Unicorn Valley III: Healer’s Heart

What do you do when an immortal being who can assume both genders falls in love with you?

The werewolf healer Brolly has lusted after his parents’ friend Le-An for years. However, Le-An is an immortal who can be both genders and many forms. When lust turns to love, the werewolf healer Brolly runs — right into medieval France — during the Black Plague! Can Le-An find Brolly and bring him home — before he’s burned as a witch?

Publisher’s Note: This is part of a series – books which share a universe and are meant to be read in order but can also be read individually.

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Unicorn Valley 3: Healer’s Heart
Lena Austin
All rights reserved.
Copyright ©2004 by Lena Austin
An Authorized Excerpt

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The arrow sang out of the bushes with no warning, giving Le-An no time to writhe out of its way. He went down, the arrow cutting into the thick muscle of his thigh. Dammit, he was only perhaps half an hour’s walk from home. It was the last truly coherent thought he had before his head connected with the small boulder he’d been skirting.

Three men stepped out of the bushes, the archer still unstringing his bow. Their knives held a silent threat. Dazed, and with his head throbbing in time with his thigh, Le-An tried desperately to clear his head. The greasiest of the three bent over and removed Le-An’s belt pouch, containing a few worthless coins. The youngest of the bandits fingered his knife. “Should we slit this foreigner’s throat?”

The greasy one waved a hand. “Nah! He’ll die out here anyway. Save the edge of your knife.”

The French language barely registered in Le-An’s mind. They could have the silly little disks of metal. They were unimportant.

The archer reached for his arrow embedded in Le-An’s thigh and twisted. Le-An’s cry of pain was enough to have the first two turning back. “Leave it, Egon,” ordered the younger. The sound of snapping wood was barely audible compared to the agony. The roaring in his ears drowned out all sound.

“Gaah! Damn. I broke the arrow anyway.” Egon threw down the broken shaft and stomped off after his friends.

Le-An lay where he’d fallen. The boulder made an uncomfortable pillow, but he would live yet another day. Dammit. He didn’t want to live anymore. He was tired. Couldn’t he just lie there and bleed away his life force?

The tingle of magic on his skin told him he would live, like it or not. He was too close to home. “Dammit, V! Can’t you just let me go?”

You were an innocent victim, Le-An. Now we are tied, you and I. Is life so unbearable?

Le-An sighed and began the long crawl toward home. “I’m lonely, V. So very lonely.”

Bored, too. I’m sorry about that. I can’t be more to you than a friend.

Le-An got to the top of the next small hillock before he had to stop and rest again. His temple was bleeding freely, and he was dizzy. He threw up the remains of a perfectly good breakfast.

Come on, Le-An. Just a bit further.

“You always say that.”

You always insist on leaving my protections. Did you at least get laid?

Busybody, he thought. “No. The one human female who sells sex for coin in that village had her moon time. But she was nice to me anyway, and fed me a meal.”

Which you just lost on the hill. Come home, Le-An. I’m calling the healers.

Le-An forced his body back to crawling. The magic grew stronger every few feet. His leg stung abominably when he inadvertently used it.

He passed out from the pain three times before he finally crawled up the top of the last rocky hill. The walk that normally took him a short time had taken him nearly all morning. Even the sweet scent of the grass didn’t ease the agony of his head.

You’re a mess.

“Thanks. Should I go find a stream and drown myself to get cleaned up before the healers find me?”

Sarcasm will get you nowhere. Roll down the hill, Le-An. My protections start there.

Aw, harpy shit. Le-An could barely crawl, and V wanted him to roll? “I know. But if I roll, I’ll hurt this leg more.”

I’m hoping so. If we’re lucky, you’ll pass out again.

“That sounds like a lovely plan. Cause me enough pain to go unconscious?” Despite his words, Le-An took a deep breath and began to roll, screaming in pain.

Inside his head, the cool, unchanging voice continued. I’ll see to it that you remain unconscious while Brolly gets that arrowhead out.

“Brolly? No!” Le-An hit the bottom, and kept rolling, passing out when he made it through the shields into the Valley of the Unicorns.

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