THE SMOKE

Elaris's POV

The pale smoke thickens before I can reach the door.

It crawls along the floor first then begins to rise in delicate wisps up the walls.

I pull my sleeve over my nose and mouth and lower myself down as far as I can without crushing my stomach into my mattress.

My child kicks once.

Hard.

Then is done.

Fear tries to take hold but I force myself to think instead of panicking.

Pull myself from the bed and lower to my knees to crawl along the floor where the air is slightly clearer.

One hand pressed against my stomach while the other holds my sleeve over my nose the smoke burns even through the fabric.

I whisper to my child that we are not done yet.

Not tonight.

The inner guards finally realize something is wrong.

One pushes towards the door and begins pounding against it shouting for the outer watch.

His voice is muffled and smothered by the thickening haze.

The second turns from the door and comes directly towards me tearing a strip of fabric from the leg of his undershirt he wets over the basin and presses into my free hand.

"Use this instead."

I wrap the damp cloth over my mouth.

Herbal scent assaults my senses.

Same family as that I've encountered around the wolfsbane before but this time there is no flower dried and tucked into a pouch.

There is enough of it in the air for my own eyes to begin to water.

He turns once more towards the door.

"Open it!"

No response.

My lungs begin to tighten.

I force myself to take smaller breaths.

The child is unnaturally still.

More frightening than the burning in my throat.

I press my palm over my stomach and wait.

Nothing.

I refuse to imagine what the smoke could be doing inside me.

Tomorrow's night is scheduled to reveal the truth of both pregnancies.

Supposed to end the tension around Virelle's claim.

I can not allow someone to harm my child before reaching that night.

After everything the child has withstood.

The outer guards eventually shout back over the door but their voices are muffled.

The inner guard strikes against the wood.

"She is pregnant! Open this door!"

Still no response.

For the first time I understand why the attack has been made in the first place.

They separated me.

Limited the visits.

Placed guards between me and Averic.

And now the only thing this attacker needs to further this assault is hesitation on the part of the few who watch my door.

At last the lock releases.

The door is thrown open.

Fresh air reaches me but the corridor is no longer clear.

Smoke rises from the chamber spilling out into the hallway several guards recoil covering their faces and someone shouts for healers.

Another warrior demands to know who has opened the passage.

No one answers.

I look past the figures in the corridor.

No attacker.

No figure waiting to be caught.

No feet retreating down the hall.

Only the distant trail of smoke curling off towards the end of the corridor.

Whoever released it had already gone.

The delivery was perfectly timed.

This person who fed the smoke into my chamber had never needed to enter the room at all.

The inner guard supports me with an arm around my waist and guides me into the corridor.

My knees nearly buckle from the fresh influx of air and I cough violently until the tightness in my ribs eases.

I bend forward instinctually both arms wrapping around my stomach.

"Stay upright," The guard tells me.

"I am trying."

A council healer arrives with two attendants and immediately begins examining me.

Quick questions pelt at me before the answer I offer.

How long was I exposed?

Did I swallow any of it?

How much smoke had entered the chamber?

At last he places a hand near my abdomen and runs the diagnostic reading.

The first result makes the healer's brows furrow.

"The child is alive."

Relief nearly overwhelms me.

Before the word has fully sunk in she studies the second result.

"Her essence has fallen."

The words sit heavier than the smoke ever did.

The child survived but I am not walking away from this incident unharmed.

The chamber is sealed while the guards search it.

I am monitored in the corridor under the watch of the healers as they listen to my breathing.

Eventually one of the attendants discovers the means by which the smoke had entered.

A small gap in a floor level vent.

The space is far too small for anyone to have crawled in or out of but quite large enough to allow someone to push the smoke into the chamber with cloth.

The guard finds a strip of the same fabric that was used to feed the smoke further along the service passage.

He brings it to the healer who strips the fibers away revealing only scent.

Same herbs clinging to the fibers that tainted the air in my chamber.

But no scent strong enough to indicate the presence of the person who had handled the fabric.

I stare at the discarded scrap.

They did not need to enter my chamber.

They did not need to face me.

They only needed access to the passage.

That means the locked door never protected me as much as everyone believed.

A council representative arrives before the examination is even complete.

He listens to the reports asked for the location of the vent studied everything with the detached air of a man assessing damaged property.

"Another security breach," He finally says.

Annotating the incident one more time as though it would help him understand what had happened to me the last time I had visited these halls.

A second attempt.

A third.

A direct attack on a pregnant woman.

Yet the council still has a classification for it that makes the danger seem manageable.

More guards are ordered around the eastern wing.

Then the next decision is made.

I am to be moved.

Again.

The representative explains the chamber is no longer considered secure the replacement room lies deeper within the east wing.

Smaller and farther from the main corridors.

I almost laugh at how ridiculous it seems.

They are moving the target instead of searching for the person throwing the knife.

The re-location begins immediately.

Four warriors escort me through the mostly unfamiliar corridors.

The child remains quiet beneath my hands.

I check constantly for any movement.

Finally arrive at the new room and I feel hollowed out.

Little more than a narrow bed a washstand and a chair beneath the window fill the chamber.

Nowhere to pace.

No place to hide.

No place to go.

I sit carefully and begin counting my breaths.

One.

Two.

Three.

The numbers steady me.

The attack was not meant only to frighten me.

The timing speaks of something worse.

My essence was already weak.

The blood moon is nearly here and if they can diminish me further before the examination my child could be considered dangerously unstable during the test.

A failing reading could become another weapon against me.

The thought makes my fingers clench around the blanket.

They are running out of time.

So am I.

No visit from Averic comes.

I wait through the first hour.

Then another.

Eventually one of the council guards informs me that the five-minute allowance has been suspended until a security review can be conducted.

I do not argue.

There is no point arguing with a door that has already been locked.

Instead I ask when I will be transferred to the shrine hall.

"One hour before moonrise."

"And before then?"

"You remain here."

That is final.

The blood-moon examination is now the only event they are unwilling to postpone.

Everything else can be restricted.

Visits.

Movement.

Information.

Even Averic.

I lower my hand over my stomach.

The child shifts slightly beneath my palm.

It is enough.

I close my eyes.

"One more night," I whisper.

Darkness falls over the east wing.

I do not sleep.

I sit against the wall listening.

The guards change twice.

Then again.

Boots cross the corridor at irregular intervals.

Keys turn.

Someone whispers outside the door.

A tray arrives and leaves.

I measure each sound.

Not because I believe another attack must come.

Because I can no longer afford to assume it will not.

The child moves occasionally now.

Each shift counted.

Not obsessively.

Carefully.

A small movement.

A pause.

Another movement.

I keep my hand there and wait for the next.

The hours drag forward.

Nothing happens.

That should comfort me.

Instead it makes me more alert.

An attack that fails does not always mean the attacker has stopped.

Sometimes it means they are waiting for a better opening.

Just before first light footsteps approach from the outer corridor.

Heavier than the regular guard rotation.

Several voices follow.

The guards outside my room exchange sharp words.

I sit upright.

"Who is there?"

No one answers.

The argument grows louder.

Then the lock turns.

The door opens.

Averic stands in the threshold.

For one second neither of us moves.

Two of his own warriors stand behind him while the council escorts look furious.

One council guard immediately steps forward.

"You were ordered not to enter this chamber."

Averic does not acknowledge him.

His attention is on me.

He takes in the room.

The guards.

My face.

The lingering traces of smoke still clinging to my clothes.

Then his expression becomes unreadable.

He has broken the order and everyone knows it.

Averic crosses the room in three strides.

Stops just short of touching me.

Perhaps because he remembers the observers.

Perhaps because he knows one wrong movement will give the council another reason to separate us.

But his hesitancy does not hide what I see in his face.

He is furious.

Not at me.

At the fact that I was attacked while he was kept away.

His voice rough when he finally speaks.

"I was not informed until the smoke had already cleared."

Behind him the council representative starts protesting.

Averic ignores him.

His attention is on me.

"That will not happen again."

The representative raises his voice.

"Alpha, you cannot override the standing order—"

Averic finally turns his head.

"I am not overriding it."

The man hesitates.

Averic looks back at me.

“I am ending it.”

The corridor erupts behind him as the council escorts object.

Averic moves aside just enough for his warriors to block the doorway.

Then he looks directly at me.

"You will reach the shrine hall," he says. "I will be standing there when you do."

For the first time since the doors closed around me I believe I may not have to face the blood moon alone.