When Barsali heard Loftur's explanation, his face grew solemn as he slowly extended the tip of his tail, placing it on Olwyna's rounded belly with the greatest of tenderness. Everyone still present in the great hall held their breaths, leaving the hall silent but for the sounds of flames crackling in the hearth lest they disturb the moment that the serpentine warrior focused all of his attention on the feelings of vibrations under his scales.
"Two," he said solemnly in the king's common tongue as he pulled back his tail. "Two babies," he said with deep, grave certainty.
At the back of the hall, Carwyn's mother collapsed into her chair, breaking out in loud, trembling sobs as she realized that the hope she'd had of seeing her son return safely home to welcome his firstborn into the world had been brutally crushed by the same tail that had taken the life of Acolyte Holm.
