The sun had yet to crest the horizon as I emerged like a phantom into the predawn stillness; nary a bird stirred in its bough for here lay the spectral silence of limbo that covered the shadowy landscape. 'Twould tarry no longer than it took for dawn to ascend its pulpit and spreads wakefulness across the sleepy parish.

I had preceded the others and listened intently as they too crept from Niflheim's smokey depths. I closed my eyes, relieved to feel the fragrant breeze as it brushed crisply across my sodden brow. The entrance to the subterranean tunnel that connected our underworld to the outside lay amidst the crumbling ruins of an old well shaft.

I had scaled twenty feet of ancient rock to reach the forest floor, and should any daring and unwelcome fool think to venture below... they would find naught but their deaths at the bottom of the jagged floor of the shaft for there was no ladder, nor any steps to place a foot or hand, by which to conduct a body's safe descent.

The entrance to our netherworld was a harrowing journey. The impression was fractured unexpectedly by a strident scream that fractured the peace.

Aria!

I felt my lifeblood drain from my face as my heart twisted and dropped into my gut. Had I not possessed an unearthly ear, I would not have heard her agony as it reached desperately toward me across the impossible range that separated us still.

I had been sprinting through the underground ere I reached the surface, but now I moved as though a veritable blur through the gloomy half-light, heedless of my preternatural speed and whom might be near enough to notice. I heard my father hissing for me to ease my pace, but I was beyond his reasoning and urged my legs to further reckless speeds.

From the corner of my eye, as I moved between the shadows like an invisible wraith, I noticed one of the castle sentinels peering from the guard tower before he cast a weary eye to the east, as if coaxing the sun from its bed so that he might be relieved of his watch. He did not notice as I flew through the gatehouse like a winged demon; neither of his eyes had had the chance to blink ere I disappeared again from view, but I knew he would soon fix his tired gaze westward again for his eccentric master would be arriving anon.

Had the gate not been already opened to me, in readiness of Godwin's return, I might have scaled the very ramparts and flung myself down into the bailey. It was certainly an ability I was possessed withal, my father's wrath be damned! Fortunately, it had not come to that. I wrenched the keeps doors open and leaped up the stairs to my chamber, from whence Aria's cries had poured forth, instead of ascending the curtain walls as I was wont to do.

The physician had prescribed that Aria be removed from our solar to a laying-in chamber, a dark and dreary room disconnected from all natural light, whereby her body would ready itself for childbirth. However, Aria had refused passionately; the thought of laying ensconced in that gloomy, little chamber for the remainder of her pregnancy, tapestried windows blotting the sunlight from her dungeon, had repelled her severely and I had readily overruled the doctor's orders.

Between hearing her first scream and finally attaining the level whither I was bound, she had purged her lungs more times than I had thought to count and I was by this stage ashen. I burst through the door, nearly knocking the obstruction from its hinges, and made my way immediately to Aria's side, ignoring the yelps of surprise that issued from the chamber's lesser occupants. I did not calm until my hands had sought her out, till my fingers had consoled themselves against her heated flesh, and I was finally able to behold the rose-tinged flesh that bespoke of her salubrious state.

Having assured myself that she was whole and hale, if in somewhat of a delirium, I whipped my head around and, with unholy eyes, impaled the three women — one of whom was my mother — that beheld me with gaping mouths, my audacity having stupefied them utterly. I had, in my benumbed frenzy, heard their enraged shrieks, but had neither cared nor answered them in my fell haste to be near Aria.

"My lady," one of them bleated in scandalized affront, "he cannot be here!" She was the elder of the two unknown women and pinned me now with beady eyes, although her question had been directed to my mother.

"Why is she bleeding?" I raged, my voice hoarse with worry. I could see no blood for my wife was wrapped within the bed linen, but I tasted the coppery scent of it as it permeated the stifling chamber. There was a lot of it. Too much blood, surely.

I noticed the same beldame, evidently the midwife, crossing herself as if to ward off evil spirits; no doubt I was that evil shade. That I should sense Aria's blood flow, when there was no visible evidence to the fact, was an unholy qualification which urged my mother into immediate action. She advanced on me with savage intensity and bent her furious mouth close to my ear, where I had deposited my large bulk beside Aria's writhing frame.

"Lucian! Begone! This is now a birthing chamber and-"

"The devil you say!" I turned my back on my mother to study my wife's pallid face.

Aria fixed her glazed eyes to mine and wailed pitifully as she clutched at my soiled sleeves. There seemed to be a sort of feverish cramp quickening visibly the while I searched her face. She sucked in a painful breath through clenched teeth and, as her pain reached its zenith, she opened her mouth in a voiceless, shuddering scream ere she collapsed against the pillows in exhausted quiescence, her brow soaked with arduous discomfort.

"She's in labor you dolt!" My mother grabbed my arm and tried to pull me from the bed, but I held firm. "Away, Lucian!" She seethed quietly

"I will not!"

"You will! I will not have you-"

"This is my wife, and my chamber! I am master here!"

My mother gasped at the vehemency in my snarling tone for I had never spoken to her thus, with a violent edge, and she knew not how else to continue her argument without inciting me further.

"Please, Mother," Aria spoke quietly. Her entreaty, voiced tiredly during the respite between her waves of pain, had cost her a great effort which infuriated me all the more.

"As you will," my mother acceded with a long-suffering sigh.

Men were never admitted into the birthing chamber for 'twas where they, all women, exercised their mystical female rights and it was not a man's place, or so said every self-respecting male physician heretofore. To be privy to that most esoteric of functions, the bewildering inner workings of the female body, seemed a deterring prospect to most husbands; but not I.

"This is highly improper!"

"Be still, Alice. He stays." Mother eyed me warily as she hushed the midwife.

I met her gaze with an unveiled threat and she frowned uncertainly. I knew not what my mother saw there, but I had sensed a growing dominance within myself and it had been steadily dilating since...

My God! I had been fighting this dawning, insidious ascendancy since first seeing Aria in the hall that night she arrived to stand by the fire, like a bedraggled little orphan. I had watched her then with an omnipotent eye in the face of an apex predator; some strange piece of my being had slotted into place when first I beheld her and I wondered now what that could possibly mean.

Mayhap Mother too beheld the prepotence I was unable to stifle. I had repressed it at every turn, but was now of a mind to release it — this straining preeminence of the beast within — and allow it free reign!

Women died in childbirth every day and if this was the last time I would hold Aria... then not even the force of a thousand wild, northern tempests could rip me from her side! This I did not voice for 'twas a grim omen indeed to have such thoughts present — giving them the power to fester the mind. Hence, I would not give the hideous thing life and, thereby, allow its supremacy. I cast it from my mind directly with an angry shake of my head.

"It is meet that I should be here, Mother," I bit out impatiently.

"Then calm the flames from your eyes, for Heaven's sake, ere you frighten the women," said she. Her eyes were diminished to angry slits as she whispered her ire.

I did as she bade me, if narrowing my eyes at the midwife and her apprentice could be considered a son's obedience. They ignored me, or tried to, as they bathed Aria and helped her into a squatting position atop the birthing stool, a grim-looking wooden chair that was oddly shaped like a horseshoe. It was here, presumably, that she could then begin pushing the first of our children from her womb.

Three pairs of feminine eyes darted occasionally to me. Their furtive glances betrayed their discomfiture in my presence, but for my part, I was calm enough that Anne relaxed her shoulders finally, releasing the tension that she had held there from the moment I first burst into their midsts.

Alice, the midwife, had a scowling and ascetic little face like one of the kenneled alaunts. I had almost expected a bark to issue from her miserable moue when I had refused the order to leave. The dame worked nimbly despite her gnarled hands and painful-looking hunch. She was dressed severely in a dark woolen habit, redolent of a prioress' garb, and her hair was completely covered in a white wimple, but it nevertheless allowed a few unruly, grey hairs to escape its confines.

She anointed my wife's belly with rose oil and gently began rubbing Aria's taut skin with long strokes, the better to bring her to parturition, as her harrowing breaths intensified. I was given to understand that it was not unheard of for a woman to suffer her throes from one sunrise to the next, but Aria had only just begun hers; and the old woman no doubt thought there was time enough before the birthing.

"Easy, my lady," said Alice in soothing tones, her hands passing over the unmistakable bumps in Aria's protuberant flesh — too many to belong to just one child. "The babes will come anon."

"Ay, and sooner than you think." Every eye swiveled towards me.

Alice in particular scowled dubiously at me for, in sooth, what could I possibly know about her occupation; she was indubitably omniscient in all subjects regarding childbirth and I ... was not. Yet she could not hear what I could. One child's heartbeat had begun to accelerate and I took that to mean it was preparing itself...

I shot her a lethal smile when her gaze once more flickered briefly to mine, partly fearful and skeptical, but her mouth pulled down into a dour pout as she forthwith strove to ignore me. "Sarah, bring the young lady that amulet!" Alice directed her young novice and the shy, little thing complied immediately.

When the stone was placed in Aria's tight fist, the girl, Sarah, then untied my wife's long hair and removed the pins so that it lay heavily down the length of her naked back. Next the apprentice coaxed Aria to drink a draft of sweet water and vinegar ere she was instructed to fetch ingredients for Alice. They turned out to be naught more than a vile of dried blood and a bird's preserved foot.

"What is that?" I asked, frowning.

My mother explained that the midwife was superstitious and preferred to have the aid of her various talismans. Apparently, or so she explained, the dried blood and foot was that of a crane and the red gemstone in Aria's clenched fist was a flinty piece of jasper. All presumably offered powerful child-birthing assistance, but I perceived it all as naught but useless magick.

"She came to me most highly recommended and I have thus far ascertained for myself that she is indeed experienced, be easy, Lucian." I felt the corner of my lip pull up into a snarl.

I had never liked the stench of magick. Though there was naught natural about myself — by any rational standard, I was an aberration — I distrusted witches above anyone. My own bloodline was purportedly the product of a witch's ichor, but that was legend. It galled me now that this withered virago would be attending my wife.

"Is she a midwife or ... a sorceress?" I scoffed loudly, casting a derisive eye over her amulet and ointments. Having already determined that she was the latter, I shrugged unapologetically as all four women eyed me laconically. "Take care that I not hear you chant your unclean words into her ear, old woman," I warned.

"Lucian!" This from Aria, who gritted her words out ere she resumed her panting. "If I were not now otherwise engaged..." more panting ensued, "I swear I should have boxed your ears by now!"

My lip quirked at that. Glad was I that she seemed feisty, in contempt of the debilitating pain that surely ripped though her abdomen, but my humor was quickly wiped from my face. No sooner had she spoken than she howled her suffering, crouched as she was in the throes of a powerful affliction.

The midwife, despite my warnings, began to chant and whisper in earnest, invoking the name of Saint Margaret: the patron saint of childbirth. Forgetting my previous threat, my own prayers silently joined that of the woman's as I besought the old gods, Frigg in particular, to watch over my young family. To that end, I hoped fervently that my children would hasten their arrival!

The midwife moistened her hands with flaxseed oil and then began prodding gently twixt Aria's bared thighs, a bowl of steaming water, salves, instruments and clean linen towels lay at the ready in preparation of the first infant's imminent emergence.

I paced and growled, like an ill-tempered ogre, each time a painful cry erupted from Aria's breast, till finally my mother could take no more and banished me forthwith to the fireplace. There I stayed, waiting obediently as the room grew so stagnant with superfluous warmth that I removed my cote and tunic, and sat in naught but an undershirt.

Cursorily, I marked that the fire had been recently stoked, the floors freshly swept and that a cast-iron kettle of boiling water now hung from a hook over the fire, the steam curling hypnotically and disappearing up the flue where it joined the smoke and soot.

All this a saw, but noticed not, as I stared into the orange flames and rising cinders, gripping a fistful of hair in each of my hands while my face lay blanched within my palms.

The first hearty squall of an infant rent the muggy chamber and I whirled around, my eyebrows disappearing into my hairline. I marched across the room without further ado.





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