Excerpt: His Sister's Keeper

Within the darkened palace, one room glowed with the light of many candles. The room was hung with airy curtains and a breeze swept through it, causing the flames of the candles to flicker, but the woman on the bed lay damp with sweat. Beside her, holding her hand and tenderly stroking her face with a cool cloth, sat her husband, his face pale with fear. An elderly man stepped up and checked the lady’s pulse.
His voice raspy, Kidrash, the husband, asked, “How much longer, doctor?”
The physician shook his head, replying softly, “Only a few more hours. You had best call the children in now if they are to see Nelani again while she is awake.” Kidrash nodded to one of the servants who hovered in the shadows, before turning back to his wife who was trying to ask him something.
“Sh, do not fret, my love,” he soothed her. “The children will be here soon and all is well.” Two frightened faces tiptoed up to the foot of the bed. The taller figure belonged to a boy about twelve years old, who blinked back tears as he gazed at his mother’s wane features. The other, a six-year-old girl, sucked one finger as she gazed in frightened confusion from her mother to her father. He stretched out the hand that his wife did not clasp to them, saying, “Come here, my children, and give your mother a kiss.” Arad, the boy, moved around the bed to stand beside his father, Aravis’s hand tightly clutched in his. Mutely, he bent down and kissed his mother’s cheek, his lips cold with fear. She smiled at him, murmuring words of love and pride, yet in her heart she wept, knowing the pain he must endure with her passing. Nelani dropped her gaze down to the little girl beside her bed who suddenly comprehended what was happening. Bursting into tears, Aravis scrambled onto the bed and into Nelani’s arms.
“Don’t go, mother,” the little girl sobbed. “You can’t die, you can’t; you are my only mother.”
Now openly weeping, the dying lady caressed her daughter’s face, murmuring, “My Adrea, my dearest daughter, I can’t stay here with you. But my Adrea, my Aravis, Arad will take care of you and you must love him as you do me.” She glanced up at her son as she spoke and, seeing only a grief-stricken child, prayed that he would find strength to carry on. Her eyes than turned up where her husband anxiously watched her and she smiled. Upon seeing her smile, the last barrier in Kidrash broke, and his tears flowed into his beard, but he smiled in return and kissed her on the forehead. Nelani started to say something, but a fresh pang of pain stopped her and she writhed in agony while the three who loved her most watched helpless. Suddenly, Nelani sighed, but with joy, as she sank bank into her pillows, her eyes shining with love and joy.
“Aslan,” she said, “have you come to take me home?” The others in the room looked all about but could see nothing, but she seemed to hear an answer. With a glad smile, Nelani closed her eyes, appearing to her husband and children to be asleep. A look from the doctor, however, told them that she would never wake again. Wails of grief rose from all the members of the palace, but within the lady’s bedchamber only Aravis’s sobs broke the silence. Kidrash stared blankly at the still form on the bed, unable to realize that his wife was dead, before rising and entering his room in silence. Arad, recognizing he could not expect comfort from his bereaved father, gathered Aravis into his arms. Sitting on the floor, he rocked her as they wept together. Now they had only each other.