Carpathian 00 - The Scarletti Curse

an hour to make the trek. Whatever had to be done would be done by Nicoletta alone. She almost wished she did have magic at her fingertips to aid her. Every step was uphill and steep. Her injured calf was burning by the time she saw the torches lit around the farmhouse where Lissandra resided with her husband, Aljandro.
    He flung open the door, having obviously been watching for her, his huge bulk filling the frame, his face twisted with guilt. "Hurry, Nicoletta. I fear you are too late."
    Nicoletta pushed aside his terror along with her own and reached deep inside her for calm. It was there, the reserve she could always count on, draw on, and she entered the dwelling as a confident, assured healer. Lissandra's sister, Laurena, leapt to her feet with a cry of relieved greeting.
    The house was already filled with black-shawled women, mourners congregating to wail for the dead.
    Nicoletta's dark eyes flashed fire. "Is she gone then?" She hissed the question at them, and they all cringed at her evident displeasure. Immediately they ceased their incessant wailing. Not one dared defy her or point out that she was barely past being a child herself. Nicoletta was a powerful healer, and they were very superstitious. If Nicoletta could heal, she might very well be able to harm them as well.
    "Laurena, remove these women to another room, where they will be able to pray to the Madonna in peace," Nicoletta ordered prudently. "I will need water boiled and clean cloth." She approached Lissandra with more confidence than she felt. The girl was whimpering, her stomach swollen and hard, her body worn from labor.
    Nicoletta looked past Laurena to Aljandro, straight into his eyes. "Why was I not summoned the instant she went into labor?" Her gaze glittered with hot accusation.
    He looked away from her immediately. They both knew why Aljandro had not wanted to call her. He Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    was still angry because Nicoletta had spurned his attentions before he had turned his eye to Lissandra.
    He had wanted sons, workers for his farm, and, had chosen a young bride to supply him. He had not called the healer because he had intended to keep his earnings to himself, in hopes of becoming wealthier.
    He had not thought of the consequences to so young and small a "brood mare," and at that moment he was mortified at his own behavior.
    Nicoletta pressed her lips together to keep from lashing out at the ignorant man and immediately set about inspecting Lissandra. Her young friend was well advanced in her labor, the babe very large.
    Nicoletta had seen this too many times. Lissandra was small, the babe large; everything was wrong. The outcome was usually grim: both mother and child died. She looked at Laurena, and for a moment their eyes said it all, a knowing exchange between women about a hopeless situation that need not have occurred.
    "Lissandra," she said quietly, "I am going to try to help. The babe is still alive. You must do what I say and trust in me." Nicoletta threw off her shawl and rolled up her sleeves, immersing her hands in scalding water. It was one of Nicoletta's strange differences, often remarked upon as this obsession with hot water when she tended the sick.
    Fortunately, she had small hands, and she relied on her inner guide, which always seemed to know exactly what was wrong and how to fix it. Had she been called earlier, she was fairly confident she might have saved both mother and child, but Lissandra was exhausted, her delicate body worn out. Nicoletta talked her through each swelling wave of pain, all the while patiently maneuvering until she could grasp the babe to help ease it out. Laurena thrust a thin, rounded stick between her sister's teeth, afraid that in her wild screaming she might swallow her tongue. Nicoletta worked steadily and patiently, sweat running down her face so profusely that sometimes she couldn't see.
    The baby was stuck. It would die, and so would Lissandra. Nothing would ease the baby through the tiny opening of pelvic bones. An idea of what to do on such occasions had been in her mind for some time now, but Nicoletta shied from trying it alone, wanting the comfort of Maria Pia's presence before she attempted such a terrible thing. But Nicoletta didn't have the luxury of waiting for Maria Pia.
    Lissandra had run out of time. Nicoletta had to act now or never.
    She looked into her friend's desperate, pleading eyes and made her decision.