How come all babies are delivered at night? One would think a baby would consider the unfortunate midwife who would cross the torrent river and through the enchanted forest to attend such a birth. At least, the baby could choose a more favorable hour, such as midday, when dinner is served. The midwife could catch the baby and then have the reward of a side of mutton. But that is never how birthing goes.
Fortunately for the Swamps of Matreath, they had a midwife for two years, but the mysterious birth would leave them without a midwife forevermore.
"Why me," Helga grumbled as she dragged her feet through the black, smelly swamp, in no hurry to traverse the most haunted place of the kingdom. Her nursing bag dragged in the thick tar-like mud. Whenever she came to this part of the forest, her mule refused to pull the cart, always lying down, as if death awaited if he continued. Helga thought about joining the mule, boycotting her journey, but she had a duty to fulfill. She tried to kick the mule in the side, but the mud weighed her foot down, and she only had the momentum to nudge it.
“Get up, you stubborn beast.” The mule slowly stood, and Helga’s thoughts wandered to her andsaca. "Delasha, the midwife, delivers the nobles' babies. So unjust! I am a better midwife than her, yet I am stuck delivering the poor."
Beyond the mist, an eerie howl shrilled, erecting Helga's arm hairs. She shifted her gaze but only saw darkness. She walked the ness and tried to pick up her pace, lest some beast attack her. Doing so caused the mud to trap her feet, sucking them deeper into the muck. The bottom of her cloak dragged in the slimy swamp, besmirched in filth.
"The home is in the side of the hill, past the giant oak, with the owl in it." The dwarf instructed Helga after waking her from her slumber.
"What if the owl is not there?" She had asked.
"Oh, he will be there. He is always there," the odd man replied with a low, sadistic laugh.
And sure enough, beyond the bight reigned a giant oak tree with an owl perched as a sentinel. The bird of prey stared her down with its beady eyes, and Helga quickly glanced away. That owl planned to eat her. She promptly moved under the tree toward the dirt home, keeping her arms above her head, ready to defend the demonic owl.
"This has to be the poorest home yet," Helga clicked her tongue. She had been to some disheveled homes, but this one trumped them all.
A long scream from inside made Helga jump. Instinctively, she glanced back to make sure the owl hadn't moved. She hoped the cry came from the birthing mother. Helga pulled her muddy cloak tightly around her body, knowing at that moment the other midwife was at the castle delivering the kingdom's princess. Oh, the irony of Helga's luck.
Helga took a deep breath and entered the doorless dirt house. The smell of birth entered her nose, yet it smelt more pungent than usual. In the middle of the room lay a woman, groaning and wiggling around in agony. Helga could not believe the lady was alone, attended by no one.
"Why are you left to acennan alone?" Helga asked. No one should give birth alone.
The sarig woman shrieked. "The baby is coming. The baby is coming!"
Helga didn't have time to remove her cloak as she quickly caught the baby.
With one hand holding the infant, she fished a long knife out of her bag. She severed the umbilical cord and presented the small life to the mother.
"No," the mother shook her head and turned away.
Helga's eyebrows furled as she studied the mother. No one had reacted this way before, terrified of their baby. Maybe shock dictated the mother's reactions. Helga would clean the baby girl, then attend to the mother, but she couldn’t find a water basin or pannikin in the room nor bedding of any kind. Helga used the only clean spot on her cloak to clean the infant.
"Maybe, the mother will be more receptive to a clean child," Helga thought as she turned back to the mother.
"Ahhh," Helga screamed, almost dropping the infant. Before her eyes, the mother shrilled like a banshee, vibrating into tiny particles and dissipating toward the ceiling.
In tremendous fear, Helga paced the small room, clinging to the deofol infant, fearful the baby might disappear in the same manner as the mother, and yet, Helga feared the baby. She lowered her chin to her chest as she studied the baby.
"Woot, woot," the owl crooned outside the door. Tension grasped Helga as she fought to move. Was she in a witch’s lair?
Helga sat in the corner of the room and swayed the baby back and forth through the night. As the morning light chased the darkness away, Helga realized the baby had never cried. How peculiar. Newborns always cried.
When the sun had reached the height of the sky, Helga could take the anxiety no more. She wrapped the baby beneath her cloak and, as quickly as possible, headed towards home, crossing an empty dray. The heat from the day broiled Helga in her cloak, but she kept going, wanting nothing more than to get safely in her home and take a nap if the baby would let her. As she passed the kingdom's castle, she ran into Delasha, the midwife, outside the gates.
"The princess died," Delasha said with wide eyes. She held the tiny corpse next to her body. "What will I do? The king and queen think I took the baby princess to the wet maid. They do not know that she died. They will kill my family and me when they find out," Delasha cried. "If only I could find a baby to replace her."
This was the chance to lose her competitor, to move into the role of the kingdom’s number one midwife, but she pushed that thought aside as she opened her cloak and presented the swamp baby to Delasha.
"Here, take mine," Helga offered. "I will sellan her to you."
"And the price?"
"You commission a fourth of the noble births to me."
Desperate, Delasha nodded. She studied the baby as her eyes widened. "Where did this baby come from?"
Helga looked away, unable to meet Delasha's eyes. "You best be asking no questions."
As Helga climbed into bed, she forswore never to deliver another baby in the swamp again.
The fates had intervened as the king snuggled the swamp baby to his chest, entirely beguiled. The only thing that could change the dark destiny the kingdom headed into would be the secret of the babies to be revealed.
-A secret guarded by two lowly midwives who feared for their lives. Meanwhile, how could the kingdom know the change that would soon take over the land? As they celebrated the new princess, the disposition of the kingdom forever shifted.
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The Mysterious Swamp Baby
by Stephanie Daich
