Zendara

Jess is on the edge of womanhood, though she has little sense of what that change will mean for her. Strange emotions unsettle her during the day and follow her into sleep. Her growing attachment to Gedeaddon leaves her puzzled, and she tells herself it hardly matters, since he would never see her in that light and no man would either. Believing herself plain, she keeps her heart closed to him.

Gedeaddon's feelings for Jess are obvious to everyone around them, yet he cannot picture himself as someone good enough for her. He is also a stubborn man, and he has resigned himself to the idea that once Jess finds a partner of her own, his life will lose all purpose.

As the travelers press on, Jess receives the thing she wants most, though the price of it remains to be seen. The arrival of a stranger stirs up desires that had lain dormant, and the question becomes whom those desires truly belong to.