Heartfire: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Volume V

by Orson Scott Card

  “Not that I don’t approve of Verily falling in love,” said Alvin, “and my wife tells me you’re a good girl, loyal and smart and patient and all the other virtues that a wife of Mr. Cooper has to have.”

  “I didn’t know that I had met your wife, sir,” said Purity.

  “You haven’t,” said Alvin. “Don’t you remember what Arthur told you about her?”

  “That she was a candle.”

  “Torch,” said Alvin.

  “We don’t hear much about knackery here in New England. Except as it pertains to disposing of the bodies of downer animals.”

  Verily laughed aloud. “I told you she had a sense of humor, Al.”

  She allowed herself a small smile.

  “Let’s just say that Margaret thinks you’re worth the trouble of my staying in jail a couple of nights,” said Alvin.

  “You sustained me while we were running yesterday, didn’t you?”

  Alvin shrugged. “Who knows how tough you are? At some point, everybody gives in and says what the questioner wants to hear.”

  “I’d like to think I could withstand torture as well as the next person,” said Purity.

  “That’s my point,” said Alvin. “Nobody can withstand it, if the questioner knows what he’s doing. The body betrays us. Most people never find that out because they’re never asked a question that matters. And those that are, most give the answer the questioner wants without a lick of torture. It’s only the strong ones, the most stubborn ones as gets tortured.”

  “Mr. Cooper,” said Purity, “I hope you don’t think I’m giving any stock to Mr. Smith’s jests about your feelings toward me.”

  Verily smiled at her. “You don’t know me, so I can hardly expect you to welcome such an idea.”

  “On the contrary,” said Purity, “I know you very well. I saw you in court today, and on the commons, too. I know the kind of man you are.”

  “You don’t know he farts in his sleep,” said Alvin.

  Purity looked at him, appalled. “Everyone does,” she answered, “but most people find no need to mention it during meals.”

  Alvin grinned at her. “Just didn’t want this to turn into a love feast. Not while my lawyer here is trying to burn down the barn to kill the fleas.”

  Verily’s face darkened. “It’s not ‘fleas’ when innocent people die, and others become perjurers out of fear.”

  “How much justice will be done when judges go striking down laws whenever some lawyer gives them half an excuse?”

  “That’s theory,” said Verily. “When the practice of the law leads to injustice, then the law must change.”

  “That’s what Parliament is for,” said Alvin. “And the assembly.”

  “What politician would dare announce that he was in favor of witchcraft?”

  The argument might have gone on, but at that moment the door of the courtroom opened and Hezekiah Study came in. He gave no greeting, but stalked down the aisle straight to a chair directly behind the defense table. He spoke only to Verily Cooper.

  “Don’t do it,” said Hezekiah Study.

  “Don’t do what?”

  “Don’t take on the witchers,” he said. “Try the case. Or better yet, if your client really has the knack he’s charged with, shed the chains and begone with you.”

  Only then did Hezekiah notice the manacle lying warped and deformed in Alvin’s lap. Alvin grinned at him and mashed the last hunk of bread and cheese into his mouth all at once.

  “Pardon me, sir, but who are you?” asked Verily Cooper.

  “This is Reverend Study,” said Purity. “He advised me not to charge Alvin with witchcraft. I wish I’d listened to him then.”

  “You’ll wish you had listened to me now,” said Hezekiah.

  “The law is on my side,” said Verily.

  “No, it isn’t,” said Hezekiah. “Nothing is on your side.”

  “Sir, I know my case, and I know the law.”

  “So did I,” said Hezekiah. “I tried the same strategy.”

  Now Verily was interested. “You’re a lawyer, sir?”

  “I was a lawyer. I gave it up and became a minister.”

  “But you lost a witch trial, I take it?”

  “I tried to use the strict reading you’re going for,” said Hezekiah. “I tried to show that the testimony of the witcher was tainted. Everything you’re doing.”

  “And it failed?” asked Verily.

  “What do you do,” asked Hezekiah, “when the witcher calls you to the stand?”

  Verily stared at him in silence.

  “The witcher can call my lawyer?” asked Alvin.

  “It’s ecclesiastical law,” said Hezekiah. “The law is older than advocacy. There is no privilege unless you’re an ordained minister.”

  “So they called you,” said Purity. “But what did you say?”

  “I could only tell the truth,” said Hezekiah. “I had seen my clients use their knacks. Harmless! A gift of God, I said it, but there was my testimony.” Tears flowed down his cheeks. “That’s what hanged them.”

  Purity was weeping also. “What were their knacks?”

  “Who?” asked Alvin.

  “My mother and father,” said Purity, looking at Hezekiah for confirmation.

  He nodded and looked away.

  “What did they die for?” asked Purity. “What was their crime?”

  “Your mother could heal animals,” said Hezekiah. “That’s what killed her. A neighbor with an old quarrel waited too long, called her too late, and his mule died, so he said that by the power of Satan she cursed the animals of all those who didn’t please her.”

  “And my father?”

  “He could draw a straight line.”

  The words hung there for a moment.

  “That’s all?” asked Alvin.

  “On paper. In the soil. Truer than a surveyor. His fences were the marvel of the neighborhood. He won the plowing prize every year at the parish fair. No one could cut so straight a furrow. His wife always made him cut the fabric when she was sewing. People remembered his knack when his wife was on trial, and he admitted it readily, seeing no harm in it, since it neither harmed others nor gave him any advantage. Except at the fair.”

  Purity could hardly talk for weeping. “That’s why they died?”

  “They died for envy,” said Hezekiah, “and for the bloodlust of the witcher, and for the incompetence and arrogance, the pride of their attorney who called himself their friend but dared to put their lives at risk in a larger cause. I could have won them a banishment. They were well-liked and the trial was unpopular. The witcher was willing to dicker. But I had a cause.” He gripped Purity’s hands. “I can’t let this man do the same to you! I’ve spent my life trying to keep you from the same fate, because they marked you, don’t think they haven’t. Quill knows who you are. Because of you, they couldn’t hang your mother until you were born, and the outrage built and built among the people. There was a strong sentiment to break them out of jail. But the witchers called in the authorities and they guarded the hangings. And then they sent you away, so as not to remind the people of the outrage that had been done against you. To this day, God help the witcher who comes through that part of Netticut, because the people know the truth there.”

  “Then it was a victory of sorts,” said Purity quietly. “They didn’t die for nothing.”

  “They died,” said Hezekiah. “Their accusers were ostracized until they moved away, but they’re still alive, aren’t they? The witchers lost a lot of prestige, but they’re still in the witch business, aren’t they? That feels like dying for nothing to me.”

  “It’s a different trial,” said Verily. “And a different judge.”

  “He’s an honorable man, bound by law,” said Hezekiah. “Don’t think he isn’t.”

  “Honorable men aren’t bound by bad laws,” said Verily.

  Alvin laughed, a little nastily. “If that’s so, how you going to tell the honorable ones from the di
shonorable? Who’s bound by law at all, since every law is bad at one time or another?”

  “Whose side are you on?” Verily asked testily.

  “I’m supposed to build a city,” said Alvin. “And if I don’t build it on law, what am I going to build it on? Even Napoleon makes laws that bind him, because if you don’t then there’s no order, it’s chaos all the way down.”

  “So you’d rather hang?”

  Alvin sighed and held up the twisted manacle. “I’m not going to hang.”

  “But someone will,” said Verily. “If not this year then next, or the year after. Someone will hang. You said so yourself.”

  “Let witch trials fade out by themselves,” said Alvin.

  “The way slavery’s fading?” Verily answered mockingly.

  The door opened again. People were beginning to return. The bailiff came back to clean up the meal. “You didn’t eat much,” said the bailiff.

  “I did,” said Alvin.

  Hezekiah and Purity still held hands across the railing separating spectators from the court. “Beg pardon,” said the bailiff. “She’s a defendant now. I don’t want to put her in chains, but she’s not allowed to touch folks beyond the rail.”

  Hezekiah nodded and withdrew his hands.

  The bailiff left with the picnic basket. Alvin wrapped the manacle around his wrist again. Purity couldn’t resist touching it. It was hard again. As hard as iron.

  Quill came back into the courtroom smiling.

  Purity turned and whispered to Hezekiah. “You’re wrong, you know,” she said. “It wasn’t you that hanged them.”

  Hezekiah shook his head.

  “I never knew them, but I sit now where they sat, though guiltier, because I’m the one who leveled the charge. And I tell you, they knew who their friends were.”

  “I was no friend to them.”

  “They knew who their friends were,” said Purity, “and I know who their friends were. All may have been outraged, but they let the hanging take place. You alone followed me or found me here. You alone took care to raise me in safety. You gave years of your life to their child. That is a true friend.”

  Hezekiah buried his face in his hands. His shoulders shook, unable to bear what she had placed upon them. Absolution was a heavier burden, for the moment, than guilt.

  Quill rose to his feet the moment John Adams called the court to order.

  “Your Honor, I have a motion.”

  “Out of order,” said John.

  “Your Honor, I think all can be settled when we call Mr. Verily Cooper to the stand! This is ecclesiastical law and there is no—”

  John banged the gavel again and again until Quill fell silent.

  “I said your motion was out of order.”

  “There are precedents!” said Quill, seething with fury.

  “On the contrary,” said John. “Your motion may be in order when we resume the trial of Alvin Smith and Purity Orphan. But at the moment, this is a hearing on a motion, and in this procedure I am the questioner. There are no sides and no attorneys, only my own pursuit of information to allow me to reach a conclusion. So you will take your seat until I call you for questioning. You are the equal of all other persons in this court. You have no standing to make a motion of any kind. Is that clear to you at last, Mr. Quill?”

  “You exceed your authority, Your Honor!”

  “Bailiff, bring manacles and leg irons. If Mr. Quill speaks again, they are to be placed upon him to remind him that he has no authority in this courtroom during this hearing.”

  White-faced and trembling, Quill sat down.

  The hearing went quite smoothly for quite a while. John questioned Purity first. She described the nature of the charges she originally made, and then told how Quill had deformed them, turning harmless frolicking in the river into an incestuous orgy, and a peaceful conversation on the riverbank into a witches’ sabbath. He asked her about the professors from the college, and she affirmed that she had never mentioned them and only found out they were being questioned when Quill demanded that she denounce them, Emerson in particular.

  Then the professors were brought forward, one at a time, to recount the experience of being questioned by Quill. Each one stated that he had been led to believe that others had confessed and implicated them, and that their only hope was to confess and repent. All denied being the one who confessed.

  Then John turned to Quill.

  “Aren’t you going to question him first?” Quill said, pointing to Alvin.

  “Have you forgotten whose hearing this is?” asked John.

  “I just want to hear whether he denies the witchcraft charges!”

  “You’ll find that out in the trial,” said John, “since the accused can be called to give testimony against themselves in witch trials.”

  “You’re favoring him,” said Quill.

  “You’re testing my patience,” said John. “Put your hand on the Bible and take your oath.”

  Quill complied, and the questioning began. Quill answered scornfully, denying that he had deceived anyone. “She’s the one who talked of Satan. I had to stop my ears, she spoke of him so lovingly. She wanted carnal knowledge of him. She even told me that Satan had instructed her to lie and say I made up the story, but I was not afraid because I knew that in lawful courts, my testimony would have greater trust than hers.”

  John listened to Quill calmly enough, as his testimony grew nastier and nastier. “These professors behave exactly as one would expect a conclave of wizards to behave,” said Quill. “I wouldn’t have questioned them if the girl hadn’t denounced them. She thought better of it at once, of course, and tried to deny it, but I knew what she had told me, and it was enough. They deny that they confessed, but several of them did, as my depositions to the court affirm.”

  John picked up a pile of affidavits from the bench. “I do have those depositions and I’ve read them all.”

  “So you know the truth, and this whole hearing is a travesty.”

  “If it is,” said John, “it follows the script you wrote.”

  “I wrote no script for this,” said Quill. “I expected this court to function like a proper witch trial.”

  “But Mr. Quill, this is not a witch trial. This is a hearing on a motion. You seem unable to grasp that. This proceeding has been entirely proper. And I am ready now with my ruling on the motion.”

  “But you haven’t questioned Alvin Smith!”

  “All right,” said John. “Mr. Smith, how are you today?”

  “Tired of being in chains, Your Honor,” said Alvin, “but otherwise in good condition.”

  “You ever have any dealings with Satan?”

  “I’m not sure who you’re referring to,” said Alvin.

  John was surprised. He was expecting a simple “no.” “Satan,” he said. “The enemy of God.”

  “Why, if Satan means an enemy of God, I’ve had dealings with a fair number in my time, including Mr. Quill here.”

  “Your Honor!” cried Quill.

  “Sit down, Mr. Quill,” said John. “Mr. Smith, you seem to be deliberately misunderstanding my question. Don’t try my patience, please. Satan, as generally conceived, is a supernatural being. You’ve been accused of getting powers from him and obeying his commands. Did you get any hidden powers from Satan, or obey him?”

  “No sir,” said Alvin.

  “More to the point,” said John, “did you ever tell Purity Orphan that you had dealings with Satan, or could she ever have seen you in the presence of Satan?”

  “If you mean the bright red fellow with the claws of a bear and cloven hooves and horns on his head,” said Alvin, “I’ve never seen him or heard from him. He’s never even sent me a note. I have smelled him, but only when I was alone with Quill.”

  John shook his head. “I don’t think you’re taking this proceeding seriously.”

  “No sir,” said Alvin, “I admit that I am not.”

  “And why is that? Don’t you understand that
your life may hinge upon the outcome of this hearing?”

  “It doesn’t,” said Alvin.

  Cooper tried to shush him.

  “And why do you believe that you’re safe, regardless of the outcome of this hearing?”

  Alvin rose to his feet and pulled the manacles off his wrists as easily as he might have pulled off mittens. He shook his feet and the ankle braces clanked on the floor. “Because I got the knack I was born with. As far as I know, it’s God, not Satan, who creates us, and so whatever knack I have came from God. I try to use it kindly and decently. One thing I never do is try to use my knack to force someone else to do something against their will. But you and my lawyer here, you seem determined to force the people of New England to get rid of their witchery laws whether they want to or not. Mr. Quill is a lying snake, but you don’t strike down all the laws just to catch a few liars.”

  Verily Cooper rested his head on the desk. John, who was trembling at the sight of such obvious supernatural powers, could see that to Verily Cooper this was old news.

  Alvin was still talking. “I was willing to stick it out and see how you two twisted up the laws without actually breaking too many of them, but my wife needs me right now, and I’m not wasting another minute here. When I got time I’ll come back and you and I can talk this out, Your Honor, because I think you’re an honorable man. But for the present, I’ve got somewhere else to be.”

  Alvin started toward the door at the back of the court.

  Quill jumped to his feet and tried to stop him. His hands slid off Alvin as if he’d been greased. “Stop him!” Quill cried. “Don’t let him go!”

  “Bailiff,” said John. “Mr. Smith seems to be escaping.”

  Alvin turned around and faced the judge. “Your Honor, I thought this wasn’t my trial. I thought this was a hearing on a motion. You don’t need me here.”

  Verily stood up. “Alvin, what about Purity?”

  “She ain’t going to hang,” said Alvin. “By the time you’re through, she’ll probably be Queen of England.”

  “Wait just a minute, Alvin,” Verily said. He turned to face John Adams. “Your Honor, I ask the court to release my client on his own recognizance, with his promise to appear in court in the morning.”