from HarperCollins Publishers Canada:
The Healing Wars, Book 1: The Shifter
by Janice Hardy
Fifteen-year-old Nya is an orphan struggling for survival in a city crippled by war. She is also a Taker — with her touch, she can heal injuries, pulling pain from another person into her own body. But unlike her sister Tali and the other Takers who become Healers’ League apprentices, Nya’s skill is flawed: She can’t push that pain into pynvium, the enchanted metal used to store it. All she can do is shift it from person to person, a dangerous skill that she must keep hidden from forces occupying her city. If discovered, she could be used as a human weapon against her own people.
Rumours of another war make Nya’s life harder, forcing her to take desperate risks just to find work and food. She pushes her luck too far and exposes her secret to a pain merchant eager to use her shifting ability for his own sinister purposes. At first Nya refuses, but when Tali and other League Healers mysteriously disappear, she’s faced with some difficult choices. As her father used to say, principles are a bargain at any price, but how many will Nya have to sell to get Tali back alive?
A longtime fantasy reader, Janice Hardy always wondered about the darker side of healing. She tapped into her own dark side to create a world where healing was dangerous and those with the best intentions often made the worst choices. She lives in Georgia with her husband, four cats, and one nervous fresh-water eel.