Broken World Book Four - The Staff of Law (10 page)

Sheera
returned to help her get comfortable, clucking like a mother hen as
she arranged the cushions and blotted sweat from Talsy’s brow. The
pains came faster now, and Talsy’s fear increased. She gripped
Sheera’s arm and pulled her closer.

“
Where’s the midwife?”

“
Coming, child. She’s on her way.”

Talsy gasped
and clenched her teeth. “Is it normally so painful?”

“
Yes, always.”

“
Chanter said I would die.”

Sheera clicked
her tongue. “Now, now, there’s no reason to worry, dear, you’re
bang on time. Nine moons exactly, if you got your dates right.”

Talsy forced a
rictus of a smile. “I told him, didn’t I?”

“
You did, and you were right.”

“
Where is he?” she demanded. “He should be here, it’s his
child!”

“
He went away for a while, you know that.”

“
He must come back!”

Sheera shook
her head. “This is woman’s work, and not for men to witness.”

Talsy arched
her back as a pain shot through her, and a gush of fluid burst from
her. Sheera busied herself replacing the wet sheets while Talsy
writhed and moaned. The plump, merry-faced midwife arrived, panting
a little from the long climb up the stairs. She examined Talsy and
nodded with satisfaction, then settled in a chair by the fire and
lighted a pipe.

Talsy shot her
an angry glance. “What the hell are you doing? Help me!”

The motherly
midwife chuckled and spoke in a thick brogue. “Nothin’ I can do
yet, lass, ‘tis your job to push the bairn out, not mine. When it
starts to birth, I’ll help ye. You just get to pushin’.”

Talsy gritted
her teeth and growled, but another pain robbed her of breath with
which to argue. Sheera soothed her and wiped her brow with a damp
cloth, murmuring words of encouragement. Talsy cursed and
groaned.

“
I’m not doing this again,” she gritted. “No one told me it
would hurt like this.”

“
What did ye think,” the midwife chortled, “it’d just pop
out?”

“
Something like that.”

“
They say the pain of birth would kill a man,” the midwife
confided encouragingly.

“
Tisha, that’s not a thing to tell her now,” Sheera
remonstrated.

The midwife
shrugged and puffed her pipe. “Tis true.”

Although Talsy
did not believe the pains could get any worse, they did, growing in
intensity and duration until she seemed to spend hours arched in
spasms of mind-bending agony. She strived not to scream, and bit
her lip until it bled. Sheera urged her to vent her pain, and
eventually she could not help herself. Her screams echoed through
the castle, and the first brought Kieran galloping in, ashen-faced.
The midwife flew at him and beat him from the room with swings of
her wooden basin, then locked the door in the face of his bellows
of concern. He pounded on the door until Sheera was forced to go
out and reassure him.

The daylight
dwindled as the sun sank behind the mountains, and still Talsy
writhed in agony. She glimpsed blood-stained sheets being whipped
away by Sheera and two other women who had come to help, one of
them Kieran’s mother, Queen Kamish. Lamps were brought and the fire
fed to keep the room warm. Sheera gave Talsy sips of water as she
sweated and strained. By the time the lamps’ oil had been refilled
twice, the midwife looked concerned. She drew Sheera aside for a
muttered discussion, shaking her head. Talsy groaned and cursed,
her throat raw and her belly aching even when spasms did not rack
it. Sheera returned to the bed, her eyes shadowed with anxiety.

“
Talsy, I think you should call Chanter.”

“
Why, what is it?”

“
Tisha says it’s been too long, and no progress has been
made.”

“
No progress?” Talsy gasped. “After all that? He should be
here! Maybe he’s been locked outside with Kieran?”

Sheera looked
doubtful, but rose and slipped out into the corridor.

Kieran
straightened from his dejected pose on a chair by the door, his
hair on end from running anxious hands through it. He gazed at
Sheera with hopeful eyes.

“
Is she all right? Is it over?”

A hoarse
scream from within answered him, and Sheera closed the door. “Do
you know where Chanter is?”

Kieran glanced
around, and the Mujar stepped into the light of a lamp on the
wall.

“
He’s been here for hours,” Kieran said, “but he didn’t want to
intrude. I told him men aren’t allowed inside. What’s
wrong?”

Sheera shook
her head. “She’s having trouble. We thought maybe Chanter could
help.”

The Prince
shot Chanter a haggard look. “It’s time.”

The Mujar
nodded. “Now it’s time.”

“
Time?” Sheera looked confused. “Time for what?”

“
Time to put an end to this,” Kieran said, starting to brush
past the old woman.

Sheera grabbed
his arm. “What are you going to do?”

“
Save her.” He pushed her aside and entered the room. Her eyes
widened when she noticed the sword at his side, which he had not
worn for months. The stink of blood and sweat hung heavy in the
air, and startled women looked up from their tasks.

“
Out,” he snapped, jerking a thumb at the door.

They gabbled
in protest, and Kieran grabbed the nearest, his mother, and hustled
her towards the door.

“
What are you doing?” the Queen demanded with a
frown.

“
Do you want her to die?” Kieran demanded.

“
Of course not!”

“
Then leave us alone.”

The Queen
retreated from his frown, and the second woman followed, but the
midwife had to be ejected forcibly, and her voluble insults
continued long after two men had dragged away her down the stairs.
Kieran found Chanter in the corridor and pulled the reluctant Mujar
into the room. Chanter’s eyes flinched from Talsy’s haggard face as
he came to stand beside the bed.

“
So much pain,” he whispered, staring down at her.

She groped for
his hand and clung to it. “Don’t let me die. You promised.”

“
I won’t,” he murmured. “I’ll save you.”

“
And the baby?”

“
If we can, we’ll save it too.”

Her eyes grew
wild. “You must save him!”

“
We’ll try.” Chanter laid a hand on her brow. “Your body has
decided that it’s time for his birth, but he does not wish to be
born yet. We have to take him out now, or you’ll both
perish.”

She subsided,
her expression filling with anguish. “I want my son.”

He nodded. “I
know. Sleep now. When you wake, he’ll be here.”

Talsy’s eyes
closed as his command swept her away into a dark ocean of slumber.
Chanter turned to Kieran, who stood at the foot of the bed, bile
stinging his throat.

He shot the
Mujar a furtive look. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

“
You must; you promised.”

Kieran shook
his head. “You do it. You can use the sword as well as I.”

“
I cannot. If I cut out the child and it dies, I will have
killed it, and you know I can’t do that.”

“
It wouldn’t be deliberate,” the Prince protested.

“
That doesn’t matter.”

“
You and your damn scruples.” His hand dropped to the sword
hilt. “I love her, yet I must be the one to gut her.”

“
To save her.”

Kieran’s mouth
twisted. “Yeah, right. A pity all this couldn’t have been
avoided.”

“
Indeed.” Chanter remained expressionless, and his lack of
rebuke for the unwarranted jibe shamed the Prince, who looked
away.

Drawing the
Starsword with a slither of steel, he walked around to the side of
the bed. “I don’t know where to cut her. Maybe we should call a
doctor?”

Chanter shook
his head. “I’d say it’s fairly obvious.”

The Prince
glanced at Talsy’s peaceful face. “She won’t feel anything?”

“
Nothing,” the Mujar assured him.

Kieran lifted
the sword and laid its edge upon Talsy’s swollen belly, biting his
lip in a moment of hesitation before pressing down gently on the
blade. The sword cut flesh far easier than stone, and sliced
through her skin so swiftly that moments passed before blood welled
forth. Kieran put the blade aside and stared at the incision, then
pushed his hands into it with a grimace and groped within until he
grasped a slippery arm. He followed that to its head and gripped
it, then pulled a struggling child into the light. The baby
wriggled, almost making him drop it, and he put it on the sheet
beside its mother. The infant balled its fists and let out a wail
of outrage.

“
It’s alive,” he murmured, shooting a triumphant glance at the
Mujar, who nodded. The Prince examined the infant. “A
boy.”

“
Talsy will be pleased,” Chanter commented.

Kieran bit
back a retort and cut the cord, wrapped the child in a sheet and
stepped away. “Your turn.”

Chanter
approached the bed and scooped water from a basin beside it,
pouring it over the long gash in the girl’s belly. Placing his
hands on either side of it, he let the power of Shissar flow
through him, bringing with it the soft misty wetness of its
manifestation. The cut closed, leaving a long pink scar, and he
straightened and placed a hand on Talsy’s brow.

“
Awake, your child is here.”

Talsy gasped,
and her eyes flew open to hunt for the source of the wails. Kieran
placed the bundle in her arms. She gazed down at the tiny wrinkled
face with awe and joy, tears seeping from her eyes. Kieran joined
Chanter at the window. The Mujar gazed out at the pale streaks of
dawn that probed over the distant mountains, filling the valley
with pearly light. Kieran leant on the wall beside him and watched
Talsy counting fingers and toes.

“
She’s happy.”

“
Yes.”

“
You’re not.”

“
No.”

“
He looks pretty normal to me.”

The Mujar
shrugged. “Time will tell.”

The door
rattled under a thunderous banging, and Kieran went to open it,
admitting a flood of women led by Sheera and the irate midwife.
They crowded around Talsy to admire the wailing new-born, ask
questions and give instructions. The midwife turned on Kieran and
had her revenge by ejecting him into the corridor again. When her
glinting eyes sought the Mujar, he avoided humiliation by turning
into a raven taking wing into the pale dawn sky. Kieran went down
to the kitchen to celebrate with a mug of ale, where a throng of
male well-wishers from amongst the chosen joined him. His happiness
that Talsy was safely delivered of the half-breed child was tinged
with a dark thread of bitterness and worry, which he made a valiant
attempt to drown that day.

Chanter was
absent for Travain’s christening and when he started crawling at
one month old. It took two extra wet nurses to satisfy his hunger,
yet he hardly cried, nor did he suffer from colic. His pale blue
eyes held a depth that Talsy could not plumb, and everything around
him appeared to fascinate him. He slept little, and seemed content
to lie in his cradle staring into space when he was not being fed.
Talsy adored him, and rarely let him out of her sight, proclaiming
him to be the most perfect child in the world. Kieran watched him
grow with a mixture of doubt and fascination, waiting for the first
signs of Mujar character. Although he did not hate Mujar, he
regarded them with a deep wariness and mistrust. He had never been
able to forget the scars Dancer’s apparent callousness had
inflicted, even though Chanter had explained the reason.

Talsy regained
her slender figure, and her hair grew back glossy gold, cut short
to curl around her face. Her eating and sleeping habits returned to
normal, and she took an interest in the problems of the people in
the valley. As time passed, her sphere of interest increased, and
she worried about what was happening outside the valley again.

One afternoon,
Kieran found her in the room that housed the pieces of the staff,
staring at the fragments that lay on the sheet of crimson velvet.
She glanced around at his entrance, then gazed at the shattered
Staff of Law again, Travain gurgling on her hip.

“
We must try to restore it,” she murmured.

“
How? The fifth piece is still missing.”

She frowned.
“If the wind didn’t see it, then it didn’t fly through the air. If
it didn’t fly through the air, where must it be?”

Kieran
shrugged. “Maybe it went underground.”

“
Maybe it didn’t go anywhere.”

“
You mean it might still be there, in Tyrander’s
castle?”

“
Perhaps.”

“
Just because the winds didn’t see it doesn’t mean it didn’t
fly. The winds don’t see everything,” he said.

“
That’s true, but it’s the most likely place for it, don’t you
think? I’ve wondered if it might be there since Chanter told me.”
She shifted Travain onto her other hip. “We must search for it. We
won’t find it staying here.”

“
Don’t you think that’s what Chanter’s been doing when he’s
been away?”

“
No.” She smiled. “He’s just been running wild. He wouldn’t
bother to search for it, I never asked him to.”