Zenith stood among the flowers, the lilies tugging at her skirts and at her ebony wings.
She held out her arms, as granddaughter to grandmother, and smiled with love and welcome.
Niah burst into tears, and walked through the gate: sweetly, innocently, happily.
Qeteb's fingers curled into the white cloth and he wrenched it off the table with a roar of fury.
He leapt to his feet and tossed the cloth high into the sky.
It fluttered down slowly into the crater.
"Two down," said DragonStar. "And two wins. To me. My girls have done me proud."
And he lifted his head and smiled at Qeteb.
"Cauldron!" Qeteb snarled, and turned away. "There you will fail!"
"Why leave now?" DragonStar said. "Don't you want to stay for the birth?"
Chapter 59
Midwiving Deity
Pretty Brown Sal pulled them into Fernbrake Lake just in time, for which Axis was supremely grateful. If he'd had to put up with Ur's cries and clamours for just one more hour ...
Axis hated to think what Ur would have said had they arrived late.
He swung down from Sal, Zared and Gwendylyr a moment behind him.
The instant Axis' feet hit the ground, he was almost bowled over by Ur hurrying forward with her pot.
"Make way! Make way!" she cried, and Axis was stunned to see that she was weeping with joy.
The next instant Gwendylyr had pushed past him, and was hurrying after Ur into the birthing chamber.
"I think I should wait here," Axis said to Zared, but Zared shook his head.
"No. I don't know why, but I think that you should be present as well."
And so Axis, still so desperately sad he wondered that he could actually walk and talk and ride, followed Zared through the lines of the Lake Guard and into the birthing chamber.
The Lake Guard silently followed him, lining the interior of the chamber as silent witnesses.
There was one other silent witness. DragonStar, atop the ridge and staring into Fernbrake crater.
The best place for your birth, he said to the child, now so gripped in the struggle for birth she could not respond. Fernbrake. The Mother of all Life.
Leagh lay on the birthing bed and writhed, drenched in sweat. Gwendylyr sat at one shoulder, silently sympathising, one hand wiping the sweat from Leagh's forehead.
At Leagh's other shoulder sat a distraught Zared, wondering what he could do, and yet so glad, so relieved to have Leagh safe again it swamped all his fears.
Axis stood, almost wrapped up in one of the billowing curtains at the edge of the chamber, part of the circle of Lake Guardsmen inside the chamber. Before him, crouched in a huge huddle, lay Urbeth, her head on her paws, her eyes locked on the struggle before her.
This baby would be birthed with many witnesses.
Ur stood at the end of the birthing bed, quivering with excitement, staring at the baby beginning to emerge, her pot still held in violently trembling hands.
Axis watched her with some concern. Shouldn't she be doing more? He remembered the births of his eldest and his youngest. At both, midwives had helped and aided Azhure in a way that Ur most definitely was not helping and aiding Leagh.
Ur was just standing there. Watching. And now quivering so violently in her excitement that Axis thought she would drop the pot at any moment.
And then he jumped, for everything about them changed.
They stood in an infinite field of flowers. Leagh was walking slowly between two women, both inmid-life and so beautiful Axis' breath caught in his throat at the sight of them.
Ur and Urbeth, their arms about Leagh, encouraging her with every step.
The scent of flowers, a warm wind and the gentle sound of waves crashing beneath a distantcliff filled the air.
Zared and Gwendylyr were here too, as were the Lake Guard, but they stood to one side,anxious spectators.
"Axis."
Axis turned slightly at the sound of the voice.
DragonStar, glorious in his near nakedness, the lily sword scabbarded in the jewelled belt.
"Have you come to watch?" Axis said.
