Chapter 19.

  A Child in Need.

  The still form of Lester jostled in his arms as he rushed to the ground beside Reina. The boy, he placed as quickly and as gently as he could on the ground before he pulled back the cloth covering the babe cradled by a hysterically sobbing Reina.

  Theviana wailed at the world. Great ear splitting cries that echoed to the empty buildings springing alight from dinner fires left untended. Laughter joined the babes cry of distress as Theodren turned his attention to the woman who cried and laughed simultaneously at the tiny bundle in her arms.

  Theodren reached for the babe in Reina’s arms. The woman tensed, eyes wide and wild with fear, as she clung tighter to the child. A spike of anger formed in Theodren, that he would be kept from his Godchild by the woman who orphaned her in the first place, but as he prepared to take the child from Reina, his eyes caught on the colors of her soul.

  Her soul was a flurry of colors. Theodren had never seen so many in one soul at a time. There was grief and joy, anger and anxiety, and stranger still there was desperation and love amongst a multitude of others. There in her chest was a bloom of Love Theodren had seen before. He had seen it in the mother bear who threw herself between her child and him. He had seen it amongst the families of the town, and just an hour ago he had seen it in Eleina’s bosom as she held Theviana in her warm arms.

  Theodren shook his head in disgust at the broken woman standing between him and his Godchild. Whatever this woman had done to return her to the living was not his concern. Theviana needed him now, and he would not leave her in the arms of her parent’s murderer.

  “Release my Godchild woman, I will not ask again.” Reina ripped the child away from his hands. She hobbled to her feet crying out in pain from the myriad injuries she had suffered from her battle with Theodren. Theviana cried all the louder as Reina held her tight to the cold and bloody armor on her chest.

  “She’s mine! I brought her into this world, she’s mine!” shouted a defiant but desperate Reina. Her eyes darted around the burning village, seeking an escape like a cornered animal. Reina took a halting step, fleeing from the Imposing priest. After three hobbling strides, she tripped. Twisting as she fell she landed on her shoulder, sparing Theviana the fall but jostling her further with the impact.

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  Reina’s exhaustion both physical and mental, had caught up to her. There was no more adrenaline or shock to shelter her from the pain of her injuries. Nevertheless she crawled, holding the screaming babe tight as she struggled.

  A deep sigh left Theodren as he walked after the nearly feral woman. His anger had exhausted him. A numbness of the soul ebbed through Theodren as he reached down and halted Reina by the shoulder. She gave a cry of pain as he flipped her onto her back. Theodren pulled the wailing babe from her grasp as Reina slapped and clawed at him, sobbing as she pleaded with him. “She needs me!”

  Theodren did not enjoy the terror and anxiety he saw growing in the woman’s soul, but he steeled himself as he walked away from the murderess. With each step he took from Reina, Theviana’s cries grew weaker and weaker. Theodren’s eyes snapped down to the babe in his arms that grew colder with each step. In a panic, he pushed Vitae into the child. The spring of Vitae in the babe’s soul was still there, but it grew weaker. He tried to push his own vitae toward it but was rebuffed by a power he didn’t recognize.

  Theodren’s brow furrowed at the mote of cold power keeping his Vitae from the child. Theodren stopped dead in his tracks as he sought an alternative path to infuse the child with the healing water’s of his Vitae. She was dying, again, and there was nothing he could do. He shook his head, refusing to give up. Theodren assaulted the mysterious river of power, every angle and every trick he could think of was attempted, and failed. His growing frustration was halted in surprise as he felt a hand grab at the hem of his robe. He looked down to see Reina climbing him. Fabric bunched in her hands she dragged herself up his side toward the babe growing cold and quiet in his arms.

  “Why are you so damn tall?” she grunted as she scaled the stunned man. Theodren could only stare at the strange woman as she pulled herself upright against him. Exhausted and leaning into his chest on one good leg, she placed a hand on Theviana’s head.

  Theodren’s mouth fell open as the river of cold power was drained from the child into Reina’s palm. A trickle of the icey ethereal water still flowed in the child, but it was enough for Theodren to push past with his vast store of Vitae, warming the child with life water, it eased Theviana’s cries which had returned in full.

  “I told you. She needs me.” Reina slumped in exhaustion, sliding down the front of Theodren’s robe, he caught her in his left arm on instinct while still holding Theviana in his right. Theodren stared down at the broken woman now asleep in his arms. A hundred questions swirled in his mind for the unconscious woman, but she was in no state to answer them.

  Theodren moved her further up into his arms as he turned to his next task. The bodies left behind by the sleeping woman in his arms were everywhere. He may not have been able to save him, but they would still need him now, one final time. His eyes fell to the shovel Pieter had dropped in his mad rush to save his daughter and granddaughter. “A mad bastard to the end Pieter.” Theodren let out a sad chuckle as he walked over to the family of friends that now lay in the dirt. As he mentally prepared himself for the work of their burial, he was unnerved by the mysterious smile that was frozen for all time, across Eleina’s face.