Healer's Touch by Kirsten Saell Page A

world who would judge you, Inella. Before I came to work for Aru, I earned my living as a prostitute. And I have no children to feed, no ailing mother to support, no excuse at all but easy money and the cheap, empty pleasures of the flesh. But I worked on my own, mostly. I have no friends in the business and I don’t know who else to ask.”
    Inella took a deep breath. Her eyes darted toward the door as if to check for anyone who might listen. “What do you need?” she asked quietly.
    Now it was Viera’s turn to be embarrassed. “Never mind. It’s a foolish idea.”
    â€œNo, please. Tell me. After all you’ve done for me, the least I can do is hear you out.”
    Viera fought down the little burst of anticipation that coiled in her belly as she thought of her plan. It had materialized seemingly out of nowhere as she lay sated in her own bed after her encounter in Aru’s last night. She’d been right before. She could lure him with sex, but sex alone would not capture him. It would only make him grow to hate her. She understood the ruthless logic of his voyeurism—he could watch all he liked, and as long as he never touched her, his marriage vow would remain unbroken—and Viera had to admit, the no-contact rule was exciting in its way. But there was a limit to how long she’d be willing to endure such an arrangement. She needed physical closeness, fleshly intimacy. She needed to be touched. And deep down, she knew he needed it too. She had to make him see what he was missing, and the only way she could do that was to invite another person into their little circle of desire.
    She opened her mouth to begin, then shut it again. How to word her request? “Master Aru and I…”
    Inella smiled. “You’re lovers.”
    â€œNo!” Viera said, shaking her head. “Well, yes. But no, not exactly. I…would like us to be lovers. He needs some convincing.”
    â€œWhy?” Inella’s gaze seemed entirely perplexed. “I mean, look at you! What man would not want you?”
    â€œIt’s a long story,” Viera chuckled. A thousand years long, yet it could be summed up in two words. “He’s married.”
    Inella’s smile shriveled. Viera could only imagine what Inella thought of her designs on a married man. “Go on.”
    â€œA thousand years ago, during the genocide, Aru and his wife and the other Darjhian survivors fled Serpere. When the immediate danger was passed, six thousand were ordered by their god to return, to hold the western border of the Dragon’s Head. They held a lottery to decide who was to go. Aru was chosen. His wife wasn’t.”
    â€œShe didn’t join him.”
    Viera shook her head, trying to keep her scorn from her face and knowing she failed miserably. “Why would she? She lived in paradise, with all she could want. And he was just her husband. Why would she give up the Deathless Land to live here in hell with him? He’s been alone ever since. Eight hundred years in an empty bed—can you imagine what that must be like? Yet he endured. Persevered, because he always assumed he’d be able to return to her one day. Then, during the war, he fell from his god’s grace.” She forced a laugh to conceal just how close she was to tears. “It wasn’t even his fault—that’s the worst thing. But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t punished for it. His immortality was forfeit. Nearly all the Darjhi have returned now to the Deathless Land, but not Aru. He’s not deathless anymore. He’s stuck here, forever. And still, she does not come to be with him.”
    â€œWhat a bitch,” Inella murmured, scowling into her cup.
    Viera sighed, her anger abandoning her until all that was left was a bleak grief. “And yet he holds to his marriage vows. Even knowing she has likely taken another husband. He says he’s no longer the man she