Ashes And Spirit (Book 3) (11 page)

She smiled at them, and her sunken eyes held a deranged look.

Angeni laid a hand on her mate’s arm to keep him from approaching this strange apparition wandering in from the desert. Her eyes followed the stranger. “Though she is gone in the head she is no danger to us. And close to giving birth.”

“How did she get out here? And is that
cactus
she’s eating?” Avendala asked, her tone incredulous.

Another pain brought the woman to her knees. Angeni hesitated only a moment. Whatever had befallen this woman, her child didn’t deserve to die—if the babe wasn’t already dead. She took in the woman’s condition. It was amazing the woman herself was still alive.

Angeni turned to a lower-ranking woman, “Misu, prepare a birthing bed. Be quick now.”

As Misu hurried away, Angeni walked up and placed her hand on the woman’s arm. She was little more than skin and bone. “Come, we will help. Have no fear. I am Angeni. Do you have a name?”

The woman nodded. “I am…Fon…Fonja. I think that is right. I have to do something important. Do you think I can do that here?”

With Pamuya’s help, she guided Fonja to the large hide spread out on the ground with pillows laying on it. “What important thing do you need to do?”

“I…” Fonja gazed around, a bewildered look on her sunken face. “I don’t remember. I try, but the shadows are in my memory, and I can’t…”

“We will help you to figure it out. Right now, why don’t you settle down here?” Pamuya helped the woman to lay on the fur and recline against the pillows.

Angeni brought a cup of water, which the woman gulped down. “There is too much blood,” Pamuya whispered.

Angeni nodded. Unless human women were different, there was too much blood already and little likelihood of a live birth. The woman, Fonja, didn’t even look pregnant enough to be ready to give birth. Her belly only looked as big as it did because she was starved. How she carried a child at all was a mystery to Angeni.

Fonja cried out and curled up as more pain wracked her shrunken frame. Pamuya shook her head and looked at Angeni and Avendala. “It will be a miracle if she even has the strength to give birth.”

Angeni stared at the woman writhing on the fur. “There are other ways to save the babe if the mother cannot be saved. For now, let us make her as comfortable as we can.

Pamuya nodded. “We shall do our best then.”

As night crawled slowly over the land and the crescent moon climbed into the sky, Pamuya bathed away the blood on Fonja’s feet and applied a poultice to the lacerations. Angeni gave her a tea to ease the pain, though it didn’t seem to be much help, and spooned some stew between the woman’s lips. Darkness had just fully settled its mantel over the desert when Angeni sensed a change.

“Angeni, it’s happening,” Pamuya said, her old voice tense.

Angeni nodded. “I know.” Fonja’s breathing was shallow and too much blood flowed freely from between her legs. The woman’s skin was feverish as well. She cried out as the pains came, one on top of the other, unable or too delirious to push.

Finally, as Fonja twisted and screamed, Angeni was able to deliver the head and shoulders. The rest of the baby came easily after that. A boy. His color wasn’t good. Angeni gripped him by the ankles and turned him upside down before smacking him on the bottom.

The babe let out a shrill cry, and his color immediately began to pink up. Fonja stretched a hand toward the babe, a moment of clarity on her face as she gasped for air. “The important thing I had to do.”

Angeni cleaned the newborn quickly as Pamuya cut the connection to his mother. Then she wrapped him snuggly in a soft blanket. “What would you name him?”

Fonja slumped back, her arm falling to her side though her gaze remained locked on her son. “Marek…” She took a shuddering breath and whispered, “His name is Marek…” Her eyes closed, and her head fell to the side. The red stain on the fur grew rapidly.

Angeni watched as Fonja’s chest rose once, twice, and then never again. She blinked back tears for the woman who had given the last of her strength to bring her child into the world.

As she cradled the infant in her arms, she really looked at him for the first time. A matt of black hair covered his head and silver eyes peered sleepily up at her. He was so tiny. But then she was used to Ke’han babies. It was possible all human babies were this small, though something told her that this one was tiny, even for a human.

She glanced at the women who had gathered near during the ordeal. Algoma’s oldest daughter had given birth a scant moon ago. “Onatah, I give this babe into your keeping until we can find some humans to raise him. One babe is difficult enough to care for at this age, two will be more so. However, you are the only one who can feed him and ensure his life. The other babies of the camp are already beginning to move away from nursing, and he will need newer and more plentiful milk.” She gestured for the younger woman to come forward. “Although you are the only one who can feed him, we will all help to ensure you don’t feel the burden too heavily.”

Onatah came forward and gently took the tiny bundle. “He is so little. Do you think he will live?”

Angeni shook her head. “I do not know. We can only try.”

“What shall I call him?” Onatah asked, her eyes on the new babe.

Angeni ran a finger over the black hair. “His mother named him Marek. We will respect her wishes and call him that.”

“Marek…Marek.” Onatah repeated the strange sounding name several times. “I will see if he is ready to have his first meal. He is too tiny; he needs some fat on him.” Onatah took her adoptive son and settled on the furs and pillows around the fire she had with her mate.

Angeni watched Onatah’s young mate lean over and examine the child as she put him to her breast. He would take no issue with the babe. It was a woman’s business what child she raised and thanks to their meeting with Maleena and Mckale, the camp had kinder thoughts when it came to humans.

She glanced back at the body of the woman as the men folded the fur up over it and lifted the bundle to carry away into the desert. The predators would take care of the body. Where had she come from?

Kovan looked up as Azurynn strolled into his quarters and leaned against the wall. With a sigh, he set his papers aside. “What do you want, Azurynn?”

She gazed at him through her heavily lidded eyes. “Do you remember your little maid? Fonja, wasn’t that her name? The one you dumped in the middle of nowhere.”

His stomach turned at the mention of her name. The woman had went easily to bed with him and then gotten pregnant to try and destroy him. “What about her?”

Azurynn smiled at him. “She had a boy. She died during the birth, but the child lives. I saw a vision of it.”

Kovan suppressed the flash of rage her news brought on. “I don’t care one way or the other.”

Azurynn’s smile turned sardonic. “Oh, I think you do. What a shame the babe didn’t die with his mother is
exactly
what you were thinking actually.” With a laugh, she turned and walked away.

Kovan grabbed the inkwell on his desk and threw it across the room. The ink splattered, leaving a dark stain on the wall. He stood and threw the chair too before storming out into the hall. A male servant stumbled back, trying to get out of his way. Kovan made a quick weave and lashed out at the man with it. The servant gasped and fell against the wall, his hand on his chest as blood oozed from his eyes, nose, and ears. Kovan stared at him, holding the weave until the man was dead.

He continued down the hall, leaving two more male servants dead in his wake. How dare Fonja give birth to a live child. How dare she not die before the pregnancy got that far. She did this to spite him. Damn the Fates, he was
not
a father. He would have to find the child and kill it. He couldn’t allow it to destroy him. It would be better that way. The child would be better off. Except he didn’t know where to look.

As he entered the main chamber, one of the mages approached him. Her dark hair fell loose around her shoulders. “Kovan, I needed to speak—” He lashed out at her, striking her with his fist and sending her sprawling on the floor.

Kovan stared at her. Fonja had done this. This was her fault, hers and the child she’d given birth to. He was behaving like his father and it was all her fault. Rage built inside until he felt he would burst. Kovan turned and spotted a male mage several feet away, staring at him with wide eyes. He lashed out with the same weave. The mage staggered as blood poured from the openings in his face.

Screams echoed through the chamber as he continued his rampage, killing three more male mages before calling Quillan down to him. He would find the child and kill it. The babe would be better off for it. Fonja couldn’t have gone that far.

First though, he had to tame the monster inside him. It would be terrible, but he couldn’t help it. What he was about to do was all Fonja’s fault for not dying as she was supposed to, for giving birth to his child.

Azurynn watched Kovan leave the Kormai, taking no notice of the carnage in the main chamber. His thoughts had been clear enough. He meant to kill the babe. Something stirred in a dry corner of her dark heart. Azurynn knew what it was like to be unwanted, to be sold and then wanted for all the wrong reasons. She knew what it was like to kill a baby for the right reasons. Kovan’s reasons weren’t the right ones.

She would find the babe before he did. It would be best for the babe. It was a chance to right a wrong in her past and also best for Kovan. His personal demons were driving him to the edge now; they would carry him over it if he killed the child. She knew that better than anyone did. The memory of his mother protecting him and the monster created by his father would war within him until they tore him apart.

Kovan meant nothing to her personally, but the Kormai needed him. Had she foreseen his reaction, Azurynn would have never told him. She truly thought he would rant and rage and then bring the child to the Kormai to be raised. However, Azurynn sensed no wavering in the decision within Kovan’s mind.

Sadira stormed into the main chamber, her shadows flowing around her as she took in the dead mages. “What in the void happened in here?”

“Kovan lost it. Give him an hour or so, and then go collect him before he gets himself killed.” Azurynn pinned Sadira with a look that brooked no nonsense should the woman feel the need to argue. “The Kormai needs him. If you truly wish his death, it can be done after the war with the Guardians is over.”

Without waiting for an answer, Azurynn picked up her cloak from the padded bench by the wall and strode to the center of the main chamber, calling Murynn down to her. She would handle the babe herself.