Summary

As the story opens, Gwendolyn is screaming out in the pain of childbirth. She prays that she could hold off just a few more hours until she would be in a safe place, but she knows it won’t wait. She screams out for help but knows no one will come to her aid. She fears that she and her child might die here, in a field. She remembers a time not long before when she was in the Netherworld. She’d freed Argon but had been forced to choose between her husband and her child. She cries, recalling the choice and wonders why there are always such extreme sacrifices demanded. She is in severe pain and considers that she and her baby might die in this field. She thinks about Thor, her betrothed, and their early days of courtship.

Gwen discovers she...