They decided that, in the absence of anyone to tell them otherwise, they would eat the afterbirth if they found themselves bleeding to death, on the principle that if they were going to die anyway it could hardly do any harm.
'And otherwise,' said Yen Olass, scratching Pelaki behind the ear, 'our best friend here can have it.’
'No!' said Resbit, truly shocked. 'That's a barbarous thing so say.’
'Then I'm a barbarian,' said Yen Olass complacently.
'Well you feed the pig as you see fit,' said Resbit, 'but it's not getting part of me to eat.’
Yen Olass laughed at her dismay, then kissed Pelaki on the snout. She, for her part, had no intention of disappointing the pig.
Talking over the details of the two births Resbit had seen, the two women prepared themselves for their own deliveries. Resbit by now was five months gone; she could feel her child kicking inside her body. Her rate of weight-gain was increasing. Her breasts had enlarged, and were tender; the colour of her nipples and areola deepened. A streak of pigmentation appeared, running from her navel to her crotch; it widened to a fat, dark band. She did not know if that was normal or not.
Yen Olass, with some sixty days to go before she reached the same stage, followed these changes with interest. As an oracle, living amongst virginal women, soldiers and administrators, she had scarcely ever seen a pregnant woman, not even in the crowded streets. Yet, in Gendormargensis alone, there must have been thousands of pregnant women. Otherwise, where would all the children have come from? But they had all been hidden away somewhere… doubtless confined to their homes while their mothers and daughters performed whatever tasks demanded a venture out into the markets and thoroughfares.
The summer heat reached its blistering peak. The air became febrile with biting insects. Retreat to the lake became a necessity; they wallowed in the water for hours, and were thankful for the evenings when the bloated sun finally sank behind the hills in the west. Ringed by hills, Lake Armansis was sheltered from the sea winds which, in the south, invaded Estar, sometimes bringing cold and rain even at the height of summer.
Sometimes, as Resbit floated in the lake, Yen Olass watched Resbit's child kicking within her belly. And, as autumn drew near, that same child took to kicking her during the night, when she was curled up with Resbit.
The approach of autumn brought also the approach of the last stages of Resbit's pregnancy. That autumn, her wrists and ankles swelled. There were little room left in her body for her bladder; with its diminished capacity, she had to urinate frequently. She draped her body with loose clothing worked up from cloth and wool which had once belonged to the Galish. She experienced moments of triumph, times of anxiety and one or two moments of terror and outright horror. Yen Olass supported her without fail through all these vicissitudes.
As Resbit entered the last stages of her pregnancy, her vaginal tissues softened in preparation for the advent of her child. She found an ooze of colostrum on her nipples; her vaginal lubrication increased; membranes swelled in her nose. Heavy and swollen, she waddled down to the lake each day to swim in its steadily cooling waters. Then, toward the end, she started to feel more comfortable; she found she had more energy to spare. But Yen Olass, growing increasingly nervous about Resbit's health, insisted that she take life easy and get plenty of rest.
Then it happened.
Yen Olass was woken one cool autumn night by a piercing squeal.
'What've you done to Pelaki?' said Yen Olass, jolted out of dreams by that ear-splitting sound.
'Pelaki got clouted on the nose,' said Resbit, her voice shaky. 'Too curious, that's the trouble. Yen Olass, the pains have started.’
'All right,' said Yen Olass.
She raked over the ashes of the fires, found some hot coals and started a small blaze. Pelaki crouched in a corner, obviously frightened.
'Put the pig out,' said Resbit.
'If that's what you want,' said Yen Olass.
After a short scuffle, she muscled Pelaki out into the night, closed the door, and barred it against intruders. Then she settled down to wait with Resbit.
The shifting firelight splayed vague shadows through the room, shadows which danced and lilted as the flames leapt and sheltered. Here they were warm and safe, sheltered by strong walls; the firelight illuminated a familiar array of weapons, traps, fishing lines, blankets, furs, pots, bottles, boots, shell necklaces, and other items of utility and decoration.
In this safe and comforting place, Resbit sat with her back resting against the wall. Yen Olass bundled together some furs and slipped them behind her back to cushion it, then arranged more padding to go under her knees. There have in certain times and certain places arisen human cultures in which women were compelled to go through labour and delivery lying flat on their backs: however, such a bizarre notion never for a moment occurred to Yen Olass or Resbit, and if it had they would have noted that the birth canal points upward, whereas babies, like apples, fall downward.
Yen Olass leaned against the wall herself, and closed her eyes. The contractions at the moment were slow and widely spaced; Resbit was quietly talking about the name her lover, Elkor Alish, had wanted for any son that was ever born to him. The name was Elkordansk Talshnek Branador, which in the language of the Rovac warriors meant Elkorson Scalpslicer the Swordwielder. Yen Olass did not argue, though on previous occasions she had said – and loudly – that she thought that was a hideous name. She wondered what Resbit would do if the child was a girl.
T wonder if he often thinks of me,' said Resbit.
'Who?’
'Elkor, of course.’
'Probably,' said Yen Olass, yawning, and hoping Pelaki was not suffering too much out in the night all on his own. T wonder where he is,' said Resbit. 'Out there, of course.' 'Yes, but where?’
'Somewhere in the forest, all on his own,' said Yen Olass, meaning the pig.
'No,' said Resbit. 'He'll be in a banquet hall somewhere. Drinking up large with a thousand roistering heroes.’
Yen Olass bit her, very gently.
'That's nice,' said Resbit.
Yen Olass resisted the temptation to bite harder. This talk of Elkor Alish was making her jealous. She had no doubt – though she had never confronted Resbit with her theory – that to the Rovac warrior Resbit had been just an amusement to while away his idle moments. Yen Olass, with vast experience of soldiers and their ways, knew how they used and abused women.
'He used to tell me how he loved me,' said Resbit.
'Did he?' said Yen Olass.
'He said I had the most beautiful body he'd ever seen.’
'You do have a nice body,' said Yen Olass.
But there was a catch in her voice as she said it. She remembered the slave women who used to be brought in to entertain Lord Alagrace from time to time in his quarters in Karling Drask in Gendormargensis. Sometimes, encountering Yen Olass, one of those women would engage her in gossip which pretended to be casual, but which was in fact calculated to gouge out information about Lord Alagrace.
In this way, Yen Olass had learnt how Lord Alagrace, with his subtle and generous language, had managed to convince even these most experienced professionals that they were valued, that they were honoured, that they were, indeed, surely on the verge of becoming a permanent part of his entourage. Yen Olass remembered some of the reports which had come to her. 'He said nobody had ever done that for him before.' 'He said I made him feel young.' 'He said he would remember our night together forever
Yen Olass kissed Resbit, and hoped she would never be confronted with Elkor Alish, who, by this time, surely had some other woman with him.
'Hold my hand, Yen Olass.’
Resbit reached out, and Yen Olass took her hand. Again Yen Olass yawned. She wondered about Lord Alagrace. She presumed that he must have died in the gorge, fighting against Chonjara's soldiers; doubtless she would have heard the full story if she had not managed to escape so quickly. She wondered what Lord Alagrace had thought of as he died. Had he thought of any of those gentle women, so vulnerable to his lies? Doubtless they had told him their own lies, had counterfeited pleasure and mimicked orgasm to boost his ego, had stroked his aging body and whispered that they loved him…
