Cursor's Fury (Codex Alera #3)(224)

"Yes," Araris said quietly.

Alia nodded slowly. "Then... with your assistance, I think I can help her."

He lifted his eyebrows. "Watercrafting? Do you have that kind of skill?"

"Sir?" Alia said hesitantly. "Are we spoiled for choicer"

Araris's mouth twitched at one corner in a fleeting smile. "I suppose not. Have you ever served as a midwife before?"

"Twice," Alia said. She swallowed. "Urn. With horses."

"Horses," Araris said.

Alia nodded, her eyes deep with shadows, worried. "Well. Father actually did it. But I helped him."

The younger Isana screamed again.

Araris nodded once the contraction had passed. "Get her other arm."

The ragged image of Fade, standing beside Isana, said, "This was the second mistake. Fool. I was such a fool."

Together, the pair dragged Isana into the shallow pool. Araris stripped out of his armor with hurried motions and knelt behind Isana, supporting her upper body against his chest while Alia knelt before her.

Isana stared at the entire thing, fascinated by Fade's memories. She remembered none of this. She had never been told of this.

Araris gave the young Isana his hands, and she squeezed them bloodless through each contraction. Alia knelt before her sister, hands framing her belly, her eyes closed in a frown of concentration. The scene acquired a timeless quality, somehow removed from everything else that was happening, existing in its own, private world.

Alia suddenly fell to her side in the pool, splashing water. Araris's gaze snapped up to her. "Are you all right?"

The girl trembled for a moment before closing her eyes and rising again. Her face had gone very pale. "Fine," she said. "Just cold."

"Fool," Fade mumbled from beside Isana. "Fool."

Isana's belly twisted in sudden, horrible understanding of what was coming.

An hour passed, Alia encouraging her sister, growing steadily more unsteady and more pale, while Araris focused the whole of his concentration on supporting Isana.

In time, there was a tiny, choked little cry. Alia gently took a tiny form in her arms, and wrapped it in the cloak that lay nearby and ready. The baby continued to cry, a desperate, horribly lonely little sound.

Alia, moving very slowly, reached out and passed the baby to the young Isana. She saw a fine down of dark hair. The miserable little infant began to quiet as his dazed mother pressed her against him, and he blinked up at her with Septimus's grass green eyes.

"Hail, Octavian," Alia whispered.

Then she slid down to the ground, into the pool, suddenly motionless.

Araris saw it and panicked. With a cry, he drew Isana and the baby from the pool. Then he returned for Alia. She did not move. Did not breathe.

Fade tore her dress from the wound and there found an ugly sight. The broken end of an arrow pressed up from the wound like some obscene splinter, and Araris realized with a shock that several inches of arrow, tipped with the head of volcanic glass, had pierced her deeply.

Darkness fell.

"She lied," Fade said quietly to Isana. "She was more worried about you than she was herself. She didn't want to distract me from helping you and the baby."

Tears blurred her vision, and her heart felt a fresh stab of pain at witnessing Alias death-and then a horrible, crushing mountain of guilt that her little sister had died to save her fell upon Isana's shoulders.

"I never should have left you both alone," Fade said. "Not even for a moment. I should have seen what was happening to her. And Tavi..." Fade swallowed. "He never found his furies. It had to have happened during the birthing. The cold maybe. Sometimes a difficult birth can damage the child, impair his mind. If I had only remembered my duty. Used my head. I betrayed him-and you, and Alia and Tavi."