The Key to the Warriors (completed)

Chapter 36

36Zyirah

Charlie had already been gone for two days, and I didn't even know if he had made it to the island yet or not. Worry coursed through me so thick I could taste it, and I tried to shove it down to the pit of my stomach, hoping it would make room around the other thing that was growing there. The fact that I was pregnant was like a constant whisper in the back of my mind, and I was having a hard time accepting it with things being the way they were.

I'd laid awake for a long time the night before, thinking it over, and wishing Charlie had been there to share in my thoughts. It was his baby too, after all. I'd concluded that, had things been different, and Jackal was making life hell for us, I'd have been elated to be carrying Charlie's baby. There was something thrilling about it, the idea that I was going to give birth to the child of the Creator. It was like the servant that got pregnant by the King, and the King loved her.

Charlie was the most powerful person in Arion, even if he didn't know it or accept it, and I was carrying his baby. In a way, it made me feel kind of powerful too, despite the sour fear that was coursing through me. Because circumstances did not allow joy or celebration. There was no grand feeling of elation that made my heart all aflutter and brewed in me a natural maternal affection. We were on the brink of war, and my Creator, my King... wasn't even there.

I was still thinking about it as I exited the sleeping dome. Dozens of soldiers littered the battlefield, split into groups of eight or ten, each before a single master, mimicking his moves or sparring with each other as they trained. One group even sported a row of archers, who were shooting makeshift dummies lined up along the hill. The noise of clanking metal and rustling feet gave me a headache, and I grimaced at the activity as I entered the mess hall.

Zirlic and the boys sat with Kat and Xylem over a platter of fruit and meats, and they glanced at me as I lowered into the bench beside my brother, who rested his head on my shoulder. I wrapped an arm around him and reached out to pick up a peeled hardboiled egg from the platter. I bit the tip off as I looked at Zirlic.

"Has Ceribus returned?"

He shook his head. "I don't expect it'll be too much longer though. It's been two and a half days. I'm guessing it took him at least that long to get there, so I reckon he's making his way back as we speak."

I nodded absently, scowling down at the egg in my hand as the smell of it turned my stomach. I put it back on the edge of the platter and silently talked myself out of getting sick. Across from me, Zirlic was smiling.

"Not feeling eggs this morning, huh?"

Hiccupping down my sudden onset of nausea, I shook my head. "I don't even want to smell an egg for... ever." I laid a hand over my mouth and swallowed hard, averting my eyes from the offensive egg on the platter.

"Welcome to pregnancy." Zirlic teased, and I glared at him.

"Don't remind me."

Jerry climbed out of the bench across from me. "What can I make you instead, Zyi? Any cravings this morning?"

"Only if nausea counts." He gave me a pitied smile as he started lowering back into the bench. "Actually, Jerry, do we have any peas?"

His eyes lifted to me. "Peas?" I nodded and he climbed back out of the bench. "Yeah, I think we have some. You want them prepared any certain way?"

I shook my head. "Raw is good."

Zirlic was laughing as Jerry went to the kitchen. When he returned a moment later carrying a bowl of the green bubbles and it set it before me, my friend was still uttering hearty chuckles.