System: Gone After the Fifth Child

In my seven years of my marriage with the Regent, I had risked my life bearing him five children. Every single one had died. My husband grieved so deeply that he collapsed. He knelt for three days and nights before the chapel in the bitter cold, praying for my well-being. He even spent a fortune to build a memorial tower in my honor. Everyone said the Regent loved his wife more than life itself. But the System's childbearing progress remained stuck at 90%. Then came All Hallows' Eve. I walked to the river alone to float a memorial candle for my fifth child, who had only just passed. What I found instead were four children carrying turnip lanterns, gathered around my half-sister, tugging at her skirts. "Mommy! Daddy said he's lighting a bonfire tonight!" Alaric Montague stood behind her, arms looped around her waist. His expression carried the same tenderness I knew so well. Even my father, as stern as he had always been, was chuckling beside them, more relaxed than I had ever seen him. My mother held a swaddled infant nearby, wiping the corner of the smallest child's mouth. "Odette is too frail to carry children. Thank goodness Alaric came up with a way to swap them." "Watch your words, Mrs. Devereaux," Alaric cut in at once, his gaze turning cold. "Laurel owed this to Odette. The debt is paid. I'll let her keep the next one." I bit down on my lip hard enough to taste blood. In my mind, an electronic tone stirred to life after years of silence. [Laurel, five registered offspring detected alive. Childbearing mission for the heirless Regent is complete.] [Portal activation imminent. Confirm departure?] Chapter 1 "Teddy." I stared at the eldest boy and called out to him, my voice shaking. It was the name I had whispered to him day and night while he was still inside me. The boy's brow furrowed. "Who are you? How do you know that name?" Odette Devereaux shrank deeper into Alaric Montague's arms on cue, her narrow shoulders trembling. I did not spare her a glance. I stumbled toward Mother, my eyes fixed on the bundle cradled in her arms. That was my fifth child. Two weeks ago, the midwife had held up a bruised, lifeless infant and told me the baby had not survived. I had not even gotten a single look at him before everything went black. "Let me see him..." My eyes burned. I threw myself forward on my hands and knees. Alaric stepped in front of them all, shielding Odette and the five children behind him. The little girl panicked at the commotion and flung the lantern she was holding. The sharp frame sliced across the back of my hand, and bright drops of blood rolled down, spattering across the lantern's paper like a brand. Something complicated flickered behind Alaric's eyes, but he quickly bent and gathered the frightened girl into his arms, patting her back. "Someone stop her." He gave the order to keep me from reaching the children. Two of his personal guards stepped directly into my path. I was about to demand answers when Father's voice came crashing down overhead, barely restrained. "What are you all standing around for? Drag this madwoman away before she hurts someone!" The household servants rushed forward. They clamped a hand over my mouth, seized both my arms, and dragged me toward a back alley. I fought with everything I had to turn around. My knees struck the stone steps hard enough to split the skin, and my vision went black. Behind me, Mother had already turned around and pulled the four children behind her. "Don't look, don't look. That crazy woman is covered in blood. She'll give you nightmares." People nearby pointed and whispered. "Where'd that crazy woman come from, charging at the Regent's family like that?" "The Regent's too generous, just having her dragged off. Anyone else would've had her head." The servants hauled me into a narrow, damp alley and threw me to the ground. Footsteps drew closer. Alaric stood a few paces away, looking down at me. There was none of the tenderness he usually showed me. "Laurel, you shouldn't have come out. They've been raised by Odette since the day they were born. Showing up like this only frightens them. If you make a scene, all you'll do is make them hate you." I lifted my head and looked up at the man who had knelt for three days in the snow on my behalf. It felt as if everything inside me had been torn apart. "They're my children." I lay in the dirt, face tilted up toward him. "You took my babies and handed them to her so she'd have something to call her own... Alaric, why?" "Because you owe her!" His voice turned to ice. The words destroyed whatever I had been holding together. I doubled over and blood surged from my throat, staining the snow beneath me a violent red. Alaric's expression shifted. He stepped forward on instinct, one hand half-raised toward me. "My Lord..." Odette's faint voice drifted from the mouth of the alley. She leaned on her handmaid's arm, pale and coughing softly. Alaric's hand froze midair. He turned, strode to Odette, and steadied her. "It's cold out here. Why did you follow me?" My parents urged them along, the children gathered in their arms. "My Lord, Odette isn't well. Please, take her home." The children called out in their small voices for their mommy and daddy. Alaric swept Odette into his arms and, without looking back, gave his orders to the guards behind him. "Put a black cloth over Her Grace's head and bring her in through the back gate. There will be no scandal from the Regent's household tonight." I curled up in the filth and reached into my mind for the System. "Departure confirmed." Chapter 2 The cold, mechanical voice responded immediately: [Departure channel preparing. Countdown: three days.] When the black cloth was pulled from my head, Alaric was already sitting in front of me. He reached over and tucked the blanket around me, slipping back into his usual gentle manner. "You frightened the children last night. Tomorrow, you'll go to them as the Regent's wife and smooth things over." I forced myself upright and followed his gaze toward the side room. In the corner stood a finely crafted rocking horse. Alaric had made it himself, working through the night in the woodshop while I was pregnant with our first. When Teddy had 'died', I cried until my eyes were raw. Alaric held me and told me he had burned the rocking horse as an offering for our lost child. Now here it stood. The paint on the handles had been worn smooth from years of small hands gripping it. My eldest son had been riding it as he grew up. I still remembered Alaric pressing his ear against my swollen belly, grinning as he felt the baby kick. "Our child's going to say 'Mommy' first. You've suffered the most. If he says 'Daddy' first, I'll tan his little backside." Yet now, when my Teddy called for Mommy, it was never me he meant. "Don't forget to have the gifts ready." With that, Alaric left the room. The next morning, four small figures were led into the main hall by the governess. I fought through the dragging pain in my abdomen and brought out the lockets I had made for each of my "lost" children. I had engraved their names on the front myself, the ones I had chosen for them. I held one out to Teddy. He recoiled as though I had offered him something poisonous and knocked the locket from my hand. "Get that away from me! Mommy said everything in your room is meant for dead people!" The gold locket clattered against the stone floor. I stood frozen. Rosie was the youngest of the four. She saw what her brother had done and copied him without hesitation, snatching a locket off the ground and hurling it into the blazing fireplace. "Mommy says you're a cursed, awful woman!" My head filled with a deafening ring. I lunged for the fireplace and thrust my bare hand into the burning coals. Skin hissed against the coals, and the stench of burning flesh filled the room. I closed my fingers around the red-hot locket and held on. Alaric came striding in, his face draining of color. He shoved me aside, pulled the terrified children into his arms, and covered their eyes. "Get the physician in here to treat the burns! Now!" he barked the order at the servants. Odette hurried in right behind him, grabbed Teddy, and made a show of smacking his palm. "How could you be so rude to Her Grace? Is this what I taught you?" All four children's eyes went red the moment they heard the reprimand. Convinced that I was the reason their brother was being punished, they rushed at me with their small fists swinging. "You're horrible! Every time you show up, Mommy yells at us! Get out!" They shoved me and I fell to the floor. The tearing sensation in my abdomen nearly stole the air from my lungs. Mother stepped forward and gathered the children. She let out a quiet sigh. "Laurel, they've known Odette as their mother for seven years. Seven years of that bond is not something you can buy back with a few lockets. If you truly want what's best for them, you'll stop forcing this." Father gave a cold scoff. "Have you forgotten that Odette ruined her health saving you from drowning all those years ago? You can still bear children. Show some grace and stop trying to take away the only thing she has." 'You can still bear children.' Those words sent my abdomen into violent spasms. I had given birth five times, and every single time the sheets were soaked through with blood and the pain made me wish I would just die. Every time I woke, I was told the baby had not survived. Every time, Alaric held me with reddened eyes and told me not to think about the child. He told me that I still had him. My vision darkened, and I collapsed where I stood. … Late that night, Alaric pushed the door open while carrying a bottle of ointment. He sat at the edge of the bed, drew my bandaged hand toward him, and unwound the cloth with careful fingers. "Does it hurt?" Before I could answer, his hands kept working, but his voice dropped lower. "Laurel, don't blame Odette. All you did was give birth. You don't know the first thing about raising them." He sprinkled the powder over the wound without looking up. The sting made my whole body tremble. "She hasn't slept through a single night in seven years, looking after those four. She's done more than you ever did as a mother who only gave birth and never raised a single one of them." I clenched my teeth and watched in silence as he finished wrapping my hand. When the house was still, I dragged my failing body out of bed and walked for the first time to the memorial tower on the hill behind the estate. It was the one place I had never dared go. I made my way to the altar and lifted the lid of the urn with trembling hands. I reached inside, rubbed the contents between my fingers, and laughed softly. The laughter turned to tears that fell into the flour, clumping into dull paste. There had never been any ashes. A handful of flour had fooled me for seven years. I dragged my legs back to my room, each one heavy as lead. The moment I stepped through the door, I crumpled to the floor. A violent fever swept through me within seconds. Inside my mind, the System spoke, toneless as ever: [Countdown: two days.] Chapter 3 The next morning, the main hall descended into chaos. Odette had collapsed. Servants rushed back and forth, carrying out basin after basin of bloodied water. Word was that she had been coughing up blood without stopping and had not regained consciousness. I lay in the side wing, drifting in and out of my fever, when I heard something hit the surface of the lake outside my window. Rosie's shrill scream followed immediately. "Teddy! I'm scared!" I forced my trembling legs to carry me out the door. Rosie was standing on the decorative rocks at the edge of the lake, teetering on the brink. I ran for the water as fast as my body would allow and had just stretched out my hand to grab her when something slammed into me from behind. "Don't touch my sister!" Teddy had come from nowhere. He threw all his weight into shoving the small of my back. My feet slipped and I fell straight into the winter lake. Freezing water rushed into my lungs and the cold bit so deep it felt like my bones were cracking. I clawed my way to the surface, stiff and barely able to move, and waved toward shore. "Help... Help me..." The four children stood at the edge without a trace of alarm. Rosie had stopped screaming, and she was giggling. Teddy picked up a long bamboo pole the servants had left behind and extended it toward the water, his face blank. I reached for it with everything I had. The tip of the pole came down on the top of my head instead. I was driven under again. Water flooded my nose and I thrashed until I broke the surface, gasping. The pole crashed down on me a second time and forced me back under. "Mommy's sick and it's all your fault, you awful woman!" "Drown her! Make her pay for what she did to Mommy!" I could hear the children's small, vicious voices above the water. I thought about the hatred on their faces, and I stopped fighting. Maybe if I died, the pain would finally stop. Just as my body began to sink, a strong arm locked around my waist and hauled me back to shore. My lips were blue. I coughed violently, retching up the water in my stomach, and pressed myself instinctively against the warmth of his body, desperate for shelter. Alaric hesitated for a moment, then pushed me down onto the freezing stone. He took the fur-lined cloak a servant handed him and draped it carefully around Teddy and Rosie. After a long pause, he spoke. His voice was flat. "Everyone was there that day. They all saw you push Odette into the water." He smoothed the collar of Teddy's coat, and his tone softened for the children. I lay in the snow, staring up at him in disbelief. He would not even look at me. "She caught a chronic illness from the cold and was left unable to bear children. All she could do was watch while you had one baby after another. This ends here. Don't blame what happened today on Odette. You owed her this. Consider the debt settled." The absolute death of every feeling I had left collided with the cold. Blood poured from between my legs, spreading across the snow beneath me until it was soaked through with red. Alaric turned. His gaze landed on the stain and his expression shifted. He stepped forward, reaching to lift me up. "My Lord... Did the children cause trouble?" Odette appeared at the far end of the corridor, leaning heavily on her handmaid. She was white as paper. She managed two steps before her legs gave out and she crumpled to the ground. Alaric stopped mid-stride. Without a second of hesitation, he turned and crossed the distance to Odette in long strides, sweeping her into his arms. Over his shoulder, he left a single instruction. "Send the physician to see Her Grace." My parents came hurrying from the other end of the corridor, each scooping up two children, murmuring comfort as they walked. "There now, don't look. Come on, let's go." I lay in the snow. Before I lost consciousness, all I could hear was the wind howling through the storm. In my dream, time rewound to when I was carrying my second child. It was a deep winter night and my legs had cramped so badly I could not stop crying. Alaric did not even pause to put on a coat. He sat at the foot of the bed in nothing but his underclothes, cradled my legs in his lap, and worked the knots out with the warmth of his palms, slowly, patiently. He kissed my forehead and swore it like a vow. "Laurel, you're suffering through this to give me children. I swear I'll never let anyone hurt you for as long as I live." Chapter 4 The side wing reeked of bitter medicine. The moment the physician placed his fingers on my pulse, his expression changed. My pulse was barely there. What little life I had left was fading. He glanced at me lying on the bed, ashen as a corpse, and composed himself before hurrying straight to Odette's wing. Before long, word came. Odette had vomited blood again and lost consciousness. She was slipping away. Alaric and my parents were beside themselves, threatening to have the physician's head. The physician dropped to his knees before everyone in the main hall. "Ms. Odette's chronic illness has worsened with each shock. Her heart is failing. There is only one remedy left." "What is it? Speak!" Alaric demanded. "I need blood drawn directly from the chest of a woman who has just given birth. It is the only way to sustain her heart and cure the illness at its root." A woman who had just given birth. Every eye in the room turned naturally to me. By the time Alaric arrived at the side wing, the bleeding between my legs had only just been stopped with medicine the servants had forced down my throat. He walked to the bed, bent down, and lifted me into his arms. His hands were as gentle as ever. He even wrapped his own cloak around me, careful to shield me from the slightest draft on the walk to the main hall. But the words that came out of his mouth were merciless. "Laurel, just this once. Give the blood and cure Odette for good. Then your debt to her is paid, completely. Once she's better, I promise you can raise the next child yourself." I leaned against his chest. I did not struggle. I did not argue. When we reached the main hall, the physician made a demand before the procedure. "To ensure the blood's potency, Her Grace must be cleansed first. Her body still carries impurities from the baby's delivery. They would contaminate the remedy." The cleansing took place in the courtyard behind the estate, in a stone basin filled with water drawn from the deep well. The cold had already settled into my bones. The instant my feet touched the freezing water, my entire body seized in violent spasms. I clenched my teeth. Several stout attendants grabbed me and forced me down into the basin. Alaric stood at the edge. His fist was clenched tight inside his sleeve, but he did not say a word to stop it. I sat in that water, cold enough to crack bone marrow, for a full half hour. When the time was up, Alaric stepped forward and pulled me out himself. He took a cloth and wiped the water from my face with careful hands, then bundled me in a thick blanket. Yet before I was even dry, I was laid onto the cushioned table in the center of the heated room. A large portrait hung on the wall of the main chamber. In it, Alaric and Odette sat side by side. The children gathered around them, climbing into their laps. Father and Mother stood behind them, beaming. Across the bottom of the frame, a single word had been painted in gilded —'Family'. On the other side of the screen stood my parents and my four children. All four of them had their hands pressed over their noses, staring at me with open disgust. The little girl stepped out from behind them, carrying a delicate crystal chalice cupped in both hands, and stood beside the table. My heart skipped when I saw it. It was the chalice Alaric had carved for me himself on our wedding day. He had told me that as long as we drank from it together during the ceremony, we would grow old side by side and fill our home with children and grandchildren. The physician approached with a thin blade. The tip parted the skin over my chest and the pain tore through me so sharply that my back arched off the table. Alaric moved in at once, one hand gripping my wrist, the other pressing my shoulder flat. The needle drove deep, but I had already lost so much blood that the flow from my chest came in a thin, sluggish trickle. The physician wiped sweat from his brow and looked urgently at Alaric. "My Lord, Her Grace has almost no blood left. It won't come out. I'll have to cut deeper." Alaric's hand tightened over mine until the veins stood out. He closed his eyes. "Do it." The blade sank deep into the flesh, pressing dangerously close to my heart. My vision went black in waves. I did not have the strength left to fight. Inside my mind, the System's voice rang out with perfect clarity. [Departure channel ready. Countdown: ten seconds.] I struggled to move my fading eyes, trying to look past the screen for one last glimpse of my children. What I saw was Teddy turning away, his face twisted in disgust. "That's so much blood. It's gross." The crystal chalice filled to the brim at last. Alaric wasted no time directing the servants to carry it away. He followed them into the inner room with quick, urgent steps. All four children scrambled after him. The last thing I heard before consciousness left me was Alaric's voice, soft and coaxing. "Odette, drink it. Drink it and you'll be better." The physician noticed something was wrong with me. He fumbled over himself trying to stop the bleeding. However, I had gone completely still. The blood seeping from my chest slowed to nothing. He reached for my breath, then staggered back two steps and half-fell, half-crawled into the inner room. "My Lord... Her Grace... she's gone."