Chapter 5

Some of the pregnancies were still early. Two already he suspected would not move quickly enough. He would have to separate the mothers into two groups by nightfall. It would be traumatic enough on the lucky ones without them watching the unlucky ones. By nightfall he would be able to tell.

Margaret was doing a superb job of keeping order, but the stress was already showing on her face. He put a hand on her shoulder, and she took a deep breath.

"This town is fortunate to have you here, Margaret Gretch."

"I just can't help but doubt that I'm doing the right thing," she said very quietly.

"You are. You will know that clearly later. For now focus on caring for them...Have I thanked you for your help yet?"

"No, I don't think you have."

"Well, thank you, then. There is a lot to do--more than I can do by myself. You are helping more than you know."

He turned then to face Lynna as she entered. She was trying not to look afraid. She was not succeeding.

"Ah, you are here, good. Please come with me," he said, relieving her of the need to speak first.

He led her further back into the inn, through the service entrance that ran from the dining hall to the kitchens, past supply closets and washing areas where dishes were washed and large caudrons of water were heated for washing sheets. He'd taken the opportunity to get in a quick tour of the place while Lynna had gone for Emilee, and he now led them out the back door and into the fresh air. It was a relief to step outside for a few moments, and he pulled a couple of empty crates up so that they could use them to sit on next to the rough wood wall of the stables. He could hear a couple of horses moving about beyond the wall, and briefly hoped they had been secured well enough.

He reached with his mind for a moment, feeling the essence of sound in the air around them and pushed at it, creating a bubble-like barrier between them and the rest of the world. Within that bubble, all sound from beyond seemed to stop. He then added a small tendril off of the bubble, reaching back into the dining hall, so he could hear if he was suddenly needed there. When he turned back to Lynna, maintaning the reasonably simple magics around them, her jaw had dropped open and he could see her digging her fingernails into the wood of the crate beneath her.

"No one can hear what we say right now, Lynna. I thought perhaps that might help you feel more comfortable," he told her.

"Da - father said that people are going to find out anyway," she said unhappily. "I don't like any of this. I didn't ask for these abilities, can't you just make them go away?"

"Man or woman, anyone I have ever met who had tried to make such a thing happen either died or went mad. It's a part of who you are, Lynna. There are even places in the world where those who can use magic are not only welcomed, but well-respected because of their abilities, though such places are few and far between it seems." He paused a moment, wishing he had more of the empathic abilities that were often inherent in women. She looked afraid, and with the tension in the town already building he didn't want to send her into a panic if he pushed too hard. "What have you learned so far, Lynna? We can begin there."

"I..." she paused and swallowed, clearly unaccustomed to talking about such things. "I can see and hear stuff mostly. It's easier with some people, like father. I think if I know them better or if they are thinking loudly it comes clearer. And sometimes I feel stuff and I know it's true. Like, this morning I knew you were at the door before you rang the bell. And I've known that Emilee's baby is a boy for months now. It's like I can feel everything around me in more detail than everyone else." She said it all quickly and quietly, her eyes darting around while she did.

"You may have also noticed that when people around you are upset or anxious, that you are also more likely to be upset or anxious with them perhaps?" This girl is a walking disaster in and of herself if I don't do anything he thought quietly. He kept the thought tightly barred, having already put up a barrier between himself and Lynna as he had already felt her instinctively reaching.

"I suppose..." she answered.

"Women and men use magic differently, Lynna. I, for example, tend to reach out and manipulate the forces around me, making them do the things I need them to do. Women, on the other hand, generally tend to be more empathic. You feel the forces around yourself and bring them through you in the process of showing them what you need them to do. It is a subtle difference, but it means that you feel more of what you are doing, almost drawing off the very power of your emotions in the act. Very simply put - where I am pushing outside myself, you are embracing within. Men are better at the more direct magicks, such as manipulating fire or creating a barrier of air. Women are better at healing people, or drawing more dangerous magicks into themselves in order to diffuse them, although that sort of ability takes a lot more training than I have time to give you right now. I mainly hope to hone the skills that are already instinctual to you and show you how to control them. Once you can do that, I can hopefully show you a few new things that you can use to protect yourself, as well as some of the others perhaps."

"So," he began, "we will start in hour-long sessions. You can have short breaks to absorb what you learn. But they will be short breaks. We will go as long as we can before we are interrupted."

He reached out with his mind to the bubble around them. He added more power to it.

"First, listen as hard as you can and list everything you can hear."

She closed her eyes, the edges of confusion showing on her face. "My heartbeat, first of all," she eventually said. Her face grew worried, "but there's nothing else. There's no wind, or birds, or anything."

"That's the bubble around us, it works both ways," he said. He reduced the strength of the shield around himself, thinking loudly about the bubble. "Without opening your eyes, tell me how many fingers I am holding up," he said, not holding up any fingers. It was a trick, but it would get her to reach towards him.

"I can hear your heartbeat," she said suddenly, "I think I can feel it." He could see her latch on to that, forgetting to think about fingers.

"Good, now focus in another direction. Any direction. How big is the bubble around us?" He envisioned the bubble in his own mind, putting enough focus onto it that some of it would leak into her receptive mind. He would start that way, helping her do things, and he would back off what he was doing for her until she was doing it all herself.

"I can't see the bubble itself," she replied. "I can see you thinking about it, and I think I can kind of feel where it's at, but I can't see it exaclty."

"It is good that you can make the distinction," he said. He was glad the girl was smart enough to see the difference between someone thinking about something and something real. "Now that you have an idea of what it should look like, and where it should be, open your eyes and see it." He watched as she looked around, frustration growing on her face.

"Slow down, Lynna. You know where it is. You felt it with your eyes closed, and you can still feel where the sound ends. You know something is there, around us, holding the sounds both away from us as well as inside with us. Allow yourself to see the energy that is making that happen."

After a moment she sighed unhappily.

"I think I'm still seeing what you see instead. I'm sorry."

"You do not have to apologize, Lynna. Just try your best and we will get what we can accomplished. Some students spend months on this aspect alone." He smiled at her while he said it, and she seemed slightly reassured. He reached forward and gently touched one of her wrists with his hand for a moment. "Let go. You are unlikely to see anything with all that tension coursing through you."

She looked sheepish as she unclenched her hands and flexed her fingers. Then she looked at him with an expression that suggested she had been startled by something.

"What is it?" he asked tenatively.

"Em's baby is about to come out!"

"Perfect," he said, subtly not letting go of her wrist. "Is it healthy?"

"He's beautiful," she said, lost in the moment.

"Feel the bubble around us. There is a line running from it to where they are. Do you feel that line, that tendril?"

"Yes," she answered almost immediately. She was still looking towards the inn.

"Focus on the tendril, and close your eyes," he instructed softly, moving around to better see her face. "Emilee does not need us right now. But we are close by if she should. Where are you?"

"I'm out here, but I can see...like I'm peering through a window." Her expression was one of amazement. The base skill is there, she only needs to learn to apply and direct it. She is already feeling the increased power coming.

"Good," he said, barely increasing the pressure on her wrist. "Can you see the rest of the room, or just the one image? You may have to envision yourself stepping back a little. It is like when you stand too close to something and can see nothing else."

"Yes, it's working. There's Margaret and Elsa. Elsa looks worried, but Margaret isn't. Actually, she is, but she doesn't want Elsa to know."

"Good. They just need to see that the baby is healthy and right. They will see when he comes out. For right now I want you to not touch the baby. You still have to learn to be gentle. For right now I want you to watch. See how the baby looks, see his face--"

"His face is all squooshed!" she interrupted.

"That is normal. He is being pushed out. Picture in your mind the baby coming out, first the back of his head, and then his face, and then his shoulders. See him coming out perfect and healthy. See it the way it should be, and then let it happen that way."

"Margaret thinks he's turned the wrong way," she said suddenly. "But I can feel him! Why, I bet I could just --"

"Lynna, NO!" Agmar said sharply, as he threw up a barrier between her and the infant. He felt her react to it as if she had been suddenly slapped, and her eyes flew open, immediately welling up with tears.

"You are not ready to just reach in there and manipulate things," he said in a soft voice, letting his hand drop from her wrist to her hand and giving it a squeeze. "You do not have that control yet, and could have inadvertantly harmed the child. Children can come out faced towards the front like that, though the birth is less comfortable by far. It is more of a problem if the baby were flipped around entirely, which he is not."

"I'm sorry." Her face was filled with remorse and she wouldn't meet his gaze. He saw the first tear escape one of her eyes before she dropped her head entirely and he couldn't see her face.

"It is alright, Lynna," he told her. "I know you meant no harm. Just reach out again and watch. I will take care of helping turn the baby around, just let yourself feel what is happening around the child. All I want you to do is help encourage him to want to come out. Don't push him or try to move him in any way. Reassure him. Let him know his mother is waiting to take him in her arms." She looked up at him, and he saw that a few more of the tears had escaped her frightened eyes. "I will not let you harm the infant, Lynna. I know that is not your intent. Close your eyes and feel your way back to Emilee and her son again."

He closed his own eyes and followed the tendril back to the mother and child inside the inn, keeping a light mental touch on Lynna as he did. He could feel Lynna following him, tenatively, and hoped she'd be close enough to watch at least, as he reached in and gently nudged at the small person inside Emilee's abdomen. The child was resistant, wanting to settle back into the safe corner of the womb where he had been residing for so many months already, but once he was turned to the proper position, Agmar gave him another small feathery touch to send him in the right direction. He felt Lynna almost fading in and out alongside him, as she tried to get past her worry and reach out to the child. He could tell she had connected with this particular infant before, by instinct, and counted himself lucky that it was such a close friend of hers who was due to deliver first. He only hoped that there wouldn't be any extraordinary connection between Lynna and the child that might interfere with the child's connection to Emilee, as heard her making small sounds and words of encouragement out loud beside him, echoing them very lightly in the baby's mind.

"You are doing very well, by the way. Soon we will work on teaching you to relieve pain. That will be very helpful in the coming hours, but you will need more control first."

"What could I have accidentally done to her baby...if something had gone wrong?" She looked afraid, and Agmar wished he had been able to deflect her more gently.

"Do not worry about that now. Later you will better understand what you can and cannot do. There are a lot of things that magic cannot do, but babies are somewhat fragile." He put a hand on her shoulder, and she turned to face him. He smiled a little. It was a sympathetic smile, and she relaxed slightly.

"Usually it is boys in training that have the most difficulty learning control. You would have an easier time if there was more time for training and practice. Practice will be very important. And patience. It will not always come so instinctually."

"Are there some things that men can do that women can't, or that women can do but not men?"

"Not the way you mean, no. There are things that men or women do more easily, or do in different ways, but a tool is a tool, no matter whose hands it is in. Magic is neither good nor evil," he began, staving off her next question. "A shovel in the hands of an angry man can be a weapon, but in the hands of a gardener it is rather something else. If you had never seen a shovel before, and saw a man kill with one, I would forgive you for thinking it was purely a weapon. But imagine a town that made shovels against the law...."

"That'd be absurd," she said, laughing. The tension in the air and in her face had faded. Lecture time is over.

"Come. Let us take a break from this and go meet Emilee and Josh's new son, shall we?" She nodded her agreement and they stood up. He let the sound barrier dissipate and the noises around them seemed to rush to fill the empty space. The horses were agitated in the stables, hoofs restlessly pawing at the wooden stall doors. The sounds of a small baby wailing came from within the inn itself, along with a myriad of voices and daily working that chattered and clanged their way to his ears. The sudden sharpness of the sounds returning made Agmar wish for a moment that he was back in the bathtub from the prior evening, so that he might slide down and mute it some by ducking his ears under the water. He walked slowly back, allowing himself to re-acclimate to the volume as Lynna trailed quielty along behind him.

His ears separated the sounds from one another for him - the wooden thud of a bucket being placed on a wooden floor, heavily laden with water, the squeak of metal rings turning as more water was drawn up from the well just outside the kitchen, the slap of dough being smacked down on a table and hands kneading it into bakeable submission. There were also sounds of a variety of feet moving about on the clean-swept wooden floors of the inn, some scuffling along in soft leather soles and others treading more loudly with harder, thicker soles of cobbled leather shoes. Voices trickled through the hallways and reverberated through the walls. He let all the sounds sift through him, without allowing magic to interfere or deconstruct them in any way, reminding himself that sometimes magic was not the only way to feel the space around himself.

As they drew closer to the dining hall, the infant boy's voice drowned out the more subtle noises. He smiled, happy that the first child to be born today was a strong and healthy one. He hoped it would help calm the other mothers and the two Gretch women to see the first one be such a success.

The amount of women in the room when they walked in would have been enough to intimidate most any man. Mary had returned with the girls of her inn, it seemed, and with them and the others there were no less than 25 woman crammed into the dining hall, making it seem much smaller than it had before. Being the only man in the room attracted most of their eyes to him as he entered, and he felt sure that any other man might have seriously considered heading back out again at a reasonable pace, as the worry and tension in the room had escalated with the additional women. The only things that had stopped it from getting out of hand so far was the obvious strength of both Margaret and Mary, along with the safe arrival of the first child for today. Other expectant mothers were already hovering over Emilee, who beamed down at the little blanketed bundle voicing his hunger in her arms. Her husband was missing, and Agmar presumed he'd likely gone for things she and the baby would need from their home.

Mary was talking to Elsa as she tended to taking small samples of blood from the new arrivals to check them for pregnancy. Agmar made a quick check of his own and confirmed that two of the girls were currently pregnant, one of which was only a week at best. Agmar suspected she didn't know yet, and a look at her frightened face suggested to him that she might be better off not ever knowing at all. He decided he'd take care of that one himself at a point when Lynna wasn't nearby to feel the fetus die. The blood test wouldn't be accurate to have it show up anyway, he knew, and the girl would merely have some cramping and then think she was menstruating early. The other one was already almost three months along, and likely knew she was pregnant already. That one was going to prove more difficult.

In the middle of the crowd Emilee was beaming at her new little boy. Margaret Gretch was cleaning the boy up, and looked relieved. Eventually she was able to let the mother and child spend some time by themselves, and she stood up. She saw Agmar and, grabbing a towel for her hands, moved towards him.

"Well, I've never seen a three hour labor before," she said. "This one looks perfect."

"Yes," he agreed, motioning for her to follow him to the edge of the room. She did.

"Those born before midnight have good chances--those ready enough to survive, at least. Not all the deliveries will go so quickly. Any that are not born before sunrise will probably have no chance at all." Her smile faded some at that. He sighed a little, always having to bring bad news.

For all the things I can do, there are so many that I must do.

"These people have seen an easy, successful birth," he said at last. "You should clear them out before the rest. Some of the coming ones will be very hard, and those mothers deserve what privacy we can afford them. In some cases, it will be better for everyone if as few people as possible see the results."

Margaret looked around the room, surveying. "I understand," she said.

"You might want to take a look at these other women," she added, gesturing at the newer pregnant arrivals. "Most of them think they're here because there's a medical man in town, and I haven't told them otherwise. You could at least pretend that your expertise lies in medicine for their sakes."

"I beg your pardon?" Agmar was taken aback by her sudden change of tone, although he noticed she'd lowered her voice even more while saying it.

"You might find that some people can be of more use if you give them all the information in advance. Some people are better off not knowing, I agree. Others, like myself, are in need of all the information possible in order to do their jobs. My job here is to help keep the people in this town in as good of health as possible, Agmar. I know you've told me more than most already, but I also know that it's a little too rare to see a three hour labor, especially when the child was facing front. That baby flipped rather conveniently, I'd say. I also find it curious that you make a big deal about having these women brought here and then proceed to disappear out back for the better part of an hour, to entertain some likely dangerous topics with our mayor's daughter."

Lynna gasped softly beside them, stepping back a bit with a look of alarm. Agmar found himself sighing heavily, hoping Margaret hadn't just undone the small amount of trust he'd hoped he'd built with the girl.

"Mrs. Gretch, please. You are correct that you do not have all the details as of yet, but there is no need to suggest that Lynna --"

"I'm not suggesting that Lynna is at any fault, and stop calling me Mrs anything. Everyone calls me Margaret, and Mr. Gretch has been dead for years now. I think I have a damned good idea what you were up to out there, and it's a dangerous thing you're messing with. Not to mention you could do some serious harm to her reputation. This town's tolerance is only so high, and certain people keep their secrets for good reason." She gave a brisk nod to the astounded Lynna. "I know more about the people in this town than your father does, dear. Some things don't pass me by quite so easily is all. No need to worry over it, you've done a fine job of keeping it from everyone else."

"Margaret --" his voice trailed off under her gaze.

"Do you actually have anything to the point to say, or is this going to be another cryptic speech that basically doesn't leave me with more than a pit in my stomach and an urge to hide all the women of this town under my skirts to protect them from both whatever is coming and from you? Because Emilee's child was close enough to ready to be born today, but I'm still thinking I'd like proof before I start aborting any of those babies too young to survive being born. A couple of the others are likely to survive, a couple more are borderline, but about half the pregnant women in town won't have their babies survive being born today. Chickens killing a woman and a few angry dogs are not enough to convince me that their babies are going to turn into miniature monsters that could kill them and us."

Her voice had gotten lower, and he and Lynna were both leaning slightly towards her in order to hear. He sighed again, his shoulders drooping and his head dropping a moment while he collected himself. A part of him wanted to shake her in exasperation. A small part of him just wanted to cry. But he had no time for either at the moment. He took a breath and looked up at Margaret, meeting her eyes again. Another part of him idly noticed that they were of a blue-gray color.

"I know it is a lot to ask that you just trust me, Margaret. I am a stranger here, and likely more strange than most. But I do not know every part of what is coming. I know that the worst of it should be on the third day. This is day one. Mostly the animals are being affected today. The worst parts will happen at night. An ancient evil is going to try to do what it can to destroy anything and anyone it find in its path, and it will use whatever means it can find a way into. If I do not spend some time with Lynna, it could harm her greatly."

"If we don't get those children out of their mothers, as I explained before, they might just claw their way out when the evil changes them into beasts. If we don't tie down the animals, they will try to kill us. And, on the third night, when the evil is directly overhead, sleeping townsfolk will rise from their beds and go on a killing rampage if we do not prevent it beforehand. Those of us who are strong enough to resist, and I believe you to be one of those Margaret, will need to be awake to help protect the rest. There are other things that will likely happen that I am not aware of yet. I have read texts on it. It comes every 250 years, this evil, but no one has left detailed instructions on how to handle it. Just myriad accounts of the destruction that fell in its path. I'm here to help, Margaret, and to be blunt I could use a couple of people to just trust me, instead of constantly questioning my reasoning and ethics." He closed his eyes as he finished, and took a couple of deep breaths.

"He doesn't feel wrong, Margaret." Lynna said very quietly. He turned and looked at her curiously as she continued. "I mean, I sometimes get a feeling if someone wants to do something they shouldn't, or is thinking angry thoughts, and Agmar doesn't feel that way. If that helps at all, I mean." she looked around sheepishly and hung her head. Agmar could have hugged the girl just then.

"She should not be involved in this," Margaret insisted, inclining her head towards Lynna.

"Unfortunately, her involvement is not a matter of choice," he said, putting up a light barrier around them. It would be enough to muffle their conversation to keep anyone from overhearing specifically, but only just that much.

"She has the ability," he continued. "Because she has never had any training, she has no control over it. As early as tomorrow there will be enough power in the air to make it hard for her to not use it. The day after that it will be strong enough that every stray thought she has may well have visible consequences. Without training, she will unintentionally pull more power through herself than her body can handle. Letting her go untrained would be like running through a tool shed with an extremely big magnet. Without training and supervision she will inadvertently kill someone, if just herself."

"So I need to spend time working with her, or she will become a danger to herself and this whole town. It would not be her fault. She would have no control over it."

"What I have to do is difficult enough, Margaret. You have a dozen or so lives you can save. I will not be able to accelerate them all the way I did that one. Believe me when I say that you do not want to see what would happen if we were not doing this. Believe me when I say that you have enough to focus on without my having to explain every detail and every decision. Focus on the dozen or so you can save. I, and others, have the rest to worry about."

Margaret glanced around the room nervously.

"As long as we keep our voices low like this, no one else can hear our conversation. I have put up a barrier against that for the moment. One would have to step within it in order to hear more than muffled mumbling." He noticed she glanced around herself then, as if looking for the barrier itself, before turning her attention back to Agmar and Lynna.

"Understand please, Agmar, that I am responsible for these people. No less so than our mayor is, in fact there are occasions when it is more so. We've been through storms and plagues together. One year, most of the town burned down. But those things were apparent when they came. Easy to identify. This is different. And while you come in here and start telling me how I'm supposed to handle this, when it's over I'll be the one that has to clean up the mess, and who these mothers will hold responsible for their dead children regardless of who aborts them. They'll turn to me, and I'll have to deal with the aftermath as I expect you'll be long gone. If others find out about Lynna, she very well might need to leave town. Elsa and I might lose our place here as well, or worse."

"But, besides that, I take responsibility for these people. I want these mothers to be able to have beautiful, healthy children. They're not just people I happen to know, they're my friends. And, if there is any doubt at all, any way that you could be wrong and their children are not in danger..."

"There is not." He stopped her there, wishing he could answer her differently. "I can feel it coming. Evil, being drawn on its path towards us, angrily. Even without what I have been able to research on what is coming, I can feel its power in here," he touched his heart with his finger, "as much as I can in here," he ended by touching his bald head with the same finger. "I will not force you to do anything, but I do need your help. I give you my word, Margaret, that the things I ask of you are necessary. That far worse will happen if these tasks are not done. And that it will become apparent to everyone in this town, at some point over the next next few days, what would have happened if we had not. I believe that the mayor understands this already."

"The mayor is protecting his own ass just as much as he is the people of this town. I'm sorry Lynna." She winced, looking apologetically at the girl. "And he's not having to pull babies from their mothers. The things he's dealing with cost money, and people are more likely to be understanding when it comes to money than they are when it involves lives." She sighed heavily, and put up a hand, stalling Agmar from responding. "I will do what I can, Agmar. I will help you. But I won't be held responsible for what action I take if you are lying to me. You're a stranger here. I'm not as agitated when it comes to those who have abilities as others in this town are, but I still don't know you at all. But, for the moment, I believe you. However, I want to be kept informed. As I said, I need to know what's coming. As soon as you know something is happening, I need to know too, if I'm going to help keep these people safe and intact. Is that fair to you?"

"You don't want to know all of it..."

"You, sir, are underestimating me. I'm stronger than I may look." She lifted her chin, and her eyes dared him to say otherwise.

"Very well. I will try to keep you as informed as I have time for. And please keep me informed of anything unusual you hear of, as it may be a prelude to something much worse. Is that fair?"

She nodded at him. "It'll do."

It was all he could do to keep from rolling his eyes as he nodded back at her. These people are stubborn as hell, he thought to himself. I just hope they are stubborn enough.