Prince Kelton kissed Princess Iredys’ temple then rested his head against hers.
Princess Iredys shifted after a moment and wrapped Nathaniel snugly in the cloth before passing him to Prince Kelton. Prince Kelton took him and held him for a moment before he carried him over to where his knights were in the hall. They came up to see him one at a time.
“He certainly has your nose,” Sir Hamnet said with a chuckle.
“And his chin,” Sir Thomas said quietly.
“Congratulations, Sire,” Sir Juleack and Sir Fran said.
“Thank….” Prince Kelton stopped and turned as several gasps came from the bed behind him. “Iredys?”
Ponderosa rolled Iredys onto her side to help her try and catch her breath, but as soon as she was on her side a death rattle escaped her lips and her whole body turned limp.
“Iredys!” He hurried over to the bed and passed Nathaniel to Ponderosa before kneeling beside Iredys. “Iredys, please,” he cried and he shook her shoulder. “Breathe!”
Her blind eyes continued to stare at nothing and her jaw remained slack.
“No!” he yelled, startling Nathaniel and causing him to wail.
Prince Kelton collapsed against the bed and wept. He had anticipated being able to spend the next month with her. Was even hopeful that Iredys would be able to spend that month with her son before this end came.
“Iredys,” he whined, taking her face in his hands. “Iredys, please.”
She still didn’t respond.
What was worse was that he could not feel her, despite her body lying in front of him. This felt just like the day they had gone riding and she had just vanished. Prince Kelton continued to cry. In the haze of his tears and useless thoughts, he was hardly aware of his knights coming in one by one to give his shoulder a supportive squeeze, or Nathaniel quieting down again.
Eventually his tears slowed to a near stop. The sound of Nathaniel’s whimper caused him to turn and reach for him. Ponderosa handed Nathaniel back to Kelton. He held him for a good, long, while. Only when Nathaniel pulled a face and something warm and wet started to soak through the cloth did he hand him back to Ponderosa. Almost immediately, he started to fuss and scream again.
Ponderosa wiped Nathaniel clean of the mess he’d made before she rubbed a little oil on his belly before she wrapped him in clean clothes. She then grabbed several tinctures and gave Nathaniel several drops of each before he quieted once more.
“What did you give him?” Prince Kelton asked.
Ponderosa handed Nathaniel to Prince Kelton before she picked up her quill and wrote, ‘Alfalfa and chamomile, and a little olive oil on his belly. It is a temporary measure in order to ensure he is getting sufficient nutrition until we can acquire some goat’s milk or I start producing milk myself.’
Prince Kelton nodded.
‘In the meantime, a pyre needs to be built for Princess Iredys.’
“No. She….”
He stopped when he saw Ponderosa look at something behind him. Prince Kelton closed his eyes and let out his breath. He had forgotten that his knights were nearby.
“The ground is too frozen for that,” he said.
‘Then what do you suggest? We can’t leave her body here,’ Ponderosa wrote.
Prince Kelton subconsciously started to rock with Nathaniel in his arms as he looked down on his sleeping son. “...Whether it be a pyre here or a pyre at the castle, it won’t matter,” he muttered after a moment.
“We do not have enough dry wood to sustain a pyre, My Lord,” Sir Gruph said.
“Then I suggest you start breaking the furniture,” he growled.
“Right away, Sire,” Sir Juleak replied before all of the knights left the room.
“Gailan,” Prince Kelton said once all of his knights had gone.
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“Yes, Prince Kelton?” Gailan whispered.
“Bring water and cleaning cloths.”
“Right away,” he choked before he hurried out of the room.
Prince Kelton gradually brought his head back up to look at Ponderosa. “Tell me you have another plan,” he whispered.
Ponderosa shook her head then wrote, ‘Nathaniel needs to survive in order to succeed you. He can only do that if you leave no room for doubt.’
Fresh tears burned his eyes as they slid down his cheeks. “No one comes back from the flames,” he choked.
‘No one else has had rebirth magic embedded into their body.’
Prince Kelton blew out his breath.
‘I know you still have doubts, Prince Kelton, but I believe that Iredys would have refused to remarry you still if this were truly the end.’
“I hope you are right.”
Ponderosa nodded as Gailan returned with a couple buckets of water and several cloths to wash Iredys’ body with.
‘I will let you know when I have her ready,’ Ponderosa wrote.
Prince Kelton nodded.
He carried Nathaniel to the bed where he knelt and planted one last kiss on Iredys’ forehead. Then he and Nathaniel followed Gailan out of the room and into another to wait.
The sound of wood being chopped and broken came through the walls as Gailan stirred the flames in the hearth to get them to burn brighter and added another log for good measure. Prince Kelton lay on the bed with Nathaniel beside him. He stared at his son’s face, pleased to see much of Iredys in his high cheekbones and in that brief moment that he was able to see his forest green eyes. The sound of sniffles reached his ears just above the crackling of the fire. Prince Kelton looked up to see Gailan crouched beside the fire as tears flowed freely down his cheeks.
“Gailan,” he said.
Gailan jerked a little then quickly wiped the tears from his face before standing and facing him. “Yes, Prince Kelton.”
“Would you like to hold Nathaniel?”
More tears spilled from his eyes. “Can I?” he squeaked.
“Yes.”
Gailan came over and scooped the sleeping Nathaniel from the bed, then sat on the floor while he cradled the little boy in his arms. A moment later, Gailan started crying in earnest. Prince Kelton reached out and gave his serving man’s shoulder a firm squeeze. The two of them sat in silence until a soft knock sounded on the door.
“Come in,” Prince Kelton called.
The door opened and Ponderosa stepped in with a curtsy.
“Her body is ready?” he asked.
Ponderosa nodded.
“Thank you, Ponderosa.”
She curtsied again then left the room.
Gailan sighed as his tears started anew. “Your mother was a great woman, Nathaniel. I am sad that you will not get her to watch her work.”
“I will make sure he gets to know her well, Gailan. He deserves that much.”
“You’d better,” Gailan replied, giving him a playful glare over his shoulder. “Cause if you don’t, I will.”
Prince Kelton chuckled as more tears filled his own eyes. “That I don’t doubt.”
By the time Sir Hett came to let him know the pyre was built, Prince Kelton was teetering on the edge of sleep. Gailan had fallen asleep, but had set Nathaniel next to Prince Keton prior to that.
“Thank you, Sir Hett,” he said, scooping Nathaniel up in his arms.
Gailan stirred as Prince Kelton stood. “What’s going on?” he yawned.
“It’s time,” Prince Kelton said simply.
Gailan’s frown deepened as he nodded, but he got up to follow Prince Kelton out.
Prince Kelton entered the room where Ponderosa sat vigil over Iredys’ body. She nodded to him then held out her arms for Nathaniel. Prince Kelton looked down at the baby in his arms.
“Be good for Ponderosa,” he said. “I need to help your mommy with something now. I’ll be back in a little while, okay?”
Nathaniel whimpered, but stayed asleep.
Prince Kelton kissed his forehead then handed him to Ponderosa.
Ponderosa took the young Prince, but remained standing as Prince Kelton and his knights carried Iredys’ body outside to the pyre for burning.
Stones had been stacked beside the pyre so they would be able to lay her body on top of it. Once her body was settled on the wood, Prince Kelton and his knights stepped off the rocks. All of them worked to move the rocks away from the pyre before Gailan brought Prince Kelton a torch.
Taking the torch, Prince Kelton walked around the pyre and set the kindling alight in several places before he tossed the torch onto the pyre to light the kindling nestled around Iredys’ body. The kindling lit the entire pyre quickly. The flames where Iredys’ body was seemed to grow the fastest and the smell of game meat joined that of Iredys’ burning flesh. If he didn’t know better, he’d say that Ponderosa lined the linen Iredys was wrapped in with something to help speed up the burning process. He’d ask her to be sure and not just assume that it was Iredys’ magic at work.
Even with the flames burning hotter, it still took 5 hours for the pyre to collapse and burn itself out. One by one his knights clapped him on the shoulder then made their way inside. Prince Kelton remained by the embers of the pyre a little longer before he approached the ashes. There was nothing before him that resembled anything Human. Whatever remained of her broken bones matched uniformly with the smoldering chunks of wood. He closed his eyes and bowed his head, trying to see if he could feel the pull that had drawn him to her before, but the hope he held on to started to dim when he could not find a single inkling of that pull.
‘Please, Iredys,’ he pleaded in his heart. ‘Please come back to me.’
He remained where he stood for several more minutes, then reluctantly entered the building to warm up and try to get some sleep.