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From outdoors, she heard the rhythmic chop of an ax start up as Weiwara’s husband spun whatwood in the hope that it would cleave child fro frantically, and Agda spoke sternly "You ain Follow Orla’s count"
Adica found a tiny pot of ocher, and with a brushbristle she painted spirals on her own palda "Give da hesitated, but Orla nodded Weiwara’s eyes were rolled almost completely up in her head, and she whida’s pal birth, and the bow of the Queen of the Wild, who lets all things loose She ’s stick, to attract death to her instead of to those fated to live
With a sprig of rowan she traced sigils of power at each corner of the house Pausing at the threshold, she twitched up a corner of the hide door mantle to peek outside Weiwara’s husband split wood beyond the gate, his broad shoulders glea in the sun Sweat poured down his back as he worked, arms supple, sto puzzled, stood Alain
Adica was jolted right out of her trance at the sight of him, all clean and pale and rather slender coe, who had thicker faces, burlier shoulders, and skin baked brown from summer’s work Her cousin, Urtan, had a hand on Alain’s elbow, as if he were restraining his nosed up beside hi hi that they had no need to growl or show their teeth
"Aih!" cried Weiwara, the cry so loud that her husband faltered on his chopping, and every lanced toward the forbidden house, and away
Adica stepped back in horror as Alain passed the gate As the hide slithered down to cover the door, an outcry broke fro beyond the fence
"It is born!" said Orla
"Yet uish than of relief
Agda said: "Fat One preserve us! There comes another one! Hallowed One! I pray you, take this one It has no life"
Adica took the baby into her arms and pressed its cold lips to her own lips No soul stirred within The baby had no pulse No heart threaded life through its body Yet she barely had time to think about what she must do next, find the dead child’s spirit and show it the path that led to the Other Side, when a glistening head pressed out froht startled her so profoundly that she skipped back and collided with Alain as he stepped into the birthing house He steadied her with a hand on her back Only Getsi saw hiirl stared wide-eyed, too shocked to speak
What ruin had Adica brought onto the village by bringing him here? The baby in her ar Dead and lost
The twin slipped froda caught it, and it squalled at once with strong lungs Weiwara began to ith exhaustion
Orla took her hands froure standing behind Adica She hissed in a breath between her teeth "What is this creature who haunts us?"
Weiwara shrieked, shuddering all over as if taken with a fit
Agda sat back on her heels and gave a loud cry, drowning out the baby’s wailing "What curse has he brought down on us?"
Oblivious to their words, Alain gently took the dead baby out of Adica’s arms and lifted it to touch its chest to his ear He listened intently, then said so in a low voice, whether to her, to the dead child, or to himself she could not know All the women watched in horror and the twin cried, as if in protest, as he knelt on the packed earth floor of the birthing house to chafe the limbs of the dead baby between his hands
"What is this creature?" deain Adica choked on her reply, sick with dread She had selfishly wanted coht havoc on the village
"Look!" whispered Weiwara
The dead baby stirred and mewled Color swept its tiny body Blue faded to red as life coursed back into it Alain regarded the newborn with a thoughtful frown before lifting the baby girl to give her into Weiwara’s arht to the slaughter Living tere a powerful sign of the Fat One’s favor
"Aih!" she grunted as the last of the pains hit her Without thinking, she gave the baby back into Alain’s ar the stool one more ti cloth