Daine would have liked to sleep in the next morning, but they were all awakened by a loud knock on the door right after sunrise. Numair groaned and buried his face in his pillow beside her. "Midwife," he said, voice muffled by the pillow.
"I guess we have to get up then," Daine said tiredly, yawning. Kitten crawled up the blankets and whistled sleepily in Daine's face, and she kissed the dragon on the nose. Usually, Kitten slept in her own bed in the other room, but they had let her enjoy their first night back at home snuggled up between their legs.
Numair rolled from the bed and threw on breeches and a shirt and went to answer the door as Daine levered herself up on the pillows and checked under the blankets. The baby must have been just as tired as she was; she had kept the bottom half of an orangutan all night.
The bedchamber door opened, Numair in the lead. "Prepare yourself," he told her quietly, and soon the room was filled with half a dozen people, peering at her and whispering. She recognized some, like the royal midwife, Mistress Elnid, and a few of the midwife's apprentices and assistants. Hester, who served under Mistress Elnid, had a brother in the Riders and dined in the Rider's mess with him often. Two of the people she had never seen before, young women who wore badges on their tunics as novices. She suddenly felt very self-conscious about the old nightgown that she had dug out of the wardrobe. Her hair probably looked like she had a roost of birds in it.
Mistress Elnid approached first. She was an older woman with graying hair and a no-nonsense air about her. "The queen has tasked me with your care, Mistress Sarrasri. My staff and I will attend you until after the babe is born, and then through its first year of life."
"Really?" Daine asked, astounded the queen would do that for her. Typically, the royal midwife only saw people in the royal family.
"Yes. Now tell me how all this started." She waved a hand to Daine's middle, which was growing and shrinking under the blankets. Daine recounted the story, and some of the assistants at end of the bed took notes. Once she finished, the midwife nodded.
"Do you think you can get it to stop? The shifting?" Daine asked hopefully. Numair, sitting beside her, squeezed her hand.
"I need to examine you before I decide that." She looked to Numair. "Master Salmalin, this is usually where the father of the child makes themselves scarce."
He sat up a little straighter. "I am an expert on wild magic, Mistress Elnid. It might be beneficial for me to be in the room for questions." Daine had to resist rolling her eyes. She knew it was really just because he didn't want to leave her.
"And I am an expert on childbearing. I will ask you questions after I examine her." She gave a stern nod towards the bedchamber door.
Numair, not used to being told what to do by people other than Daine, was momentarily still, trying to decide whether to put up a fight or not.
"Scat," Daine said, elbowing him.
"Come on, Kit," he muttered, a bit darkly, and took up the dragon and left the room.
The midwife examined her - all of her, much to her embarrassment - and then spent nearly half an hour listening to the baby with her magic. The apprentices also listened, conferring with Mistress Elnid quietly, agreeing with her assessments and asking questions. Daine listened intently, trying to figure out what their coded words could mean.
Finally, they allowed her to redress. She sat back down on the bed, leaning against the headboard.
"Have you been seeing a midwife?" Mistress Elnid asked.
"No," Daine said, blushing a bit. She knew, from her ma, the lecture she was about to get. "Just healers at the forts I was going between in the north."
Elnid shook her head. "And your own mother a midwife! Healers have very limited knowledge in prenatal care. You are lucky indeed that the baby is growing and healthy after you neglected to take proper care." Daine, feeling like her own mother was scolding her, crossed her arms but held her tongue. She had no idea how Mistress Elnid knew her ma had been a midwife. The older woman turned to an assistant. "Let Master Salmalin back in before he blows something up." The assistant went to the door and Numair was back in the room and settling protectively beside Daine again in a matter of moments.
"Well," Mistress Elnid continued, looking at the both of them. "I have to say, this is by far the most interesting case I have seen in my career. I would like to say I have an easy solution, but I do not. Quite frankly, the question of getting the baby to stop shifting may not be the one to solve at the moment."
"What do you mean?" Daine asked, not liking where this was heading.
"The babe is healthy and growing, Mistress Sarrasri. You are healthy as well, if not a little tired and uncomfortable, which has never killed anyone to my knowledge. If there is no easy solution, the best thing to do will be let the baby reach term and concentrate on just how to deliver this…child."
Daine bit back a groan.
"Mistress Elnid, if I may," Numair interjected. "When Daine first came to Tortall, I set up a barrier in her mind to assist with her…magic. It is a simple spell that may be repeated on the baby, if I could guide you to place it. Perhaps that would stop the shifting?"
The midwife shook her head. "A baby in the womb is constantly developing, Master Salmalin, including its mind. I would very much advise against any kind of spell on the baby itself, as it could damage and stunt growth."
Numair sighed, obviously frustrated at not knowing an answer. "I am planning on scouring the university library as soon as possible to see if I can find a solution."
The midwife nodded. "Let me know what you find. In the mean time…" She turned to Hester, her senior apprentice, who held up a large healer's kit. Elnid pulled from it several bags of teas and plopped them onto the nightstand beside the bed. "Drink at least three cups a day. Eat to satisfy your hunger. With the amount of magic you are using and the pregnancy, you are going to be very hungry. I hear you do not eat meat?"
Daine shook her head. "Not much."
"Then you will need to eat other fats to help the baby's growth, like cheese, milk, and nuts. Fish will be good as well. I will talk to the kitchens about what to send up to you. If you feel like anything is amiss, like the babe is not moving or if you start bleeding at all, call on me immediately. I am treating this as a high risk case, meaning I want you off your feet and resting as much as you can. And you," she said, turning towards Numair. "If you stick any part of your body inside of hers, I will find out and I will see you duly punished, do you understand?"
Daine had to cover a grin with her hand as Numair turned deep red and murmured, "I understand, Mistress Elnid."
"Good. I will be back in a few days to check on you."
"Mistress Elnid?" Daine asked before the midwife could sweep from the room. "Were you able to tell if the child is a boy or a girl?"
The midwife looked down at her with a bit of sympathy. "Don't you know? The baby is shifting sexes as well."
Daine and Numair exchanged a long look as the team of midwifes left them.
Midwinter arrived bright and cold a week later. While people all over the realm were celebrating, Daine was sitting on their couch with her nasty tea feeling very much like a caged bird. She looked out the window behind her with longing. Kitten, who as inspecting the packages on the table beside her, let out a sad chirp at Daine's forlorn face.
"I'm just tired of being cooped up, is all," she told the dragon.
Numair came to join them, yawning and shivering. "Aren't you cold?" he asked, and flames leapt in the fireplace, sparked by his magic.
"I'm always hot these days, with all this going on." She nodded to her middle, which at the moment was the shape of a white bear with its full winter's coat. "Besides, you're always cold."
He grinned at that. "I am." Going to the small table in front of the couch, he let out a low whistle at the gifts piled there.
"I guess our friends have heard we are back," Daine remarked, taking another swallow of the bitter tea.
"Or they are feeling bad for us this year," Numair said, and sat next to her. He put an arm around her and pulled a box out of thin air to present to her. "Happy Midwinter, my love," he said, and kissed her forehead.
"Let me guess…jewelry?" she asked with a grin. She had teased him in the past about always getting her jewelry for holidays and birthdays, gifting them along with other things that she enjoyed more. She had realized, before the war with Scanra broke out, that he had done it to create a small egg of fortune for her if she ever needed it. Though they equally paid for their living expenses from their own funds, she was still a single woman in the eyes of the law and it was valuable for her to have an emergency access to money if she ever needed it. She had realized this when he had taken her aside before they left for the war and told her he had changed his will to leave her all his possessions and the tower. He explained that she would need to sell some of the jewels he had given her to upkeep the tower if something were to happen to him. When he told her, she had smacked his arm and fussed angrily at him, then cried into his shirt as he had held her. She had been outraged and then overwhelmingly grateful that he would think to care for her in any circumstance.
"Open it and see," he told her, nodding to the box. She slid the top off and pulled out a gold band. It was studded with clear diamonds and, when she held it close to her eye, she could see tiny animals carved delicately on it.
"It's a marriage band," he told her quietly, and her eyes went wide.
"It's beautiful, Numair." She slipped it onto the finger next to her pinky. Thankfully her fingers had not swollen yet and it fit perfectly. "How on earth did you have time to have it made?" He simply shrugged, and she frowned. "How long have you had this?" she asked instead.
"If I tell you, you will be angry with me." He pulled out another gift, larger and wrapped in paper. "Since you cannot wear the ring right away, here is a gift you can use now."
She slid the ring off and placed it back into the box, then unwrapped her next gift. It was a leather bound book with no title. She opened it and found parchment with her handwriting and his, and intermediate scatterings of detailed illustrations of different parts of dragons.
"Is this…?" she breathed, looking at the pages in more detail. "Is this my notes on dragons? And yours as well?"
He smiled. "I thought they should be put together where they would not be lost. Of course, we will still have more to note in the coming years as Kitten grows, but there were plenty to make a first volume. Volney did the illustrations, of course."
Daine flipped to the beginning, where she saw he had carefully penned Written and Complied by Veralidaine Sarrasri and Numair Salmalin onto the first page. She looked up at him, tears in her eyes.
"The next one will say Veralidaine Salmalin, if you are willing to take my name."
"Of course I will take your name, dolt," she said through her tears. He smiled and gave her a handkerchief. "And I told you to stop making me cry," she added, and he laughed.
Kitten poured over the book as she pulled his gifts from the pile on the table. She handed him the smaller box first. He opened it and pulled out a small locket, opening it to find it empty. "I thought you could add it to your collection, when the baby comes," she told him, nodding to the invisible bracelet on his wrist. He laughed.
"Thank you, magelet. I will be happy to."
Daine also gave him a new leather-bound journal and a nice quill, which he was very excited about. They opened the other gifts from their friends, and gave Kitten a prism made from glass that she could light up, send flying, and spin with her whistles and croaks.
The rest of the day was uneventful, both of them electing to nap in the afternoon and read new books they had received. In the evening, Daine convinced Numair to dress and attend the Midwinter feast held in the great hall. Of course, being under strict orders from the midwife, she could not attend. He was reluctant to leave her, but finally relented, dressed, and left.
She gave him a few moments to get down the hall, then flicked the bedcovers aside and said, "Come on, Kit."
Throwing off her new nightgown, which she felt resembled a medium sized tent, she found a comfortable dress that would hide her changing lower half, quickly tied back her hair, threw on a cloak, and slipped into the hall. Thankfully, almost the entire palace was deserted, most residents and servants celebrating the holiday.
The night air was cold and nipped at her nose and chin, but she took a deep breath of it with gladness. Going as quickly as she could muster in her awkward, pregnant, changing body, she slipped to the Rider's stables and into Cloud's stall. Spots, housed in the next stall over, threw his head over the low wall and lipped her shoulder.
Where have you been? Cloud demanded, stomping a hoof in the dirt.
I'm not allowed to leave my rooms. The midwife commanded me to stay put and Numair will barely let me out of his sight. I snuck out when he went to dinner.
Spots snorted at that and she reached to pat them both.
That is ridiculous, Cloud continued, ears going back. You are one of the People, and so is your foal! To not let you be with the People is foolish!
Some of the People can visit me in the palace, she reminded her pony. She had had many small animal visitors the past week; cats, dogs, mice, and birds at their windows. Lindhall had carried his huge tortoise Sunstone to visit yesterday, and Zek had been brought up several times from the marmoset enclosure in the menagerie, where he lived with his new mate and kits.
I think that is Cloud's way of saying she misses you, Spots told her, and Cloud pinned her ears at the gelding. Daine giggled.
"I've missed you, too," she whispered aloud.
Daine visited with the horses a little longer, then slipped outside. She was tired, the constant use of her magic draining. The baby seemed to be learning more shapes as she was outside, almost like the wild magic from the animals was making her baby realize more and more about its skills. Some of the shapes made it very difficult to walk, and so she decided not to go far. She settled onto the ground behind the stables, leaning against the wall. Kitten tried to climb into her lap, but she stalled her. "I'm going to call some friends. Why don't you sit beside me instead? They may be a little scared of you."
Kitten nodded, not seeming to give offense. She had learned that not all of Daine's friends easily trusted her, no matter what her adopted mother told them.
Daine called the bats from around the palace, whom she was very familiar with. They flocked to her, all different types, and clung to her and around her. Several owls came as well, perching on the low roof above their heads. Diane spoke with them all, taking time to ensure they each got some of her attention. They were all curious about her changing form and the largeness of her belly. One bat wanted to know if she had been preparing for winter by eating too many bugs.
"No, it's a baby," she had whispered to them. "Though it can't decide which shape, yet."
It should try bat shape! one of the younger brown bats told her, and the others agreed enthusiastically. Daine hoped the baby didn't get any ideas.
She sat out in the cold grass longer than she realized. The moon had risen high in the sky when she heard footsteps approaching from the door to the stable. Sarge appeared, and when he saw her he gave her a smile.
"How did you get rid of him?" he asked, sitting next to her. He handed her a thick horse blanket, and she gratefully wrapped it around her cloak for an extra layer.
"Sent him off to the feast. Why aren't you out celebrating?" Diane asked.
"I did, but it's too cold. How the little one?"
Daine sighed, taking a hand over her belly, which was currently the belly of a horse. She wondered if being around the horses had any effect on why the baby had chosen that shape. "Fine, as far as we can tell. It's fair annoying, changing all the time, but like the midwife says, no one has ever died of being annoyed before."
Sarge let out a boom of a laugh at that. They sat in the quiet for a little before he said, "I heard you're finally going to make an honest man out of Numair and marry him."
"I am." She grinned. "Though we haven't decided when, yet. Sometime before the babe comes, I imagine."
"Well I'm happy for the two of you. It's been a long time coming."
Daine nodded. "It has. I'm realizing now I was probably being much to stubborn about it all."
"Nah," Sarge said, letting Kitten have the apple he had stuffed in a pocket. "It's good you've made him wait. He wasn't going to go anywhere, anyway. You two are meant to be together. And this little one -" he nodded to her middle "- will fit in just perfectly."
Daniel cocked her head at him. "Are you trying to say our little family is odd?"
He laughed. "The odder, the better, my lamb."
She smiled, rubbing her bump once more. She turned human then, and her body happily settled from a tension she didn't realize she had held, even if it meant her bare feet were now cold. She threw the blanket over them. "It happens, from time to time," she told Sarge, who was eyeing her feet. "Don't worry, it won't last long. Speaking of the baby, Numair and I have been talking about godsparents. Seeing as how you have known Numair so long, and how we have been friends since I first came here, we wanted to ask you if you would consider being one of this baby's godsparents?"
Sarge beamed at her, his white teeth showing clearly in the night. "I would be honored."
"Even if it's not a human?" Daine asked. "Or a horse?"
"Horse, rabbit, grizzly bear…I would be honored to be the child's godsparent."
"Thank you," Daine told him, and then gave him a hug. The baby shifted to a giraffe, making her much longer legs stick out of the blanket. Sarge looked down at them as she sighed. "That's been a favorite, recently," she told him. Thankfully, the baby shifted quickly to a deer, which was much more manageable. "I best be getting back, before the dinner is over and I'm found out." She stood awkwardly, Sarge reaching out to brace her. "You won't tell him I've been sneaking out of doors?"
Sarge shook his head. "I won't say a word, but you know he will find out, eventually."
He found out a lot sooner than she had hoped for. Daine opened their door and froze at the sight of Numair in his chair. He lowered the book he was reading and raised an eyebrow to her. She sighed, stalking over to the couch with Kitten in tow.
"Go ahead," she said, sitting down. "Lecture me about how I'm putting myself and our baby in danger, not to mention being outside on a freezing cold night while I'm pregnant, and how you're never taking your eye off me again."
Numair sat the book aside, then reached over to grab her hand. To her surprise, he leaned forwards and kissed it. "Actually, I was going to ask if you enjoyed your time with…what was it tonight, bats?" He nodded to her clothes, which she realized were covered in small bat droppings. She quickly took off her cloak and balled the dirty side up, then reached forward and lay a hand on his forehead.
"Are you feeling ill, love?" she asked, making a show of checking for a fever. He chuckled and pulled her into his lap, not an easy task in her current state.
"Not ill at all. I know you've been miserable, caged in here all week. Honestly, I'm surprised you lasted this long. I thought that surely you would have snuck out when I was scouring the library days ago."
She shook her head. "Couldn't. The midwife's assistants are all over the place."
He played with a curl that had come loose on the side of her face. "It isn't fair for you to be away from the People for too long. I know, and I am sorry. Though I would like it if, next time you sneak out, you would at least leave a note so I don't have to use the focus." He jiggled his wrist as the chain and locket suddenly appeared, reminding her it was there.
"I'm sorry. I will."
He nodded, and kissed her tenderly.
"So does this mean you're going to tell Mistress Elnid to let me go out from time to time?" she asked hopefully.
"Not a chance, magelet. She terrifies me."
"Nonsense," Daine said with a grin. "She just tells you what to do, and she isn't me, so you can't sass back."
"I never sass back to you," he said, and kissed her again. "Sometimes I just have to put my foot down."
"Mmhmm," Daine said, and started to kiss him back, when suddenly her lower half turned into a rhinoceros, making the chair creak in protest. Number's face paled and he let out stiffed groan as he resisted the urge not to push a much heavier Daine off his lap. She stood as quickly as she could, swaying with a balance she wasn't use to, and caught herself on the couch.
"Sorry," she said, feeling bad. He shook his head and whispered that he was alright in a strained voice.
After a few moments, he regain his composure and cleared his throat. "It's for the best, anyway. I have one more gift I needed to show you."
"Another…Numair! That's not fair."
He smiled. "It's for the baby, don't worry." He stood, shaking the last of the pain from his long legs, and offered her a hand.
They went to a small room that used to house magical supplies, but was now mostly cleaned out. "When did you do this?" Dained asked. Numair cast his magelight for them to see.
"While you've been napping this week. Come have a look."
He pulled her into the room, just big enough for the two of them, a dresser, and a the new piece of furniture against the back wall. Daine went to it, running her hands over it in awe.
It was a deeply stained wooden crib, and on the head and footboards were intricate carvings of all kinds of woodland creatures. Daine peered closer and saw they were portrayed as dancing on their hind legs, arms linked, with scrolling flowers looped over and under the animals.
"Here you go, making me cry again," Daine whispered, placing her hands on the side rails of the crib. Numair chuckled and wrapped his arms around her from behind.
"I sent word to have it commissioned right after you told me about the baby. It was just completed a few days ago. Once again, I got it in here while you were napping."
Daine laughed, wiping tears away. "I need to stop taking so many naps, apparently."
"Take as many naps as you would like. You deserve them." He kissed the top of her head. "Happy Midwinter, my love."