The Healer and the Warrior

by Bekah Clark

  “Donner, guard the women!” With that, he attacked the assassin—for that could only be what he was.

  Grabbing Sarine and me, Donner pulled us back to the far wall. He grabbed one of Torric’s blades from his small weapons workbench. My eyes locked onto Torric. He had just a small, formal dagger that he’d worn to court. The two struggled around the room. I thought there was no one who could be a match for my warrior, but this man was quick and strong. Every time it seemed that Torric had the upper hand, the man would whirl from his grasp and attack from a different angle. But I had faith that my Torric would win.

  And then, like a blade through my heart, I felt it. The desire to heal combined with the need to not touch. He stumbled back and my eyes went wide. My Torric was dying. And, Spirits help me, I couldn’t let that happen. Not when I knew there was one thing I could do, no matter how forbidden it was.

  I dashed over to the assassin, Sarine crying out my name in shock and fear. With a grim gaze, I grasped the assassin’s arm. Instead of permitting my healing energy to flow into him, I drew life from him. He turned his black eyes over at me and raised his blade. I held strong as his eyes went wide and he became too weak to hold his own weapon. He tried to pull away, but in his rapidly weakening state, he could barely move. Sinking to his knees, he stared up at me in abject terror as the truth of what was happening sank into his mind.

  It was then that I allowed myself to remember when my mother had given me a pet rabbit. At the time, I was only ten. She had told me to take great care of it, and I named it Bun-Bun. I loved that fluffy, gray rabbit and spent a lot of time caring for it. Then one day, my mother told me to touch the rabbit and reverse the flow of my healing. I refused. She once again demanded that I hold onto Bun-Bun and drain him of his life. I didn’t want to do it, but she would not relent until I did. As the last of his little life ebbed away, tears tore through me. My mother had said, “Remember the pain of this loss. This is why we forbid this particular art. As a healer, we never want to use our powers this way. So remember this pain as a reason why you never do this.”

  I had sworn I would never drain anyone or anything again. Yet here I was, draining the last of this assassin’s life as he slumped onto the floor. His nearly black eyes were gaping up at me in horror. I could see the realization that was in those eyes slowly fading away as they glassed over. He was dying. Yet the pain I felt in killing this way did not compare to the agony I felt at the thought of Torric dying. We had not come this far just to let one assassin take him from me.

  When the assassin died, I felt so amazingly full of power. It was in that moment, as a trained adult, that I finally realized why healers forbid such use of power. The power within me was magnificent! It was intoxicating! If I drained people, I could heal myself. I could probably live forever off the life energy of others. But that was not what I wanted.

  “Torric!” Sarine screamed. There wasn’t much time left.

  Going to Torric’s side, I pushed the healing energy, the energy that I stole, into him. As strength flowed into him, I removed the knife from his chest. For a moment, it bled and then stitched up quickly as I knitted his wound together and burned the poison that had been on the blade out of his body. He turned his eyes to me, astonishment filled his gaze, and he touched my cheek with a sense of wonder. He was well. Fully healed. And then, I let the sleep take me.

  “She’s coming around.” Sarine’s voice was quiet, reverent.

  My mind was foggy. I rolled onto my side and curled up to my pillow with a moan. A gentle hand stroked my hair, and I smiled as I recognized the gentle touch of rough fingers. “Wake up, my little healer.”

  Slowly, I opened my eyes to find Torric leaning down and looking at me, awe filling his glorious emerald gaze. I smiled and reached for him. Then the realization hit me, and I sat up quickly, swaying a moment with a hand to my head before I grabbed him. “Torric! Are you all right?”

  He frowned. “Am I all right? Zianya, what did you do?”

  My eyes sought out Donner’s. I was surprised to see his gaze as confused as everyone else’s. Perhaps because his healing powers were not strong enough, he didn’t know. Perhaps because of this, no one had thought to tell him. Chewing my bottom lip, I looked down at my hands, which were twisting. Shyly, I raised my eyes to Torric’s and said, “I did something bad.”

  “Bad?” Donner blurted out, “Spirits above, woman, you were amazing! You killed Crede and saved Torric.”

  “You knew him?”

  Sarine’s eyes darkened as she spoke. “We thought we did. But now that I’m thinking about it, it wasn’t long after Crede came to court that the raid occurred and Donner was poisoned.”

  “Who was he?”

  “Crede from Allwen,” Donner explained. “He recently inherited from his father. Although, it has been a long time since I saw Bolton. It had been years since a lord from Allwen had been to court. Perhaps I should dispatch a small force to see what’s going on there.”

  Torric nodded, but his eyes remained locked on me. “How did you do that?” he asked quietly.

  Exhaling softly, I replied, “I told you there were secrets healers had. It’s a forbidden thing. When I was very young, my mother forbid me from using it. But…well, I knew that it could save you, so I just didn’t care if I did such a forbidden thing. Killing the man who was trying to take you from me didn’t matter. You mattered.”

  Sitting on the bed, he drew me into his warm embrace. Gently, in my ear, he whispered, “Thank you for saving my life.”

  I heard the door quietly click as Donner and Sarine left. Turning my eyes to Torric’s, I leaned over and kissed him. He pressed me to him and deepened the kiss. Passion and desperation churned into a heady mixture that left me breathless.

  He pushed me onto my back, and his hands ran over my breasts. I trembled in need, and suddenly all of the clothing I had on felt as if it were suffocating me. I reached for the ties on the back of my dress when suddenly my stomach grumbled. Loudly.

  That was really starting to annoy me.

  However, Torric just laughed into my neck and rained soft kisses and licks on my collarbone. “We’ll continue this after I feed you. Come on, I think the food we ordered earlier is still on the table.”

  “It’s still here? How long was I asleep?”

  “Only an hour.”

  “Must be because…” My stomach made an insistent noise that had me blushing and Torric laughing as he scooped me up.

  As we headed into the next room, I realized that a state wedding was a small sacrifice to have the love of this man forever. I vowed not to complain when the planning started in earnest.

  But for now, I only had one plan. That was to make passionate love to my warrior. Once I filled my belly, of course.

  Epilogue

  Fourteen months later found me riding before Torric as we left Fort Nyte. I wish I could say the war magically ended when they discovered Glane had a healer again, but that was not the case. If anything, Moritzan had stepped up its offensive. Because of this, I had a job to do—the first of many such jobs having just been completed.

  I had spent a better part of a year training Kayla to be an herbalist and to work with the medics in the healing hall. While I’d been away, she had made a study of all our notes a priority. When I returned, she devoured the information I gave her. I had always been a healer first and an herbalist second. But her singular devotion to the craft had transformed her, and I knew it would not be long before she exceeded me in the knowledge of herbs.

  Another surprise when I had returned was that she was in a relationship. With Zeer. He was as quiet as always, but she lit up like a star whenever she saw him. Ten days before Torric and I left Fort Nyte, the two of them had married. Their wedding had been a simple affair, something I would have preferred to the pompous state occasion Torric and I had endured. But I couldn’t really complain because Sarine was right—state weddings gave the people hope. She told me my next task was to have a baby. Torric and
I were working on that with great enthusiasm. Being a healer meant it would probably take a long time…but I certainly didn’t mind the work.

  As we started to set up camp for the evening, I found Torric’s eyes upon me with a look that set my soul ablaze. I grinned and started to make a stew over the fire. He still didn’t like me cooking when we were out like this, but I didn’t care. I worked cautiously, so his worry about me burning myself was misplaced. I also finally learned to cook meat properly over an open flame.

  Journeying alone together like this reminded me of when we first met. I had been so very frightened to discover a large and powerful warrior had kidnapped me. Now, I would not change one thing. I knew that I would have been too scared to agree to go to Glane with him. His taking me was the only way. His taking me had opened my world.

  After we ate and cleaned the campsite, he dragged me into the tent. His desire burned in his eyes and caused a tremor through my body. He ran his hands over me, his emerald gaze not leaving mine. Our hands flew rapidly over each other’s clothing, leaving me breathless and wanting. As we joined into one, his lips were on mine, and I knew that I would never be that lonely woman on the mountain again. I was complete now. I was home.

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