Mother grunted in agreement. “I should have never let you touch me.”
“Which time?” Father asked, amused. “There have been thousands.”
“Oh, be quiet. Insufferable male.”
The words had barely left her mouth before her pain returned. This continued for a couple of intervals, but as the minutes ticked by slowly, I could sense the change in her body.
“Her surges are closer together, Father,” I commented. “I’ve been counting, and she doesn’t have very long between them. She needs to be checked.”
He nodded in agreement and looked at Mother, who turned to face him. She pressed her face to his chest and moaned as she swayed her hips from side to side to relieve her discomfort.
“I’ve sent for Eena and Neeba now that she is at the ending stage of birthing,” Kol murmured to me. “Neeba was promoted to Royal Healer a few moon cycles ago since his father passed into the Beyond to be with Thanas. The poor male was attacked by that pack of borak causing problems in the outer sectors by the Endless Forest.”
I nodded, not offended in the least.
I had never been my mother’s birthing healer. Even though birthing a young one was perfectly natural, I did not want to be up close and personal with my mother’s private parts as she delivered my new brother if I didn’t have to be. It amused her when I told her this, but she understood. I would relieve her of her pain, but another healer would aid with the actual birthing. This was the agreement we all came to because Mother desperately wanted me to be a part of her birthing process.
I was the only prince who Thanas blessed with the lissa of a healer.
Eena and Neeba, the new Royal Healer, showed up not long after Kol called for them. My brother and I sat down on the cushioned seating provided across the room so we were out of the way. Eena had shooed us out of Mother’s space the second she entered the room.
She had everything that Mother would need brought in—steaming hot water, objects to cut the young’s cord of life, clean linens in different sizes, and body cloths for drying. She even brought in yogi reeds that she began to burn down to ash. As the reeds burned, the chamber would fill with a pleasant scent known to help the body relax.
This was Mother’s sixteenth young one. I didn’t expect her labouring to continue for very long, and I was right.
Not half an interval after Eena and Neeba showed up, Mother’s pain was constant, and she began to snarl for pain relief. The second she asked for it, Father growled my name. I was up from my seat and on the floor behind my mother in an instant. I placed my hand on her upper back, closed my eyes, and focused my lissa.
It was tricky, very tricky because Mother’s pain receptors were all zinging bright blue. I felt a deep appreciation for my mother once I saw how much pain she was in. I had healed many broken bones, sealed dozens of open wounds, and even re-attached partially severed limbs, but I had never seen so many pain receptors ignite with light at one time.
As a healer, birthing a child was the worst pain I had ever seen. I understood at that moment why Thanas gave the task of life-bearing to females over males. It was obvious that males would die from the pain and go extinct.
I extinguished the light of as many pain receptors as I could without overdoing it. I was worried I would make a mistake, and I could not afford that. Not when the female giving birth was my mother, and the young was my sibling. I felt perspiration coat my forehead, but a cool cloth was quickly tapped over my face and behind my neck. My senses told me it was Eena watching over me like she was supposed do with the Royal Healer.
“Good, Ezah. Keep going, my son.” I heard Father’s voice. “How is my little offspring?”
I hadn’t checked on my sibling yet, so I momentarily switched my lissa to the young and undid all of my work on my mother’s pain receptors. Mother screamed as the full force of her contractions surged back to claim her. Once I had a reading that the young’s heart was beating normal, I quickly got back to work extinguishing as many of the blue lights as I could. Moments later, the pain Mother felt was bearable for her. Enough that she could get through her contractions with just her breathing.
I felt what could only be described as a plug being pulled just before Mother’s water exited her body like a running river. I thought I felt the liquid touch my leg, but a cloth was suddenly thrust between my mother and me, which told me Eena was actively watching what was going on and taking steps to clean as Mother birthed. Mother’s pain was harder to fight. I wanted desperately to just force all the lights out instead of jumping around after them one by one, but I could not do so without risking the life of my sibling.
Pressure filled my head.
Using my lissa was harder than before, and I instantly knew why. It was not my pressure I felt but my mother’s. I pulled back the power of my lissa and took my hands away from her. When I opened my eyes, Father snarled at me for no longer helping my mother, and I fell back onto my behind when he shoved me. I lowered my eyes. His instincts were too wild to identify me as his own offspring.
“Serbak, stop it!” Mother growled. “He is our son. Our little brave male. Stop!”
Father nuzzled his nose against her face when she whined as another ache jolted through her.
“It is time,” I said as I climbed back to my knees. “Mother, you must push now.”
I stood and stepped back as Eena and Father helped move Mother into the birthing position on her hands and knees. Her body instantly reacted and made her scream as she pushed. Kol and I hurried to move around to her front so we were staring at her face and nothing else. Neeba, the Royal Healer, had to instruct Eena on what to do because Father would not let him touch Mother. Just another male looking between his mate’s legs was almost sending Father to the edge, but Eena and Mother kept repeating that he was a healer, and he was there to keep his mate and offspring safe.
This was the same old tale for every Maji family birth.
We only had male healers on Ealra, and males wanted to kill the healer who helped his mate give birth, so the females had to constantly talk him down. It was a tiring circle but a necessary one. Kol and I flinched as Mother bore down and pushed until her face darkened. It was a horribly stressful process, and I felt just awful that I had put my mother through this very scene when she birthed me.
I made a mental reminder with my comm for me to thank her later.
“Ezah!” Father suddenly barked my name as Mother screeched. “His head has crowned.”
My prince, Neeba’s voice reached me. The Revered Father seems to cope better with your aid. I fear he might kill me if I touch the Hailed Mother. My father is the one who aided in the birth of all the princes. I am too unknown to him for him to remain calm.
I sighed because I knew that Neeba was right. Father wasn’t doing well with his presence at all during this birthing. He had snapped, snarled, and growled at the male more times than I could count. He had even punched him at one point.
“Oh, Ezah,” Mother whimpered. “Would you help me bring him into the world? Please, vasha?”
I had told Mother I would not do this, but I could not refuse when she asked me in the midst of pushing. I quickly moved to the position of the Royal Healer, and I was surprised by how much I focused on my new sibling. I didn’t even look at anything else. He had a thick head full of light hair that I knew would be as white as mine when it was clean and dry. My heart pounded when his shoulders came into the world. More of him appeared with each passing second. I took hold of him and gently pulled as my mother pushed. Mother screamed, Father comforted her while still growling, and I delivered my new brother. One second, Mother was birthing him, and the next, he was in my arms.