The Naiad Queen

Chapter 18

The Naiad Trilogy

Part 3: The Naiad Queen

Chapter 18

"Caspian, it's time!" Gael said loudly as she too stood up. "Orlich, go find my mother and tell her and find someone to come and clean this up."

Orlich nodded and quickly left.

"Come on, Caspian, we have to get her to the birthing room. It's okay, Ava. Just breathe like my Mum told you to."

Together Caspian and Gael slowly and carefully led Ava through the halls to the birthing room, a smaller private room with a small bed where things were already prepared for Ava to give birth. Once inside the room, they led Ava to the bed and helped her get situated, propping her back up with several pillows. Gael climbed onto the bed as well to tie Ava's hair back. They weren't even in the room for a minute when Helaine and a small troupe of female servants came rushing in.

"Are you sure about this, Gael?" Helaine asked.

"Pretty sure, yes," Gael replied. Ava let out a scream of her own confirmation.

"All right then, ladies, this is the moment we've all been preparing for. Remember everything I told you. Caspian, I know you want to be here, but you really need to leave."

"No. No I'm not leaving her side," he said shaking his head.

"With all due respect, Caspian leave now. You will only be in the way. Rhince, Drinian, get him out of here."

"Come on, mate, trust me you do not want to see this. Let's go," Rhince said as he led him out of the room.

"I love you, Ava!" Caspian called out. Ava screamed painfully as her response and Caspian stepped out into the hall.

The door was promptly shut in his face, forbidding his entrance.

XOXOX

Caspian paced back and forth before the birthing room door. It was the same thing he had been doing for hours; it was now in the early morning hours of the eighteenth of December. Rhince and Drinian sat in two of the three chairs that had been placed in the corner. This particular room had been selected as the birthing room for many reasons, one of them being because it was one of the few bedrooms of Cair Paravel that sat at the end of a hall and joined directly with another bedroom. Most halls of Cair Paravel were continuous, flowing freely from one hall to another.

Caspian winced as another painful scream echoed through the wooden door. "How long does it take?" he asked no one in particular as he ran his hands through his hair.

"There's no set amount of time; it varies," Rhince answered. "Helaine was in labor for nearly ten hours."

"Ten hours!" Caspian stopped suddenly and turned to face his friends. "Ava has already been in there for five; are you saying I have to listen to her screaming—" he winced as he heard her again "—for another five?"

"That is not what he said at all, Caspian," Drinian said. "Rhince said he didn't know how long it would take."

"Why don't you come sit down for a few minutes? Have some tea, or some wine. Relax a little." Rhince held up a glass of red wine in offering.

"I can't," Caspian said shaking his head as he resumed his pacing. "I can't relax at a time like this."

"Were you this anxious?" Drinian asked Rhince quietly.