She was right—there was something else to him.
Chapter Two
AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL
Alison
The dwarf squeezed Alison’s hand with so much force, Alison thought she would break it. Alison reached her other hand into her trouser pocket, producing a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from her brow.
“Almost there,” said Keir. He was at the foot of the bed, peeking his head out from under a white sheet. “Just one more push.”
“I can’t,” said the dwarf. Her full cheeks were as red as her hair, and she shook her head back and forth on the pillow. “No more.”
“Come on, girl,” said the midwife. She was a dwarf as well, and her face dripped with sweat, too, as she held the soon-to-be mother’s other hand. “Show them what you’re made of.”
The laboring woman took a deep breath and strained hard, delivering another unbelievable squeeze to Alison’s hand as she let out a primal yell.
“That’s it,” said Keir. “Dorna?”
The midwife wrenched herself free of the new mother’s grasp and took the baby into her arms just as it began to scream.
“A boy!” she yelled back as she carried the baby to a waiting nurse at a washbasin across the room.
“A boy,” cried the mother.
“We’re nearly ready for the next one,” said Keir to the midwife. “Minra, you’re doing wonderfully. You’re almost there. Alison, are you alright?”
Keir came up to check on them. His dark hair was matted to his head with sweat, and there was blood splattered on his collar, but his eyes were filled with purpose. Despite the exhaustion, Alison was glad to be here with him, to see him like this, to bring new life into the world alongside him. Her heart swelled with love for him she hadn’t yet expressed. “I’m fine,” she replied.
“Oh, he’s so perfect!” cried Minra. The nurse held the tiny dwarven babe up, clean and swaddled in a tartan blanket. “Let me hold him.”
“Soon, dear,” said the midwife, returning to the mother’s side and once again taking her hand.
The next series of pushes took longer than the first. Keir asked the nurse for something called “forceps,” which Alison regarded with sympathetic discomfort as she saw him pull the metal object beneath the sheet.
“This is it,” said Keir. The midwife joined him beneath the sheet.
Minra groaned, bearing down hard.
“Come on,” said Keir. He emerged from under the sheet with the second infant.
This time, there was no cry.
“What’s happening?” asked the mother, her voice strained.
Alison wasn’t sure. Keir told the midwife to take over as he rushed the baby over to a table.
“Nothing to worry about, dear,” said the midwife. “This is why we called the doctor. Sometimes one twin takes a bit longer than the other.”
The midwife brought over the firstborn, placing him in his mother’s arms and blocking her view of Keir.
Alison’s eyes were on him. His back was turned, but she could see him reaching for a bulb of some kind and some vial of medicine from the nurse.
“Come on, little one,” she whispered. She held her breath.
Then, finally, a cry. It was a good, hearty cry, and Alison felt tears spring to her eyes too.
“A girl,” said Keir. The baby’s thick head of hair was still matted with blood, but he held her up to show her mother nonetheless.
