“That’s what they called me,” Hobb said, nodding.

  They all had names, though Arthur figured that two of them having no real knack, just a lust for gold, they’d peel off from the party and go their own way pretty soon.

  “Goody Sower,” asked Alvin. “We’re eager to learn your name.”

  “Ain’t Sower,” she said.

  “Figured that,” said Alvin.

  “What’s your name first?” she demanded.

  Alvin rose easily to his feet, showing he was taller even than Hobb. “My father was a miller, and so I grew up with the name Alvin Miller. But then I was prenticed to a smith, and took that name, Alvin Smith.”

  Her eyes widened. “Alvin Maker,” she said softly.

  “The same,” he said, bowing and doffing his cap.

  “I don’t believe it,” said Robin Sower. “Alvin Maker, come all the way here to meet a party of six travelers?”

  “Bank robbers,” murmured Arthur.

  “The bank got their gold back,” said Hobb, “so they ain’t no robbers here.”

  “I’m Alvin Maker, right enough, though I don’t use the Maker name much outside the city. It makes some folks kind of agitated. I’m Alvin Miller or Alvin Smith, as suits your fancy.”

  Goody Sower stuck out her right hand.

  “You mean me to shake that hand?” asked Alvin.

  “Kiss it,” said Arthur. “Be a gentleman.”

  “Or plant your foot and see if you can throw me,” said Goody Sower.

  Alvin put his right foot next to her right foot, and held her right wrist as firmly as she held his.

  “What should I do here, Mr. Miller?” she asked. “Better to beat you or to let you beat me?”

  “Nobody ever let me beat them before,” said Alvin.

  “Because you got plenty of knacks to trick them or overpower them, I wager,” said Hobb.

  “I never use a knack to win at wrestling, unless my life’s in danger.”

  “I don’t kill folks,” said Goody Sower.

  “Then when do we start?” asked Alvin.

  She gave a mighty tug on his arm and tripped him over her right knee so he was flat on his back in the meadow.

  From the ground, Alvin said, “I wish you hadn’t plunked me down in a meadow so full of bees.”

  “They stinging you?” she asked.

  “No, they pretty much leave me be. But they’re annoyed, and I’m afraid of what they might do to you when I get up.”

  “If you can get up,” she said.

  “You owe me a name,” said Alvin.

  “Eliza Nutbutter,” she said.

  “Your real name,” said Arthur.

  “My father was named Nutbutter and my mam called me Eliza, so if my name ain’t Eliza Nutbutter, I don’t know what it is.”

  “Miss Nutbutter,” said Alvin, “you got the first throw on me, and that’s good enough for now. We’ll finish this best-of-seven rassling contest another day. For now, we’ve got a powerful lot of walking to do today.”

  “Used to have a wagon,” said Robin.

  “A wagon you stole, mules you stole—I don’t think you’re going to get much sympathy,” said Arthur.

  “But we’re going to come into the city with Alvin Maker himself,” said Robin Sower.

  “Unless you try some nefarious trick and he has to sink you into the bedrock somewhere,” said Arthur. Arthur noticed that the two men who had no knacks were no longer in the clearing. He spotted their heartfires, since they weren’t far off—but on a road that would take them south, into Irrakwa country for sure. Maybe they figured to catch a ride on a train to some place where they weren’t known as thieves. No longer Arthur’s business, though, so he no longer tried to keep track of where they were. He wasn’t like Miz Larner, able to spot heartfires halfway across the country. Arthur’s range wasn’t even a mile.

  “Don’t fret,” said Alvin to Robin Sower. “I haven’t put anybody inside stone in a while. I said you’ll have my protection all the way to Crystal City. That means protection from the Puritans, the Irrakwa, the people of every town that hates knackers, and all the folks who want to keep anybody from getting to Crystal City. It even means protection from any knacker who thinks to play pranks on you.”

  Arthur cried out, “Hey! Including me?”

  “Especially including you,” said Alvin. “You know I brought you along because you’re so pretty, not to have you making our fellow travelers miserable with your shenanigans.”

  “I never done a shenanigan,” said Arthur, “let alone more than one.”

  And with that Alvin led the way forward into a barely visible trace. With only a bit of hesitation, Eliza Nutbutter followed him, and Robin Sower right behind. The two thieves with knacks came next, bringing up the rear. Arthur wondered if they might slip away like the other two, but then he realized that knacky men from New England would expect to be accepted in Crystal City.

  As soon as they started going in earnest, packs slung on their backs, Arthur heard the Greensong coming up faintly all around them. Not like the powerful music when Alvin took Arthur running faster than any deer. But enough of the Greensong that the way was smooth and there were no rocks or roots to trip them, and they came to clear running water as often as they needed it, but never a stream too big to jump over. Arthur still hadn’t figured out whether the land changed because of the Greensong, or the Greensong simply led them to where the land offered the most ease and bounty.

  “Try to keep up,” said Alvin, and Arthur almost retorted, “I’m keeping up just fine.” But then he realized Alvin was talking to the others, who didn’t none of them have an affinity for Greensong, and wouldn’t understand why the walking was so easy now, after the hard trail to where they dragged the wagon. If they even noticed how easy it was.

  “Glad we don’t have them mules anymore,” grumbled one of the men.

  “No shortage of mules in this party,” said Eliza Nutbutter.

  2

  NOBODY SET OUT to spread the word. They just went about their business, looking to buy something here, looking to sell something there, getting to work on building a house, getting to work on draining a swamp, and caring for crops and gardens because it was already spring and coming on summer and anything you didn’t plant now would have a much harder struggle come August.

  Every time they’d come upon somebody they hadn’t seen yet that day, they’d lead off with, “Heard the Maker’s back in town,” or “Alvin’s home again, and Arthur with him,” or “The Maker’s brought him a passel of knackers from back East.” And a few more cynical souls saying, “So Al’s found him some new friends, including a woman, and brung em along, cause we didn’t have us quite enough mouths to feed.”

  Not everybody’s heart was right with the other folks in Crystal City. That would’ve been too much to hope for. Most everybody cooperated and did business and got along, trying to avoid doing anything to get em hauled into court. And most people were pure in heart, or at least enough so to gaze in one of the crystal rooms and see things in the walls and ceiling and floor.

  Them as couldn’t see anything useful in the Crystal kept their lack to themselves. No reason to advertise that the Crystal hadn’t judged you ready, or worthy, or meek enough to be given vision.

  The word reached Margaret Larner in the schoolroom as she dismissed her college preparation class for the noon meal. It was Narth Pew, the principal teacher, who was nominally her boss, but this was the Maker’s wife, so let’s be serious about who was in charge. “I thought you’d want to know,” Narth said, “your husband’s back in town. Unless you already knew.”

  “I knew he was close,” she said, “but your news that he’s already here is good and fresh.”

  “Will you be wanting the rest of the day off?”

  “I do not believe so,” said Margaret Larner—once called Little Peggy Guester, when she first laid eyes on the baby that would grow up to be Alvin Maker. “If Alvin needs me, he knows where I’ll be, so if he doesn’t come to me, he doesn’t need me to go to him. I have a few more hours of teaching this afternoon, since half my class is heading off to college in other states and colonies.”

  “You done a good job preparing those children for college,” said Narth.

  “They did a good job of preparing themselves,” said Margaret. “But I was glad to help.”

  “Too bad most of the good colleges are in New England,” said Narth.

  “Can’t be helped. As soon as Puritan schools like Harvard learn that a student applicant comes from Crystal City, they’d only grant them admission in order to arrest them, try them, and either hang, drown, or burn them.”

  “And without giving them a diploma first, or a single hour of teaching,” said Narth.

  Margaret was never sure if he was joking when he said absurd things like that. Was he being ironic?

  “But the other schools are good enough,” he said. “I never heard of a Harvard engineer’s bridge standing up stronger than a bridge built by an engineer trained in Irrakwa or Williamsburg College, or in Appalachee University.”

  “Haven’t had a lot of bridges falling down lately,” said Margaret. “So far as I’ve heard.”

  “Wish we had us a good college a little closer,” said Narth.

  Margaret sighed. “I’m not ready to desert my students here in order to gallivant off to try to make friends with students and faculty at Northwestern.”

  “A teacher like you is needed wherever you go,” said Narth.

  “But not wanted in half so many places.”

  Narth chuckled. “Well, you’re sure wanted here.”

  Then Margaret saw Narth notice someone behind her. Without turning, she said, “Well, my love, you came to me almost as soon as you arrived.”

  “I’ve repented of the madness of thinking that anything was more important to me than you,” said Alvin.

  She turned, and there he was, still dirty and bedraggled from the journey. But he was holding Vigor by the hand, the boy looking up at his father with sheer adulation on his face.

  “I see you found the young lady who was watching our boy,” said Margaret.

  “She surrendered custody of him reluctantly,” said Alvin. “I believe she enjoys her job.” Alvin sat down on the edge of the teacher’s table, then hefted Vigor up to stand on the table, Alvin’s arm around his waist.

  Margaret looked at the boy. “Have you discovered anything interesting since I saw you this morning?” she asked him.

  “Other dogs keep trying to climb onto Canna,” said Vigor, “but she’s too small and I think they might crush her.”

  Alvin spoke up. “Right now, Vig, she’s giving off a smell that just drives the boy dogs crazy.”

  “I don’t smell it,” said Vigor

  “Are you a boy dog?” asked Alvin.

  “I’d druther be,” said Vigor.

  “Why?” asked Margaret, a little concerned about where this conversation started and where it might be going.

  “I don’t like having to go sit with Missy Wander because all she ever wants to do is read.”

  “You know how to read,” said Margaret.

  “I like to do stuff,” said Vigor. “Dogs get to do stuff all they want and nobody minds as long as they don’t dig in the garden or pull food off the table.”

  “And Miss Wander doesn’t let you do … anything?” asked Alvin.

  “She wants me to read to her,” said Vigor. “But I don’t know the words. I sound them out and she either corrects me or lets it go but I still don’t know what anything means.”

  “The classic complaint of students everywhere,” said Margaret.

  “Isn’t that what teachers are for?” asked Alvin.

  “Miss Wander is not a teacher or a tutor or a governess or anything else, I’m afraid,” said Margaret. “She was all I could find last month after Missy Harborlight left to become Mrs. Blue.”

  “Blue is a stupid name,” said Vigor. “She isn’t blue and neither is her stupid husband.”

  “I take it Miss Harborlight was a favorite?” asked Alvin.

  “And after Missy Wander leaves, I think Vigor will like her better than whoever her replacement might be.”

  “I don’t like her at all,” said Vigor.

  “I remember you saying that about Missy Harborlight,” said Margaret.

  “Have you ever thought of letting Vigor sit in on your class?” asked Alvin.

  “No,” said Vigor, “and I hope she never does think of it. Missy Wander says Mommy talks as if she’s getting paid by the letter.”

  Alvin whooped with laughter, and Margaret soon joined in. “Lots of long words, eh?” Margaret asked her son.

  “I don’t know how many letters there is in a word,” said Vigor, “less’n you spell it out.”

  Margaret embraced Vigor and then lowered him down from the table to the floor.

  “What am I sposed to do now? You and Papa always talk about stuff I don’t understand and I think you do it on purpose cause you don’t want me to understand.”

  “You’re exactly right, Vigor,” said Alvin cheerily. “You’re a very clever boy.”

  “Donny says I’m a smarty-pants and then all the girls call me that over and over.”

  “Donny Crassum says that because he’s a dummy-pants,” said Alvin, “and you being so clever makes him feel bad.”

  Margaret escorted Vigor to a corner with a book and a slate in it. “You can draw with the chalk, Viggy, or you can read a book. Your father and I will finish our conversation very quickly.”

  As Margaret returned to the table where Alvin sat, she could see in his face that he expected to be told off. And she probably should do exactly that, but she thought “dummy-pants” was a pretty good name to use for Donny Crassum, especially since “Dummy” could be a nickname for “Donny.”

  “Where’s Arthur?” she asked, when she sat on the table edge next to Alvin.

  “He had two offers of lunch and accepted them both, so he’s getting what he needs.”

  “Did both of those offers come from families with nubile daughters?” asked Margaret.

  “I believe so,” said Alvin, “though I can’t keep up with who’s wooing and who’s betrothed.”

  “Do you really believe you know everyone in Crystal City by name?” asked Margaret.

  “I recognize near everybody I see, and everybody I don’t recognize, I introduce myself and they always just got here.”

  “Alvin,” said Margaret, “I’d like to know about the woman who was with those knackers.”

  “Says her name’s Eliza Nutbutter. Also pretended to be married to the fellow named Sower, so she was using his name when we first met. He wasn’t happy about it, so it’s as well she goes by Nutbutter now. I think Sower will be out of Crystal City as soon as he discovers his knack don’t amount to much around here, and there’s no way for him to steal anything.”

  “What’s to steal?” asked Margaret. “If he steals a block of Crystal it stops working and within a week it melts back to water.”

  “There are other things to steal,” said Alvin. “If stealing’s what you want to do.”

  “And no way to get out of town without somebody giving the alarm or spotting the contraband or just seeing the theft in a Crystal wall.”

  “So maybe Sower will stay. The other two won’t.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “So are you,” said Alvin. “They want three things: women, money, and prestige.”

  “They can make money here,” said Margaret.

  “But here’s the one place in the United States or any of the English-speaking countries on this side of the Atlantic where having money does not bring prestige.”

  “Oh, Alvin, I wish that were so. Or that money didn’t attract women.”

  “I never noticed that,” said Alvin.

  “Because you’ve never had money,” said Margaret.

  “I think that’s maybe my best virtue,” he said. “I have an affinity for metal, yet it always seems to be repelled from my hands as soon as it becomes coins.”

  “We’re not so pure in heart here, Alvin,” said Margaret. “Rough men can get everything they want here.”

  “Don’t even have to be rough,” said Alvin, and Margaret immediately knew he was referring to Calvin, Alvin’s younger brother, an envious and frustrated young man. Calvin was nothing if not smooth.

  “He will never have the dominance he craves,” said Alvin. “Not as long as I’m alive.”

  “Do us all a favor, Alvin, and stay alive.”

  “If man and nature will cooperate, I plan to do just that.”

  “I have a class to teach this afternoon,” said Margaret.

  “There’s no ‘husband-just-came-home’ holiday?”

  “It was offered, by Narth,” said Margaret, “but my students need teaching.”

  “So that’s even more important than a meeting between two leading citizens of the Crystal City?” asked Alvin.

  “I want to hold that meeting tonight over supper. Or if we have guests—and I’d wager you’ve already invited at least three people—then our meeting can take place in bed.”

  “Only if you keep the minutes,” said Alvin.

  “There will be no minutes,” said Margaret. “We both have nearly perfect memories, among our other talents.”

  “Or maybe we just have congruent memories, so anything I forget, you have also forgotten so we are never confronted with our forgetfulness.”

  “Go talk with all the people who have petitions or suggestions or who are looking for a job.”

  “Why is that my duty?”

  “The rest of us try to deal with things as they come up, but there are many people who won’t accept a verdict from, or even tell their problem to, anyone but you.”

  “Have they never read what Jethro said to Moses in Exodus?” asked Alvin.

  “Part some big lake, Alvin, or walk across the Mizzippy, and they might start comparing you to Moses.”

  “I already did as much,” said Alvin.

  “But the people you brought from Nueva Barcelona, they’re the only ones who saw it, and when they tell it to people here, folks only half-believe it at best.”