Penumbra - Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Two
There was an air of confused excitement in the townhouse. While it was generally know among those living there that the Lady Jaithlym was with child, no one was quite certain what to make of the fact. That and the discovery that admission to her presence was being carefully controlled by trusted guards from the Prydain homeland made for a certain tension. It seemed uncertain whether the fact of the pregnancy was an occasion for celebration or for concern, at least among the non-Prydain. Today promised to bring even more questions because a physician from Ban Khatour was to arrive to augment the gaggle of doctors already clustering around Jaithlym with their incessant blethering of often conflicting advice. Those more inclined to panic among the inhabitants of the house were frantically worrying about the condition of the Mistress and the more phlegmatic resented the interruption of their established daily patterns. The deceptively quiet center of this hurricane of emotion was the third floor where Anjh and Jaithlym had their living quarters.
“Why do I have to be seen by another of these stupid doctors? Haven’t enough of them had a look into my private areas and poked around in my parts?” Jaithlym was storming up and down her room.
Anjh leaned against the windowsill, propping himself with his cane, his face carefully expressionless. “This is to satisfy Brisevent Rispa. He has questioned some things he should not question and I have reason to shut him up.”
“You want to satisfy him, then let him poke around in you... Oh, Anjh, I’m sorry!” Her moods were volatile these days. “Aleo knows you've been poked around enough for thousands of lifetimes. Listen, I have an island not far from Ban Khatour that’s totally private and uninhabited. After all this is over, can we go there for a while? I’d like to have some time alone with you before my activities are too restricted and even Rispa says there is no ethical reason we can’t go there. Wouldn’t you like to get away from the city and its pressures for a while, please?”
“That could be a good idea were it not that I’m bound to this place by a promise I gave Naufrage.” He didn’t want to tell her that he was to leave for the Feneralia so soon.
“I’m sure I can get his permission. After all, he claims to want only the best for you and can’t deny that a vacation from Aleofane would be good for all of us.”
“We need to get past this little crisis and then we’ll talk about it again.” He idly swung his good leg and gazed around the room. “Are you comfortable here; do you want any changes made?”
“Just one, I want to sleep with you again. I would have declined the honor of giving you a son if I had know it would ban me from your bed.” Jaithlym had finally learned when to permit the subject to change.
“Only until this last examination, then I shall welcome you back with the greatest enthusiasm. But there must be no possibility of error or misunderstanding when this test is done.”
“What’s this one about, anyway. What makes it so much more important than the others I’ve already endured?”
“I thought I’d explained it to you. As you noticed, Rispa thought you mistaken when you told him there were two. This test today will give positive proof of both the number and the parentage.”
“So we can make that old bastard eat his words? Good! I look forward to that.” Jaithlym still flushed with anger when she remembered how the Brisevent had as much as accused her of being a whore the first, and last, time they had spoken. “Why didn’t you tell him we had made two children when you announced my condition? He would have believed you.”
Anjh flexed his hand on the cane, watching the smooth movement of the mechanism under the concealing black glove, “I’m not sure. I used the prescribed form for stating that the birth-debt was paid and it doesn’t allow for plurals. Rispa and I had just had a very bad argument and I had stormed out on him the previous afternoon so mark it down to my reluctance to start another quarrel about what is and is not possible to our race. When a man has made such a major investment in orthodoxy, he’s either too fragile or too stubborn to challenge. I’m not sure which is true of him and don’t want to do any more harm.”
“You Prydain are the most peculiar mixture of violence and courtesy on this planet. I can live with you forever and never understand how you balance such contradictions. And, another thing, I’ve never heard of a test that can confirm multiple embryos so early in a pregnancy. No, don’t bother to explain; I know it’s one of those Prydain things that only you people know about. I swear I’m beginning to think you’re more different than I dreamt.”
“We are. Now, be still, the doctor is here.”
Advancing into the room was a tall, stately woman in the distinctive clothing of a Senior Healer. Her short dark hair was streaked with white and arranged in the simple manner of the females of her race, which contrasted so starkly with the customs of the males. A retinue of other Healers carrying various bags and boxes accompanied her like a covey of acolytes attending a venerated priest.
“Good day,” although her manner of speech was formal, her tone was warm and reassuring. “I am the Galdine Alcina. It is my hope that I find you well and in good spirits.”
“Yes, I am well and I gladly welcome you. Will you sit and take refreshment?” Jaithlym responded in the same fashion.
“If you will not be offended, no. It will be better if I am about my business and settle this disputed matter as quickly as possible. Anjh, will you leave us?”
“Is that required?”
“Not required but it will be better so. I have much to do in a relatively short time and much of it would be boring to you.” An indulgent smile illuminated her stern face, “Go play with your swords. This is work for women and physicians.” Turning her attention back to Jaithlym, she dismissed him.
When the furious Anjh had limped fuming from the room, Alcina directed her assistants to disrobe Jaithlym and position her in the machine they had assembled from the contents of their containers. It was a thing of many lights and more buttons with mysterious dials and screens.
“Now, Lady Jaithlym, tell me exactly when this pregnancy began,” the questioning started.
Jaithlym had been examined by a number of doctors from Aleofane and Llaregyb, the two largest cities on Junonia, but never had she been so thoroughly queried and probed. She was pressed to recall dates and times and emotions and moods; she was examined by instrument, by firmly gentle hands, by lights and wands passed over her abdomen. Samples were taken of her blood, her urine, her tissues. All the answers, all the specimens were entered into various ports of the great machine which enclosed her.
Finally Alcina leaned back and stretched her arms tiredly. “That should do it, my dear. Now we have only to wait while the computations are completed and that will settle this matter absolutely.” She turned to her aides, “Help the Lady Jaithlym dress, if you will.”
“How long will it take?” Jaithlym asked somewhat shakily as she resumed her accustomed garb.
“An hour or so generally. Is there anything you would like to discuss with me while we wait?”
“Are you expecting me to confess that I was unfaithful to Anjh like Rispa claims?”
“Nothing of the sort. I am concerned with your physical not your moral condition. This is your first pregnancy, is it not? There may be some things that are strange to you or some advisement you would profit from hearing. I am at your disposal.” Alcina, a specialist, had long practice in dealing with irrational, even hysterical mothers-to-be. “You see, the data I entered into that machine dealt not only with the number of embryos you are currently incubating and their genetic identification, but also with your general health and what, if anything, you should be doing to protect the son or sons of Anjh.”
“Sons! You said ‘sons’; you believe us!”
“I neither believe not disbelieve. I wait for the answers and accept what is proved to be the truth.”
“Did you know Anjh when he was a boy? I have wondered what he was like before he became a Warrior.”
The older woman shook her head, “No. I was of the same crèche as his father. While your lover was growing up I was serving my time in battle. I don’t think I ever saw him until he was in every discodeon on Junonia.”
“You were a Warrior too? I didn’t think...”
“Surely you don’t imagine that only our males serve the state. We’re not so prejudiced as all that! I did my share of killing and some of curing too since I had decided to be a Healer if I survived and was training in the White Arts as well as the Red ones. I have been a Warrior, a Healer and I have borne two children - a daughter and a son. So you see I am not inexperienced.”
With a rueful air, Jaithlym admitted, “I was talking to Anjh just before you arrived and telling him that I would never understand the Prydain. How do you manage this mix of curing and killing, leading and obeying, all these contraries?"
Alcina laughed out loud. “It’s easy if you don’t know any other way. I can tell you that our way of life is not contradictory to us, a little schizophrenic perhaps, but not contradictory. Now, let’s talk about you and your future.”
“Galdine, you are a Healer and must keep my confidence?”
“Unless what you tell me concerns this matter we are now trying to resolve.”
“No. It’s nothing about me; it’s about Anjh. He still feels the arm and leg that Archaos took from him - he still cries out in his sleep with pain from them. Why should that happen?”
“It’s not a common effect but certainly not unknown. Sometimes for reasons we don’t entirely understand, a person will experience what we call ‘phantom pain’ in a missing limb. It usually lessens over time. You mustn’t be surprised that this is happening to Anjh; the circumstances under which he lost his limbs and the aftermath of that event would increase his trauma and make him more susceptible to this condition. Do you know if the pains are severe and lasting?”
Jaithlym twisted her fingers together in her lap, “They are bad enough to make him... how can I say this... behave not like a Prydain. Your people are such stoics and it’s not like him to writhe and moan in his sleep; he’d rather cut out his tongue than admit to pain... And I feel like a traitor telling even you about this!”
“Calm yourself. You aren’t betraying him.” Alcina stilled the restless fingers with a firm hand. “I’ll see if I can get him to consent to an examination and, no, I won’t tell him what you’ve said. I’ll keep your confidence.”
“I will be so grateful if you can help him without infringing on his pride. He’s suffered so much there already, I can’t bear to see him humiliated any more.”
“I think you love him very much. That’s good; love won’t harm either of you but it’s probably a new experience for him.” The Galdine was gentle, comforting the trembling Lilar woman as she struggled against her emotions. “Is there anything else bothering you?”
“Galdine, there is at least one more thing that troubles me - I know that I have to give up both my sons as soon as they’re born and won’t ever see them again, not to know, anyway. Please, help me deal with this. Please help me understand.”
“It’s hard, I know. I had to surrender my children and now they are away on their own missions. But there are reasons for this.” Inclining her regal head toward the young woman, Alcina began to explain as well as she could.