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. He’d failed to acquire the one key element necessary to lift the black affliction that haunted his city. Only the healer possessed the power to make his thoughts dwell on something else ... on someone else. And when he touched her? By Her light…
    H is intense sexual reaction every time his bare skin met hers felt uncanny. He was beyond denying it. He’d tested it too many times. She felt it too. He was certain of it and he wondered what it meant. It wasn’t only her body he wanted. The totality of the woman fascinated him. Who was she? What moved her? Why did she offer to come? He’d sought her out in the evenings before they’d all collapsed into their blankets, though all he’d done was observe. What he saw pleased him. She was gracious and uncomplaining, and ever ready to lend a helping hand.
    He l realized with an uncomfortable grunt that the healer had been the focus of his speculation since he’d first seen her in the audience hall. His ill-humor descended again with the knowledge that he had nothing to offer her but a city cased in ice. He sighed wearily. His thoughts returned to the fruitless rehash of what he might do to change that without a magistra to work the Great Rite with him.
    ~~~
    Adonia squinted up into the mid-day sun as Hel pulled their group to a halt with a grim expression. He pointed to an area on the downward slope where a section of skeletal, rotting trees encroached on the trail ahead of them for as far as the eye could see. “It’s the contagion I told you about—a growing stain of death on my lands. This mountain pass was open when I came down. We cannot risk the chance of infection by going through it.”
    “All right,” said Ramsey. “We go around. Easy enough.”
    Hel shook his head. “The only other pass takes us through forests infested with soul-wraiths, leeches. They are a parasitic scourge that rode in on the Haarb and stayed when the Haarb fled. They prey on life-force and attack anything warm-blooded. They wait until daylight fades and then descend in lethal swarms of gray shadow.”
    “Yes. I know all about soul-wraiths.” Ramsey frowned. “How did you avoid them in the past?”
    “Set a perimeter of energized diaman crystal. That will keep them at bay.” Hel smiled without humor. “I have the diaman crystal in my saddle pack. I lack a sexual partner to energize them. I had intended to return with a magistra but a magister will work as well. Care to volunteer?”
    “Only if I top ,” Ramsey snapped.
    “You’d have to kill me first,” returned Hel.
    “With pleasure .”
    Steffania took a breath. Ram cut her off. “No. I don’t share you, Vixen.”
    Fear of the unknown almost froze Adonia ’s tongue, but she was the obvious answer. She could do this. The opportunity would never present itself again. “I’ll be your partner.”
    At her faltering words, three pairs of eyes swung to Adonia and she shrugged. “I am the solution. I’ve always wondered about the ‘mystical sexual rites’ of the aristos. Now I’ll know firsthand.”
    In spite of her heart’s attempts to pound itself out of her body, she produced a wobbly smile. A momentary pause stretched into a lengthy silence. Her smile faltered and humiliation at Hel’s failure to respond swamped her. “I suppose I’m not your idea of womanly appeal but, hey, I’m less deadly than doing Lord Ramsey.” She chuckled weakly. No one laughed. Goddess, please open the earth and let me disappear. Perhaps her common blood made her too distasteful? “That is, unless you need someone highborn.”
    “No. Though it’s preferable, I don’t need someone highborn for this rite. I accept your offer, Healer. Thank you.” Hel’s head jerked in a curt nod, and Adonia was left wondering if Hel might have preferred Ramsey after all. How depressing.
    Adonia followed the three riders in front of her in silence. What have I done? The insane ranting of Sylvan Mintoth’s mad magistra haunted her. It was said the