Alandra was surprised to realize it was nearly SunDark again. That meant she was another year older, and her second year at the Temple was nearly done. After she ate her breakfast, she was assigned either to the Healing Court, where they saw patients every day, or the Herbalists, working to make the herbal medications that were used in the Healing Court.

  She liked both jobs. On the one hand, it was nice to just work in quiet to make something, working to make sure that things were ground and mixed just right to make it most effective. On the other, she did like making people feel better; and people were interesting!

  You never could tell from people's actions what was wrong: she'd treated at least one old lady with fractures all through her pelvis, who had just uncomplainingly kept on walking around because she still could. She'd be spending some time drinking potions to strengthen her bones and build up her body, for she hadn't been eating enough. But she'd also dealt with a young man who had tripped over a loose stone in the market and fallen, breaking two of his fingers and acting like he'd had the hand cut off. There was also the time where she looked at a man she was treating and said, “Didn't it hurt when I did that?”

  “Yeah, but I can handle it.”

  She glared at him, though he was twice her size.

  “Now, how am I supposed to fix you if I don't know what hurts?!”

  He looked abashed.

  “Sorry, mistress, I'll do better.” The supervising Healer had to hide his chuckle with a cough.

  It was always something different, and always she went off shift properly tired in body and mind, for everyone she helped to treat taught her more and more, every day.

  It was a good and comfortable life, she thought. The excitement of the Healing Court was balanced with the eternal serenity of the Temple and the worship that she participated in, singing along with the other women, her alto voice blending with others. She loved the way the light streamed in from the high windows, and the way it made the stone glow. She always felt the presence of the Gods there.

  Halfway through the third year, she was pulled off her comfortable rotation of Herbarium and Healing Court; it was time for her to learn midwifery. She would spend six months assisting and eventually birthing babies, and helping mothers through the process of healing from birth. They worked on a rotation: there were seven of them, and they went out or took a local woman into the birthing area of the Healing Court in their order. Each of them stayed on call from one sunrise to the next, and while on call were excused all other duties. Alandra didn't regard attending SunUp, SunHeight, and SunDown services as a duty, but as a joy that the rotation was cutting her off from. She understood why, but she didn't have to like it. The midwives who had slept and weren't busy went out to the newborns and mothers to see how they were doing, and to help with nursing or other issues that might have come up after the birth. Some needed Healing of the wound inside, or a potion to help their milk flow better, and some babies needed a little help as they adapted to life outside the womb.

  Those visits were the first time Alandra had held a baby, and she quickly learned the trick. Some of them benefited from a little general healing energy, which she could do unobtrusively while she held them. It was amazing, she thought, how each of us comes from something this small and fragile.

  The first birth she attended, however, was a different matter. The room was crowded with other women. Alandra really couldn't tell who was a sister or an aunt or a neighbor. There was a birthing stool with plenty of straw beneath it, and the mother, dressed in her shift, was pacing back and forth, hanging on to someone and moaning in pain every time a contraction hit.

  Hamara, who was the midwife that Alandra was shadowing, said loudly:

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  “Mama, pick two people. The rest of you, out!”

  There was some resigned muttering, along with the mother's tart statement that she knew what she was doing here, and the room cleared out. There was a pot by the hearth steaming, and a bucket full of clean water, as well as the baby's swaddling clothes, laid out over a cradle. Alandra offered the laboring mother some small beer, just to wet her mouth, and she accepted that as Alandra passed a damp towel over her face.

  “THAT,” she said, “makes me feel better than all the advice my neighbors were giving.” She rolled her eyes, hung on to her sister as the contraction hit, and finished her sentence.

  “It's my fourth. I know what I'm doing now.”

  “And you're doing fine,” said Hamara, smiling,.“The baby's turned right to come down and out. The gate just has to open.”

  “And it opens blessed slow sometimes,” the sister said, nodding. “Though, sister, doesn't it seem to be going faster this time?”

  “Aye,” said the mother. “Body's figured out it has a job to do and remembers how to do it.”

  She walked around for about another thirty minutes, and then said, “I think it's time, I'm wanting to push.”

  They got her settled on the birthing chair, and in between contractions she leaned back and breathed deeply, her attention turned inward. Hamara knelt on the floor between her knees, wearing an oiled apron that covered her arms and her dress. She reached between the woman's legs.

  “Ah, I feel a head. On the next one push nice and slow and easy, and we'll ease the head out.”

  The mother was panting like a dog, and on the next contraction threw her head back and screamed. There was a rush of blood, and suddenly Manara was holding a blue, very dirty looking thing. She grabbed a towel and began to dry him, and he suddenly gasped and then wailed loudly. There was a cheer from the other side of the door, and the mother laid back in the chair and smiled.

  “Boy or girl?” she asked.

  “Boy,” said Manara, handing him up to her. “A good seven punds, I'd say.”

  “You're gonna be a big man like your Daddy,” the mother said to the baby, looking at him tenderly. “Got Daddy's black hair already.”

  Manara tied and cut the cord, and the sister offered to wash and wrap the baby. She did that while the midwife attended to the rest of the birth.

  The cushion came out after a few more contractions, and Manara showed it to Alandra.

  “One of the things we must do is to check the cushion,” she said. See how you can see that it is whole and complete all around?”

  Alandra nodded. That was easy to see. The placenta was the size of her two spread hands, purply red, and obviously circular.

  “Now if we turn it over,” Manara said, “It looks like a broad flat cut of meat. You want to make sure that there aren't any pieces missing. Chunks of the cushion left inside will poison her humors and give her fever.”

  Alandra nodded. “This one looks whole, like the meat was cut along the separation line,” she said.

  “And it is whole, so it is good,” said Manara, smiling.

  The baby had been washed and swaddled, and his Aunt was happy to hold him, while Manara and the woman's cousin helped her to stand up from the birthing chair. They brought her a basin and washed the sweat off her, and got her into a belt and pad before they helped her into a clean shift and into bed. She looked exhausted.

  “I think I'll sleep a bit,” she said.

  Alandra placed the apron and towels into an oiled-linen bag, then wiped the birthing chair down wit a rag to make sure it was clean.

  And now all the neigbors and friends came in, along with the woman's mother, who'd been out watching her three little ones.

  “They're asleep on a palllet under the table,” said her mother, kissing her on the forehead. “I knew you'd just set to and do it,” she said to her daughter fondly.

  “Not as bad this time,” she said, drowsily. “And he's a good strong one.”

  Once they got back, the bloody towels and apron had to go to the laundry direct. There was a cold tub there, waiting, and Alandra added the towels and aprons to it, giving it a stir with the laundry stick.. The laundresses were just coming in, all of them large and strong women.

  “Just dropping off some stuff from a birth,” Alandra said, smiling at them.

  “Well, that can sit a minute while the tank heats up, and we can wash it first,” one of them said. “Blood comes out easily with cold water.”

  “Thank you so much for all your hard work,” said Alandra to them. “I've just been to a birth, and I wouldn't want to have to do the laundry now.”

  “Nor would I,” said another. “I've had a good sleep and a good breakfast, and I'm ready to work.”

  “Well, I'll go get some breakfast and see about a nap.”