Carpathian 17 - Dark Curse

nodded. \"I can\'t bear to lose another child.\"
    The naked sorrow in her voice tore at Lara\'s heart. A tall, elegant woman with waist-length thick black hair immediately knelt between the two pregnant women, laying a hand on either of them.
    \"Francesca,\" Natalya supplied. \"Life mate to Gabriel, healer, and adopted mother to Skyler. She\'s an amazing woman. Now tell me what you want me to do.\"
    Lara was happy to have her there. She didn\'t know any of the women, and looking at Skyler was like looking at herself as a young girl. A little lost. Very much alone. Traumatized. The teenager made her feel exposed.
    Natalya was clearly a puzzle to the women, although it was obvious they admired her.
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    \"This is about healing the earth first,\" Syndil explained. \"We\'ve found the richest soil we could and have coaxed more minerals in it, but we have to heal it from all toxins.\"
    \"And parasites,\" Lara muttered under her breath.
    Shea spun around. \"What did you say?\"
    Lara wished she hadn\'t spoken, but they were all looking at her expectantly. She pressed her fingers against her suddenly throbbing temple. \"I\'m sorry. I was thinking out loud.\"
    \"No, I need to know what you said,\" Shea insisted.
    Lara shrugged. She didn\'t want to talk about her childhood, or even think about it. \"Xavier always experimented with parasites. He was never satisfied with them and always looked for ways to use them. He once said they had been more useful than any of his most gifted mages. I can\'t imagine that he would do anything without that being his first thought. He could create toxins for the soil, but what if he created a parasite that entered the host body and prevented pregnancy?\"
    Francesca stood up slowly, her eyes meeting Shea\'s over the tops of both Raven\'s and Savannah\'s heads.
    \"We checked for foreign microbes. We scan the bodies of the women all the time,\" Shea said. \"Gregori would never miss something like that.\"
    \"Maybe,\" Lara said, \"but Xavier is a master at working with microscopic amoebas. And when you\'re dancing to heal the earth, you\'re looking for modern-day toxins.\"
    Shea frowned. \"Do you have any idea how many toxins are found in a newborn\'s umbilical cord or in breast milk? The soil is what we live in, what rejuvenates us, yet our children can\'t go to ground with us or use the most perfect nutritious milk nature can provide. I could name every chemical we\'ve found in the soil, most of which cause cancer and...\"
    Raven laid a restraining hand on her sister-kin\'s arm. \"Lara, our water supply and our soil are fed from the purest of sources, the glacier. Even with that, Syndil has to heal the earth.\"
    \"I\'m just saying maybe your glacier isn\'t the purest of sources. Xavier owns the ice caves. The caves run for miles beneath the mountains, an entire city really. His mountain is above your homes and his glacier feeds your water supply and seeps into your soil. You\'ve discounted him because you think he\'s dead. Well, he\'s not. No one is going to kill him. And he hates the Carpathian people. If he could have, he would have found a way to introduce something into your systems to make your bodies reject a pregnancy.\"
    Lara ran a hand through her hair. \"I\'m not saying it isn\'t modern toxins, I\'m only saying you might want to look to your past for answers as well.\"
    She couldn\'t believe she was voicing her opinion to the circle of women. Growing up outside the ice caves, she had stayed under the radar by remaining as quiet and meek as possible. She had learned that if she wanted to remain with a family or in a camp, she had to keep from being noticed-not too easy when her hair banded with color and her eyes changed as well. The gypsies she had been with had been kind to her, but they were superstitious and her strange appearance along with her psychic abilities often made her unwelcome.
    \"Don\'t be uncomfortable,\" Francesca encouraged. \"We need as many new ideas as possible.\"
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    \"Well, Xavier isn\'t just a possibility as far as I\'m concerned, he\'s done something to cause this. He might be spreading toxins to the land, and the water, but I would bet my life that he introduced something to Carpathian women that cause them to reject their children.\"
    \"We checked the women thoroughly,\" Francesca said. \"And not everyone has the problem.\"
    \"Let\'s get this started again,\" Syndil said. \"Raven and