Chapter 2

She turned and served each of them a portion of the scrambled eggs before turning her attention to the sausages she had sizzling on another burner of the large iron wood-burning stove. She shook the pan handle slightly, to turn them a bit, as they needed slightly more time cooking. She turned to pick up the empty basket from the breakfast rolls off of the table, when she realized someone was at the front door, at the other end of the house. It wasn't that she could see the door from here. She just knew. But she'd learned long ago to not mention such things, especially in front of the very men currently present in their house. People were superstitious around here, and tendencies towards magic were simply not acceptable. Turning to place the basket on the counter, she resigned herself to waiting for the sound of the door knocker before moving to go answer it.

3...2...1... she found herself counting down to the inevitable knock at the front door. Nice of him to wait until the sausages were done. She picked up the pan and rolled the sausages onto a plate.

"I'll get the door," she told them as she set the plate on the table. They were still working on their eggs, talking as they ate. Jacob Bentz was complaining about something. She ignored it. Jacob Bentz was usually complaining about something.

It was a man at the door. He was tall, in his thirties, although he was either already bald or he shaved his head. He was dressed respectably enough, though: black breeches tucked into polished black boots, with a brown jacket over a white tunic. There was white scrollwork embroidered on the jacket collar, and it had polished brass buttons. If he was a priest, he was out of his habit. Unless he's a wizard, a quiet voice inside her offered. Still, the bald head seemed odd on someone who wasn't old.

"G'morning," she greeted him cheerfully.

"Indeed, good morning. I am looking for Master Mordan. I understand he is the mayor here." The man's voice was soft yet powerful, as if his voice was too big for his body, and he was being intentionally quiet. It was as if his voice was like Big Willin's strength. Big Willin was the strongest man in town, but awfully clumsy and a bit slow, so he was always careful and deliberate with everything he did.

"Well, I guess he is, but nobody calls him that," she explained.

"Oh, and what do you call him?"

"Well, I call him father," she said with a smile, "but pretty much ever'one around here just calls him Avern, 'cause that's his name."

"I see," the odd man replied. "May I speak with Master Mordan?"

"Well he's actually in a meeting right now, which will likely last beyond breakfast, but if you come back later on I'm sure he'd be happy to speak with you." Lynna smiled politely, realizing her father wouldn't want some stranger barging in on their breakfast.

"This is, in fact, a matter of some urgency and importance, miss. I would not recommend it wait. I was told he was meeting with several significant people of this town, who will also be interested I what I have to say. Please inform Master Mordan that I need to speak to him immediately."

He stood there with such a look of conviction on his face that Lynna thought it might take half the men in town to move him from the front stoop if she tried to send him away. Reluctantly, she nodded and closed the door behind her to go find out if her father would speak to him.

She stopped, uncertainly, in the door to the kitchen, looking at the men sitting around the table. After a moment, she tried clearing her throat to get their attention.

"Yes Lynna? What is it? Who was at the door?" Her father looked slightly irritated at the interruption.

Lynna was struck by embarrasment at the realization that she had not even remembered to ask the man's name. She started to stammer some explanation, but he stepped into the room from behind her.

"Excuse me, Master Mordan, gentlemen. My name is Agmar," the man said matter-of-factly, as if that explained everything. "I have been studying an event that happens every two hundred fifty years. I believe it is going to happen here within days."

The men at the table looked past Lynna at the stranger in a confused silence. She stepped out of the way, uncertain what was going on.

"The first time the events were written down in several of the towns it happened at," this Agmar offered. "The last time, a few people wrote more detailed accounts. The accounts, in a number of towns as the event moved across the map, were almost identical. This year it begins here, proceeding inland."

"You're interrupted our breakfast to tell us some strange--what, astronomical event?--is about to happen?" Jacob Bentz complained, gesturing with a forked sausage. "The full moon is a couple nights off, I suppose you're suggesting that there is a werewolf in town, or something preposterous like that?"

"Three nights off, and I am not talking about something as banal as a full moon or an eclipse, or a comet," the man said, stepping forward. "If the patterns hold true, then you have already heard complaints about farm animals behaving oddly--violently--and crops failing suddenly and without apparent cause. Today your fishermen will return and complain that every fish pulled from hook or net was dead before leaving the water."

Lynna watched the faces at the table change from confusion and annoyance to concern. Some of what she had overheard earlier had been about suddenly turning crops, and normally gentle cattle attacking each other. Old Widow Jana had been attacked and killed by her chickens...

"Gentlemen," Agmar continued, "I would dearly love to be wrong, but you will unfortunately see that I am not. Tomorrow pregnant women will all give birth at once, whether the babes are ready or not, and believe me, none of them will. Do I have your attention yet? Because I have not the time to wait for you to see the signs and then agree with me only later. Because from there is where it gets worse. Which of you is responsible for the town watch?"

"That would - I am." Captain Alder looked somewhat more rattled than the others at the table, and Lynna suddenly remembered that his daughter was pregnant with his second grandchild. Myrha had already had two miscarriages trying for this baby, and was still a month away from full term.

"Now wait just one minute!" Lynna's father stood up, banging his fist against the table for emphasis and causing the remaining sausages to bounce on their plates. "Who the hell do you think you are, barging in here prophesying doom and destruction without an invitation? I'm the mayor of this town and you'll not be giving orders to anyone without my say-so first. You'll kindly explain who you are and how you come by such information."

"I told you already, that my name is Agmar. And I did not realize that an invitation was necessary prior to prophesying doom and destruction."

Lynna tried to be invisible against the wall as she watched her father's face growing red with indignation as Agmar continued.

"I am not, however, prophesying. I am relaying to you the findings of a detailed study of texts left behind over the course of the last several hundred years. I am one of those who were recently translating and studying said texts and, having passed briefly through this town once before, I recognized it being at the forefront of this event. I then chose to come and warn you and offer my assistance. Perhaps you would prefer that I leave you to tend to the impending doom and destruction yourself?" Agmar raised one eyebrow, his gaze seeming to take in everyone at the table.

Captain Alder put his hand on Avern's arm, stalling him from another outburst. "Maybe you could explain to us what exactly is coming? What is this event you keep referring to?"

There weren't any empty chairs in the room, so Agmar leaned forward on the table, looking around at them with bright eyes. Lynna was transfixed.

"I seldom bandy about with words. There is a force of some kind. What, I am still not quite certain, but a force nonetheless. It is very old, and it is more inhuman than you can imagine. It moves slowly in a straight line around the world, circling once every two and a half centuries. Most of the time it seems to be asleep, but with the full moon it wakes, and sees the world around it with malevolence."

Agmar stood up straighter now, and the men at the table paid attention to nothing else. "It has no control over its course across the map, but there are some things it can control. It can control the emotions of the feeble of mind: the very sick, the insane, animals and beasts. It creates in them an anger, a rage that the force has no other way to express."

"It is an evil force, and that evil can corrupt anything which lacks strength with which to resist. It can twist the unborn, it can wilt plants and crops, and it can kill lesser animals with whatever abruptness or slowness it wishes. It can also manipulate directly anything not awake. At the height of the full moon it can make inanimate objects move, and control sleeping people as puppets."

"In three nights," he continued, "with the moon at its fullest, the force will be directly above this town. The edges of its effects are already arriving, and it is not even completely awake. In three nights, this town and the countryside around it will as good as come alive--with every intention to kill every living thing. Sleeping townsfolk will walk out of their homes and kill everything that moves. You will be unable to wake them, and only complete destruction will stop them."

He looked around at them, and Lynna could not see his eyes from where she stood, but she could see the looks on their faces. She was not reassured by what she saw. "This is what is coming. There are some precautions that can be taken. There are things I can do to help you. If you wish me to leave, do say so, and I will gladly get out of the path of devastation."

"Can't it be stopped?" Allek Gannen's voice was barely a whisper. Of the five men at the table, he was the youngest, having only inherited the inn upon his father's death the previous year. He seemed to be doing reasonably well at running the inn, however, and had been making some improvements as of late. He'd also just married his wife Rachel, four months prior.

"In all the records that have been researched, no means have yet been found with which this menace can be destroyed. For the moment, gentlemen, the best we can do is try to weather the storm." Agmar took a slight step back from the table, as if giving them room to come to their decision. Lynna was starting to think this man was rather arrogant, and was surprised by him casting an almost suspicious glance over at her immediately after she thought it. She felt a chill run over her at the possibility that he could have heard her thoughts.

But if he can, then he's got a secret too. Which had better mean he won't tell mine. She tried to think it directly at him, but there was no change in his expression to indicate that he had heard her.

The men at the table, exchanged glances, as if trying to communicate silently to one another, and Lynna saw her father sit back down in his chair, his expression now slightly pale.

"I believe we will require your assistance, Mister, um - Agmar. However," Avern raised a finger, "that doesn't mean you can usurp our authority here." His hand swept to indicate the other men at the table. "The people of Eagle's Harbor won't take kindly to a stranger telling them what to do, so things will have to go through us and with our approval. Is that clear?"

"You can rest assured, Master Mordan, that I have no interest in usurping anyone's authority. When I am done here I will have only a short time before I move on to the next town before the next full moon. The last thing I can afford to do is stay and run a town." Agmar shook his bald head slowly as he finished.

Lynna was struck with the realization that however bad things got here, he would just have to walk into another room like this one and have this same conversation all over again. If this evil couldn't be stopped, would Agmar just have to keep travelling, helping each town in whatever way he could? She wanted to say something comforting to him, but she could not find the words.

"So what can we do," Bruckert Tallet asked, always the practical one. "What can you do to help. You've said you help some, how is that, exactly?"

"Yeah," Jacob Bentz added, his face all scrunched up with concern, "if we can't stop it, what are we supposed to do?" He sighed, as if he had already decided they were all already doomed. Lynna had a sudden image of him afterwards, selling replacements to anything broken or damaged by the coming evil. In the image--she didn't call it a vision, when she had those they were far more vivid and powerful--he wasn't complaining as much as he usually did.

"Well, for one, a sense of calm and order must be maintained. If the townsfolk panic, things will only escalate quicker and the force itself will find it easier to work its rage upon them. I, myself, have been attempting to outline possible plans of action to prevent some of the worst from happening. I also have some level of medical abilities which I can hopefully offer to the pregnant women tomorrow. Those babies closer to birth may be able to be saved." He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a piece of paper, which he unfolded and placed before them on the table. "These are the precautions I have deemed necessary, listed in order of urgency. As you will see, the first order of business should be to tie up and otherwise confine all animals in town, along with those within a two mile radius of town. It would also be wise to identify all pregnant women as soon as possible, and prepare them for what is coming tomorrow."

"What's this about identifying the strong of mind?" Captain Allder asked, pouring over the list.

"We need to know who will be unaffected. Those who are stronger of mind stand a better chance of resisting and can be of use in restraining the others during the third night. They will need to stay awake, to make sure the others stay tied down to their beds so they cannot rise and kill."

"And how are you gonna determine who's smart enough for that?" Jacob Bentz's complained.

"It is not about intelligence, sir. It is about will. I have ways of my own to determine who shall be able to resist. However, I shall need a chance to meet everyone in order to identify them conclusively." Agmar pointed his finger at one of the lines on the paper, apparently indicating where that activity was listed.

"In the process of that," Agmar continued, waving off Jacob before he could complain, "We can take the pregnant women and see which of them might be ready to give birth today. I do not know how many that will be, but the babies will be better off born early than not born at all."

"And you expect us to do all these things without anyone panicking?" Allek Gannen asked incredulously. "What are we supposed to tell everyone?"

"--And what of all this rope? Who's going to pay for that?"

"--There are a lot of strangers in town off ships, what do we tell them?"

Agmar cleared his throat and a silence fell over the room. Lynna had never seen the group so...shut up. "Gentlemen. One thing at a time. You cannot keep the townsfolk calm if you cannot lead them by example. Everything on that list is achievable. All of the details can be seen to." Agmar straightened up, looking taller and seeming somehow more authoritative.

He looked at Jacob, saying, "I would suspect that providing rope, among other things, to protect your customers would be a wise business decision. As for what to tell people, that I have only the truth to offer. I suspect that the responsibility for actually telling them falls upon you," he said, turning to look to Avern.

"Also," Agmar continued, looking at Bruckert, "I suggest you get everyone else off those ships, and keep them anchored slightly away from the docks. The water will get rough when the creatures within it start fighting. Those ships will take enough beating without letting them be dashed against the shore or docks as well. And their crews would be safer here with us to look after them. Perhaps you can ask them to bring some rope ashore to supplement what is available here."

Lynna saw her father take a deep breath, gathering his wits about him. "Alright, here's what we're going to do. Syred, gather your reserve men and send them to the outlying homes to gather people into town together. Also have them make sure that the animals out there are tied up. I'll call for a general town meeting just after lunch, with as many people as can attend by then. Bruckert, send your boys out to bring in Jacobs and his two sons, will you? I know they planned on staying out for most of the week to check the nets they have further out. The rest should be back in later today and I'll hold another general meeting again tonight. I'll continue to hold meetings twice a day to inform and reassure people that we have things in hand, so let's make it at least look like we do. Those of us here now will meet tonight after dinner to compare notes on how things are progressing."

"We will not, however, mention anything about tying anyone up as of yet. People will panic if we start looking at everyone as a potential menace. Let's take it one step at a time. We'll get the pregnant women together, along with those women who've been midwives. I suppose they'd know best how to make a baby come out ahead of schedule, although we'll end up scaring the hell out of them explaining why." Avern looked suddenly over at Lynna. "Lynna, can you gather the pregnant women and midwives at the Surf and Sleep?"

Lynna was startled at the sudden inclusion, surprised her father thought she could help with this. She nodded, hoping her own fears weren't showing on her face, and proud he thought her capable enough to be assigned a task. Avern gave her a quick smile before turning to Allek.

"The Surf and Sleep is needed as a headquarters Allek, although I'll have to ask the other inns, such as they are, to help provide accomodations for the extra people we're going to have in town from the ship crews and outlying areas. Start double-bunking people as you need to. Jacob, Allek and the other innkeepers will likely need more food supplies as well as the rope. I don't expect you to take a total loss on more than the rope, but bulk discount on the rest would be appreciated, and likely remembered by those you give it to. Agmar, if you're present at the meetings and have a chance to talk to people before and after, will it allow you to determine who's strong-willed enough, or whatever?"

"Enough for the exceptional. The rest can be sorted later," Agmar replied. Lynna could not help but wonder what his criteria for sorting them would be. "I think my next step, however, should involve preparations at the Surf and Sleep." The others nodded; either in agreement or just understanding. They all had things to do as well.

"Lynna, if you would come with me, please?" Lynna started a little at being addressed by the man, suddenly knowing more was coming. She gulped and nodded, before practically scurrying to the door.

Outside he paused at the street, and she turned, wondering is he was confused or lost. There must have been a questioning look on her face, and he inclined his bald head and caught her eyes with his own pale blue ones.

"So tell me, what have you learned to do so far?" he asked.

"Your pardon?"

He smiled, a calming, reassuring smile. "You have an awareness that other people do not. Perhaps it is recent, perhaps it has always seemed that way to you. Either way, no doubt you never talk about it. That's always the case in towns like this. But you can feel things, and possibly do things, that you cannot explain. Answer my question, and as time permits I will answer yours."

Lynna looked around nervously, to see if anyone had been close enough to hear him. She saw Mrs. Hartford, two houses down, hanging laundry on her clothesline as several children, too young for schooling yet, played around her feet. Further down she could see Mrs. Anders beating a rug on her front step. With most people fishing, working or at the schoolhouse right now, the town was reasonably quiet. In a few hours it would start bustling more, as the mothers and the elderly came out to buy groceries and run other errands about town, some just going for walks or socializing with one another. But right now, they were cleaning up after breakfast and still preparing for the rest of their day. The weekly breakfast meeting that Lynna's father held usually was a bit later than normal for breakfast, as Allek Gannen had to make sure the people at his inn were being attended to before he could leave.

She looked back at Agmar, trying to study his eyes for some clue to what her answer should be.

"The kind of things you're suggesting are dangerous, Mr. Agmar." She finally said. "If you are implying that I -"

"I'm implying, young lady, that you are capable of manipulating the forces of magic. And just call me Agmar, please." He had lowered his voice, and leaned in towards her slightly. Lynna felt both reassured and intimidated by him in one swift moment. "I know that you are capable of it, Lynna, I am just trying to assess how capable you are at it, and if there will be time to teach you anything that could be useful in the next few days."

"Teach me?" Lynna asked, incredulously, her eyes growing wide. "You would have us both killed!" She found herself glancing around again, furtively.

Agmar sighed, shaking his head, and started walking again, slowly towards the area of town the inn was at, his hands clasped together behind his back. He stopped a moment, looking back, as if waiting for her to follow, before continuing on, and she found herself moving quickly to catch up. Although he walked slowly, his stride was longer than she had realized.

He stopped short a bit shy of the Surf and Sleep, and his bald head turned until he faced her once more. There was a deep, far away look in his eyes. She could not help but find it a little creepy, and at that moment she could have sworn the wind stopped completely.

"About me the will probably find out before this is over. Quite possibly it is the only thing that can save them. I can also show you how to conceal it. You think it over, but do not wait long to make your decision."

He turned back to the inn, and as he took the first step up to the porch the wind came back. A shiver ran through her, and she looked around worriedly. People were going about their daily lives. Chickens pecked at the earthen streets, Rosal's dog was sitting panting outside the cobbler's window. No one had noticed anything out of the ordinary.

"Mister Agmar!" Allek Gannen's voice called out from behind as Agmar was reaching for the door. Lynna turned and managed to not laugh at the fat innkeeper huffing and puffing in a rolling run down the street. "Wait for me, please!"

"I just wanted to let my girls...know what was going on...before you started setting up," he said between heavy inhales once he caught up to them. "You understand...so as not to confuse 'em and all."

"Of course. Just let us know when you are ready." As Allen rushed inside nodding, Agmar stepped onto the porch and seemed to look around at the floor for a moment, before shrugging and taking a seat on a the rocking chair. It creaked loudly as he started to sit down, and he raised an eyebrow as he lowered himself more cautiously into it. Lynna stood by awkwardly, as there weren't other chairs on the porch, and she found herself kicking at the wood with the toe of her shoe.

"So, how many are there?" He suddenly asked.

"What?" She looked up, startled again. "How many what?"

"Pregnant women."

"Oh." She counted the ones she knew to herself quickly. "At least eight. Although it's likely more. Prob'ly twelve?" She shrugged. "I guess we'll find out, assuming they're willing to say."

"They would be better off saying so now than dealing with it tomorrow." Agmar replied bluntly, a frown on his face. "I don't suppose many of them will be very close to giving birth either."

"I know of three who should be due sometime this next month. Will they be alright?"

"Hopefully." Agmar had a distant look on his face, and though his eyes faced down the street towards the docks, she could tell he wasn't seeing anything in his view. She finally sat down on the step to the inn, realizing she hadn't even taken off her apron before leaving the house. She smoothed the wrinkles away with her hands, flicking away breadcrumbs from breakfast.

"Alright, Mister Agmar, you can come on in and get started now," Allek said when he eventually came out.

Agmar and Lynna stood in unison and followed him back inside. Tables in the dining room had already been moved aside to clear some open space.

"I'll have my boys bring down some extra mattresses to put on the floor, after my girls have given it a good proper mopping. It sounded like you wanted to get started right away. How long 'til you need hot water and all?" he asked, wringing his hands nervously when one of them wasn't pushing his straw blond hair out of his eyes. It needed cutting, and tended to fall forward. All Lynna could think of was what was she going to tell all those women....

"Some of them will take some time, I think. Their chances will be best if it is all finished before sunrise tomorrow. The sooner we start the better." He turned then to Lynna, and she gulped a little despite herself. "Lynna, if you could bring them one at a time, I think that would be best, rather than in groups. Start by telling them that there is a medical man from out of town who wants to check on the health of all the coming babies. There is nothing untrue about that, and is perhaps the least worrisome explanation we can offer until your father has had time to speak to the town en masse."

"Master Gannen," he said, turning back to the innkeeper, "is there an herbalist in town?"

"Well I reckon Jacob might have whatever you need at the store. But if he doesn't, I'd check with Margaret Gretch. She and her daughter Elsa are the ones the town folk are most likely to call on if something ails them. I know she has herbs brought in sometimes by the ship captains, and what she doesn't buy she grows in her garden or in pots in the house. She's also fond of mashin' up bugs and stuff - "

"Could you have someone fetch Mrs. Gretch and her daughter here please?" Agmar interrupted the nervous young inkeeper before he launched into any more description. "Their skills will be needed. And if I may have pen and paper, I'd like to make a list of the herbs we shall be needing. What the Gretch household doesn't have, Mr. Bentz shall need to supply."

"Yes, of course." Allek bobbed his head in agreement and scurried off. Lynna could hear him nearly yelling instructions at people as he went, and she sighed, realizing that his staff was already alarmed from the preparations, and now more so from his tone.

"Excuse me, Agmar?" she asked tenatively.

"What?" He appeared irritated, as if he'd expected her to be gone already.

"Which do you want first? The one's closer to term or the ones still early into their pregnancies?"

"Oh." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "The ones closest to term, please Lynna."

"Right." She nodded at him and turned towards the door, going through the list of known pregnant women in her mind. Once she was outside, she headed towards the other end of town to her friend Emilee's house. She knew Emilee was only a couple weeks away from her estimated due date. At least she'd known Emilee for almost her whole life, as she was only three years older than Lynna, and it would be easier for Lynna to keep calm with her around.

Well, soon I won't have to worry about letting slip to Emilee and Josh that their baby is a boy, she thought to herself. He's so close to being born that he'll have to be alright coming out early, won't he?. She crossed her fingers hopefully as she hurried down the packed dirt road in the bright morning sun.

Emilee's house was a cottage at the edge of town. Josh was on the roof smoothing out the thatch and he waved down to her with a cheerful smile. She put on a smile and waved back, not bothering to call out a hello. His hearing was not very good; he wouldn't hear her anyway.

At the door she knocked with a musical rhythm, although she wasn't sure where she had heard it before. Emilee answered the door with a white apron inadequately covering her huge belly. She had always been a petite girl, and the swollen belly often made Lynna giggle. Today it did not.

"Heya Lynna," she said with an awkward hug.

"Hiya, Emmy. You busy?"

"Not pressing stuff. Why?" Emilee asked, pushing fine red hair off of her freckled face.

"There's a medical guy from out of town, and he wants to check all the pregnant girls and make sure you're healthy. Father said he could," she added for good measure."

"Oh. Okay. I don't mind getting out for a bit," Emilee said, reaching behind her to untie the apron.

"Here, let me get that," Lynna offered. She took the apron and folded it, running it back into the kitchen. Walking back past the little bedroom it occurred to her that her friend was going to need other things. There was no way to explain that without saying too much. She resigned herself to being sent back for stuff later.

Something else occurred to Lynna, as she came back into the front room and they started out the door.

"Should we ask Josh to come too? In case there's any interesting news?" If Emilee was going to have her baby today, she'd want Josh to be nearby.

"No, no. Let's leave him. I feel just fine, and he's been worried about getting that roof fixed before the baby is born, so I don't want to interrupt him." She turned and waved up at her husband, giving him a big smile, and he stopped his work momentarily to wave back, smiling and blowing her a kiss in the process. Lynna watched her friend's smile get bigger, and she touched her heart with her hand, followed by her pregnant belly, in response to Josh. She turned back towards the center of town and the two of them moved down the road.

"Where are we headed?" Emilee asked.

"Oh, he's at the Surf and Sleep. Mr. Gannen is letting him set up in the front dining hall," Lynna replied.

"Well, I'm sure he won't need much time with me. I just visited Margaret yesterday, as this little one has been kicking me a little more thoroughly as of late, but she says that it's normal to feel harsher kicking at this point. It means the baby's getting stronger." She smiled and patted her stomach fondly.

They walked in silence for a few minutes, each of them seemingly lost in their thoughts. Lynna spent the time mulling over the events of the day so far, and how she was going to approach each of the women she knew were pregnant. Especially those who's babies weren't likely to survive if they were born today. She wondered what Agmar's plans for them would be, although she suspected he was planning to help them to miscarry. The glow on her friend Emilee's face left Lynna horrified at how those women would react to Agmar's "solution" if that was the case. She hadn't realized she was outwardly frowning, however, until Emilee reached over and touched her arm.

"Lynn, what's troubling you today? You look worried."

Lynna gulped and tried not to look her friend in the eyes, for fear she'd just spill the whole morning's events out. She felt awful about deceiving Emilee.

"It's nothing. I'll tell you later," was the best response she could manage.

They arrived at the Surf and Sleep without further conversation. Emilee's glow continued, and Lynna tried to pretend to look like she was not worried.

Emilee looked caught off guard at the rows of mattresses in the dining hall. Agmar walked forward and met them. Lynna introduced them.

"You must be expecting to check all the expecting mothers in town," Emilee observed, looking around her.

"There have been problems in other towns," he explained. "Some people just think it is a disease, but I would rather take more precautions than less. If I can help babies stay healthy, then I think I am doing a good thing. Would you not agree?"

"No, I guess that makes sense."

"Please, sit down," he said, offering her his hand to help her lower herself to a mattress. "Lynna, we will want a moment alone before you bring the next mother, please."

"Okay, sir," she said reluctantly. Emilee was her friend, and Lynna wanted to be there to comfort her, to help however she could. But, of course, he was right. Privacy would be good for her. She frowned and turned to start outside again.

As Lynna headed towards the hallway outside the dining hall, she was nearly knocked over by Margaret Gretch, who pushed her way into the room looking angry. Margaret's daughter Elsa followed close behind, and gave an apologetic smile to the astonished Lynna. Lynna paused, having never seen Margaret Gretch get angry before. She was known for her patience and bedside manner when treating an injury or disease. Close behind Elsa was Allek Gannen's youngest stablehand, Mitch, who's arms were full of parcels and burlap bags.

"Don't you dare touch her!" Margaret roared at Agmar. "I don't know who you think you are mister, but you won't go near any of the women of this town after your little list of herbs here." She waved it in his face, followed by holding up a glass jar that was too far away for Lynna to tell what it might be. "What the hell did you think you were going to do with this? Have the women in town miscarry?" Emilee gasped and backed away from Agmar, her hand going protectively over her stomach. Agmar's face was dark and angry.

"Margaret Gretch, I presume?" He said flatly.

"You're damn right I am. Who the hell are you?"

"My name is Agmar, Madam. I have been given permission by the mayor to see to the pregnant women of this town. I am attempting to insure the healthy birth of as many of their babies as will be possible."

"Then why the baristroot?"

He sighed, and closed his eyes a moment, clearly frustrated. When he opened them, he noticed Lynna still standing there.

"Lynna, go and bring the next woman please. We've only so many hours to work with here."

With some reluctance, Lynna turned her back on their exchange, heading out the door. As she left, she could hear Margaret questioning Agmar again, still angry. Lynna wondered how he would explain it to her as she headed towards Lady Mary's. The next woman expected to give birth after Emilee was one of Lady Mary's "girls", who was unmarried and did far more in the beds than she did making them, despite Mary's continued declarations to Lynna's father that their work at the inn wasn't scandalous in any way. Though everyone knew what went on there, even Lynna's father turned a blind eye most of the time, as Lady Mary and her girls were one of the reasons many ship captains picked this town over others to dock at. Lynna wondered if any of the other girls at the inn were pregnant right now that either didn't know it yet or hadn't said anything.

She stood for a moment, trying to let her mind settle. Eagle's Harbor was a quiet, boring town. News moved quickly through it, and it wouldn't be long before she got to girls who had heard rumors, and Lynna would have to come up with something better to say than just a visiting medical man.

Mitch came out of the inn behind her, grumbling. He tended to be heavy on his feet, and his shoes clomped down the porch steps.

"Hey, Lynna, you're still here," he observed. "What's the big thing that's going on? And who is that Agmar fellow? He sent me out of there to talk to Miss Gretch--and I've never seen her like that, neither."

"Um," Lynna stumbed, "Father's going around letting people know what's going on. He might call a town meeting or something. I'm not even sure I understand it all. He can explain it better than I can," she said, hoping to dodge the subject.

"But I have more errands I need to run, so I can't talk now. I'll be back in a few minutes. Then you can let me know what you've heard by then."

"Okay," he shrugged, frowning. He was a nice boy, strong and polite, and cute with his curly red hair and freckles, but he was not the smartest boy in town. Turning, she smiled, remembering the way Winda explained that he was no different than any other boy in town. Winda didn't like most of the boys in town, and she liked to speak her mind.

Lynna looked back over her shoulder at him briefly as she walked away. It looked like he had found a loose railing post and was inspecting it. Lynna knew better than to judge people on any one thing. Some were smarter than others, some stronger than others, some prettier than others, but in the end they were all people with feelings and worries and fears. They were just like her, even if they couldn't--they were people, just like her. She rounded a corner and quickened her step just a little.