The Sighs of the Priestess Ch. 08

"I know not, Priestess," the watcher replied, noticing her color.

The Priestess worried that the six who had left Khamazi two days before might have been captured or killed by Enmerkar's troops. He must have known nothing of it then, she thought, or she'd have noticed it in him.

"Why do you not go below where it is not so windy?" the watcher suggested. He didn't need her here to make his watch miserable.

"Because," she looked at him in a greenish sort of way, "I need the fresh air here. It keeps me from, ..."

She rushed to the wall and vomited over the parapet.

"The fourth time today," she said as she looked down. "By the nine flaming dark hells, what is the matter with me?"

"If this were anyone outside of you, it would be plain and you could see it." A soft voice said to her. The Priestess spun around to see her mother there smiling at her.

"You have what you wanted, Daughter. You are with child. I did not see it yesterday, but now it is plain to my sight."

She stared at the smiling face, "Really?"

Her mother nodded and Nisi-ini-su looked down and smiled uncertainly as she placed her hand on her flat belly.

"You should prepare yourself."

Her daughter looked at her strangely, "For wha -- for -- wh" she spun around and heaved again.

"For that," her mother said pleasantly. "It is different for every woman and for every one of every woman's pregnancies. You never know what you will get. You were always such a good baby and never gave me any trouble -- even at this early stage. I only felt a little nauseous, and then a quick trip to the temple pantry and I was nibbling some day-old crusts and I was fine."

For perhaps the first time in her life, the Priestess wanted to kill her mother.

But then, she was already dead, so that was out.

"I feel like the doorstep to a busy whorehouse and how am I to prepare for something such as this?"

"Carry a few day old crusts with you. It will help, "her mother said.

Nisi-ini-su nodded, "Ah, a basket of crusts in the one hand, and a bucket in the other. How nice."

"There!" the watcher cried, "They come out of the pass now." He looked around and saw the smoke from the fires of other watchers in the vale.

The priestess looked and heaved a sigh of relief, but her expression changed and then she hung over the parapet again, heaving something else.

"How long?" she gasped to her mother as she coughed and spit, "How long will this last?" She looked at her hair, hoping that she wasn't wearing any of her bile there and deciding to tie it back the first chance that she got.

"If you are at six weeks now, it usually lasts until the fourth month, and so -- "

"How-Long-Mother? Give me an answer while I am still young."

"Oh, say about two and a half months, but it could be longer. One never knows with these things."

"By the flame demon's glowing hot opening," her daughter cursed, "I'll heave myself over the parapet long before that."