Once a Goddess by Sheila R. Lamb

Author:Sheila R. Lamb [Sheila R. Lamb]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Triple Fire Press
Published: 2022-07-12T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 26

Fodla tended to new arrivals, warriors whose injuries were limited to gashes that did not need surgery. I had heard her ask a warrior fretfully about Lugh. Other warriors carried their fallen comrades on leather stretchers and I led them to Dian Cet. I felt heavy with pregnancy and I felt a sharp contraction. Eiru followed behind me. “Brigid – stop.”

“What is it?” We had so many injured by the Fir Bolg’s heavy blows, bruises, concussions, internal bleeding. Stitches were not the skill I needed.

“Brigid, you’re in labor.”

I saw that blood trickled down my legs. “This isn’t supposed to happen. Not yet.” Water, not blood. I panicked, breathing fast and shallow.

“Fodla, help me, quickly!” Eiru called to my sister across the room, as Dian Cet went to my other side for support.

Eiru and Dian Cet led me to the birthing room, in the deep recesses underground. Then I felt another pang and another. “My baby.”

“Come, now, Brigid.” Dian Cet’s voice calmed me as I doubled over. “We will stop the bleeding and prepare for your child’s birth. Eiru, find Micah and tend to the warriors.”

Fodla had arranged a pallet for me to lie down on, until the time came to walk and pace the room to speed the labor. My abdomen rippled with a tearing pain again, and I cried out. I knew to expect pain. I didn’t know it would hurt so much. Repeatedly, the contractions tore through me. Eiru and Fodla did their best to massage my stomach, to hold my hands. Their faces blurred. Voices moaned low, fuzzy, unclear.

“Please.” My voice rasped against the dryness of my throat. Another searing blade tore through me again and I found myself lost in a blessed blackness.

I floated above, and watched my own body go limp. This time, I had no control over my actions, unlike when I followed Bres on his ship. Something beyond my own power pulled me along. A need. A calling. I followed because I had to, because I could not turn away and return to where my body lay writhing in pain.

I heard the thunder of shields, as swords smashed against them. I was above the green hills of our valley, not too far from the tuath. The Fir Bolg had pushed our warriors back, farther and more quickly than planned. They should not have been in our territory at all. Pulled along by the unknown force, I probed for openings, for connections, some way to communicate in this void.

Padraic. I watched as he deftly thrust his sword into an unguarded Fir Bolg. The oversized creature gagged and choked on his own blood as he fell. Padraic swirled around, searching for the next enemy to fight, his blue eyes blazed in the sunlight. Bres was with him and back to back, they fought off the next Fir Bolg.

Brigid? Their voices. In unison.

Padraic felt my presence. Bres felt my presence. Then I saw that the two men I cared for fought alongside each other to defeat the enemy.

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