The Chosen One: A Reverse Harem Fantasy (The Airluds Trilogy Book 2)

by Nhys Glover

  The contraction ended and I took a few deep breaths to regain my strength. Though the labour had been comparatively short, I was still feeling the strain. I'd been tired going into this, and now I was so exhausted I could barely hold the cup Rama held up for me. I was so thirsty.

  But that didn't stop me putting everything I had into the next contraction. And the one after that. Calun had taken to wiping down my brow with cool water, while Rama made me drink a little at every opportunity. Then it would start all over again.

  It was mayhap a quarter 'turn later and our son slipped out into the world. Darkin held him in his bloody hands for a few moments, before remembering to do what Flea had suggested. He held my boy upside down and hit his back.

  Nothing happened.

  He smacked him again.

  Still no movement.

  "He's warm and ruddy but he's not breathing," Dark declared anxiously.

  Rama let go of my hand and surged off the bed. He scooped his son up in his hands as if, just by holding him, he could make him live. With his face filled with desperate fear, he looked up at me.

  A flash of Knowing came to me. "Breathe into his mouth. Make sure his mouth is clear and then breathe your life into him."

  Rama put the baby on the bed and then dropped onto his knees beside him. With infinite care he opened the baby's mouth and checked it.

  "It seems fine." he said uncertainly. Then he lowered his much larger lips to the babe's tiny ones and gently breathed out.

  The rest of us looked on anxiously as we waited for the little chest to expand. But when nothing happened, Rama looked up in panic, tears in his eyes.

  "See Rama, he's not a monster. He's just a helpless, innocent child whose life depends on you. Save our son!" I said softly, hoping my words wouldn't come back to haunt me if he didn't succeed in saving the babe. But I Knew he could.

  Rama's face hardened into determined lines. He leaned down once more and breathed into the tiny mouth. He even tried to help the air come in and out by pressing gently on the chest. After two more breaths, when nothing he did seemed to help, he jumped to his feet, lifted the babe up by the feet, and swung him around and around.

  We all dived out of the way, except for Darkin, who cried out and reached for the boy, thinking his brother had lost his senses. I thought so too. But in the next moment a cough and then a whimpering cry came from the little bloody form.

  Tears rolling down his scarred face, Rama gently lowered his son into his cupped hands again. So tiny, the babe was so tiny. But he was alive, and his cries grew louder and more lusty the longer Rama held him.

  "You did it!" I crowed with delight. "Oh, Rama, you saved him!"

  It was like watching the sun rise, or a rainbow forming after rain. Rama's expression was almost too painfully beautiful and fragile to behold.

  "Afterbirth has to come yet," Flea said with conviction, handing Rama the shears.

  He gently severed the umbilical cord and tied it off. Then he reluctantly handed the childling to Jaron so he could clean him up.

  Darkin had brought my swaddled daughter to me and placed her on my still swollen belly. I looked down at the tiny creature, hardly believing she was real. She had stopped crying some time ago, and now just stared around her with unfocused eyes. I had never seen anything so glorious in my life.

  "She's got no hair," Jaron remarked. "Is that because she's too young?"

  I gave a tired little laugh. "No, I don't think so. Mother told me Airshin and I were both bald when we were born. Then we grew soft white fluff. I imagine our babes will be the same, given that Rama and I are both fair."

  I didn't want to talk. I was too exhausted to talk. But I was too restless to doze either. I was not finished. The afterbirth needed to be delivered. My daughter made mewling, sucking noises and my breast tingled. I took the tiny babe and held her to my nipple. As if by magic the babe opened her mouth and latched on. The pressure she exerted surprised me.

  "Here's one for the other breast," Jaron said, bring the cleaned and swaddled boy to me. With pillows piled up on either side of me, I held each child in the crook of an arm and let them feed.

  When the final contractions started, I handed over the babes to Calun and Rama and gave myself up to the final task I had to complete. By the time it was done I was ready to sleep. I drifted into the welcome darkness with relief, confident my babes were in safe hands.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  FLEA

  If I live to be a hundred and twenty I doubt I'll see anything as amazing, discomforting and yet as beautiful as the birth of Airsha's babes.

  When she went into labour I panicked. And I wasn't the only one. Even solid old Bertil did. She got so bad that she stayed in the kitchen boiling unnecessary water rather than deal with what she saw as an approaching disaster. I got to stay out of it for a little while too, brewing up a herbal tea for Airsha. Not that it was needed. By the time I brought it in to her she was already starting the last stage.

  My eyes almost bugged out of my head seeing her, naked and round, white-blonde hair hanging over her breasts in wild disarray, two big men on either side of her, holding her hands, while another looked on worriedly, as yet a fourth leaned in between her legs looking at her privates. I had an immediate picture of what it must be like when they all shared pleasure together. And it must have, because Airsha told me to stop gawking, because she was having babes not pleasure with her husbands.

  But I could now imagine what it must be like when they did share pleasure, and for the first time I could see why Calun was happy with the situation. Throughout the whole ordeal it was like he was part of all of it, Airsha going through the rigors of childbirth, his brothers suffering for her and anxious something would go wrong. Though all he did was hold her hand, he was intimately involved in it all. And the expression on his face when the babes were finally placed in Airsha's arms to feed for the first time was one I will never forget. Bliss. He felt incredible bliss.

  Rama was the one that surprised me the most, though. Ever since Airsha had gone off in the middle of a blizzard, I'd known he felt more for her than he let on. But watching him through the delivery, and when he brought his son back to life, was something else completely.

  I think we all thought he'd gone mad when he started swinging the tiny lump of flesh around by the feet. His face was a mask of such misery, and tears were pouring unheeded down his ravaged face. But then the little lump began to cough and cry. And his face transformed.

  Later, when Airsha was asleep and he sat by the fire with his sleeping son in the crook of his arm, staring down at him as if he couldn't quite believe he was real, I asked him what he'd done.

  His soft blue eyes turned up to mine and he smiled at me for the first time ever. "I saw a man do that with a newborn beastling once. He said mucous got stuck in its airways and the force of swinging it around dislodged the blockage. I couldn't think of anything else to do."

  "Well it worked. He looks squished up but rosy enough. And so tiny. I didn't know babes could be so tiny."

  "If they'd been any bigger Airsha wouldn't have been able to carry them. She could barely walk the last few days, anyway. Being that small herself made it harder than it had to be."

  I nodded my agreement. She had seemed to be struggling badly in the last few days. And in retrospect I think she was in labour much earlier than she let on. She'd been willing herself not to have the babes before her mother got here. But it hadn't worked.

  Over the next few days I continued to watch Rama. His son was rarely out of his sight. When he wasn't lying next to his wife watching her feed the little mite, he was carrying him around as he went about his tasks. He spent time with his daughter too, but it was the boy who held his father's heart in his tiny hands.

  I wondered more than once about what Airsha had said to him when the babe wasn't breathing. He's not a monster, he's a helpless babe. Had Rama truly thought his son was a monster? How could anyone feel like that about a childling? Your own
childling? But if he felt that way before, he surely didn't feel that way anymore. Now he acted as if the boy was a god. Ordinary baby things like gassy smiles were miraculous. It would have been funny if it hadn't been so heart-wrenching.

  I heard Rama and Airsha talking softly one morning when she was feeding the babes. He had one big finger out, stroking the cheek of a babe.

  "You will make your daughter jealous the way you're lavishing your son with all the attention," Airsha joked.

  His head had jerked up at that and he'd met her gaze with his own. "No. She's perfect. My love for her was never in doubt."

  "I know. And now there is no doubt you love your son too. We have to name them though, you know. We can't keep calling them girl and boy."

  He nodded, resting his forehead against hers in contentment, the different shades of blonde hair blending perfectly. "I'd like to call her Dalma after Ma."

  She smiled. "I would like that too. I would like to call him Ramin after you."

  He jerked back again, this time in surprise. "Me? No. He deserves a better name than that."

  "Rama, he deserves the best name possible, and that's a version of yours. He is your perfect son, my darling. A sweet innocent childling you will love with all your heart, and who will love you with all of his. Give him your name."

  "He'll have four fathers. He'll prefer them over me. Call him Calin. It suits him better. Such a gentle little soul."

  Airsha smiled benignly. "He is that. And she's already a bit of a rascal. But I love that they will only sleep when laid next to each other. They're so close. I love that they're so close. Ramin will always love Dalma, no matter what mischief she leads him into."

  He shook his head. "You'll have your way on this, won't you, Goddess?"

  She grinned cheekily and batted her eyelashes at him. "I will, and I will be very, very grateful. Do you want to see how grateful?"

  He laughed so loud the babes broke from their meal in surprise. "I know how you show gratitude, and I'll hold you to it. But not for a while yet." Rama kissed her tenderly on the lips as the babes settled back to feeding.

  I crept away then, embarrassed to have been prying into their intimate moment. But I was glad I'd had the chance to get a deeper insight into the big scarred man. He was not nearly as hard and unfeeling as he made out. And I could use that if I had to.

  As often as I could, without drawing attention to myself, I followed Airshin around. I had found out where he went when he disappeared, but not why. He went to a small lean-to on the unused side of the barn, on the opposite side to the dormitories. Inside were stacked, little-used items that didn't need much protection from the elements. There was also a waist high bench topped with jars filled with nails and screws. All very unremarkable. The only thing out of place was a small pouch of henling feathers.

  Bertil kept a small coop of henlings not far from the kitchen door, along with a small garden and a beastling that gave milk that lived in the barn. The feathers could come from her henlings. But why? Why would anyone gather the breast feathers of henlings? All they were good for were pillows. And this small amount would not help with that.

  Airshin would have no interest in feathers, surely. There had to be some other reason he came to the lean-to. Maybe he was making something, but always took it with him or hid it elsewhere when he left. That made more sense. Feathers were so... harmless.

  Maybe he was simply using the lean-to for privacy so he could pleasure himself. But he must be doing a lot of pleasuring, given the time he was missing every day. And now he had his own room, surely he could go there to do it?

  I'd tried to listen to his thoughts, but he was always thinking of innocuous things like the weather or his next meal, or negative thoughts about Airsha, like how spoiled she'd become having four husbands − if they could be called husbands. How unfair it was that she had become the Goddess' Chosen One when he would have suited the role more perfectly. How it was typical that his mother would travel across great distances to be with Airsha but had never made any effort to see him since she escaped the harem. I'd caught moments of smug satisfaction, but I had no idea why he was feeling that way. Either he was a very clever man who kept his wayward thoughts under control or he truly was as lacking in imagination and introspection as he seemed, and consumed by his bitterness toward his sister.

  Of course I couldn't use this as evidence against the bastard, as he'd made his feelings about her known from the start. Hating his sister didn't make him a threat to their Centre or the rebel cause. Nor was it enough to make Rama kill him. An overt act would be necessary, or indisputable evidence that he planned to hurt her. None of which I had.

  It was all so frustrating. And time was running out. I had to make something happen soon or it would be too late.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  AIRSHA

  Spring was upon us and the first of the new recruits had begun to drift in. Not that we were anywhere near ready for them. The unrest among the airlings had intensified in the last moon and it was all any of us could do to keep the creatures from damaging themselves permanently, no less train with their supposed riders.

  Mother had come and gone. Discovering I had successfully delivered my babes made her visit redundant. I knew she would have stayed longer, to get to know her grandchildlings, but Airshin upset her too much. His constant demands for attention and his sly comments about me agitated her.

  Being away from Beyen upset her too, though she tried hard to hide it. It was like they were in the throes of first love. Every moment apart was torture. In the end, I'd told her to go. This war could steal her happiness quickly enough. She should spend as much time with her lover as possible. And she'd gratefully agreed.

  Airshin seemed to be appreciating his room off from the dormitory more these days. It had surprised me how easily he'd accepted being moved down there. I imagine the promise of lusty babe lungs had gone a long way to convince him. And since their arrival those lungs were challenging all of us in the main homestead with sleepless nights.

  But I was doing much better simply having Airshin out from underfoot. I hadn't been aware just how much of a strain he was putting on me until he was gone from my home. Yes, I had to see him at meal times. But more and more he was taking his meals in his room, and my husbands let him. It was easier to send a lad down with his plate, and collect it later, than to risk whatever would come out of his mouth next upsetting someone else.

  The lads loathed him. If Ratch hadn't lost his place for fighting, more of them would have tried to take him on. Though none of the lads were as old as my brother, a few were bigger than him, and likely could have done well in a fight against him. Airshin had learned to fight when he was among the youths-in-training, but he'd never been good at it and hadn't kept up the necessary training since he'd joined us.

  News of the war filtered in on a regular basis. There were successes for our side but also many devastating losses. Great swathes of the Badlunds had been burned out by the Godling's army in an effort to flush out the rebels. The kinglunds had begun to think twice about aiding the rebels when they saw the lengths the Godling would go to win. None of them wanted their kinglunds razed.

  But the groundswell of popular support was growing, even while the nobles vacillated. So much rested on the stories spreading like wildfire about me and my airling army. Little did they know that I was weakened by the birth of my childlings and the airling army was in disarray.

  It was clear to us all by now that the airlings were not suited to taking part in something as formal as an army. It was the only explanation we could come up with to explain the increasing incidents of violence because, in every other way, they continued to give their support to our cause wholeheartedly.

  Calun had assigned Flea the bloody task of cleaning wounds and sewing up serious injuries where she could. While all the other lads seemed to create unrest among the airlings, Flea did not. Spot was the only airling who had claimed her, much to her relief.

  I f
elt most sorry for Zem. In that first moon after he was claimed, he had developed a very close bond with Storm. But when more than one airling tried to claim him, putting Storm at risk, he'd kept his distance from all of them. Instead, he spent his time helping with the building project.

  I was starting to wonder if all the building would be necessary. Our airling army was a disaster before it even took to the skies.

  One morning, after the first good night's sleep any of us at the homestead had had in the moon and a half since the babes had been born, we awoke to a terrible cry for help. My men were out of bed so fast it amazed me. Though I was just as anxious to find out what had happened, I had to move more slowly. My body was still sluggish and the babes, awakened by the rising of their fathers, had started to cry. Which brought my milk down fast. The front of my gown was instantly soaked and I had to deal with my hungry offspring first.

  By the time I had babes attached to each breast, and could head out the front door wrapped in the huge fur coat my mother had brought with her when she came, Rama was there pushing me back inside again.

  "What is it? What's happened?" I cried, not allowing him to shepherd me back inside.

  "Airlings. You don't want to see this," he said, his voice choked up with unshed tears.

  "What do you mean? What has happened, Rama!" I cried, growing even more distressed.

  "Several of them must have fought last night. A serious fight. Three airlings are dead." He barely got the last word out through his gritted teeth. His emotions were volatile. I could tell how upset the deaths had made him, but his rage had roared into being to keep the pain at bay. Yet it had no focus. None of us knew what was causing this terrible violence, and Rama needed something to hit, someone to blame.

  "Let me go. I have to see what I can do," I demanded, knowing I'd draw his fury down on my own head, but wanting it that way. I knew he wouldn't hurt me or the babes, but he could yell at me, and that would make him feel better.