Within (Walk Through Shadows Book One)

Chapter Eighteen

Thanks to Alasdair's strength the walls of the addition went up within a week of the start of their project. When they got to putting on the roof Rayne decided she'd had enough of the noise. She packed her spell book into a bag with some food and left to find some peace down by the river.

It turned out to be a very bad day for her to have gone off on her own.

It started out just fine. Alasdair and Deamol were busy hammering shingles into place. Haelan was at the kitchen table writing out new labels for some of the older jars of healing supplies. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary until just after noon when the blacksmith's apprentice, Cormac, came running down the road toward the house calling Rayne's name at the top of his lungs. Both Deamol and Alasdair jumped down from the roof as he got closer. The young man dashed up to the door and burst inside.

"I need Rayne," he said as he struggled to catch his breath.

"She's not here," Haelan said as he stood and moved to the boy. "What's wrong?"

"Then you have to come!" Cormac grabbed the prince's arm and pulled him toward the door. "Oriana time is here!"

"Time for what?" Alasdair asked from the doorway.

"The baby." Cormac yanked again. Haelan, who had stumbled forward under the force of the boy's panic, froze. "It's coming!"

Alasdair stared at his brother. His normally very calm under pressure baby brother. All of the colour had drained from Haelan's face. "Cormac wait outside," Alasdair said softly.

"But—" the boy sputtered.

"We'll be along in a minute," Alasdair said as he stepped inside and pointed at the doorway. Cormac hurried outside to stand next to Deamol, who was watching the scene in the little house. "Brother?"

Haelan took a breath and looked at Alasdair. "Get birthing stool from the closet."

"If you can't do it I can go find Rayne," Alasdair said as he pulled the closet door open.

"I can do it." Haelan turned away to gather up an armful of clean cloths from a shelf. "The healers explained it very thoroughly."

When they exited the house Alasdair handed the stool to Deamol and grabbed Cormac to lift him against his chest. All three faeries leapt up and took off toward the settlement. Cormac pointed them in the direction of Oriana's little house on the far side of the settlement. They landed in the yard and sent Cormac on his way back to the smithy. From inside the little log structure they could hear the cries of a woman in pain.

Haelan shook his head slightly then knocked on the door. It swung open after a moment. Alasdair groaned softly. In the doorway stood Silas, the large mixed breed Alasdair had tried to skewer with a support post on the day they'd arrived. Since that first incident they'd seen him several more times. He and his friends had kept a wary eye on the trio from the opposite side of the inn's dining room. There had not been any more scuffles between the groups but that didn't mean any fences had been mended.

"Where's Rayne?" Silas barked the question. "We need a healer not a faerie."

"She's not here," Haelan said with a shrug. "I'm all you have right now."

Behind Silas Oriana screamed. "Have you done this before?" he asked quickly.

"Yes, now get out of the way," Haelan said tightly. Oriana cried out again prompting Silas to step aside and allow them to pass. The house only had two rooms so they followed the sound of Oriana's distress into the back room. She was sitting on the side of the bed, clutching her big belly and panting. Her well worn blue shift was soaked through, clinging to her motherly curves.