A moment later the babe coughed, and I quickly turned him over, inserting my finger in his mouth and pulling out the black gunk I found in there. When I flipped him upright again, he let out a weak cry, opening and closing his mouth in an angry frown.
I whirled around to look at Mother Narr, tears pricking my eyes. “Your grandson,” I said, handing her the boy. She quickly wrapped him in a swaddling cloth, only pressing my hand tightly for a moment in gratitude.
I blinked the tears of relief away, and my exhaustion hit me all at once. My stomach growled, but all I could think of at the moment was my bed. Already sleep deprived from my visit to the tower last night, this morning’s excitement had me dead on my feet.
“Young master Elkev! I know you’re out there!”
I jumped. My eyes, which had been ready to close on their own, shot open. Voren ducked in through the open window, looking sheepish.
“Yes, Mother Narr?”
“Be so kind as to escort Mistress Vasalt to her home,” Mother Narr said.
“No, there’s no need—” I broke off as a huge yawn assailed me.
“She needs rest after all this excitement,” Mother Narr clucked her tongue. “Make sure she gets home, andlet her rest. Don’t keep her standing on the door step while you hang about talking to the poor thing.”
Voren flushed. The mayor’s son had never been spoken to that way, but Mother Narr didn’t seem bothered by his visible anger.
“I’ll send Riana over in the evening with your supper, Seranni,” Mother Narr said, and I nodded in gratitude. That was one offer I wasn’t too proud to accept. I hated cooking. Anything that helped me get out of making meals was a welcome relief.
With a few final instructions to keep the babe clean and dry, I left the Narrs’ house. Things had worked out for the best, despite how dire the situation had gotten. I was proud of myself. None of the male healers on the guild would have known what to do.
As men, they thought that the birthing of children was ‘women’s business’, and not something that required a healer. “A woman’s body knows what to do,” was their refrain. They didn’t even think to offer a laboring woman pain relief, saying that the natural way was the best!
Animals.
As we plodded along, Voren broke the silence. “You did great back there, Seranni.”
I smiled tiredly. “Thank you, Voren.”
“I never realized how…unusual your methods were, though.”
I held my breath. Surely Voren didn’t mean—he hadn’tseenanything, he was outside the house, he couldn’t have seen my magic—
I looked up at him and saw him looking back at me, smug and sure of himself. Dammit, heknew.
What would he do with the knowledge?
Luckily, we were at my house before I had to find out.
“Thank you for escorting me home,” I said quickly, stepping through my threshold. “I really need to rest now.”
Voren nodded, still looking like the cat that had caught the canary. Or a man with a secret.
Closing the door on his grinning face, I moved to the bedroom in a daze. Voren knew. Or at least he suspected.
I had to find a way to keep him quiet.
Worse, I suspected I knew what the price of his silence would be.
Sighing, I toed off my boots, and changed out of my clothes that had been splashed in birthing fluids and blood. Finally, the siren call of my bed proved too strong to resist, and I fell into a restless slumber.
Chapter 3: Kael
“You’re back,” I said blankly, looking at the woman standing before me. I cleared my throat, as if my heart hadn’t just jolted at the sight of her standing in my doorway.
Seranni was wrapped in her cloak, the deep green fabric dusted with snow. She looked smaller in the dim light of the moon filtering through the high windows, her face pale but determined.
