Quiet Courage

4

Cerenae woke late that night to the sound of screaming coming down the hall. She jumped out of bed and raced down the hall to her mother's room. Sena was prostrate on her bed, her sheets a bloody mess around her legs as she screamed in obvious pain. Tassa ran in just then, followed by one of the servants. Cerenae grabbed him by the arm forcefully.

"Get our healer and then I need you to go out into the city and find someone else to help her. The best you can find. Quickly!"

"But, my lady, the city is in lockdown," the servant stammered.

"I don't care what is wrong with the city! Do you see my mother right now?! I need the best damn healer money can buy and I need them five minutes ago, now move!" the servant scampered out of room in a panic. Cerenae didn't care as she raced to her mother's bedside and began to smooth the sweat streaked hair away from her face.

"I'm, fine," Sena tried to say, and winced as she attempted to push herself up in the bed. Cerenae stayed her movement and brushed her forehead again. "Think I'd never given birth or something, the way everyone is going on about it." Sena said again, giving Cerenae reason to smile. The smile faded quickly as Sena screamed again.

"Shhh mama, just lie still. There are healers on the way and we'll make sure this baby and you are just fine." Tassa was still standing silently at the door, staring at the bloody sheets in horror. Cerenae turned to her. "Why don't you go get mama some new sheets and a nightdress?" Tassa nodded, not taking her eyes off the sheets, then finally turned to go.

"You're very good at that," Sena said once the contraction had passed while Cerenae helped her to sit up so they could pull the sheets out from underneath her.

"Good at what?" Cerenae asked as she balled the sheets up and tossed them angrily in a corner.

"Taking charge," Sena said with another wince. She grabbed her daughter's hand and looked at her proudly. "You have your father's blood in you alright. He was always so good at getting people to listen to him." Cerenae smiled sadly and patted her mother's hand in silent gratitude. The healer came, and between her, Cerenae and Tassa they were able to get Sena into a new nightdress and laid back against clean sheets.

"Alright my lady, I think you should know the drill by now." The healer said with a bit of a sardonic smile, which made Sena chuckle weakly.

"You think, after so many tries I would be used to it by -" her sentence was cut short while she screamed in pain at the next contraction. The healer frowned and put a hand on Sena's bloated stomach.

"What's wrong?" Cerenae asked worriedly, her arm around her younger sister comfortingly. The healer simply shook her head and lifted Sena's night dress. After ten minutes the healer's face had gotten no less concerned, and Cerenae had sent Tassa out into the hall to watch for the servants return. And to get her out of the room and away from the trauma, but she didn't want Tassa to know that. There was an awful lot of blood. Cerenae remembered when Tenatur was born fairly well, and while there was a lot of blood and plenty of screaming, she also remembered that things hadn't seemed as bad as they did now.

"I'm not sure," the healer said under her breath, working quickly to put warm compresses across Sena's bloated belly. "The baby is breech I think, but there's something else wrong with it. I've never handled a birth this difficult." She looked up worriedly into Cerenae's face.

"Kraxi should be back soon with another healer," Cerenae said, doing her best to keep the mounting worry out of her voice. And while Sena's contractions grew slowly closer and closer as the night went on, and the sheets grew bloodier and bloodier, Kraxi the servant never returned. As the first rays of sunlight crept through the open shutters, Cerenae couldn't take it anymore. Sena's contractions were close, but the healer said she wasn't dilated enough for any sort of delivery, and the amount of blood she was loosing had everyone nervous. Unable to simply sit there and stare, Cerenae donned a dark cloak and escaped the estate as the morning advanced past the grey of early dawn.