiritual hope and healing against a backdrop of nuclear catastrophe. Now, a daughter of those who survived that twenty-first-century apocalypse sets out on a mission of salvation into a world gone mad. The valley of Shambala, high in the mountains of Tibet, is a magical paradise. Yet in this haven of peace and happiness, a mysterious illness is spreading. In search of a cure, the young woman Chime courageously ventures outside the valley. Chime journeys into a blasted landscape that harbors strange creatures and unimaginable dangers, a landscape peopled with countless souls doomed forever to a shadowy existence. As the reincarnation of the legendary Terton, who founded the village in Shambala, Chime must try to fulfill her earthly destiny: to bring peace and renewal to a shattered world. By turns serious and lighthearted, entertaining and enlightening, Last Refuge is a fascinating novel from one of the genre's most interesting writers"