Cane, Nancy - Circle of Light

Title: Circle of Light
Author: Nancy Cane
Series: Book 1 of The Light-Years Trilogy
Pub: Dorchester (reissued by iUniverse.com)
Pub Date: May 1994 (reissued May 2000)
ISBN: 0-505-51949-6 (reissued ISBN: 0-595-00303-6)
Genre:
Time Period:
Setting:
Hero: Captain Teir Reylock
Heroine: Sarina Bretton

Summary:

As the legendary Great Healer, Sarina Bretton from Earth is destined to marry Lord Cam'brii of the Coalition High Council, but instead she falls in love with the captain of the spaceship transporting her to the wedding. Captain Teir Reylock returns her feelings but duty and honor claim him. Once they acknowledge their love for each other, all the forces in the galaxy can't keep them apart.

Excerpt:

    Smoke billowed into the air, swirling and blending into a murky gray fog whose tendrils reached into every hidden corner of the city. Mantra remembered the pungent smell even though it had been ten months since he'd fled his home. A lot of good it did him to hide in the countryside. The deadly plague called the Farg had spread its tentacles until it reached him even there. The pestilence touched everyone, regardless of location or station in life. It was a great equalizer, as Mantra had come to learn.

Huddling in the shadows of a doorway, he clutched his cloak tighter around his trembling body. It wasn't the cold that concerned him. Mantra dared not risk being seen. The telltale ugly swellings on his thick tan hide would condemn him on sight. If he were caught, he'd be sent to the pest-house. He wanted to die in his own bed, not in a chamber of horrors.

A paroxysm of coughing struck him, and he stooped, hacking and trying to clear the phlegm from his lungs. When at last he straightened, his face was red, his breath coming in short painful bursts. In the dim light of the streetlamps, he could see the winding cobblestone street disappearing into the mist ahead. Only a few more blocks to go, then he'd be home. With a stab of fear, he wondered if anyone was left to greet him. His mother and father...his sisters...had they succumbed to the plague? His luminous eyes lost some of their glimmer. It was selfish of him to return like this, to put them all in danger, but he craved one last glance of his loved ones before he died.

It was difficult to breathe the dry air after the relatively moist freshness of the country, and he had to stop every few paces to catch his breath. He was grateful that the streets were deserted. Public gatherings were forbidden, and all transportation had come to a halt. It was as though the very lifeblood of the city had stopped. Sewage flowed freely in the streets, and even the wooden structures surrounding him seemed to lean inward with despair. Mantra cringed from the shrieks and lamentations he heard as he passed the homes still inhabited. Nearly everyone was affected by the horrifying visitation, if not themselves, then their dearest relations. The city had become a harbor of death.

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Comments: The Light-Years series

Book 1: Circle of Light
Book 2: Moonlight Rhapsody
Book 3: Starlight Child