"You smell like springtime," Halla said, loosening Maukurz's braid with her fingers. "I forgot that there was always snow at the top of the mountain. I wish I could see flowers…"

"It's not safe, ashgaz. There are soldiers about… and any day now…"

"Yes, Baby," Halla said, smiling. She lay her hands on her big belly for a moment, pushing softly, until the little thing thumped back with a hard, strong kick. "Here he is!"

Maukurz brightened and leaned down over Halla's belly, pressing his lips to the lovely curve. He waited until he felt the little kicks, his palms smooth as he tried to make out how big his whelp's foot was. "Gonna be big," Maukurz murmured. "Strong." He closed his eyes. I will not think of her dying. I will not think of Baby dying. Not when they are both here now, and well.

Well enough, Maukurz thought guiltily. Halla's arms and legs were sticks, her cheeks were gaunt, and no matter how much he tried to feed her, Baby greedily sucked it all up. Her belly—though she was still small to him, he understood when the horse lord said he thought his own mother would burst. It was unnerving to see such a large belly on such a small creature. Halla had managed to make herself a loose hide dress, but not before her pretty gowns were stretched and torn. Sometimes she looked at her dusty pile of Mannish wealth and laughed at her foolishness. But she was never upset with him, never regretful about coming to live with him. Always smiling at him. Sometimes he felt good from that smile; sometimes he felt like shit for not deserving her.

The next day, Maukurz spent a long while outside the cave. When he returned, Halla was sleeping. He picked up one of her scraped, unused hides, a large enough thing from a red deer buck, and brought it out of the cave. A while later Maukurz returned, dropped to his knees, and leaned over Halla, brushing her hair back to whisper in her ear. "Fủthlat ashgaz-izub, brushizg lủl-lab…"

She murmured something without words, smiling as she came awake. "What is that, love?"

"I'm taking you outside. It's spring."

Maukurz lifted her easily. Halla wrapped her arms around his neck. "What do you mean it's spring?" Halla asked, grinning as he carried her through the cave where Narzum was lounging, leisurely putting braids into his hair. A pile of tiny deer bones sat at his feet. Maukurz lifted an eyebrow to it, but had no time to care.

Maukurz brought Halla into the sunlight, and she laughed breathily in delight. He'd cleared away a circle of snow, and filled it all with golden daffodils, the ones that grew rampant up and down the mountains in late April and early May. Maukurz sat down with Halla, holding her in his lap. He rubbed his hand up and down her leg. "You warm enough?"

"Of course I am," Halla said, grabbing the long green stems of four sunny daffodils. She held them up before her smiling lips and said, laughing, "It's spring, isn't it?" Halla clutched the flowers in her hand as she wrapped her arms around Maukurz's waist, whispering, "Thank you."

He brought a bunch inside for her, and scattered the rest in the forest, creeping as low as he dared down the mountain. Maukurz blurred out a horse track with the heel of his sandal. He closed his eyes, listening with his hand to the ground, feeling the pounding of hoofbeats on far trails tickling his fingertips. But they wouldn't come to where the Uruks had climbed, where Maukurz had carried Halla to. They were safe where they slept.

But between the tarks and the Uruks' grudge with the Dunlendings, Maukurz thought it was only a matter of time. Maybe Narzum was right. Maybe they should go north, like Ghuribal.

Maukurz jogged back into the rising river, running a ways upstream before he began his climb again, back into the cold and snow. "Tarks got a little higher today," he told Baiurz, who'd just returned from his own hunt. "Are the others here?"

"Nevermind that. Yer woman says she's havin' the baby now. Get in there."

Halla, sitting on her bed, held her hands out for Maukurz as he skidded into their small living area. She pulled him close. "Oh I'm so glad you're back!"

"What happened yet?"

"Like you told me: cramps. Three now, since you've been gone, none too painful. And some, um, bloody stuff," Halla said, blushing. "That you also told me about."

"All right. All right. Good. No water, right? No. Good. We don't want that so soon. All right. I'm boilin' water. Then I'm doin' that checkin' you thing we talked about, see whut's whut." Maukurz stood up, spun in a circle for a moment, unsure of which way to go. He dropped to his knees again and grabbed Halla's face, kissing her hard. "You're both gonna be fine. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow… Baby will be here, and you'll be feelin' better."

Halla nodded, taking a shaking breath. "We'll be fine," she repeated.

"I'm gonna see if Baiurz will cook you up some food. Helmet stew, like we made before. And a little meat while you wait."

"Oh I just want some bread…"

"I know ashgaz. We all want that. But we got what we got, right? All right. I'm gettin' to work."

Another kiss, and Maukurz set out to boil water. The Rider Edwyn had said it again and again: clean hands. Boil all the wash water first. Maukurz refused to think beyond that step, though images of his son jumped around in his mind, until he was so happy and terrified he thought he'd scream. Soon enough Narzum and Shatauz returned, and sat in anxious vigil while Maukurz prepared, and Baiurz cooked.

As soon as his hands were scrubbed, Maukurz followed Edwyn's instructions exactly. Even knowing what to expect, he felt slightly disappointed when he felt how little her womb was open. He looked up between Halla's legs, where the young woman watched eagerly, biting her lip. Maukurz shook his head. "Not yet. Like I said. Gonna be a while. Best eat now, get up your strength."

Halla found that she was ravenously hungry. Once she'd finished all the meat Baiurz cooked for her, picked out the soft chunks and drank the meaty broth from the stew, she lay back on her bed waiting for something to happen. Her next contraction was no longer than the first three: a long while since her last, and easily managed, indicating that delivery was still a good way off. It was so easy, with so little pain, that Halla wondered if she'd been terrified for no reason at all. "Maybe it won't be hard," she said languidly, resting her head in Maukurz's lap. "Maybe it will be so easy we'll laugh at ourselves for all our worry."

"Hope so," Maukurz said, smoothing her hair.

But almost as soon as night fell, the pain of each contraction was intensifying. Breathless, Halla clutched Maukurz's hand, trying not to scream. Soon she couldn't hold back anymore, and the Uruks in the cave exchanged nervous glances as Halla's screams filled the air around them. Baiurz slapped his thighs and stood up, walking around the soot-stained sheet hung months ago. His eyes narrowed on the sight of Halla lying on her back panting and gritting her teeth. Whatever she was enduring must have hurt something terrible, and Maukurz was focused intently on her, wiping her brow with a damp rag. He looked up at Baiurz with raw fear in his face.

"It's s'posed to get like this, her friend said."

"The warrior," Baiurz replied grimly.

"Her friend," Maukurz repeated. "If he was gonna hunt for us, he'd have done it a long time ago."

"All the same, there are other hunters about. She can't scream."

"What? Do you know what sort of pain she's in? Can you not see?"

Baiurz nodded. "I can see. And maybe where she comes from, screamin' an all that is fine. But she's one of us now. She chose to be one of us. So she gotta do her business quiet. You hear me, Halla? Quiet. Unless you want those soldiers running down on us 'fore you finish having the little one."

Maukurz grit his jaw. Halla turned her face, pressed it against his thigh. He could hear her weeping, and it tore at his heart.

"Give her somethin' to bite down on. That's the best we can do for her. No more screaming."

Halla's labor lasted through the night, and through another day as well, horrifying the Uruks, none more than Maukurz, who was tearing at his hair. He didn't understand why her body seemed to be ready—her womb was open, he could feel something wet and smooth there now—but Baby wasn't coming. Whatever was happening was tearing the girl up. By the second night, she couldn't scream, even if it was allowed: she was delirious with exhaustion. Maukurz knew that when the baby started to come out, she had to push. But how could she do that, when she didn't even have the strength to grip his fingers? Deep into the night her water broke, and she became lucid for a few moments, watching Maukurz with feverish, sunken eyes. "Please…" she rasped. "I can't—"

Maukurz checked her again, brushing her legs apart easily, because there was no strength in them. His heart flipped: he could feel thick wet hair, and the top of Baby's big head. But it wasn't moving, and Maukurz thought, agonized, that his child was stuck in his girl's narrow hips. He tried to smile. "I can feel him now."

"Coming… out?"

He wanted to lie to her, but as he was trying to get the lie past his lips, he choked a little, his eyes closed. He shook his head.

Halla couldn't even groan. Another pain came, sharp and tearing, and then another, and forgetting all about Baby, she whimpered that she wanted to sleep, she wanted the pain to stop and she didn't care how. When the contraction passed, she reached limply for Maukurz, and he crawled over her. "I want Ailith," she sobbed weakly. "I can't do it alone, I want Ailith…"

"Naw, little girl, she can't come here…"

"Please!"

"Maukurz!" the commander's voice was sharp. Horrified, Maukurz looked wildly over his shoulder. Old Baiurz nodded grimly. "I think you'd better try to fetch someone for her. If she's askin' for a woman friend, I don't think there's a choice now. Baby's got to live… Or else all of this ain't worth a shit. Our lives ain't worth shit."

"You don't understand… That woman… I know her. She won't come."

Baiurz nodded knowingly. "You think I don't hear things? There's a Man and a sharlob who know about you and her, who've kept us secret. You can try to find them… Or you can watch Halla and Baby die."

Maukurz sunk his head in his hands, until a breathy little sob told him that the pain was coming back. His eyes stung with grief as he leaned over Halla, kissing her brow softly. Her eyes were closed, and she was weakly shaking her head, the hide strap she'd bravely bit down on earlier abandoned, because she didn't even have the strength to scream. "All right. I'ma go get her. I'ma run like I never run, Halla, and I'ma make her come. Edwyn too. I'm sorry, little girl… I'm so fucking sorry…"

Halla was incoherent, frighteningly unaware of what was happening again. "Narzum!" Maukurz cried, desperation in his voice. None of the Uruks had slept, holding their vigil with Halla. Now Narzum jumped up and ran to Maukurz. "Stay by her. Hold her head, talk to her. Tell her I'm coming right back with help for her. And don't… don't let her die."

Narzum had never seen a woman in such pain. It was a hideous picture, her lovely body all swollen in the middle, her eyes wet with tears and black with exhaustion, her limbs weak and limp. Privately, he thought Halla was as close to death as he'd ever seen any white-skin. Terrified, he sat down behind the woman, afraid to touch her.

By the time Maukurz started his dash down the mountain, a heavy rain began to fall, and Halla was unconscious.

Fủthlat ashgaz-izub, brushizg lủl-lab - Awaken, my little one, I have your flowers.