Their voices swept over her in great waves and seemed to flow from all around, it sounded as if she were listening from below a sheet of water. A horrible nauseous feeling swallowed her as the voices grew louder and closer. No coherent thoughts formed in her mind, only a will to push above the blanket that covered her.
“Here she comes,” said a soft voice from beside her. She felt two strong hands gently rubbing one of her own. “Get back, get back. Give her some room.” ordered another stronger , deeper voice.
Slowly, her eyes opened, but they saw nothing but the bright blurs of the Arusian dawn. The brilliance sent a dull pain through her head and she longed to crawl back in to the comfortable gloom from which she had come. Someone touched her face with a damp cloth.
“No, no, no,” coaxed the gentle voice as her eyes threatened to roll back in to the void. “ Stay here with us, love.”
“Is she - awake?” The emptiness in her eyes must have frightened the man holding her hand.
“Not completely. She’ll be fine in minutes. I’m going to check on the Captain.”
The shadows against the great brightness began to materialize. Slowly, her senses came alive as the dawn-tinted morning sky began to surge and twist in to place; wailing, mournful screams filled her ears, and the appalling fragrance of death and fire filled her nose. The sights, sounds, and smells made her retch violently, but nothing spilled from her lips but a hoarse cry. She made an effort to breathe from her mouth as she fought to gather her wits.
“Hey, squirt,” said Lance as he brought her fingers to his lips. His face was the first to come into sight. His sullen face contradicted the confident tone of his voice. His white uniform was stained with ash and sweat from fighting the blazes which engulfed the city, and his tanned skin was covered in a black soot. She imagined she could see tear tracks making a path across his face, but she would never know if it was despair or labor that caused them. Another dark shadow with a wild mop of curly brown hair bent before her. A woman’s features developed where only blackness was before.
Mara made a soft ado as she ran her finger tip across Allura’s sore head. If she knew how much it hurt she wouldn’t have done it. “Lay still, love. You’re going to be fine. Just a little bump on the head.” There was no need to worry, Allura was to tired to move or think. She just stared into the burning sky.
“Are you sure she’s awake?” asked Lance with a worried tone.
“Give her a minute, if she doesn’t come around we’ll get the doctor back over here.” She placed the wet cloth on the Princess’ lips. This had been her only comfort since her awakening.. It felt wonderful, she realized then how dry her mouth had been. She part her lips so Mara could place the corner of the dripping cloth into her mouth. Allura began sucking on it , wondering where she was.
Allura tried to sort out events in her head as Lance and Mara carried on beside her. Their thoughts were to much for her. She remembered the children...
“.... he’s just moaning and stuff. Doctor says he’ll be around in a few seconds. Though, he got hit pretty bad......”
A baby’s cry filled her ears now. Terrified, confused wails. She remembered holding a baby in her arms, the memory of maternal feelings running through her like water. The baby! She weakly began to push her self up to a sitting position.
“No, My Lady, You need lie still until the doctor can tend to you.”
I’m fine she tried to say, but the words never formed. Her head felt three times too large as she attempted to lift it from the ground. The voices of a countless number of other people became clearer to her....And a baby’s cry.
“I think she’s trying to talk,” said Lance. Mara took the cloth from her lips and bent closer to her.
“The baby?” she whispered into her new nurses ear.
“Yes, it’s fine. You saved it. Don’t try to talk.”
“When we pulled you out from under the debris you had a death grip on the poor thing. We had to pry your fingers from it,” said Lance, then his face turned grim. “Keith had you two covered, looks like he took the weight of the hit.”
A panicked whimper escaped the princess as she searched the ground for her injured Captain. “No, no , no. He’s going to be just fine,” said Mara to the disturbed Princess, aiming an agitated glance in Lance’s direction. There was something about Lance older women just didn’t care for. “Damnit, don’t get her all worked up!” she hissed under her breath to him.
“When the doctor saw that you were going to be Ok, he went straight to Keith. Looks like he’s even awake now,” said Hunk who had just wandered their direction.”
“Please go tell him that Allura has awakened. And someone call Coran before he has a heart attack.”
Allura lay still for a number of moment s listening to the activity around her. She gathered her thoughts and began to face up to the realization that there had been a battle fought and much of the town was destroyed. A number of people must have been gathered around her before she awoke, many of them still stood at bay to await the fate of their ruler.
“Help me sit,” she said to Mara.
“That’s notta good idea, Majesty,” she replied.”
Hunk noticed the object of her attention and grasped her hand. “Princess, can I send him back to the castle. I don’t want him to see any more of this. There is a lot he can do there. I think all of this is getting to him.”
“Of course.” she replied. The affection between Hunk and the younger man had always touched her. Hunk watched after him like a father. When he left she looked around her to find her fallen friend. The details of their fight crept back into her head. They had said some awful things to one another, but none of that mattered now.
Mara had her hands full with the wailing child, so when Allura made her move toward the doctor and Keith she could not stop her. Strom offered her a helping hand but she hatefully refused it and pushed him out of the way. He took her abuse with a dismal face.
Keith and the doctor were only feet away, most of the journey was made on bruised knees. When she arrived the doctor was asking Keith if he had been faithful to his medicine. He stopped for a brief moment and put a hand on her shoulder asking if she was feeling pain. She replied with a quick nod of the head to tell she was fine. She felt that if she opened her mouth to respond she may begin to scream and cry with the rest of the voices that filled her head. Everyone around her was crying.
The doctor gave her a clean cloth to use against the blood that covered Keith’s thrashed face. “Allura!” he wailed reaching out into the sky for her. The far away look in his eyes startled her as she absently lifted him into her arms. “I’m here.” she whispered to him, kissing his forehead. His head rested in the crook of her arm and he turned to bury his face in her breast, the dirty white dress becoming dirty and bloody..
“Be careful!” the doctor shrieked at Allura.
“Is he Ok,” she asked, deeply hurt by the doctors tone.
“I’m taking him back to the castle as soon as his wounds are wrapped.” His tone was sour and she knew that emotions often ran high after seeing such a brutal scene. She knew that the doctors guilt often got the best of him, he had a hard time realizing that he was not God and there was nothing he could do for some people.
She wiped at Keith’s neck, as his face was still buried in her chest, and noticed for the first time a rather disturbing scar. It looked new and she thought that it must have happened while on Calydian. She held his hand to her chest and watched as a nurse pulled out a protracted shard from his leg and wrapped it to stop the bleeding. He was in pain, but he would be fine.
She sobbed with in the confines of the great church with a despair as bottomless as a child’s. She clung to Lance as he held her tight. Bloody face after bloody face haunted her soul. How many innocent people had died in her arms today? And how many of these people did she fell personally responsible for? The blood from the last was still fresh on her hands. She had taken the older man into her tired arms to comfort him before a medic could come to him. His whole body quaked with pain and she saw there was nothing where his right foot should have been.
He had told her how beautiful she was.....like her mother. She tried to keep the dying man talking to her, in order to keep him conscious, but he soon gave up and died in her arms. The blood of too many honest people covered her body that day. The man went limp in her embrace and ceased breathing. Trembling, she gently placed him back on the ground and closed his eyes. The familiar knot rose in her throat once more as she stood to move on to the next casualty. But, him comparing her to her slain mother was too much. Her hands rose to her head and took hand full of hair. Her face twisted with distress. It seemed all the dead and dying bodies on the spoiled ground were crying for her. I’m not a healer like my mother! she raged inside!
Just as it seemed she was about to scream from the depths of her soul a pair of strong arms swept her up in to their embrace and took her from the endless sea of the dead and dying. She was purely exhausted. Empty. Depleted. There was nothing left in her. She gave in to the torment and the arms which held her, not questioning whose they were.
Lance had brought her to the old church in the midst of the ruined town. The windows had been broken out and the north corner of the wall joining to the roof lay in a pile of ruins on the floor. He held her tight on the floor as they cried and prayed to whose ever God felt like listening. Her body convulsed and heaved against his and her fingers cut into the flesh of his back in anger.
When Gorma left with Keith, Allura stayed behind to take care of what ever she could. It was a duty of hers anyhow, but not one she looked upon with pride. She felt completely helpless, her only comfort was her useless, as she thought, blessing given to the dying.
Mara had stayed behind to aid the Princess. She had a vast knowledge of homeopathic healing and offered what help she could. But before any of this, they went to deliver the baby. Determined, Allura took the screaming child from Mara’s arms. She had to put it back where she had found it. She only prayed that she was not too late, that the mother had already been there and gone, fearing the worst for her new born child. The thought that her parents may not even be living crossed her mind, but it was a thought she refused to believe.
The child screamed and fussed and thrashed wildly in her arms as she carried it down the foul streets. Mara stayed close behind with a handful a men assigned to stay with the Princess for the remainder of the day. As she neared the sacrificial stone in which the baby was found, a small crowd of forlorn people watched from behind.
When the ruler of Arus arrived at the sacred space she saw that she was not too late. But still wished she had been able to save the grieving family from their brief torment. The young mother of the infant lay stretched across the altar screaming in anguish for her presumed dead child. Her husband stood behind her with a hand on her back, he looked resolutely to the ground, trembling. Perhaps he looked to their son, who sat crying at her feet, clinging to her torn skirts. “Mummy!” he bawled, voice distorted and face twisted, pulling at her. He couldn’t understand the pain she was going through, he was no older than three, but was frightened all the same by their rueful manners.
When the sobbing mother heard the cries of the baby she threw her self in to her husbands arms. She could not look at anothers child. He held her tight as she wailed even louder, a small stream of blood flowed from his temple. Through his tears he looked over at the angel standing on the other side of the altar. She was dressed in a loose white gown which was stained with blood across the breast. The skin of her face was as pure and white as the dress had once been. Her face was framed by flowers hanging from her hair that had earlier been twisted on to her head.
The young man caught his breath as he thought for one moment that he was witnessing a miracle. Observing the angle taking his daughters spirit to arcadia. He cried out and reached a hand in her direction. Then he saw that she trembled as much as he, and wasn’t an heavenly spirit, but a breathing human being. A live woman. The baby screamed and hissed in her arms and there was no mistaking its validity.
“Elasa!” he cried. The sobbing mother turned her face to see the Princess standing with her child. Allura’s face twisted with the effort to keep from crying as the parents ran to her side of the altar and fell to their knees. The woman wrapped her arms around Allura’s waist and cried into her stomach. Mara and all the onlookers were reduced to tears at the touching sight.
The mother desperately tore her screaming child from Allura’s embrace. She cradled it as she fell to the ground, the baby stopped crying suddenly realizing it was safe in its mothers arms. Allura’s heart was touched by the love between the small family . “You saved my child!” she cried overcome with emotion. A million things ran through Allura’s head to say but nothing came. “We owe you their lives” she cried allowing her husband to touch his daughters face for the first time.
“How can we thank you?” he said.
“Her life is yours,” said the mother between sobs. “When our children are old enough we’ll send them to be in your service. Our son is strong and can fight in your army , and our baby girl can serve you.”
Allura fell to her knees to be able to see the woman in the eye, her subjects that watched thought it a touching gesture. “I’ll gladly take your son and daughter into my home when this war is over and it is safe.” Allura wrapped her arms around the still sobbing woman and pulled her into an embrace..
“Will - will you name her,” she asked into Allura’s neck. It was an honor for the child to be officially named by the ruler. Every child had a given name and a informal name, only the child and the parents knew the given name.
“Yes, I’ll know who she is by her name,” replied Allura. Only one name would allow itself to be spoken. All her life she had thought it a horrible curse, she never really understood its beauty until now. “Gahanima.” she whispered to the mother. She mother smiled and repeated the child’s given name. “Gahanima.” A spoil of war. Allura passed her own name down to the infant with pride and repeated,” I’ll know her by her name.”
She still held tight to Lance in the small church, and he held tightly to her. Coarn was coming soon to take her home. Lance had decided that she had had enough. And he knew Coran was dying to see her and touch her. The older man had tried his best to conceal his panic when hte attack began. The boys could only comfort him and remind him that she was with Keith, and he would risk his life for hers without a thought.
“Who did this?” she cried, afraid of his answer.
He looked uncomfortable for a moment before answering. “It was someone new, Princess.”
“New?” she gasped between sobs.
“We’ve have footage of him. He calls himself Cossack. He said Lotor has been exiled and he’s taken his place.” he said wondering if he really should be telling her this now. The thought of Lotor being exiled didn’t even phase her. It didn’t matter at the moment. Her mind raced with thoughts of the work that awaited her. After seeing this madness she ralized that Keith and Coran had a point. It didn't matter, though. Nothing really mattered now.
She thought of the woman she encountered today. She was sitting in front of a burning house screaming with a limp child in her arms. Even the woman’s violent, desperate motions didn’t stir the child. Allura ran to her to give her comfort. The woman let the child fall to the ground and eagerly fell into the princess’ embrace.
Allura touched the child on the head with tears in her eyes. “What was his name?” she asked.
The woman quivered in her arms as she looked to the burning home. “My husband! He was Shala” she cried reaching out to the wreck. Allura felt terrible pity for her. Loosing her son and husband.
“Your son?” Allura asked.
“He sleeps.” cried the woman still holding tight to Allura. Allura was confused. Nothing could sleep through the cries and thunder of the moment. And the way she held the child earlier.
“Sleeps?”
“The children sleep. We make them sleep. He’ll wake in hours to no father! He’s no father now!”
Allura realized what the woman meant now. She had heard of the practice before, but never actually thought people actually did it. The woman gave her child what the towns folk called The Drink of Dreams. They forced into their children at the first sign of battle, therefore the child went peacefully in its sleep instead of the horrifying death of war.
“Allura!”
She wrenched her head around to see her councilor running down the aisle of the church. She jumped from Lances arms and ran to meet him. She clashed with him and they both fell to the ground in a tight embrace. She sobbed ion his shoulder a while while he stroked her hair like a father would to his own child.
“Let’s go home.”