A Stolen Crown by Jordan Baker Page B

not be merely physical.
    With whatever kind of creature was growing inside her, it was hard to tell much of anything, since the Darga themselves had a kind of natural magical energy that took a different form than traditional magic. Once Calexis was rid of the abomination of the birth she was attempting, the mage would be better able to tell what her powers truly entailed, though now that he had taken the opportunity to examine the Xallan queen more closely, as far as he could discern, Calexis appeared to have some power to her that was hers alone.  It was not enough that it would have attracted the attention of the Priesthood, but enough that she could probably do certain things if properly trained. That small amount of power, while not enough to make her suceptible to the power of the book, had coupled with the changes she was experiencing from her Darga pregnancy, now might make her more difficult to control.
    Shadar watched Calexis from a short distance as sweat glistened across her brow and the cords stood out on her neck as she pushed, trying to birth whatever was growing inside of her. Midwives rushed around the room, bringing more cloth and water to the bed, which ran black with the queen’s altered blood. The mage searched her with his power and could feel the weakness beginning to take hold in Calexis. She had already bled badly for two days, straining with the birth but still she labored on. The midwives were afraid and little could have prepared them for what they were about to see.
    Calexis took a deep breath then she froze with a look of panic on her face. Suddenly she screamed then choked as the contraction took hold. Shadar and the midwives watched as the queen’s stomach began to shift lower until, at her opening, something began to appear. Flesh tore and she bled heavily for a moment, which then stopped as the pressure of something dark slowly slipped from her birth canal and into the outside world. With a wrenching sob, the queen felt the oversized burden slide out of her and her body fell back on the cushions.
    On the bed between her legs was a translucent bag covered in dark, viscous liquid and reddish black blood. Calexis breathed heavily from exhaustion and pain, unable to lift her head to see what had come out of her. One of the midwives slowly reached out a hand but pulled it back as the thing on the bed moved slightly.
    “Don’t touch him!” Calexis snapped and raised her head with a wild look in her eyes.
    The midwives looked to the mage Shadar and he nodded, motioning them away from the queen. They gladly left the room, not caring to stay any longer. It mattered very little what they thought since, like every member of the palace staff, Shadar had placed a spell on them the moment he had returned to Xalla-Prime. None of them could speak of what had happened in this room or of the queen’s experience with the Darga. Shadar had explained very clearly that the spell would kill them before they could give voice to such thoughts, and it had only taken a few deaths from idle gossip to make the point clear. For now, Callexis' pregnancy would remain a secret.
    Now Shadar wondered whether he could protect his queen from herself. He watched as Calexis painfully closed her legs and reached for the wet bundle, pulling it towards her chest with the cord still attached to her. She either did not notice him or she ignored his presence as she held the struggling bulk near her face and opened her mouth. Fangs extended and she bit first into the cord, shreiking as if it gave her pain. Next she carved open the sack with a precision born of instinct rather than skill. Shadar watched as she ate whatever it was that covered it, revealing a creature that looked somehow like a Darga yet was more human than any lizard-man the mage had ever seen.
    Like the queen, the child was human in its form yet bore scales over most of its body. Its face was human except for its pale color and the scales that ran to its temples