With Jevin's anxious help, the grey-haired woman persuaded Itrac to sit up against the head of the bed, propped on firm cushions, her feet planted wide. Itrac's head lolled forwards, her chin on her chest, her eyes closed. Kheda rinsed his hands as Lihei sat on the end of the bed and lifted Itrac's skirts up over her knees to see how matters were progressing.

Jevin came to meet him as he approached the bed. 'She's exhausted, my lord,' he said, low and fearful. 'How can she go on?'

'She's past the point where she has any choice,' Kheda said with compassion.

Itrac gasped before Jevin could say anything. 'I have to push.'

'That's as it should be,' Lihei agreed calmly. 'I'll be easing you with warm cloths and oil, my lady, to see if we can't do this without leaving you too sore.' The older woman glanced over her shoulder at Kheda. 'It won't be long now, my lord.'

The warlord nodded. 'Jevin, open that blue bottle and sluice my hands.' He held them over the bowl. As the young slave obeyed, the sharp alcohol stung small scratches on Kheda's hands that he hadn't even realised were there. 'Empty the basin,' he ordered. 'No, not in there!'

About to empty the basin into a shallow ceramic bowl underneath the table, Jevin froze.

'That's for the afterbirth,' Kheda reminded the slave, curbing his own irritation with some difficulty.

Jevin's face was already muddy with weariness after the long, sleepless night. He went positively ashen before scurrying away to empty the basin into a slop bucket standing by a far door.

Kheda glanced at an ebony coffer tucked away beneath the table's calico drape.

Blue casque in case the pains stop altogether; we shan 't need that now. Saller rust, perhaps, if there's too much bleeding, but not before the afterbirth is delivered. Hind's herb and black bark, to bring on her milk and ease the pains after the babes are born; that can wait awhile. The root of the yellow earth star will be the most important, to strengthen her blood against childbed fevers. But we have to see these children born first.

Kheda refused to contemplate the other contents of the physic chest: the thin-bladed, razor-sharp knives brought out when all hope for the mother was gone and only the child could be saved; the bright slicing wires used when the babe must be given up for dead and the only thing worse than that loss would be the woman dying with the child unborn within her.

My former wives were safely delivered of ten children between them. I don't intend taking up such butcher's tools now.

He looked at the bed where Jevin was sitting behind Itrac. Her fingers dug into the slave's muscular forearms as she leaned against him, secure within his embrace. Her eyes were closed, her feet set wide, her toes digging into the mattress.

Kheda glanced at Touai, her daughters behind her. 'Stay out of the way but be ready to bring me swaddling cloths and the ribbons to tie the birth cords.' He joined Lihei at the end of the bed and saw that Itrac's labour was indeed proceeding apace. He glanced up at Jevin and managed a bracing smile. 'Just hold her and keep telling her how well she's doing. Encourage her to push until I tell her to stop.'

The slave looked back as Itrac's head rested on his shoulder, her unseeing eyes rimmed with white. 'She seems so distant, my lord.'

'That's as it should be.' Another contraction seized Itrac and her feral cry drowned out Kheda's words. He nibbed her cramping feet, adding his own meaningless endearments to Jevin's encouragement as she struggled with the merciless demands on her body. The spasm |);issed and Itrac went limp, sucking down deep breaths.

'You'll be surprised how little she remembers. Jaime—' Kheda bit down on the name of his former first wife.

'Women would never do it a second time if they did.' Lihei chuckled before another contraction put an end to such levity.

And men and women alike lose all sense of time. I was astonished, when Janne finally delivered Sirket as my firstborn, to find that it was already evening.

Itrac yelled, pushing with all her strength. Successive contractions came harder and faster, each one arching her back more brutally than before. As Kheda and Jevin encouraged her, the labouring woman showed little sign of "hearing them. With every new spasm, her energy and understanding turned inwards, the dictates of instinct driving her body and brooking no denial.

Lihei continued diligently applying warm, oiled compresses. Kheda watched intently past the woman's calm brown hands for the first sign of the first child.

This could all still go horribly wrong if the first thing I see is buttocks.

Some indeterminate time later, relief flooded him at the sight of black wispy hair.

'Itrac, try not to push, just for the moment.' He spoke loudly and firmly. 'I can see the head.' As he heard Jevin pleading with Itrac to hold back her straining, Kheda cradled the tiny crown, ready to ease the wrinkled little face gently into the air.

Not too fast, to save Itrac damage. Not too slow, to be

sure the baby thrives. Not pulling, not twisting, just guiding as I will do for the rest of this child's life.

There was a moment of total stillness in the room as the baby's head emerged. No one spoke. Kheda found he wasn't even breathing, stunned by the marvel before him.

As astonishing as the first time I saw a child of mine born. You always forget how small they are.

The tiny form slipped sideways as Itrac's womb inexorably expelled it, first one pale golden shoulder emerging, then the second. In a rush of blood and fluid, the baby was in Kheda's hands, the cord still linking it to Itrac thick and blue and pulsing.

'Bring ribbons,' Kheda called hoarsely. 'And swaddling.'

'Is it all right?' Itrac rasped.

'She is.' Kheda held the baby in his cupped hands, keeping her low beneath Itrac's hips. 'You have a daughter, my lady.'

Now we wait, just a moment, until the thread of blood linking you to your mother stills. How strong are you, little one?

The tiny girl drew her first breath with a faint mewling noise and then began crying, a high, reedy sound that was encouragingly robust. Her little arms and legs waved, congested face screwed up against the light and this strange new place.

'Let me, my lord.' Lihei was ready with a soft cotton wrap.

Reluctantly surrendering the child, Kheda turned his attention to the birth cord, watching it shrink and grow pale.

'My lord.' Touai was at his elbow with the silver tray.

Kheda tied a ribbon loosely around his newest daughter's fragile wrist, making sure the knot was secure. 'We need to be careful she doesn't lose this, so we know she was

first,' he warned all the women as he tied off the birth cord a finger's length from the baby's round belly. Taking up the shears, he cut through the cord.

Tough as sinew, just like always.

Itrac moaned as a new contraction ran through her, her feet flexing.

'Clean our new daughter while we wait for her brother or sister,' Kheda said softly.

As Lihei withdrew with the newborn, Touai at her side, Kheda looked up to see Itrac smiling through her utter exhaustion. Behind her, Jevin's face was wet with tears, eyes wide with wonder.

Kheda realised his own close-trimmed beard was damp, his eyes full. Another contraction gripped Itrac and he wiped his face awkwardly on one shoulder before turning his attention to waiting for the second baby. It wasn't long in coming. As Kheda received the tiny buttocks, he smiled. 'It's another girl.'

She slid easily from Itrac now that her sister had opened the way. Touai was ready with the ribbons for tying the cord when the moment was right and Kheda cut it deftly. Both babies' cries filled the room, rising above the shaky congratulations the maidservants were offering their lord and their lady.