The next contraction was enough to drop her to her knees.Alienor cried out for assistance, and an arm slipped around her waist.
“All is made ready, child,” Iolande whispered, and Alienor nodded, draping her arm over the older woman’s shoulders as she rose to her feet.Kado appeared on her other side and she gratefully accepted his assistance, as well.She made slow progress toward the solar, supported between them both.
“Is there word of Dagobert?”Alienor already knew the answer but was unable to keep from asking.Iolande’s lips tightened and she averted her gaze, as if she could peer through the walls to the land beyond or perhaps to the future itself.Alienor’s heart sank anew.
“Not yet,” Iolande said.
Alienor’s breath caught as her muscles began to tighten once more.“I always thought he would be here,” she whispered.
Iolande nodded, her concern for her son as tangible as the stone beneath Alienor’s feet.
“I sense that he comes,” Kado insisted cheerfully, but Alienor knew that he only sought to reassure her.
“’Tis more than a fortnight before the fullness of the moon,” Iolande pointed out.
Naturally, Dagobert would expect her to deliver with the full moon, but the words held little consolation for Alienor.
The midwife appeared out of the shadows as they made their way into the keep, offering an encouraging smile when she saw Alienor’s distress.
“’Tis better for the babe to come early,” she said, taking Kado’s place with a smile.She urged Alienor toward the stairs to the solar.“’Twill mean less time for you to wait, my lady.Indeed, you are fortunate in this, for the first is often much more reluctant to make his or her appearance.”
Alienor did not feel fortunate in this moment, but she managed to smile for the midwife as the three of them awkwardly climbed the stairs.It would be a relief to be more steady on her feet, even to see her feet again.Another contraction more violent than any earlier seized her and Alienor doubled over with the pain, her cheeks heating as a warm flood between her thighs revealed that water had broken.
The midwife became brisk with this sign.She hastened Alienor upstairs and onto the birthing stool.Sweat beaded Alienor’s brow, even when her clothes were stripped away and the chill autumn air touched her skin.She breathed as she was told, perched on the seatless chair, barely noticing the tingle of the coriander seed the midwife placed upon her nether lips to speed the birth.
Events rapidly blurred for Alienor.She saw the flames dancing in the brazier; she felt the rhythmic pain of her body forcing the child into the world.The cool cloths pressed against her forehead blending with her perspiration; the pounding of the assault against the south curtain wall blended with the relentless contractions of her womb.Through it all, she watched the steady path of the waning moon across the square block of night sky framed by the window.The crescent turned from orange to gold and finally to silver and still her body labored.
“The east side is taken?”Dagobert echoed, unable to believe the tidings that Roger shared.After an entire evening of creeping from shadow to shadow in the valley below Montsalvat, this revelation was less than welcome.He had found the home of Roger and his mother, only to learn this.Roger’s mother looked up from her tending of the fire at his sharp tone and Dagobert sought to rein in his agitation.
Eustache felt no such compunction, for he scowled at the smaller man’s words.“I should hope you received a goodly sum for your trouble,” he growled.
Roger paled at the accusation.“’Twas not me!”he declared, his voice dropping to a hiss as he continued despite Eustache’s skepticism.“’Twas outsiders, Basques hired to scale the slopes, and ’twastheywho found the paths.”
Dagobert’s lips thinned and he met the cold speculation in Eustache’s gaze.
“They found the way all alone?”Eustache demanded with skepticism.His eyes lit with surprise when the smaller man turned on him.
“I had a tidy trade,” he snarled.“And I heartily regret its loss, despite your accusations.”There was an undertone of truth to his words.“’Tis perilous to scale either the north or south face, and ’twill be an important message indeed that warrantsthatclimb.”
And a fine sum, no doubt.
“Have they taken the wall?”Dagobert asked, relieved when Roger shook his head.
“Nay, only the crest of the hill.But they hide amongst the rocks all over the slope.”He shook his head, sparing Eustache one last poisonous glare.“’Tis sufficient to make the climb too risky.”
“And a misstep on the south face is certain death.”Eustache’s gaze lifted to Dagobert.
Dagobert drummed his fingertips on the table, frowning to himself as he considered their options.Eustache was right about the south face.Worse, it had been so long since he had scaled it that he doubted that he recalled the way as thoroughly as he would have liked.If they lingered over their path, the light of the moon would reveal them to Montsalvat’s attackers, making them easy prey for the bowmen.He glanced out the window at the waning crescent of the moon, hating that the darkness of the new moon was still a few nights away.
A sense of urgency possessed him.Though Dagobert could not explain it, he knew only that he could not wait three or four nights.He ran one hand through the bristly growth of his hair and scowled, imagining an awkward way into Montsalvat and liking it not.
How he wished he knew what prompted this desire to be within the keep.Then he might better weigh the need against the risk.’Twas too soon for Alienor to give birth, but he could not dismiss the sense that something was awry and his presence was needed.They would have to enter Montsalvat with the first light, for he could wait no longer.
Eustache must have guessed his reasoning or discerned his mood, for the other knight showed no surprise when Dagobert leaned forward to outline his plan.
The indigoof the night faded outside Alienor’s window, the patch of sky lightening to rosy pink and thence to crimson, and still she strained.Would this pain never end?Her muscles were trembling, her loose hair damp on her shoulders, her cheeks bathed in a mingling of sweat and tears.Iolande gripped her hands and urged Alienor ever on.
“I am so tired,” she whispered.
