The Gantean by Emily June Street

Author:Emily June Street [Street, Emily June]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-06-26T23:00:00+00:00

Fifteen

“Is she with us?” Lethemian words, a woman’s voice.

I forced my eyes open.

“Yes!” cried Amethyst. “She’s opened her eyes.”

I struggled into the stark clarity of Ijiq. “Baby,” I mumbled, helpless and confused.

“Leila, it’s not just a baby,” replied Amethyst, grinning.

“Miss.” The midwife leaned over me. “You have two, and they came early. They are very small and delicate. Be careful these first few sennights. No visitors. Keep a perfectly clean space and remain in your room. The babies may take only your own milk. Eat well to keep up your strength. Come, will you hold them?”

Amethyst placed a small bundle into each of my arms. They were so tiny, hardly larger than puppies.

“At first I thought the boy must be stuck, he took so long in coming,” said Amethyst. “But you finally pushed him out. Then Midwife Mirea said you had a second baby coming!”

“What day is it?” I asked blearily.

“The seventeenth day of Amatos,” said Amethyst. “You were in labor for nearly two days!”

My children were beautiful. Certainly every mother felt so of her own child, even a Gantean mother, who showed no outward preference for her own blood. But my babies were as smooth and glowing as water-washed gems, not raw and red like so many newborns. I pushed back their swaddling; no one could tell them apart by their faces alone. I called my firstborn Tiriq after the mythical Gantean boy who traveled down from the stars and shaped the earth. I called my girl Tianiq, Tiriq’s sister who cried the oceans.

“Are you sure they should have such names?” asked the midwife when I told her my choices. “They sound barbarian.”

“I am Gantean. They will have names of my people.”

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