Alyosha followed fast as a concerned lieutenant at his heels; but her attention was no longer on him. It was on the infants in her arms, breathing soft-voiced murmurs into the soft down of their hair. The nonsense one gave up to comfort despite their own panic, entirely witting that they had no way of comprehending. Ishtar's hand touched at her jaw, it made her stammer, heart-clenched while her thoughts crashed around her sudden, desperate possessiveness.
My son, my daughter, my son, my daughter, I won't fail you you, I swear it on my bones; Shamash, Shamash, you're safe now, you're safe, I'll keep you always safe—
It was half a minute and they burst into the sitting room with the waiting women chatting in soft, curious voices together before a lit hearth; one cried out in fear to be so interrupted, made to stand, wide-eyed at the sight of the Brucolac so fearsomely attired.
Alyosha rushed to hush them, stepping out from behind him, "No fear now! He'll do you no harm, is their father.. Please, please, these are my children, and I—" She was speaking too fast, gathered herself, swallowed around the knot in her throat, "My son, my son, he's far too frail, will need whatever you can give. More than I've paid you for; kept at the shoulder night and day, warmed, and—"
The quieter of the women, older, clearly no stranger to children, moved to hush Alyosha feelingly, reached gather Shamash tenderly from her, saying, "Dear bairn, white as a sheet... Hush, hush, milady, we'll do all what we can and then more, don't you fret. Won't be my first was sickly so, as you know."
"Shamash," Aly said, the one word strangely insistent; and at first she almost didn't let him go. Slowly, her arm relaxed. "His name's Shamash. And hers Ishtar."
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My son, my daughter, my son, my daughter, I won't fail you you, I swear it on my bones; Shamash, Shamash, you're safe now, you're safe, I'll keep you always safe—
It was half a minute and they burst into the sitting room with the waiting women chatting in soft, curious voices together before a lit hearth; one cried out in fear to be so interrupted, made to stand, wide-eyed at the sight of the Brucolac so fearsomely attired.
Alyosha rushed to hush them, stepping out from behind him, "No fear now! He'll do you no harm, is their father.. Please, please, these are my children, and I—" She was speaking too fast, gathered herself, swallowed around the knot in her throat, "My son, my son, he's far too frail, will need whatever you can give. More than I've paid you for; kept at the shoulder night and day, warmed, and—"
The quieter of the women, older, clearly no stranger to children, moved to hush Alyosha feelingly, reached gather Shamash tenderly from her, saying, "Dear bairn, white as a sheet... Hush, hush, milady, we'll do all what we can and then more, don't you fret. Won't be my first was sickly so, as you know."
"Shamash," Aly said, the one word strangely insistent; and at first she almost didn't let him go. Slowly, her arm relaxed. "His name's Shamash. And hers Ishtar."