Touch of Power

Avry of Kazan is a healer. When she lays her hands on the injured and dying, their wounds and diseases pass into her own body. Instead of earning thanks, she is hunted. A plague has devastated the Territories, and healers like her are blamed for spreading it.

Worn out from hiding, Avry is seized by a band of rogues. There is a bounty of gold on her head, yet these captors want her gift more than the reward. Their leader, who holds powers of his own, acts as both jailer and guard.

His demand is blunt: Avry must cure a prince who has caught the plague. The prince is also the man leading a military campaign against her people, so saving him means helping an enemy.

The group crosses the Nine Mountains, pursued by mercenaries and threatened by magical dangers. This is fantasy with a captive heroine, a road-trip structure and a steady run of threats along the way. Every healing costs Avry something in her own body, and she has to decide who deserves that price and what she would die for.