jeriendhal | Andrea's Story

425

Dinner proved to be surprisingly normal. Andrea, perhaps realizing that his sense of humor was reaching its limit, had released him after giving a thorough tickling. Maria had come back downstairs an hour later, mildly annoyed at having missed all the fun. Then they had all decamped to the kitchen to enjoy a meal of cold meats and steamed vegetables.

“So when do you expect your great temple to be finished, Maria?” Andrea asked, cutting into her smoked ham.

“Five years, barring famine, flood, and fate,” Maria replied. “Given all the complications that have arisen, I'm not counting on that.”

“You'll have to show me the plans,” Andrea said.

“Oh, I've got a set in my office, I'll go get them.” Maria pushed herself away from the table, standing up.

“I can get them for you,” Tez told her.

“Oh, there's no need.” A peculiar look crossed Maria's face, and she began to sway on her feet. “I think I'd better...” Tez and Andrea had just enough time to leap up from their seats to grab her, as Maria's eyes rolled back into her head and she fainted.

“What happened? Agh, blessed gods she's heavy!” Andrea puffed, trying to keep up her end of the load.

“Just ease her down to the floor. She'll wake up in a few moments.” He snatched a cushion off of a chair and set it under Maria's head as they lay her down on the tiles.

“You keep an eye on her, I'll grab a horse and find a physician.” Andrea turned, but Tez caught her wrist before she could go far.

“There's no need,” he said. “This is expected, if not normal. She hasn't had an attack like this for a couple of months now. I was hoping that they would be suspended while she was pregnant, but it appears that Death's boon only goes so far.” He bit back more bitter words. There was no need to trouble Andrea with them.

“This is part of her bargain with Death?” The old leather worker was frowning too now.

Tez nodded. “Yes. She tends to age in... spurts... I suppose you could say. I gather the recent effect isn't as dramatic as it was when she first began to age rapidly. No lines suddenly appearing on her face or anything like that. But her body is getting older, there's no mistaking that.” She was moving slower, he knew, slower than she had been when he'd first met her. And it wasn't just because she was carrying a child.

“How many times has she done this since you met her?”

“Three times. Each attack is about two to three months apart. This is the fourth one I've seen.”

“Gods...” Andrea frowned deeply, kneeling down beside the stricken young, not so young as she should be, woman. “Tez, does she know about you? About your own age?”

“Yes,” he said. “I told her a few weeks after she bought me, at the same time she told me about her bargain.”

“Huh. And the eldest of the elves meets a woman who deliberately shortened her life for the sake of bearing a child.” She rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Somebody among the gods has a damned peculiar sense of humor.”

“I don't think any of it is humorous, it's disgusting.
All she desired was the same thing every other living, breathing creature in the world is capable of. She wanted it so desperately she was willing to commit slow suicide to get it.”

Andrea looked unhappy. “How long do you think she has?”

“Barring forms of magic which are too awful to contemplate, she has perhaps fifteen, maybe twenty years of life left within her at the most,” Tez told her. “She will have her children, but she won't live long enough to see her grandchildren.”

“Damn, damn,” Andrea cursed, “that's not...”

“Fair?” Tez finished, more sharply than he'd intended. Andrea's head bowed down, as he silently cursed his temper.

“It never is, is it?”