daresn't leave Vigor Church cause of that curse. It seems to me like the good folks is still punished and the worsest one got off scotfree."
"Seems the same to me," said Alvin. "But it ain't my call."
"Maybe it ain't and maybe it is," said Arthur Stuart.
They all looked at him like he was a mess on the floor. "How is it Alvin's call?" asked Verily.
"That Red chief ain't dead, is he?" said Arthur Stuart. "That Red prophet what put the curse on, right? Well, him as puts on a curse can take it off, can't he?"
"Nobody can talk to them wild Reds no more," said Mike Fink. "They fogged up the river and nobody can get across. There ain't even no trade with New Orleans no more, damn near broke my heart."
"Maybe nobody can get across the river," said Arthur Stuart. "But Alvin can."
Alvin shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "I don't think so. Besides, I don't know if Tenskwa-Tawa's going to see things the same way as us, Arthur. He might say, The White people of America are bringing destruction on themselves by choosing White Murderer Harrison to be their leader. But the people of Vigor Church will be saved from that destruction because they respected the curse I gave them. So he'll say the curse is really a blessing."
"If he says that," said Measure, "then he ain't as good a man as I thought."
"He sees things a different way, that's all," said Alvin. "I'm just saying you can't be sure what he'll say."
"Then you can't be sure either," said Armor-of-God.
"I'm thinking something, Alvin," said Measure. "Miss Larner here told me somewhat about how she and Arthur figured out there's a lot of people with sharp knacks in this place. Maybe drawn here cause you was born here, or cause you made the plow here. And there's all them people you've been teaching up in Vigor, folks who maybe don't got so sharp a knack but they know the things you taught them, they know the way to live. And I also have my own idea that maybe the curse forced us all to live together there, so we had to get along no matter what, we had to learn to make peace among ourselves. If the curse was lifted from the folks of Vigor Church, them as wanted to could come here and teach them as has the knacks. And teach, them meantime how to live together in harmony."
"Or folks from here could go there," said Alvin. "Even if the curse ain't lifted."
Measure shook his head. "There's like a hundred people or more in Vigor Church who's already trying to follow the Maker way. Nobody here even knows about it, really. So if you said to the folks in Vigor, please come to Hatrack, they'd come; but if you said to the folks in Hatrack, please come to Vigor, they'd laugh."
"But the river's still fogged up," said Mike, Fink, "and the curse is still on."
"If it comes to that," said Miss Larner, "there might be another way to talk to Tenskwa-Tawa without crossing the river."
"You got a pigeon knows the way to the Red Prophet's wigwam?" asked Horace, scoffing.
"I know a weaver," said Miss Larner, "who has a door that opens into the west, and I know of a man named Isaac who uses that door." She looked at Alvin, and he nodded.
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Measure, "but if you think you can talk to Tenskwa-Tawa, then I hope you'll do it. I hope you will."
"I will for you," said Alvin. "For your sake and the sake of my family and friends in Vigor Church, I'll ask even though I fear the answer will be worse than no."
"What could be worse than no?" asked Arthur Stuart.
"I could lose a friend," said Alvin. "But when I weigh that friend against the people of Vigor and the hope that they might help teach other folks to be Makers and help build the Crystal City - then I don't see as how I've got no choice. I was a child when I went there, though, to that weaver's house." He was silent for a moment. "Miss Larner knows the way, if she'll guide me there." It was his turn to look at her, waiting. After a moment's hesitation, she nodded.
"One way or another, though," said Verity Cooper, "you will leave this place as soon as the trial's over."
"Win or lose," said Alvin. "Win or