บท 37: Simple Remedies
~TIEN LYN~
That day and the next Yu followed Tien Lyn with an apologetic, but unwavering persistence. She needn't have worried about giving their secret away to Ho: outwardly, there was no sign of magic, no lightning bolts or faery chants. If anything, he grew more withdrawn than usual. But the child inside her moved so often and with such vigour that she went from laughing every time he kicked to groaning.
"Look at me! I dare complain!" she dropped her spoon at dinner, and shook her head in disbelief.
"It is a good sign," Ho said soothingly.
Tien Lyn nodded, and could not help but glance Yu's way across the table.
Oh, what a lousy conspirator I'd have made! Good thing I did not marry a prince.
The healer dipped his head even lower, but she noticed the change in him anyway. It was not just the pallor of his complexion. The unsuppressable pulse of life, like a green shoot pushing its way between paving stones that used to emanate from him, was gone now.
It's my fault, she realized. "You look unwell, Yu. Perhaps... perhaps you need a bit of fresh air? We can walk to the village market in the afternoon, or you could climb that hill you keep looking at out of the window?"
Ho chuckled: "Ah, simple remedies..."
She squeezed her eyes shut, wondering if what she asked for was blasphemous. Simple remedies indeed.
Ho turned to the healer: "Go to the village market, but avoid the backroads, my friend. The Emperor was stripping the garrisons in the North since the spring break-up to fight Zha Yao's men in Shantong. Zha Yao's men are careful to make friends with the people, but Wo Jia's axillaries are another matter. The Emperor means to burn the lesson into our memory, so he lets the barbarians do what they would."
Tien Lyn stared at her husband wide-eyed: "But the fighting is far away from here--- or... is it?"
Ho took her hand: "I didn't mean to worry you, darling. But the war is coming to us. The Imperial Fleet came down from the Northern reaches and is reprovisioning in Sutao. Admiral Jung Hwa has the control of the coast all the way to the Southern Luitong, so I expect they will strike in-land to inspire loyalty in the governors and mayors. We are only a few miles away from Crane's Landing on the Tumultuous River. I've engaged more guards, but as soon as the baby and you are strong enough to travel, we will leave for Zha Yao's camps."
"You... you will stay here till the baby comes?" Yu finally spoke up.
Ho nodded. "I won't risk my wife's travelling this close---"
Yu got up and leaned against the wall. "I must... I need... I do need open air. I will return when Mistress Tien Lyn's time is due."
"That's a very long walk," Ho looked surprised. Then aghast. "Wait. Surely, you do not mean to-" then he rubbed his forehead. "Of course you do. Have you eased childbirth before?"
Yu blinked. "Pain is pain."
Ho glanced at Tien Lyn's with a private half-smile, inviting her to share his amusement over a man who'd shared in childbirth and did not think anything of it. But Tien Lyn could not bring herself to smile back. She fought a strong impulse to cling to Yu's clothes, to grab his hands and beg him not to leave her alone with their secret and her worries. As much as she craved comfort, she did not tell her husband either.
"Blessed healer, did not you hear what my husband has just said? It is dangerous."
"For a traveller in fine clothes, but not for a vagrant. I will go see how far the lands loyal to Zha Yao are from here," Yu replied.
"How will you know my time?" she asked desperately.
"I will. All will be well, Mistress Tien Lyn," he promised, and she was fresh out of arguments.
At the gates, Yu bowed to Chong Ho, to her, and to the son in her womb.
Tien Lyn was relieved to see that he walked down the hill towards the village steadily, because for a moment she'd imagined he was about to collapse. Really, she should get a grip on herself. Yu had promised that all will be well.
In the end, she sought out another simple remedy.
The village mothers and grandmothers with their unchecked laughter and tanned faces weren't delicate, but she welcomed their insight. They drove home the inescapable fact that a great many women for uncounted years had given birth to a great many children, from the dawn of time, and all the way down to her. And they all seemed eager to tell of it, even if it ended with tears. No two births were alike, Tien Lyn realized, and it was far less scary to be but a grain of sand on the beach. Maybe.
***
The late fall season was a week away yet, but the leaves on Chong Ho's favourite tree turned golden overnight, touched by the first frost.
They had the bench moved around the courtyard for the thousandth times to find the best place to sit and listen to the falling leaves. Tien Lyn made herself as compact as she could to still occupy the familiar spot against his chest, and he wrapped his arm around her. "I should pick those leaves to dry them. I want to remember--- AH!" She stared at Ho, speechless.
"The baby is coming."
Tien Lyn had time to slap him lightly on the wrist and giggle: "I am supposed to say that, husband," before the next contraction. The weak, easy to bear contractions, Tien Lyn recalled from the old wives' tales, that can last for days.
***
Yu walked in before the labour began in earnest. The midwife and the village herbalist, Grandmother Yong, harder and more shrivelled than her healing roots, greeted him like a long-lost grandson, or, maybe, granddaughter, for no man was allowed in the birthing room. That same woman locked Ho out the moment she took charge of the birthing.
The other attending women gave the healer a few challenging frowns, the same sort that men gave women on the battlefield Tien Lyn imagined. Then they resumed running around with towels, boiled water, talismans, and herbs.
Those not presently engaged in keeping the supply lines open, gathered in a semi-circle around her screaming for her to bear down and push.
What do you think I am doing?!
He snuggled in the corner, as far out of their way as possible. The pain and the panic of the first labour relented, letting Tien Lyn focus.
"There is the head!" Grandmother Yong crooned, "and full of hair, as beautiful as the mother's!"
***
She had a hard time remembering the next few days until Grandmother Yong authoritatively pronounced that the lady could complain all she wanted after she met her ancestors in person, but this child must eat, and brought in the wet nurse.
Once the first acute spasms of envy at the sight of little Xi suckling like he'd never been offered mothers' milk before it subsided, Tien Lyn asked after Yu's whereabouts.
Chong Ho laughed without taking his eyes off his son: "Darling, blessed as our healer may be, he is still a young man. And young men fare poorly in the households turned upside down by newborn babies. He left to join Zha Yao. The herbalists and surgeons tend to his army, but not a single Temple joined the rebellion. Yu's talents are in demand, and he doesn't have to look over his shoulder for the faeries."
Tien Lyn forced a smile. "I admit it did not occur to me that little Xi is such a dominating presence."
Yu is running, but why? Sayewa promised that the faeries could not prosecute him. Weynala tried to bend the rules, but now she can't, not after he received the full measure of human justice. Or am I a fool to think she'd obey the law?
She took her son from the wet nurse and cradled him to the chest that failed to live up to the demands of motherhood, just like the rest of her body had failed to sustain him a few weeks ago. The troubled thoughts kept circling through her mind.
What did I do? What did I ask of Yu?
"We'll see Yu soon enough," Ho smiled at the scene in front of him. "Grandmother Yong is confident that your strength will be back in time for us to travel before the roads are turned to mush by the rains. We will overwinter under the protection of Zha Yao's troops. For the time being, Xi is all the male company I want."
Tien Lyn sighed in relief. They would be safe soon, and Ho had finally stopped being paranoid that her mother would plot to tear them apart. It was good to be far away from Sutao, and the stupid songs about Zha Yao and his Gracious Lady Tien Lyn.
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