“Matters not,” Udele muttered, but she did as I asked anyway.
I helped her cut the cord and turned to lay the now pink baby in his mother’s arms, but Mayda was sleeping. “He will need to eat soon, so you will have to wake her.”
Udele shrugged and held the gurgling, fidgeting boy as Sobian and I cleaned up. Mostly she regarded it with a look of disdain. I had a cursory knowledge of the language thanks to Arthur, and I thought I heard her tell the child it would have been better had he not been born. A shiver ran down my spine. I remembered Udele’s quick move with the knife and wondered if she’d had a more sinister intent than to cut the cord.
When I looked at her, she was watching me intently. “Will she live?” she asked with a jerk of her head toward her sister.
I carefully examined M
