“The child does not move!” the false Cinnia sobbed. “Suddenly the child does not move. It is surely dead! He will never forgive me!”

“If the child does not move it is preparing to be born,” Arlais said in a matter-of-tone of voice. “Cease your weeping, Cinnia.”

“How can you know this is true?” the sobbing woman said.

“Because I have birthed three sons,” Arlais responded. Then she turned to Minau. “Is everything ready for the birth?”

“It is,” Minau said.

“It is my night with our husband,” Orea said. “Is she going to spoil it?”

“Do you only think of yourself?” the false Cinnia shrieked. “When I give our husband his daughter you will be relegated to nothingness!” Then suddenly she turned paler than she normally was, and doubling over, gasped in pain.

“Good,” Arlais said. “It is beginning. Keep our husband amused, Orea. I think it will be some hours before the child is born.”

“Good!” muttered Volupia beneath her breath.

Arlais and Minau shot the third wife an amused look.

“I will get the herbal draught to help the pain,” the sweet-natured Tyne said.

“Why is there such pain?” the false Cinnia cried.

“Birthing is pain,” Arlais told her. “Did no one ever tell you that? But then who would have? The daughter of Fflergant lost her mother at an early age, and the dragon who raised Cinnia of Belmair would not have known of mortal pain.”

“How long does the pain continue?” the false Cinnia quavered.

“Until the child is birthed,” Minau said in a satisfied tone.

“How long will that take?” was the next question.

“Sometimes it is quick. And other children seem to take forever,” Volupia murmured sweetly. “It could be several hours, or a day or two.”

“A day or two?” the false Cinnia’s voice screeched.

“Volupia,” Arlais said in a stern tone, “go and find our husband. Tell him that Cinnia has gone into her labor. We will keep him informed. And remember it is Orea’s turn in his bed. Do not interfere with them.”

Volupia grinned wickedly. “I won’t,” she promised. “I had his company last night.” Then she patted the false Cinnia on the shoulder. “I hope it’s a boy,” she said.

“Bitch!” the laboring woman snarled.

Laughing, Volupia walked away, humming a little tune.

“Bring the birthing chair,” Arlais said to a serving man. Then she turned to the others. “Get her up and walking. The sooner the better for all of us. Where is the pain draught? Thank you, Tyne.” She took the goblet from the young woman. “Drink now, Cinnia,” she instructed and she held the cup to the girl’s lips.

Sapphira sipped eagerly at first, but then she pushed Arlais’s hand away. “It is bitter,” she complained.

“It is medication to ease your pains, but if you do not want it,” Arlais said, “you do not have to drink it. It will help, though.” She could see it was going to be a long night. And it would not be an easy one. This was a girl unused to pain of any kind.

The birthing chair was brought. Sapphira whined and sobbed with her growing pain. She complained that Ahura Mazda did not come to her.

“A Yafir man never attends to the birth of a child,” Arlais told her. “I was all alone when I had Behrooz. I had only one old nursemaid to help me. You are fortunate.”

“You call pain such as I am suffering fortunate?” the false Cinnia groaned.

“You are having a child, and pushing that child from your body will take great effort on your part,” Arlais said. “Instead of whining as if you are the only woman in all of creation who has ever gone through this, listen to me, and I will help you. Remember that if this child is a female Ahura Mazda will be eternally grateful to you. Your place in his heart and his household will always be secure. You will need that security, especially if he learns the truth of who you really are,” the older woman murmured low.

The false one groaned again. “What if the child is male?” she said.

“You will need all your clever wiles to keep him from selling you into the Mating Market then,” Arlais said. “You have made no friends among the others here. They would be glad to see you go.”

“Would you?” Sapphira asked nervously.

“Oddly you make our husband happy, and as I am perfectly confident in my own place in Ahura Mazda’s heart I do not resent you. I just find you rude and arrogant,” Arlais said frankly. “Perhaps you will change when you are more certain of your own place. For your sake I hope so. Now get into the birthing chair so I may examine you, and see what lies ahead this night.”

The laboring woman obeyed, seating herself carefully. The chair, which had an opening in its center, was rachetted up so that Arlais was able to stand beneath it and clearly see the birthing orifice. To her surprise it was well open although not quite where it should be yet, nor could she see the child’s head. She stepped from beneath the chair.

“You are doing well,” she told her patient.

Throughout the nighttime hours the false Cinnia labored to bring forth her child. As the time of the birth grew closer, thick padded clothes were spread beneath the opening of the chair. Finally the top of the infant’s head became visible, and Arlais was excited to see not a bald pate, or one with a covering of light down, but dark, thick hair. She and the serving woman with her encouraged their patient as she struggled to birth the child. The head and shoulders were pushed forth accompanied by a great scream of anguish. In her chair Sapphira gasped for breath, perspiration pouring down her naked body. But she listened carefully to Arlais’s instructions, and giving another great push she felt the child free of her body, and heard its cry.

“A female!” Arlais said triumphantly. “You have given our husband a healthy daughter! Tyne,” she called to the fifth wife.

“Run and tell our husband of the good fortune Cinnia has brought us!”

By the time Ahura Mazda had been told, and put on his robe and hurried to the common room, mother and child were clean and ready for him. He took the swaddled infant from Arlais, and unwrapping it stared at its tiny pink groin. There was no manhood. He finally had a daughter. Rewrapping the baby he took it up in his arms. “I name her Gemma, which means treasured. She is, and she will be.” Handing the baby back to Arlais, he walked over to where his youngest wife now lay upon a couch. “You have done well, Cinnia. I will expect another from you in a year or two. You will have six weeks of freedom from my bed. Then we shall begin anew. I am pleased with you.”

Arlais had a difficult time not laughing at the look upon the new mother’s face at their husband’s words. The false Cinnia would earn everything she gained from Ahura Mazda. And she would work hard for it all. Arlais knew her lord well. He would not be content until he had two or three daughters now. “You must sleep now,” she told the girl.

“The child has a nursemaid to care for it, and another to suckle it.”

“I would suckle my own child,” Sapphira replied, surprising Arlais.

“For a month then, but no more. He will take you back into his bed in six weeks, Cinnia, and he will want your breasts for himself, not the infant,” Arlais told her.

“He has other breasts to fondle,” Sapphira said. “This is his daughter, and I will not have my lord’s daughter nursing on the teats of a servant.”

“That is a matter you will decide between you,” Arlais said. “Rest now.”

It was just dawn, and the Yafir lord’s first wife sought her own bed for a brief nap. She dared not sleep long, for she must sleep well tonight when she once again joined Belmair’s queen upon the Dream Plain. Her servant awakened her after two hours. Arlais made certain word was spread throughout Yafirdom that the lord’s youngest wife had borne him a daughter. She soothed the two younger wives who feared their place in the household would be usurped by the sixth wife, now the mother of a daughter.

“It is just one child,” Volupia said to Tyne and Orea. “Another of us is bound to have a female infant, and then Cinnia will no longer be the special one. I am certain he has seeded me again. He is delightfully lustful these days.”

“He was not so lustful with me last night,” Orea complained.

“After you came and told him of Cinnia’s labor he was distracted. He used me but twice.”

“Then he will be doubly lustful tonight,” Tyne said with a little smile, “for twice in a single night is never enough for him.”

They chattered on throughout the day. The younger children came to visit their mothers. Arlais was the only one with fully grown sons. The evening meal was served, and afterward Ahura Mazda’s first wife excused herself from the group.

“I got no sleep last night with Cinnia’s labor. Minau, will you watch over her this evening, and see to the baby? I am going to bed.” She stood up from her seat by the fire.

Ahura Mazda entered the common room, and after a quick visit with Sapphira and a peek at his daughter, looked to Tyne, and beckoned to her. With a grin at her fellow wives, Tyne led their husband into her bedchamber and firmly closed the door.

Arlais entered her own bedchamber, washed, and changing into a sleep robe, lay down. She could scarcely keep her eyes open, and wondered if she would even hear the young queen of Belmair’s call, but of course she did. The silvery-gray mists swirled about her as she walked toward Cinnia’s voice. And then the mists parted, and the two women met. “Sapphira had her daughter early today,” she told Cinnia. “Both are well.”

“I am happy for her,” Cinnia replied. “Have you spoken with your sons?”

“I have,” Arlais responded. “They beg you to call them to the Dream Plain tonight so they may speak with you themselves. I humbly ask that you do this for me.”