Prentice Alvin

He no sooner thought of it than he tried it. In his mind he thought of speaking to all the signatures in Arthur's skin, all over his chest, all at once; he showed them the pattern he held in his mind, a pattern so complex he couldn't even understand it himself, except that he knew it was the same pattern as the signatures in this patch of skin he had changed bit by bit. And as soon as he showed them, as soon as he commanded them– Be like this! This is the way!– they changed. It all changed, all the skin on Arthur Stuart's chest, all at once.

Arthur gasped, then howled with pain. What had been a soreness in a patch of skin was now spread across his whole chest.

“Trust me,” Alvin said. “I'm going to change you sure now, and the pain will stop. But I'm doing it under the water, where an the old skin gets carried off at once. Plug your nose! Hold your breath!”

Arthur Stuart was panting from the pain, but he did what Alvin said. He pinched his nose with his right hand, then took a breath and closed his mouth. At once Alvin gripped Arthur's wrist in his left hand and put his right hand behind the boy and plunged him under the water. In that instant Alvin held Arthur's body whole in his mind, seeing all the signatures, not one by one, but all of thenr, he showed them the pattern, the new signature, and this time thought the words so strong his lips spoke them. “This is the way! Be like this!”

He couldn't feel it with his hands– Arthur's body didn't change a whit that he could sense with his natural senses. But Alvin could still see the change, all at once, all in an instant, every signature in the boy's body, in the organs, in the muscles, in the blood, in the brain; even his hair changed, every part of him that was co

Alvin plunged himself under the water, to wash off any part of Arthur's skin or hair that might have clung to him. Then he rose up and lifted Arthur Stuart out of the water, all in one motion. The boy came up shedding waterdrops like a spray of cold pearls in the moonlight. He stood there gasping for breath and shaking from the cold.

“Tell me it don't hurt no more,” said Alvin.

“Any more,” said Arthur, correcting him just like Miss Larner always did. “I feel fine. Except cold.”

Alvin scooped him up out of the water and carried him back to the bank. “Wrap him in my shirt and let's get out of here.”

So they did. Not a one of them noticed that when Arthur imitated Miss Larner, he didn't use Miss Larner's voice.

Peggy didn't notice either, not right away. She was too busy looking inside Arthur Stuart's heartfire. How it changed when Alvin transformed him! So subtle a change it was that Peggy couldn't even tell what it was Alvin was changing– yet in the moment that Arthur Stuart emerged from the water, not a single path from his past remained– not a single path leading southward into slavery. And all the new paths, the new futures that the transformation had brought to him– they led to such amazing possibilities.

During all the time it took for Horace, Po, and Alvin to bring Arthur Stuart back across the Hio and through the woods to the smithy, Peggy did nothing more than explore in Arthur Stuart's heartfire, studying possibilities that had never before existed in the world. There was a new Maker abroad in the land; Arthur was the first soul touched by him, and everything was different. Moreover, most of Arthur's futures were inextricably tied with Alvin. Peggy saw possibilities of incredible journeys– on one path a trip to Europe where Arthur Stuart would be at Alvin's side as the new Holy Roman Emperor Napoleon bowed to him; on another path a voyage into a strange island nation far to the south where Red men lived their whole lives on mats of floating seaweed; on another path a triumphant crossing into westward lands where the Reds hailed Alvin as the great unifier of all the races, and opened up their last refuge to him, so perfect was their trust. And always by his side was Arthur Stuart, the mixup boy– but now trusted, now himself gifted with some of the Maker's own power.

Most of the paths began with them bringing Arthur Stuart to her springhouse, so she was not surprised when they knocked at her door.

“Miss Larner,” called Alvin softly.

She was distracted; reality was not half so interesting as the futures revealed now in Arthur Stuart's heartfire. She opened the door. There they stood, Arthur still wrapped in Alvin's shirt.

“We brought him back,” said Horace.

“I can see that,” said Peggy. She was glad of it, but that gladness didn't show up in her voice. Instead she sounded busy, interrupted, a

“They won't find him,” said Alvin, “not as long as they don't actually see him with their eyes. Something– their cachet don't work no more.”

“Doesn't work anymore,” said Peggy.

“Right,” said Alvin. “What we come for– came for– can we leave him with you? Your house, here, Ma'am, I've got it hexed up so tight they won't even think to come inside, long as you keep the door locked.”

“Don't you have more clothes for him than this? He's been wet– do you want him to take a chill?”

“It's a warm night,” said Horace, “and we don't want to be fetching clothes from the house. Not till the Finders come back and give up and go away again.”

“Very well,” said Peggy.

“We'd best be about our business,” said Po Doggly. “I got to get back to Dr. Physicker's.”

“And since I told Old Peg that I'd be in town, I'd better be there,” said Horace.

Alvin spoke straight to Peggy. “I'll be in the smithy, Miss Larner. If something goes wrong, you give a shout, and I'll be up the hill in ten seconds.”

“Thank you. Now please go on about your business.”

She closed the door. She didn't mean to be so abrupt. But she had a whole new set of futures. No one but herself had ever been so important in Alvin's work as Arthur was going to be. But perhaps that would happen with everyone that Alvin actually touched and changed– perhaps as a Maker he would transform everyone he loved until they all stood with him in those glorious moments, until they all looked out upon the world through the lensed walls of the Crystal City and saw all things as God must surely see them.

A knock on the door. She opened it.

“In the first place,” said Alvin, “don't open the door without knowing who it is.”

“I knew it was you,” she said. Truth was, though, she didn't. She didn't even think.

“In the second place, I was waiting to hear you lock the door, and you never did.”

“Sorry,” she said. “I forgot.”

“We went to a lot of work to save this boy tonight, Miss Larner. Now it's all up to you. Just till the Finders go.”

“Yes, I know.” She really was sorry, and let her voice reveal her regret.

“Good night then.”

He stood there waiting. For what?

Oh, yes. For her to close the door.

She closed it, locked it, then returned to Arthur Stuart and hugged him until he struggled to get away. “You're safe,” she said.

“Of course I am,” said Arthur Stuart. “We went to a lot of work to save this boy tonight, Miss Larner.”

She listened to him, and knew there was something wrong. What was it? Oh, yes, of course. Alvin had just said exactly those words. But what was wrong? Arthur Stuart was always imitating people.

Always imitating. But this time Arthur Stuart had repeated Alvin's words in his own voice, not Alvin's. She had never heard him do that. She thought it was his knack, that he was so natural a mimic he didn't even realize he was doing it.