Trigger Warning: Fatal pregnancy, Geriatric Pregnancy complications.

The King never gave Milena a single ounce of physical comfort in his once a week visits. He did want to see how she was doing in his harem, but his lack of interest in her proved Ivan the better choice for a lover. Andrej finally dragged his prized Queen in to see her, late in the pregnancy. She felt like a whale in front the dainty Nadia.

Milena had seen a whale, once. It breached the water in the western bay the day King Boris shipped a batillion out to sea. The plan was to attack the Mad Prince's stronghold from the south, along the beach. An impossible maneuver until that winter as half the Cliffside slipped off into the sea. The citizens had been repairing walls and building redoubts unprotected. Their main forces harassed Ivan's knights on the front end of the castle.

She had seen the whale as a good omen, as did most the fighters with her. And they stormed the castle and slaughtered all that were in their wake, as ordered. It failed to find Ivan the Bloodthirsty. Somehow, the one man that they should have dealt with had escaped them.

Or had he never been there?

Weeks later the Mad Prince made his way to face is father and failed to end him. Or did he? Old King Boris died months later.

Milena could remember standing in front the old King and ignoring his brutish ways. She clung stubbornly to the glory of Slovenia when he entertained women in front of his soldiers. Looking at her rounded belly, she had to ruefully laugh at herself. She was in this state for that self-same glory. Same damn sacrifice. At least this fool was more worthy than his father.

By the long dead gods, that madman made sacrifice worth every moment. Who knew a man starved of company, with a long history of avoiding women and their plots would be a thorough lover? Being punished had been the best year of her life.

Milena approached 40, close in age to Ivan, and the doctor feared she would lose the baby if she moved around, too much. Once upon a time, she believed that whores were the ones that worked on their backside. The truth was it was mothers chained to their beds, not whores. So much of the act to make this heir spread her upright against bars, half bent over a rough table, pinned against a wall.

"I hear you chose to make this child with Ivan?" Queen Nadia broke through Milena's meandering memories.

"Ha!" Milena slowly pulled herself upright. "I took the man I was to guard as my very enthusiastic lover, and the baby happened. I hadn't planned on him or me being this fertile."

King Andrej leaned against the back wall, well away from the women, "I am grateful that he was."

"Aye, Your Majesty." The older woman dipped her graying head from her prone position. "Anything for gods and country, as a good soldier should."

"Have you thought about what you want the baby to know about you?" Nadia sat down beside the older woman and grabbed her hand.

Tears stung the old Seargent-at-arm's eyes. The first sign of comfort blessedly came from the woman who would mother her child. Nadia was a good Queen. Here and now, the older woman didn't feel the need to ignore the person behind the title. For the first time in weeks, she felt that the child's birth would be more than duty. "Nothing. If I live to see him grown enough to understand, we can talk, then. But I don't think I'll live to see that."

"You will live to see the child grown, surely," Nadia protested.

"Women who wait late in life to have their first child don't often make it." Milena laughed at the Queen's shocked expression, but not joyfully. "Why do you think women everywhere have prayed so hard for your safety, Ma'am? It's a fear we all face, becoming too old and worn out to hold our future in our hands yet still longing for it. I had given up hope almost a decade ago and didn't take precautions like a young fool. I accept this fate. I've had a long time to think about it."

The fatalism of the surrogate her husband chose scared Nadia. She had Milena quietly moved into her own wing, so the woman wouldn't be alone if that had been more than pragmatism in play. Nadia wanted to know more about this wild woman who would bed a madman for fun, perhaps even for spite.

Especially when she was willing to carry the future of their nation in her womb.

Two months later and near her due date, Milena began pacing the rooms after such a lengthy bedrest. A month later, walking didn't produce a strong urge to push. Her smile faltered more, when the doctor refused a cesarean. It wasn't a safe thing for a woman if she could naturally birth. Potential infection currently concerned him more than risking everything.

But Milena insisted that there was something wrong. They couldn't call in the mage. This secret birth needed to be about the Queen and not the soldier.

Almost 6 weeks late, she went into labor, her blood pressure high and legs rapidly swollen. The birth went smoothly, and after 4 hours a healthy but somewhat small boy made his dramatic entrance into the world.

The doctor frowned, knowing how late the pregnancy was. After he wrapped the babe and placed him in Queen Nadia's arms, he had little time to think about it.

Nadia smiled at the howling boy, and called out, "Milena, his name is Laszlo, for he will have a glorious rule."

"Ha! Ah, oh God why am I still pushing?" The fevered soldier cried out as another contraction hit her.

The doctor, busy with hoping to deliver the placenta, answered, "She's crowning again. Milena, push when you feel the urge."

"Ah, Fuck Ivan! He shouldn't have given me two!" Milena feverishly pounded one fist into the bed as she bore another child into the world.

"A girl!" the doctor cried out as the placenta oozed out behind her with a massive wash of blood. The doctor had a concerned glance at it before wrapping the girl and passing her to the King. After witnessing so many deaths, he hid his ashen face by sitting well away from them.

Andrej took a fingertip and stroked the baby's tiny cheek as she focused unseeing at the wall beyond them. "She is so light. How about Leena?"

Milena snorted, "Trying to pick a name close to mine, Your Highness?"

"She looks like a little lizard so beautiful didn't fit." The golden King stared at her shock of reddish blonde hair and hoped it would lighten more, to look like Nadia's. He would understand if it darkened to Milena's hue. "And I didn't want to draw more attention to her red hair."

After a moment of tidying, the doctor called for the babes to be placed at the natural mother's breasts to nurse. He then pulled the King into the hall. The women could care for each other, for the moment.

There, the doctor quietly gave his estimations on what to expect. "Both children look like they will have cause no reason for alarm, but I've grave concerns over Milena."

"What is it?"

"She has slight fever, her blood pressure is high, and she birthed your daughter in the middle of a seizure."

"And this means?"

"That, coupled with a deteriorated placenta means that she might not make it past 6 weeks. If she does, she may never fully recover. Either you will be burying their mother or you will be discharging her from service."

Andrej realized that Milena knew exactly what she was saying. She knew she wouldn't live to see her children grown.