Cursed By The Gods Book 1 and 2

Chapter 43

The midwife stared at Emilia with a mixture of sympathy and disgust. In her years of practice as midwife she never encountered a human who birthed a god but she knew the reasons behind such an incident; either the child or the family of the child was cursed or the woman engaged in illicit affairs with gods. At the thought of the latter the midwife’s heart broke for Emilia, it wasn’t as if the queen could reject a god when he came crawling to her bed. She saw the confusion and shame that burned in the queen’s eyes and wished she had the power to change the situation but she was only human and couldn’t do anything more than pity and pray for the mercy of the gods on the royal house.

She looked around and found one of her assistance, the one who called herself Fella and bade her to come closer to collect the child for she could not trust herself not to drop the one who might bring chaos on the royal house.

Termla, in her young woman’s body approached the midwife and collected the child. As soon as her hand came in contact with the child’s flesh a powerful, strange sensation – almost like a pulse – went through her, her hand wobbled and she almost dropped the child who looked at her strangely. Of course the child had the eyes of her father, Helena thought about her plan through and through. No one would understand how the child would possess such vibrant purple eyes because her father was not of the Camelorn pantheon, no doubt the child’s twin was in a different pantheon too were the people would not recognize her.

Her heart shattering to pieces for the trouble awaiting the child, Termla took a clean white cloth and swaddled the baby. Queen Emilia lay still on the table with her hands balled into fists by her side and tears running down her face.

“Why?” she wailed brokenly. “Why gods, why? After years of waiting of longing, why have you decided to send a curse to me?”

Termla approached her with the swaddled baby intending to lay her down on Emilia’s stomach when all of a sudden Emilia lashed out at her with a feral scream.

“Don’t you dare bring that child close to me! Don’t you dare lay that curse on me! Take her out of her, take her I don’t want to set my eyes on that child!”

Startled Termla looked to the midwife who shook her head slowly and clucked her tongue with her arms crossed over her chest. From the passage she could hear the young maids who had been sent out whispering among themselves and knew that in no time the news about the birth of the queen’s child would be out. She knew she had to perform her duty.

“We should let the king know about it soon before those gossipy maids do it first,” the midwife said to Termla. “Bring the child and walk slowly behind me.”

Termla did as she was told. The midwife went before her to the passage where the maids had gathered with their heads together whispering. When they saw her they immediately stopped talking and disbanded with their heads bowed. The midwife looked at them with disgust.

“You have better things to do than to stand around gossiping. Go and clean your queen, clean the room, air it and wash all the towels!”

They scurried to do her bidding.

She continued down the passage to the small door connecting the throne room to the dark tiny passage. Her beat so loud she was sure the entire court could hear it, in her heart was the fear that the king would blame her for the misfortune and punish her for it. After a moment thought and much deliberation she pushed the door and came out of the inner chambers to stand before the whole court.

The court, silent and waiting, turned to look at her.

The look on her face was one of amazement, she sweated like she had just escaped the jaws of a wild beast and her hands hung limp beside her.

They waited for her to speak, waited for her lips to part and for words of joy or otherwise to spew from them. She herself watched their faces, their expectant faces as they all watched her with piercing eyes and very degrees of impatience on their faces. She wished the ground could open up and swallow her whole.

"Well?" Octavius asked impatiently. "Is both mother and child alive and well?"

The midwife's face contorted to one of misery, the tears that had been hanging back in her eyes suddenly came to fore, she balled her fists in the bodice of her dress and bawled "I wish that was the case, my lord.”

Octavius’s heart almost left his chest, his heart stopped for a full minute, his breath failed him as he imagined the worst that could have happened to his wife and child. As he sort to control his emotions he noticed the reaction of fear on the faces of his court members. No doubt they would expect him to handle the situation better than they would because he was their leader, so he took deep breaths and in the calmest way possible asked.

“What do you mean?”

The midwife trembled. ”The queen has birthed a stranger"

As soon as she finished her sentence the door opened to admit a younger woman who held a small white swaddling, she was looking into it with worry and in the swaddling moved the tiny hands of an infant who stared up at her with clear unteary eyes.

Octavius started to breathe a small sigh of relief when the maid came closer and he saw the source of her tears and anguish. Every member of the king's court stood to look into the swaddling and simultaneously gasped at the sight.

"Well…she certainly isn't as fair as her mother," Lady Amelia said voicing everyone's first thought.

"Nor does she have hair as golden as the ripe corns in the fields," Lord Fergus chipped in.

"And what's with the white hair and purple eyes?"

Octavius himself stood to look at the child whose eyes darted around until she was staring right at him with her hands reaching to grab his face. He stepped back in fear, the child wasn’t his. Couldn’t be his.

His skin wasn’t was dark as that neither was Emilia’s and his eyes were naturally the same shade of blue as Emilia’s which would not explain why the child had such vibrant, vivid purple eyes. Pain threatened to suffocate him. Just when he thought his troubles were over this happened. His mind with many possibilities of what could have cause such a thing. He knew for sure what it meant for a woman to birth a child as strange as this but in his heart he knew Emilia would never allow a god in her bed, at the thought of that guilt filled him. He was the one guilty of such when he let Ashterah trick him into her own bed.

With harsh tears in his eyes at Ashterah’s cruelty he turned his face away from the child. “Get her out of here,” he ordered in a low tone.

“Your Majesty?” Termla asked in a low tone.

“I said get her out of here!” In his fury he turned to his court, “Leave! Every single one of you! I need to be alone!”

As they all scurried out Octavius fell on the floor and broke down in tears.