A Sword in the Sun

by Shannon Page

  “Hi.”

  Gregorio stiffened almost imperceptibly, then gave me a gracious smile. “Calendula Isadora. What a lovely party. Your coven has outdone itself.”

  “Hello, dear,” my father said, leaning to kiss my hair, but getting only a faceful of gauze for his efforts. I brushed the headpiece back a bit and smiled at him.

  “I hope I’m not interrupting anything?” I asked, trying for a look of convincing innocence.

  “Of course not,” Gregorio said. “We were just remarking on the delicious petit fours.”

  I caught Jeremy’s eye. He gazed back at me with practiced charm. “Indeed, the salmon triangles are some of the best I’ve ever had. Did you make them?”

  “No, my sisters haven’t let me help with anything. Apparently I’m pregnant, and therefore incapable of lifting a finger.”

  My father patted my arm. “You do not want to do anything to tax yourself when your time is so close. It’s good you have such caring sisters.”

  Gregorio nodded. “With younglings being so rare among us, we must protect each one very carefully.” After a nearly imperceptible pause, he added, “As well as their mothers.”

  Ugh. Well, at least I could cross this social nicety off my list now. Surely I’d been the polite co-hostess long enough now. “I’m so happy to see you all, and glad you’re having fun.”

  Jeremy said, “I am happy to see you too. Shall we go sit somewhere?”

  “Yes, please.” I glanced around the extremely crowded room. Sitting down sounded great. Where had all the chairs gone, anyway?

  He gave me his brilliant smile and reached for my hand. “Somewhere…more quiet, perhaps?”

  My father gave us an indulgent, affectionate smile, as Gregorio chuckled. “Yes, you two run along. We are fine here.”

  “Out back?” Jeremy asked. “I think the porch is less crowded.”

  I started to answer, then froze as Rosemary gave a violent shift. An entirely novel pain sprang to life inside me. I gasped, clutching my stomach.

  Another pain, harder than the first, as my water broke and my baby decided that now, now, she was ready to come into this world.

  I wailed, sinking to the floor.

  The room was suddenly a flurry of activity. Jeremy bent down over me, looking shocked. “What’s wrong?”

  “I…” I started to say, then paused, catching my breath. “No—there was…it’s stopped.” I looked at the floor around me. “I made a mess.”

  He stared at the floor, then at me. “Oh…my. The baby is coming…now?”

  “Yes,” I gasped. “Oh Blessed Mother. Now!”

  “I’ve got this,” he said, motioning to the floor, making the water disappear. “Let’s get you upstairs.”

  Everyone in the world was standing over me. My father looked pale, Gregorio looked stern. “The clinic,” Gregorio said.

  I started to protest, but my father cut in. “No time—Jeremiah is correct, we will take her upstairs.” He bent down to take my other arm and help lift me up.

  “Where’s Mom?” I asked.

  “The back way is less crowded,” Jeremy said to my dad, glancing into the packed kitchen, ignoring my question.

  Other witches, and a few warlocks, were noticing and coming to the dining room. “Should we call a healer?” someone asked.

  “Not just yet,” my father said.

  “Sebastian’s here,” I put in. “Somewhere.”

  My dad and Jeremy led me through a seldom-used passageway, once a servants’ hall. The sharp pain had ceased, but now I felt a downward pressure building. It was only a matter of time before the contractions would start up in earnest.

  We moved up the back stairs, passing a startled couple clinched in an amorous embrace. Elnor was already in my room, pacing the floorboards, meowing. My father and Jeremy laid me on my bed.

  “Find my mom, and Sebastian,” I murmured, as the pressure increased a notch. “And Leonora.”

  “I’m right here,” my coven mother said from the doorway. “Everyone out, who doesn’t belong. Out!” The room had filled with curious onlookers, offering help or just gawking. They all fled the room at Leonora’s command, leaving only my father and Jeremy. Leonora bent over me.

  “Get this costume off her,” she said. “I can’t see anything.”

  My father nodded, and the magical fabric fell away, leaving me suddenly naked, and very grateful that everyone had been evicted. Then a new force of pain swept away all modesty. “Ohhhhhhhh!” I gasped, the breath turning into a scream at the end.

  “That’s it, that’s a good girl,” Leonora crooned, wiping my forehead with a soft cloth. “Ease up a little here—that’s right.” She placed pillows behind me, propping me up in the bed, when all I wanted to do was lie down and curl up around my agonized mid-section. “Gravity will help us.”

  The contraction lasted about a hundred and fifty years—and then it was gone. Leonora, sitting on the edge of my bed, gave me an unworried smile. How could she look so relaxed? Hadn’t I just almost died? Stunned, I looked around the room. Jeremy was on the other side of the bed, still close. He looked serious, and a bit frightened, but I saw the light of happiness in his eyes. He believed his first daughter was about to be born. I gave him a weak smile. My father stood just inside the doorway, seemingly not sure if he should be there.

  There was a soft knock; my dad opened the door to let Sebastian in. The young warlock looked pale but excited. “How can I help?”

  “Just attend, for now,” Leonora said. “Mostly, this is Calendula’s work.”

  “I will find Belladonna Isis,” my dad said.

  Then another contraction hit, and my mind fled. All the universe was the pain, the tearing, rending, blinding pain. I howled and thrashed about. When my rational mind began to return, my first thought was, Never again, I will NEVER again do this to myself…

  “You’re doing great,” Leonora said, again wiping away sweat, from my face and arms and chest now. She spread my legs further and examined me. “Dilating wonderfully! Just hang in there, you’re doing so well.”

  “Why does it hurt so much!” I gasped. “Can’t you do something?”

  “Yes, but not yet,” she said. “You need to breathe with me here—remember our lessons. Help us out—we need you alert. Pain potion now will just make it harder for you to focus.”

  “Oh, Blessed Mother,” I moaned. Yes, she had told me this before, and it did make sense. Leonora had done this many times before. Between contractions, I felt all right. Except for the pressure, and for dreading the next one…

  Soon they came fast and hard. I lost count. It happened twenty times, or twenty thousand. During them, Leonora’s voice rose. She commanded me to breathe, breathe with her, stay up, stay with her, push, hold, relax…I tried to follow her commands, but I felt swept away by the force of the pain, astonished with it, helpless in its face, in its teeth. Between contractions, she mopped me up, Jeremy stroked my hair, Sebastian tried to make me laugh, and they all murmured encouragement.

  Time came unhinged. The pains ebbed and flowed. I was exhausted. I could hear the party downstairs. Surely the guests knew what was happening, but as they’d all been evicted from the room, apparently they decided to keep celebrating. I became less and less able to respond to Leonora’s coaxing. I howled with pain. I wailed for relief.

  Finally, she and Jeremy had a whispered conversation. She frowned as he rose from the bed and stepped away. “What…where?” I managed.

  “I will be right back, my dear,” he whispered.

  “Where is Mom?” I muttered. She should be here; why wasn’t she? Dad had never come back.

  “I am here, Calendula,” said Leonora.

  “No—my birth mother, Belladonna! Where is she?”

  “I’m sure she’ll be along,” Sebastian said.

  Then Jeremy was beside me again, holding a glass of amber liquid. He leaned down and brought it to my lips. “Here, for the pain,” Leonora said as he did. “We’re close eno
ugh now.”

  I drank, gratefully. The taste was foul, but the pain eased, and I left my mind and body, just enough. Now I floated over the scene, still somewhat aware, but blissfully vacant as well. I could no longer speak or react, and I didn’t care. It was out of my hands.

  More time passed. I don’t know how much. My mind drifted. My body labored. My mouth screamed and hollered. Leonora, Jeremy, and Sebastian attended. My mother…didn’t appear.

  And then, something shifted. Rosemary broke free, slipping from my body into Leonora’s waiting arms. So easily, after all that. Why not earlier? Why so long?

  Leonora held my daughter, looking her over. She frowned, looking worn and confused. What was she seeing? I tried to reach out to take my baby, but my arms would not obey. My mouth would not open to speak. “She appears healthy, and…” Leonora said at last. There was something off in her voice. Doubt. Fear? Did she see, did she know? She knew. She saw the human blood; I didn’t know how, but she did.

  But of course she would. Leonora didn’t miss much.

  My coven mother reached down and severed the umbilical cord, using magic rather than a blade. I didn’t feel anything physically, of course—the cord has no nerves—but I sensed the magical separation between me and my daughter. We were now distinct people. Distinct witches.

  “Here,” Leonora said, but I couldn’t see what she was doing, who she was handing the cord to. Probably Sebastian. I knew it would be preserved, just as our menstrual blood was.

  Rose gave a tiny sigh, taking her first real breath out here in the world. My heart twanged in response. My baby! Again I tried to move my arms, to take her, to hold her.

  Leonora leaned down and set the baby into my arms, giving me an exhausted smile. I was weak as a kitten; she held Rosemary with my arms, helping me hold my daughter. Rose lay on my chest, breathing, blinking. “Will she nurse?” I said, barely able to raise my voice above a whisper.

  “Not yet. Just hold her. Let her know you,” Leonora murmured.

  Then my coven mother looked up, and her eyes met Jeremy’s. Something passed between them, there and gone in a moment. “My father asked—” he started, but she interrupted him.

  “I know,” she said, and her stern voice brooked no argument. “But whatever his urgency may be, it can wait until a witchlet has bonded with her mother.”

  Jeremy nodded, seemingly abashed, though he wouldn’t meet my eye.

  Slowly, a tiny bit of strength came back to me. My arms found their purpose and cradled my baby. Leonora loosened her own supportive hold, gently, slowly, making sure I had Rosemary before she let go entirely. I smiled up at her. “Thank you.” My voice was hoarse, but at least I had voice. I leaned my head down a fraction, smelling the top of Rose’s head, suddenly understanding why people did that. She was clean and dry—had some magic been done to make her so? This wasn’t what I’d expected. Maybe Leonora had wiped her off when I’d been confused with the pain potion? Probably I just hadn’t noticed.

  Mostly I just held her. I wasn’t in any pain, not anymore. Just bliss. And exhaustion.

  I know I didn’t sleep, but my universe shrank for a while, until it contained only me and my baby. I held her. She lay against me, alive and breathing calmly. I knew she had gone through at least as much of an ordeal as I had…but she seemed content, and at ease.

  I slowly began to wonder about our witchkind bond. Babes in the womb often exchange rudimentary communications with their mothers. Not always, but I knew it was more common than not. Rosemary never had. Would she now?

  I opened my eyes and focused again on Leonora. She had lowered herself into the small chair in my room, obscuring it entirely. Sebastian watched us both, wide-eyed, awed. Jeremy still stood by the door, waiting for…something. Oh right. Gregorio wanted to see the babe.

  Not if I could help it.

  “Mother,” I asked Leonora. “Should she be talking to me?”

  My coven mother smiled. She knew what I meant—that I wasn’t asking if a newborn was going to open her mouth and speak words. “Most likely, in time. Is she not?”

  “Not yet.”

  “You cannot sense anything? Not hunger, or gratitude, or discomfort of any kind?”

  I thought about it. “I think she’s happy. Relaxed.”

  “Then that is good.” She glanced back at Jeremy, behind her. “The sooner you let your warlock take her to her grandfather, the sooner she will be brought back to you.” She said this gently, but I heard the implacable insistence. I was not going to be allowed to refuse this. “She will grow hungry, anon,” Leonora added.

  I gave a heavy sigh. I could admit to no good reason why Gregorio shouldn’t be allowed to see Rosemary. To continue to resist it would just look weird. I was pretending that the old warlock wasn’t my mortal enemy, after all. That he was the child’s loving grandfather. “All right,” I said, forcing myself to smile. “I had no idea how hard it would be to let go of her.” Poor addled new mother, awash in hormones and sentiment, oh everyone should be so gentle with me.

  Jeremy stepped up to the bed.

  “Can’t he just come here?” I asked, still clinging to Rose.

  “Calendula,” Leonora said, a warning in her voice.

  Defeated, I handed my baby to Jeremy. He took her gently, both love and a bit of confusion shining in his eyes as he peered at her. “Such red hair,” he murmured.

  Oh, Blessed Mother, he knew too. Well, it might as well all come out; then I could stop pretending. Of course I had no idea what Gregorio would do with this once everyone knew, how I would be punished…my mind started racing, even as my arms ached to hold my baby once more.

  “Well, she is a child of the waning moon,” Leonora said to Jeremy. “Both conceived and born. That is always a wild card.”

  Jeremy frowned. “And her energy…” He shook his head. “I will take her to my father.”

  Leonora nodded. “Bring her back quickly, please. She will need to take her first meal.”

  “I’ll be as quick as I can,” Jeremy promised. “He’s just upstairs.” I frowned, confused, but then remembered the Samhain party still raging on the first floor. “Where…?”

  “I have told Dr. Andromedus he may view the child in the third floor meeting room,” Leonora told me. “The healers are there with him, and they will take the opportunity to look her over.” Now she gave me a warm smile. “I know you want to keep her entirely to yourself, but you must remember how important your daughter is to our whole community.”

  “I know.” The first baby born in years; the first baby born since we lost Logan, since witchkind was threatened with greater loss to our numbers. “I know.”

  “I will be as quick as I can,” Jeremy said to me. He leaned down and brushed my forehead with a soft kiss. I could smell his scent, and that of my daughter. They were nothing alike.

  I nodded, and kept my mouth shut. It was all out of my hands—literally, at the moment.

  “I’ll go up with you,” Sebastian said.

  The warlocks left, closing the door softly as they went.

  — CHAPTER TEN —

  After Jeremy and Sebastian left, Leonora turned back to me. “Let’s get you cleaned up in the meantime. I believe fresh sheets are called for.” She whisked away the mess magically and replaced the bedding underneath me. She wasn’t wrong about that: it did feel good.

  I felt like I should have more questions, now that everyone else was out of the room…wait a minute, my father had never come back. He’d gone to look for my birth mother, hadn’t he? “Where is my mom?”

  Leonora frowned. “Belladonna was not feeling herself. At least, that is what she told Maela. She felt that being here for the birth would be…difficult for her.”

  “Difficult?” I echoed, dumbly. “Why?”

  My coven mother put a gentle hand on my forehead, just where Jeremy had planted his kiss. “I do not know for certain, but I am given to understand that she has long wanted another child herself.”

  I s
tared back at her. “But, I’ve asked her about that. She made it sound like…” I tried to think back. What had she said, exactly? Had she just deflected the question? I’d certainly gotten the impression that she and Dad were still deciding if they wanted to try again. Yes, fertility was low for all of witchkind, but they had already succeeded once…

  I felt myself filling with grief and sorrow—and guilt. Could this be true? Why had she never let on about this to me? How insensitive had I been these last months, being all pregnant around her?

  Leonora clearly read my expression. She brushed my hair out of my face and whispered, “Do not torture yourself with this, Calendula. I know that Belladonna is so very happy to have a granddaughter.” She glanced at the floor. “For right now, I believe your familiar would like to join you up here on the bed. Would that be comfortable for you?”

  I had a hard time believing that Elnor was sitting politely on the floor waiting for an invitation, but I appreciated Leonora’s attempt at deflection. “Of course. Here, kitty,” I said, patting the covers beside me.

  Elnor jumped up, purring loudly and sniffing around, exploring all the new, familiar-but-not scents. And maybe even looking for the baby, who knew? “She’ll be right back,” I told her.

  Just then, there was a soft knock on the door.

  “Enter,” Leonora called.

  Jeremy opened the door and walked in, my daughter in his arms. He gave me an uncertain smile. My arms were totally behaving me by now; I reached for the baby, and he handed her over.

  I drew Rosemary back to my breast. She reached for it, her intentions clear.

  “Now, there’s a bit of a learning curve involved for both mother and child,” Leonora began, but even as she spoke, Rose latched on and began nursing.

  Words cannot describe the sensation. I felt my milk coming in—that had to be what that was; it was a sense of ease and release, and I could almost feel Rose’s delight in it, in her taking nutrition from my body. My body that had been our body just a short time ago.

  Both Leonora and Jeremy watched us, Jeremy looking shy and wary, my coven mother looking confused. “That’s…not usual,” she murmured.