Carpathian 00 - The Scarletti Curse by authors_sort Page B

still alive. You must do what I say and trust in me." Nicoletta threw off her shawl and rolled up her sleeves, immersing her hands in scalding water. It was one of Nicoletta's strange differences, often remarked upon as this obsession with hot water when she tended the sick.
    Fortunately, she had small hands, and she relied on her inner guide, which always seemed to know exactly what was wrong and how to fix it. Had she been called earlier, she was fairly confident she might have saved both mother and child, but Lissandra was exhausted, her delicate body worn out. Nicoletta talked her through each swelling wave of pain, all the while patiently maneuvering until she could grasp the babe to help ease it out. Laurena thrust a thin, rounded stick between her sister's teeth, afraid that in her wild screaming she might swallow her tongue. Nicoletta worked steadily and patiently, sweat running down her face so profusely that sometimes she couldn't see.
    The baby was stuck. It would die, and so would Lissandra. Nothing would ease the baby through the tiny opening of pelvic bones. An idea of what to do on such occasions had been in her mind for some time now, but Nicoletta shied from trying it alone, wanting the comfort of Maria Pia's presence before she attempted such a terrible thing. But Nicoletta didn't have the luxury of waiting for Maria Pia.
    Lissandra had run out of time. Nicoletta had to act now or never.
    She looked into her friend's desperate, pleading eyes and made her decision. Sick to her stomach, she performed her task quickly, deliberately breaking the shoulder of the babe, then turning it with her hands to whisk it free. It slid into the air, blue and lifeless and still. Quickly she cleared the mucous from the throat, rubbing the infant's chest to stimulate it into taking a gulp of air. The moment it began a thin wail, she passed the babe off to Laurena, turning her attention quickly to cutting the cord and attending Lissandra.
    Now it would be a matter of controlling the bleeding. All the while she worked, she was nauseated at the thought of what she had done to a helpless infant. She was sick at the knowledge that even if she saved Lissandra this time, her husband would insist on another babe immediately, and, child that she was, Lissandra would not take the potion Nicoletta had secretly given her to allow her more time to grow before she became pregnant. She would obey her husband, and she would certainly die.
    Nicoletta was sick, her stomach lurching at the vast quantity of her friend's blood that covered her, still sick at the thought of what she had been forced to do to the babe. Most of all she was sick to death at the waste of a young, vibrant woman whose life should have been just beginning.
    Nicoletta fought to stop the inevitable. She called on her special gift, her hands moving over Lissandra, letting the healing warmth flow out of her and into her friend, attempting to direct the energy where it was Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    most needed. The effort was draining, mentally as well as physically. No one watching could say precisely what she did, yet they could not deny that it worked.
    Finally Maria Pia entered the house and immediately went to work beside her. They were both exhausted by the time Lissandra drifted into sleep, still alive but terribly weak.
    Nicoletta left it to Maria Pia to impress up on Lissandra's husband her need for fluids and bed rest until she was healed properly. Maria Pia would not say the cutting, angry words that burned inside Nicoletta.
    All Nicoletta wanted now was to run back to the safety of her mountain, far from the weariness and sadness and guilt pressing in on her. But she turned her attention to the newborn next, her hands finding the terrible crack in the bone and aligning it perfectly, bandaging it tightly to keep it from shifting. She again used her special gift, the touch of her hands spreading warmth and healing to