did. He must rejoin Calvin before the boy has been completely turned by the Unmaker. Otherwise, Calvin may be not only his death, but also the undoing of all the Maker's works."
"I have an easy answer," said Peggy. "I'll find Calvin and make sure he never comes home."
"You think you have the power to control a Maker's life?"
"Calvin is no Maker. How could he be? Think what Alvin had to do, to come into his own."
"Nevertheless, you never had the power to stand against Alvin, even when he was a child. And he was kind at heart. I think Calvin isn't governed by the same sense of decency."
"So I can't stand against him," said Peggy. "Nor can I send Alvin out on errands. He's not mine to command."
"Isn't he?" asked Becca.
Peggy buried her face in her hands. "I don't want him to love me. I don't want to love him. I want to continue my struggle against slavery here in Appalachee."
"Oh, yes. Using your knack to meddle with the cloth, aren't you?" said Becca. "Do you know where it leads?"
"To liberty for the slaves, I hope."
"Perhaps," she said. "But the sure thing is this: It leads to war."
Peggy looked up grimly. "I see warsigns down all the paths. Before I started doing this, I saw those signs." Grieving mothers. The terror of battle in young men's lives.
"It begins as a civil war in Appalachee, but it ends as a war between the King on the one side and the United States on the other. Brutal, bloody, cruel..."
"Are you saying I should stop? That I should let these monsters continue to rule over the Blacks they kidnapped and all their children forever?"
"Not at all," said Becca. "The war comes because of a million different choices. Your actions push things that way, but you aren't the only cause. Do you understand? If war is the only way to free the slaves, then isn't the war worth all the suffering? Are lives wasted, when they end for such a cause?"
"I can't judge this sort of thing," said Peggy.
"But that's not true," said Becca. "Only you are fit to judge, because only you see the outcomes that might result. By the time I see things they've become inevitable."
"If they're inevitable, then why are you bothering to tell me to try to change them?"
"Almost inevitable. Again, I spoke imprecisely. I can't meddle with the threads on a grand scale. I can't foresee the consequences of change. But a single thread - sometimes I can move it without undoing the whole fabric. I didn't know a way to move Calvin that would make a difference. But I could move you. I could bring the judge here, the one who sees with the blindfold over her eyes. So I've done that."
"I thought you said your sister did it."
"Well, she's the one who decided it must be done. But only I could touch the thread."
"I think you spend a lot of your time lying and concealing things."
"Quite possibly."
"Like the fact that the western door leads into Ta-Kumsaw's land west of the Mizzipy."
"I never lied about that, or concealed it either."
"And the eastern door, where does that lead?"
"It opens in my auntle's house in Winchester, back in England. See? I conceal nothing."
"You have but one daughter," said Peggy, "and she's already got a loom of her own. Who will take your place here?"
"None of your business," said Becca.
"Nothing is none of my business now," said Peggy. "Not after you picked up my thread and moved it here."
"I don't know who will take my place. Maybe I'll be here forever. I'm not my mother. I won't quit and force this on an unwilling soul."
"When it comes time to choose, look at the boy," said Peggy. "He's wiser than you think."
"A boy's hands on the loom?" Becca's face bore an expression that suggested she had just tasted something awful.
"Before any talent for weaving," said Peggy, "doesn't the weaver have to care about the threads coming into the cloth? He may have killed a squirrel, but I don't think he loves death."
Becca regarded her steadily. "You take too much upon yourself."
"As you said. I'm a Judge."
"You'll do it, then?"
"What, watch Alvin? Yes. Though I know I'll have a broken heart six times over before I bury him, yes, I'll turn my eyes back to that boy."
"That man."
"That Maker," said Peggy.
"And the other?"
"I'll meddle if I can find a way."
Becca nodded. "Good." She nodded again. "We're done, now. The doors will lead