The Journey From Oidhche Shamhna

Disclaimer: Not Mine

The Journey From Oidhche Shamhna

Chapter 14

A God in Her Pocket

Erwin arrived back in the valley almost to the day that Salazar had predicted. He walked along the same ridge he had the first time he had come to this new place and remembered how he had stopped and turned Rowena to him, and then bonded to her. He turned over the palm of his right hand as if the very seeing of the scar would bring her to him faster.

He looked beyond the lake and saw four towers, with peeked roofs, and each connected to the other by a high wall and long window-lit rooms at each end. The sight was astounding and he stopped to gape at it and wonder at the change made in only a little over a full moon's time. At no other place in this world had he ever seen such a sight. Even the cities of non-magical men had only small dwellings of stone compared to this grandeur. The towers seemed to hold the rest of the structure aloft, as if the whole were floating weightless in the air. Here the walls were thin, and light compared to the temples of non-magical men. No supports ruined the lines, no columns added to hold the weight of the top roofs and eaves. It looked like it was alive, growing up from the mountain, natural and fitting in the valley as if it meant to be here and always would be.

The moon showed overhead, washing the structure in a shimmering blue light. He saw an occasional golden light flick on and quickly off as if someone was moving inside, passing the windows with a candle in hand. He looked to the tower where Helga would be and saw nearly every window bathed in light. He shook his head and grinned, thinking that once again she would be sitting on the floor with parchment and scrolls, planning for things that could easily wait until morn.

Erwin began the long walk around the lake and thought about how beautiful Rowena had looked, large with child, when last he had seen her. He longed to hold her and lay beside her, to hear her voice or just to hear her breathe, as he lay awake to watch her sleep. He slipped his hand in his pocket to feel the weight of the hair combs he had brought for her, wrapped in a bridal cap and covering cloth in his pocket.

He passed the first tower he came to, stopping to look up at the many windows and smooth lines of the stone. He continued to make his way to the Tower of Raven, the one that held Rowena, when Salazar came out and called to him.

"Erwin, welcome home! Rowena and her daughter wait for you, but we must speak before you go to her."

"My daughter?" Erwin looked to the tower and smiled, and turned to run as Salazar stepped in front of him.

"Vortigern searches for them. It seems he found Elbragh."

"I saw him not ten days ago. He said nothing of it." Erwin looked at Salazar, and then turned back to the tower, thinking only of what waited for him.

"I sent an elf to inform her old teacher of the birth. It was Rowena's request that he offer prayer for the birthing. We found out only this morn what had happened."

"Elbragh would not tell Vortigern where she is at, even if he knew he would say nothing."

"There are ways of discerning truth. Elbragh seems to have met with an unfortunate accident while in Vortigern's company. We do not know of the conversation that they had, but it would be safe to say we must believe that he now knows more than we hoped him to."

"Have you told her?"

"No, I found no reason to upset her. Perhaps when she is stronger."

Erwin ran his hand through his hair and looked to Rowena's window that still held light. He thought he saw someone walking in the room and turned back to Salazar to question.

"Does he know of the child?"

"If Elbragh knew, than I would say he does."

"Then he knows she is with me as well. At the circle it was Elbragh who first spoke of the child."

Salazar looked at him and only nodded. "My mother came to assist Rowena. She and my father have just returned from Iberia. Come, Rowena speaks of nothing but seeing you."

Salazar took Erwin's arm, turned him to the tower and began walking with him. "She had a hard labour. Helga was correct about the baby's position."

"She is well?" Erwin stopped suddenly and looked at Salazar.

"Yes, for now at least. I sent an elf to Slytherin for a Healer, and Issa came herself." Salazar said with a grin. "She is a Healer of witches. Slytherin separates Healers, not allowing a wizard to heal a witch. So, when I sent an elf for help she had just arrived from the crossing back to these lands, and decided to come herself."

As they reached the tower and Erwin was about to enter, Salazar stepped in front of him and threw open the doors. "One more thing. She finished the stairs."

Erwin saw five sets of stairs climbing to the top of the tower, reaching the top-most room. The first set of steps went to the left and to the platform holding the first floor full of rooms. Walking up you would have the choice of stepping to the platform and entering one of the rooms, or turning right up the next set of steps to the higher ring.

His eyes saw the first set, rested against the platform of rooms but seeing no way to get from the platform on the left to the rooms on the right. Looking up further, he saw the same thing continued up to the top.

"Umm, Salazar..."

"Wait for it."

Salazar stood ginning as Erwin looked between him and the stairs. After a few minutes, the stairs shifted to place themselves at the platforms not touched before. Salazar laughed and slapped Erwin on the back, watching his mouth open and close, trying to say something appropriate.

"I am sure she had a good reason, but this is one of the most foolish things I have seen."

"You should have seen Gryffin's face when he first saw it," Salazar chuckled. "He still looks a little green when he has to use it and insists on a spiral staircase of one piece in his tower. Even the elves shake their head and refuse to use them. Me? I think I will stay below."

"Is she keeping it like this?" Erwin looked up to the top again, shaking his head in disbelief.

"She had not been in the best of moods. We thought it best to ignore it for a while."

"What of Helga?" Erwin said, beginning to smile at the audacity of the stairs.

"She's afraid of them and keeps yelling at them to stop. Rowena has promised her a spell to still them so they will stop for only her."

"So, where is she?" He looked around, not knowing which room held the bedchambers any longer.

"We have moved the chambers to the top, but think to move them back to the warmth of the heated stone and fire pits on the first level. In the meantime, she is there." Salazar pointed to the fourth ring of rooms from the base of the tower. "Just start walking up, they shift often, only be careful of the last step. And remember, they do not always shift the same way."

Erwin started up holding on to a rail attached to each side of the steps as he climbed higher, stopping every few steps to look down, or lift his head as another set of stairs shifted and slid across the space over him.

"You should hurry before it shifts again and you lose your chance," Salazar yelled up to the baffled-looking wizard.

Erwin peered down and laughed as he started to run up the stairs to his Rowena. Arriving at the platform and jumping off the stairs, he watched as they pulled away, then turning, he hurried into the only room that he saw the golden glow of light coming from.

Issa held the child near the window, looking up as he came in and pressing her finger to her lips. She nodded to the pallet on the floor that held Rowena. He walked over to the regal-looking witch and held out his arms for the baby.

Without saying a word, he held the baby in one arm while unfastening the iron pin that held the window closed. Pushing it open and allowing the fresh air to sweep into room, he shrugged off his cloak, transferring the small, mewing baby to his other arm to complete the process.

Laying the baby down on the floor, he opened the wrappings, seeing the child for the first time. She had a shock of light hair that did not know which way to lay, and her still-blue eyes were large and unfocused. He smiled, seeing the perfect O of her mouth and her fists beating into the air.

"She seems perfect." He looked up from his position on the floor to Issa, who stood over him with her hands on her hips. "Salazar said she did not want to come."

"Three days she fought. For three days, I could not get that little one to turn. We were close to helping them both to the other side, so great was her pain." Issa looked over to Rowena. "The storm started and then thunder shook the entire tower. The lighting seemed so close we could taste it, then the mother just sighed as the baby moved, and she was born. I think the gods had a hand in it - I have never seen such a long labour where death was not waiting at the end."

Erwin picked the baby up from the wrappings and held her to the open air of the window. He closed his eyes and began to say a prayer, then stopped and turned back to Issa.

"He says you carry old gods to the new lands, and even have the new ones in your pocket." He spoke to Issa as he brought his lips down on the baby's head. "I need a loving god, one that will not judge her for what I and her mother have done."

Issa shrugged and went to the window, laying her hand on his arm. "They say the new god does not have a name. Therefore, I would imagine you could say a prayer without a name and hope that he accepts her. If not, you can always tell your old gods the prayer was meant for them."

Erwin looked at her and thought of what she said. Then he turned to the window and held the baby up to the sky, closing his eyes and praying to the new god with no name. When he was done, he turned to Issa.

"I give you Helena." Her naming now completed, he was assured that she was his. No man could come to the valley and take her from him now. He was now her father, for it is the father that first said her name. "I name her for the magical fire that dances at Oidhche Shamhna and the magical fire that brought her forth."

"It is said the man who created the book of the new god was birthed by one named Helena. Helena of Cole, who married a non-magical man. Perhaps you should add the gods of the Coles as well." Issa looked at the baby, worrying her lip.

Erwin frowned and, taking Helena back to the window, offered up a new naming prayer, adding one more god to those already in his daughter's pocket. Then, saying yet another prayer, sent his own name out, adding the new god to his.

Issa took the baby from him and bent to wrap Helena back in the cloth, cut from Rowena's birthing gown, which would bind her until her umbilical cord fell and she was separated from her mother in life. Erwin saw the traditional weave, crossed to Rowena, pulled down the cloak that covered her and saw the weave of the cloth was the same that she wore.

"Issa, no." He stood angrily and strode back to her, roughly pushing her away from the baby and clasping the now-crying infant to his chest. "This is not our way."

He picked up his own cloak from the floor and put it around the small body, tossing aside the weave that Issa had used. He cradled Helena, bringing her up to his face to smell her musty sweetness, then carefully laid her next to Rowena.

"She did not even have a proper gown," Issa said, looking down her nose at him. "I had to send for it. Now you treat it as a rag."

"I will not have her bonded," Erwin said, stroking Rowena's cheek. "Rowena?"

He saw her eyes flutter and heard a soft moan, only to see her return to sleep. He took her hand in his and pressed it to his lips, closing his eyes and just wanting her to wake, to look at him, to see her smile.

"She had a hard time," Issa said gently. "She still bleeds. I have done everything I can. However, some things we cannot even help with magic."

"She just sleeps." Erwin slid a leg behind Rowena, lowered himself to the pallet and pulled her into his lap. "She will be better when she wakes."

"If she wakes. If not, the babe will die as well." Issa shrugged her shoulders and went to where her own cape laid on the floor. "I will send the witch back, Helga I think it was."

He leaned back against the hard stone, holding Rowena close and gazing at the small form on the pallet. A Slytherin witch knew that if she died in childbirth, or in the three days after, her child would lie with her always. They took their comfort knowing that as long as the cord still clung to the infant, they were bonded in the birthing cloth. As surely as if the infant was still in the womb, they would lay together.

Erwin could not stop watching the cloth thrown on the floor and wishing it away. Ravens only spoke of such measures during famine or war, when no other family would take a baby to feed over the care of their own hungry children. Rather let one die then risk the many. He heard the words in his head that he knew he had spoken in the test centre. Never let many die to save the one.

Elders would know these rules and apply them if need be. He waved his arm to darken the room with a simple "Nox" and, putting his head back against the stone, he fell into a fitful sleep.

He had slept only a couple of hours when he was woken by weak mewing sounds. Sitting up and casting Lumos, he looked down at his daughter. Her head was turning from side to side as she puckered her face with pouting lips and a scowl that he swore she could teach to Salazar.

"Here," he chuckled as he reached down to scoop her up, "it is time to wake your mother."

He leaned forward, peeked down at Rowena's face, and gently called to her. When he did not get a response, he cast an orb of light to hover closer to her face, to see her better in the shadows cast by candles. He saw only her paleness and a pallor he had not seen on her earlier. Her breath came short and quick, with tiny catching gasps that alarmed him. Holding the baby with one arm, he cast his Patronus to fetch Helga, hoping the witch was near.

Laying a hand on Rowena's brow, he found her cold and wet from sweat. He cursed himself for sleeping instead of staying awake and watchful as he again stroked her cheek and softly called to her. Helga came in, muttering about stairs and hexes as she hurried to Rowena and dropped to her knees. Pulling vials from her pockets, she indicated to Erwin to hold her still while she lifted the drinks to her lips.

"For the blood loss," she said quietly.

She finished administering the potions, then pulled out her wand and moved the cloak from over Rowena, cleaning the blood that had soaked her gown and the pallet. Hearing Erwin's intake of breath, she looked up and shook her head.

"Not here, come." She stood and took the baby from him as he untangled his legs, and kissing Rowena's brow before leaving, stood and followed Helga out. She went to the stairs and, saying a prayer first, she began cursing until she reached the ground, clutching the baby as she waited for Erwin.

"Stupid stairs. She claims they will some day save the children." Helga looked up at the stairs and then spit on the ground. "They make me sick. Every time I use them my stomach gets left behind."

"Helga, please." Erwin ran his hand through his hair. "Rowena?"

"We will talk in the kitchen, but be quiet. If Issa hears us she will hex me again." She turned and began hurrying to the great room connecting her tower to the one to the north. Erwin ran behind her, surprised at the speed that the witch moved with.

"She hexed you?"

"Yes, it is the waiting. I cannot do it." She did not stop until she reached the end of the room, and then, stepping up on a small, raised platform, went to the furthest wall. She laid her hand on a smooth stone, said the password and stepped back as the wall slid open.

"The kitchen," she said. "We eat in this room. It may be fine once the children get here but it echoes with only us few."

She stepped through the door and started down a long flight of steps that opened up to a kitchen with fire pits lining one entire wall. In the middle was a long, low table, designed, he was sure, for the work of the elves. He saw large bins full of vegetables, and hanging meats and sausages. Barrels were stacked wherever he looked and he knew they would hold dried foods, salted fish and more vegetables swimming in vinegar and salt.

Helga handed Helena back to Erwin, pointing to the table surrounded by benches in the corner. "Wait there."

She walked to the far wall and went down on her knees, lifted a wooden cover and reached into retrieve a jug of goat's milk that sat in a cold, fresh stream.

"Salazar brought the stream up to the wall. It runs under the ground there." She set the jug on the table. "Gryffin built the box over it to keep the milk in."

She reached out and stroked Helena's head. "Listen, Erwin, if Rowena cannot put the child to her breast I don't know if she will live. I am willing to try, but if it does not work, I will give the child a potion. Do you understand what I say?"

Erwin was unable to talk. His throat felt too dry and too tight.

"Erwin, I will not watch her starve to death. I will not bind her, but it may be better if we did. I have seen it done. The babe goes quickly when the mother dies, and will lay with her in the mound."

"No, please, Helga." Erwin looked at his daughter, seeing Rowena. "Please. She needs a chance."

Helga reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of fabric that she carried to one of the fire pits and levitated into a pot of steaming water. Then she lifted it out and cast a cooling and drying spell.

She showed Erwin how to dip a folded corner into the jug and carry it to Helena's waiting mouth. He held the cloth and allowed it to fall into her mouth as Helga stroked her cheek and touched her lips until Helena began to suck.

"Keep doing that until she will take no more." Helga sat down opposite Erwin at the table and watched as he tenderly fed the child. Soon she saw his smile start, and his face soften.

"Erwin, she was scared. She thought you would not come back."

"She lost trust when her father sold her, Helga. I think it will take her a long time to find it again."

"Do you love her enough to give up your clan?"

"Helga, I would give my life for her."

"That would be the easy thing to do. To die for a love is easy." She reached over to touch Helena's lip to make her suck again. "The hard thing to do is to live for someone that you love."

Erwin looked up at her with a frown and dipped the cloth again to feed their child.

AN: Helena, Mother of Constantine. Legends were latter added that she was the daughter of King Cole of Britain. Helena was also the term in Ancient Greece for St. Elmo's fire

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