Heartfire: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Volume V (45 page)

Overhearing such conversation at a roadside inn, where the whole party could sit at a table together, Black, White, and all in between, led Denmark to lean back in his chair, fold his hands behind his head, and say, “It be good to be home!”

All along the road, Alvin worked steadily at trying to heal the damage to Denmark’s wife. Margaret assured him that all her memories were still in her heartfire, somewhere, hidden from Margaret because they were hidden from the woman herself. It was slow, meticulous work, healing only a few nerves at a time, a few tiny regions of the brain. But they could all see the improvement in her. She limped less and less. Her hands became more deft. Her speech became clearer. She remembered more and more.

There came one morning when she woke up screaming from a terrible dream. Fishy was with her, but Denmark soon came at a run. When he entered the room, his wife looked up at him and said, “I dream you try a-kill me!”

Weeping, Denmark confessed his terrible sin to her, and begged forgiveness. “I not that man no more,” he said.

That healing, too, would be long and slow.

The journey that Alvin had made in one night, running with the greensong to carry him along, took them more than a week at their leisurely pace. But it ended at last, on a familiar street in Philadelphia. Arthur Stuart recognized the rooming house and ran on ahead. Soon Mike Fink rushed out into the street to greet them, followed more slowly but no less happily by Verily, Purity, and Hezekiah. And when Alvin came into the house, there was Mistress Louder, covered in flour but not to be restrained from hugging him. She immediately adopted Margaret as her favorite daughter, and fussed over the
unborn baby so much that Alvin joked that Mistress Louder thought she was the mother.

Alvin and Margaret were given the best room, the one with a balcony overlooking the garden. They sat there that first evening, taking in the peace of their first night together in so long that Alvin marveled aloud that the child had ever managed to get itself conceived.

“Let’s not be apart again like that,” said Margaret.

“Well, not to point the finger, but you were traveling as much as me.”

“Never again,” said Margaret. “You won’t be rid of me.

Alvin sighed. “I never want to be rid of you, but I also want the baby to be safe. I’ll take you home—Hatrack or Vigor Church, whichever you want—but I’ve got to go to a place in Tennizy calling itself Crystal City.”

“Take me with you.”

“And run the risk of you giving birth on the road? No thanks,” said Alvin.

Margaret sighed. “All this wandering, all this separation, and what have we accomplished? The war is still coming. And you still don’t know how to use that plow of yours, or what the Crystal City really is, or how to build it.”

“I know a few things, though,” said Alvin. “And maybe the main reason for all this travel wasn’t the tasks we had in mind. Maybe it was those folks in the other rooms. Denmark and Gullah Joe and Fishy and Denmark’s lady—I think we’ll get them all to the Crystal City, in the end. And Purity and Hezekiah—I think they’ll come along, too.”

“And Calvin,” said Margaret. “He’s changed.”

“Couldn’t bring himself to travel with us, though.”

“I think he’s ashamed of what his carelessness set off back in Camelot,” said Margaret. “But he’s steadier. His heartfire has a lot of paths that lead somewhere. And...”

“And?”

She brought his hand up to her mouth and kissed it. “And maybe I have other reasons to look into the future with more hope.”

“I reckon now he owes his life to me, somewhat, he’s got to think different.”

“Well, don’t count on gratitude. It’s the most fleeting of all human virtues. The change in him has to run deeper than that. I think it was when he raised that wave to stop the slave revolt from happening. Thousands of lives were saved when he did that.”

Alvin chuckled.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Well, I was on the road, but I was looking ahead. I saw him trying to make a splash in the water, like the old game we played. But he was so weak, he wasn’t up to it, he couldn’t concentrate.”

“So you did it,” said Margaret.

“It wasn’t easy even for me,” said Alvin, “and I was healthy and experienced.”

“Well, don’t tell
him
that he didn’t make that flood.”

Alvin laughed. “And take away his one memory of doing something heroic? Not likely.”

They sat a while longer in silence. Then Margaret patted her belly and sighed.

“What?”

“I was just thinking how much my mother would have loved to be here. She set such store by babies. Lost a couple before I came along and managed to live through infancy.”

“But your mother
is
here,” said Alvin. He reached over and laid his hand on her chest, over her heart. “Every heartbeat, she put it there, she heard those heartbeats in the womb, month after month. She’s in your heartfire now, as you were in hers. That doesn’t go away just because of a little thing like death.”

She smiled at him. “I imagine you’re right, Al. You usually are.”

He kissed her. They sat there a little while longer, till the mosquitoes drove them back inside. They fell asleep clinging to each other, and even in their sleep they kept reaching out to touch each other, for fear that one might have slipped away in the night. Miraculously, they were still there in the morning, touching, breathing, hearts beating together; heartfires bright; lives entwined.

THE
Science Fiction
BOOK CLUB

If you enjoyed this book...

Come visit our website at

www.sfbc.com

and find hundreds more:

• science fiction • fantasy
• the newest books
• the greatest classics

THE SCIENCE FICTION BOOK CLUB

has been bringing the best of science fiction and fantasy
to the doors of discriminating readers for over 50 years. For a
look at currently available books and details on how to join,
just visit us at the address above.

Come fall in love with a magical America that might have been...

Peggy is a Torch, able to see the fire burning in each person’s heart. She can follow the paths of each person’s future, and know each person’s most intimate secrets. From the moment of Alvin Maker’s birth, when the Unmaker first strove to kill him, she has protected him.

Now they are married, and Peggy is a part of Alvin’s heart as well as his life.

But Alvin’s destiny has taken them on separate journeys. Alvin has gone north into New England, where knacks are considered witchcraft, and their use is punished with death.

Peggy has been drawn south, to the British Crown Colonies and the court of King Arthur Stuart in exile. For she has seen a terrible future bloom in the heartfires of every person in America, a future of war and destruction. One slender path exists that leads through the bloodshed, and it is Peggy’s quest to set the world on the path to peace.