CHAPTER 893: TWO DANGERS & ONE SOURCE OF HOPE (PART ONE)

It took time to clear the hall of so many people, and more time to clean up from the aftermath of Acolyte Holm’s attack. Despite the bitter cold outside, Carwyn ordered the shutters to be opened, at least for a few minutes to allow fresh air to cleanse the hall of the smell of death and fear as he tried to figure out how he would speak to his people now that the village had lost its religious leader.

"Barsali?" Olwyna said, pulling Carwyn out of his thoughts as his heavily pregnant wife approached the serpentine warrior with tentative, slow steps as she held her hand out to the warrior who had just demonstrated how quickly he could move between quiet stillness and deadly violence.

"Thank you," she said hesitantly when she drew close enough to reach out and grab one of his large, scaly hands with both of her much smaller hands. "I, I don’t know the words," she said as she glanced nervously at Loftur for help.

Carwyn had introduced both men to her at the beginning of the evening’s gathering, and he’d told her beforehand that they were allies she could trust, but she would have been lying if she said that she had been comfortable sitting so close to ’demons’ with claws sharp enough to tear her child from her womb.

But now she understood why her husband trusted these strange, beastly men so much. Their appearances might be terrifying, and she’d had nightmares about what Barsali had done to her husband for weeks, but now, when her life was in danger, he’d attacked in order to protect her and her child...

No matter what reservations she had about her husband befriending the creature who had nearly killed him in battle just weeks ago, it was hard to hold on to those feelings now.

"Please tell him that I’m grateful," Olwyna told Loftur. "And that I forgive him for taking Carwyn away from me and making me worry so much," she said as she let go of the serpentine man’s hand, only to point a finger at him as her tone became much sterner.

"But also tell him that I don’t forgive him for hurting my husband so badly that he needed a witch to heal him," she said pointedly. "So, if he wants me to forgive him for that, then he needs to stay here and protect us when the Church comes to punish us for what he did to Acolyte Holm. And... and if the Church kills us for being heretics," she said hesitantly as she grappled with the consequences of what just happened. "Then, then he has to promise to take my baby to safety!"

Loftur chuckled warmly with a genuine, belly-shaking laugh as he looked at the short, human woman pointing her finger at Barsali’s towering figure like the mother of a den, scolding a cub, even though Barsali was both older than her and much, much more powerful. But the scaled warrior just ducked his head and nodded as Loftur relayed her words.

"He says that he will never let the Church harm you or your babies," the bearish soldier told her once Barsali gave his answer. "And that he’ll pledge the rest of his life to the Willow Whip if he has to in order to bring her here to defend the village against the sorcerers of the Church. He says he knows that he’s weak, but he believes in the power of the Willow Whip, who defeated the sorcerers of the Cauldron of Flame."

"He doesn’t have to pledge his life to anyone to see this village defended," Carwyn said as he wrapped an arm lovingly around Olwyna while he met Barsali’s sincere gaze. "Lady Ashlynn wants us to prove that humans can live side by side with Eldritch neighbors in peace. She doesn’t want to see our village turned into a battlefield, and she asked us to stay out of the coming war and keep to ourselves."

"If the Church comes for us, we’ll defend ourselves," Carwyn said. "But I’m sure we won’t be left to fight off Inquisitors and Templars by ourselves if they come," he said as he gave a reassuring squeeze. "And Loftur," he added as he forcefully changed the topic to something lighter than the impending response of the Church.

"Tell him that I appreciate his offer to protect my family, but we only have one baby on the way," he said as he placed a hand gently over Olwyna’s belly. "I know the Clan of the Great Claw may have many cubs at once, and Barsali said the Scaled Clan lay a clutch of eggs, but humans only have one child at a time. It will be a little while before we have another."

For a moment, Loftur and Barsali spoke back and forth rapidly as the bearish soldier explained what Carwyn had said. The conversation, however, went on quite a bit longer as Barsali asked several questions as if he didn’t believe what Loftur was telling him. The conversation even grew heated until, eventually, the bearish interpreter threw up his hands in a gesture of helplessness and turned to Carwyn and Olwyna to ask an uncomfortable question.

"He says that his people are very sensitive to tremors and heartbeats," Loftur said awkwardly. "And he says that he is certain that he hears two hearts beating in Madame Olwyna’s womb. He says that he isn’t surprised that Sir Carwyn has such a strong seed to father two children when most men can only father one at a time, because Carwyn is a true Champion."

"And," Loftur said, appearing incredibly reluctant as he looked between the shocked faces of the humans in the room. "And he says that if you doubt his ears, he can feel even better with his tail. If you let him touch your belly with his tail, he can tell you for certain if there are two heartbeats or one."

"No, absolutely not," Sir Rhodri said as he strode forward to stand between Barsali and his daughter-in-law. He didn’t know the scaled warrior well, but his impression had been favorable so far, but he had just seen that tail crush a man to death, and he knew how quickly the Eldritch warrior could turn from stillness to violence. He wanted to trust, but the idea of letting that tail touch his daughter-in-law where she carried his soon-to-be-born grandchild was more than even he could accept.

"You cannot touch her," Rhodri insisted. "Carwyn, help me make him understand."

"No, Father," Carwyn said in a hushed, almost frightened tone as he looked into his wife’s wide, horrified eyes. "We have to know for sure. If Barsali can tell with just a touch, then... then we need to know, don’t we, my love?" Carwyn said as he tightly held her hand.

"Mmm," Olwyna said, biting her lower lip and nodding her head slowly as she leaned up against her husband for support. Her legs felt like jelly, and all the strength seemed to have drained away from her body from the moment that Loftur had said ’two heartbeats.’ Now, it was all she could do to support herself and pull aside the cloak wrapped around her shoulders to make it easier for Barsali to touch her swollen belly.

Loftur and Barsali exchanged puzzled looks and more than a few words as the bearish man explained what had been said, but both men were puzzled as they looked around the room to see the faces of every remaining human looking pale and bloodless, while Carwyn’s mother appeared on the verge of tears.

"What’s wrong?" Loftur asked. "More children are more joyous, aren’t they?"

"Loftur," Carwyn said hesitantly around a lump in his throat that seemed to be connected to a great, sinking weight in his stomach. "It isn’t like that for humans. Two children at once means three deaths unless a High Priest from the Church prays over the mother and her children through the entire birth. But now, for us..." he said, unable to speak the words as he looked at the spot on the floor where a servant had just swept up the shattered remains of Acolyte Holm’s bottle of Blessed Oil.

His message was clear enough, even without speaking the words. With the support of the Church, out here in the frontier, there was a chance that a knight could receive the aid of the High Priest in Lothian City to help his wife and children survive childbirth. But now they had turned themselves into heretics who the Church would see burned at the stake before they ever helped with healing prayers.

If Owyna truly carried two children within her belly, then the moment that Barsali killed Acolyte Holm to defend her, he had also sentenced her to die.