There was nothing for me to do other than comfort her in her moment of desperate need. Closing my eyes, I willed a calm to ease her sore body and fractured mind. For a girl so young, she’d been through too much.
Settling myself to stay till the end, I emptied my thoughts, allowing the swirl of gold to expand in my mind. It was always there, the gold my father had described as a thread of magic weaving in my veins, but it was only when I called it to the surface of my thoughts I could feel its full intensity.
I imagined it weaving through my body, pounding and mixing with my blood until I was only gold.
My hand warmed against Arethia’s belly, much like it had over Agnese’s all those weeks ago when I hadn’t known what I contained within me. That day had been the start of everything.
It would be so lovely for Arethia to hold a babe in her slender arms, she wished it so much. An overwhelming sense of sadness filled my chest and a tear slipped down my cheek, swiftly followed by another.
My hand heated and the gem at my throat vibrated. Under my touch Arethia’s belly hardened. This was it, the final contraction before the small unformed babe would be passed. I waited for Arethia’s cry and the contraction of her slender frame, but it never came.
Opening my eyes, I blinked at the room. A pale light filled the dim space, as if the sun were streaming through an open window. “Arethia? How do you feel? I’ll help you clean up.”
Raising onto elbows, she stared directly in my face. “My baby is still there.”
“It can’t be, Arethia. It's passing. I’m sorry you’ve gone through this again, but there will be more times, I can assure you.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s there, I can feel it.”
I frowned. I didn’t know much about pregnancy, but I knew the quickening didn’t happen for a long while. “It’s just the cramps,” I explained.
She shook her head, her face splitting into a smile, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. “No. Feel.” She grabbed my hand and placed it onto the gentle curve of her tummy. Sure enough, a roll from under its surface pressed into my palm. “It’s a miracle from the gods. Whatever you promised them, I will pay. I swear on my life, we will pay whatever the price was to have this child.”
I shook my head, trying to reassure her. “Arethia, I didn’t ask the gods; it seemed too late.”
Her eyes widened. “Then it was you.”
I shook my head and smiled, patting her belly with gentle fingers. “Maybe it’s the baby itself? Maybe he will grow to be our greatest warrior yet.”
She smiled through her delirious tears. “Maybe.” But I knew she didn’t agree with me. She thought it was me, and truthfully, I no longer knew what was me and what wasn’t.
Had I stopped Arethia from losing her baby, or had I just been there at the right time?
“Can you keep this between us?” I asked.
A flicker of confusion creased her brow, but she nodded. “Anything, My Baduri.”
I smiled and stood from my spot on the edge of the mattress. “I’m just Mae.”
She nodded her agreement and settled back on the bed, her face glowing. But I could see in the depth of her eyes she no longer thought I was 'just Mae'.
So, who the hell was I?
I avoided the curious glances of the villagers who were all stood waiting for the bad news of Arethia’s fate and slipped around the edge of their hut. Within me it was as though a torrid storm whirled a path of destruction. I wanted to run. I wanted to stay. Seemed I didn’t know what I wanted.
A crack of a twig pulled me from my tortured thoughts. Tristram was stood a little way off. His facial expression mirrored the way I twisted and turned on the inside. I wanted him to come forth to speak with me, but he knew I’d cut myself off from him. He wasn’t brave enough to come ask why, and I resented the fact he wouldn’t fight to speak.
He nodded once, stiff and proud, and I returned the motion. Then I walked away with my head held high and my heart crashing in my chest.
“Hey, Sister?”
I turned at the sound of Alana and made room for her on the log bridge. One of our favourite spots as children, we’d had wild afternoons in the sunshine daring one another to walk across the fast current of the river along the fallen log. Now I was sat here, and the echoed giggles of those children were lost to the time of another life. “Hello.” I smiled up at her.
“Deacon is declaring you a miracle worker.” She blinked at me through her long golden eyelashes. Pale and creamy, her skin bore no mark from the passing summer days, not like my own which was blemished with splatters of freckles.
“I’m not a miracle worker.” I assured her. “It could have been anything causing the bleed, maybe she was never going to lose the baby at all.” I shrugged. “How am I supposed to know what will be?”
Alana watched me carefully and her fingers gripped mine. “But you do know, don’t you, Mae?” She sighed, and a flicker of frustration crossed her face. “Couldn’t you just close your eyes and discover what the future holds for us?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not a seeing lake, Alana, merely a person.”
“Father thinks you are far more than any person.”
I grunted. “Father has much more time for me these days, too much if you ask me.”
“But isn’t he helping?”
I considered this for a brief pause. “Maybe. It’s hard to tell. He wants to know everything I know.”
“What do you know?”
Obviously, Alana, bright flame as she was,
