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Fen lost it there. “Those are my dark circles. They’re always there. Stop fussing over me, I’mfine.”

“Fine,” Indi echoed, unbelief lacing her voice. “Fine? A bear attacked you.A bear. This isn’t just you coming home with a scrapped knee from playing with Esska.”

At that, Indi turned to me.

“Hi, son,” she said, reaching out to pat my shoulder. “Can you believe my girl? Ripped to pieces by a bear and still not letting her own mother fuss over her? I swear, I knew I’d given birth to a wonder when I first laid eyes on her.”

“Alright, Ma, that’s enough—”

“I was all by myself, two miles out from Runehall’s village, when she decided to make her grand entrance. By myself! Two miles out! Did you know that, Roan?”

“No,” I said. “What happened?”

It was only after I’d uttered the words that I caught Fenli’s face—alarmed, shaking her head like our lives depended on it—but it was too late. After the question was out, my wife crumpled, glowering at me like I was the biggest ass she’d ever had the agony of meeting.

I had made a serious mistake.

Indi started in. “I’d been having contractions for days, but they were so light that I’d never even realized what they were. She’s my only baby, after all. I didn’t know what the hell was what.” She waved her hand, dismissing the ignorance of her past. “When the real stuff hit, holy gods, I was crawling into the ditch and praying for death. If you ever hear some old lady talking about how she was tilling up earth,paused to push out her baby, then wrapped it to herself and went back to tilling, don’t believe the ol’ hag. That’s nothing but bullshit, and she’s just too damn old to remember the truth.”

Fenli sighed and said, “Here we go,” but I thought she was overreacting. Indi’s account wasn’t that bad.

“Labor is like having your body ripped in half.”

I grimaced.

“Anyway, when she finally came, it was like meeting a little elf covered in blood. She was the most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen, and I loved her from the very beginning.”

She turned back to her “elf” and ran her fingers through her curls. Fenli, for her part, encouraged none of it. She also fought none of it. She sat there, passive, and let Indi gush. I suspected there was no point in resisting. Caed women didn’t take well to their children fighting them, and it seemed even my wild beast of a wife had had that instilled in her.

“I held her in my arms and cried, deliriously happy to have given birth to this wild beauty.”

Wild beast, wild beauty. When it came to Fenli, they were damn near the same thing.

“I got up to walk home, but then the placenta started coming, and it was everything all over again. What a bloody mess that was.”

“The pla-what?” I sputtered.

“Good gods, Ma.”

She ignored us both. “It’s like giving birth to a whole other child, but this one’s a sack of meat. It hurts like hell and stinks like blood. No one prepared me for that, so considered yourselves warned.”

Well,shit. That couldn’t be true, couldit?

“Eventually I got the cord cut myself, got up, and got going with her. I’d made it about a mile before clouds rolled in out of nowhere and started a down pour. We walked a mile in the rain. Can you believe that?”

It wasn’t until Fenli glanced at me that I realized the face I was making. Eyes wide, mouth hanging. I blinked and tried to act natural, nod thoughtfully, not look like such a boy, but I knew I’d already failed.

“You’re a lucky one, Roan,” she said, giving my cheek a pinch. “She’s as tough as they come. Been roughing it since she was a sopping wet babe in a poor girl’s arms.”

“Thanks for the story, Ma, but you better get going before, you know, you freak out Roan any more than you have.”

“And she’s clever. And beautiful. Some people think you’re no good with words, but no one can put a bear in its place like my girl.”

She pinched Fenli’s cheek then and took a step back, towards the door.

“Love you, baby. You look tired, so I’ll let you sleep. But I’ll be back first thing in the morning. Yeshi’s not as vigilant as she once was. I’ll make sure you’re cared for properly.”

“Love you too,” she said, sighing.