and Armor would have to carry his words of love and Godblessyou to his brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews.
Alvin hitched the bag with the plow and his change of clothes in it over his shoulder. Arthur Stuart took his other hand. Alvin scanned the hexes he'd laid in place around the house and made sure they were still perfect in their sixness, undisturbed by wind or meddling. All was in order. It was the only thing he could do for his family in his absence, was to keep wardings about to fend off danger.
"Don't you worry about Amy, either," said Measure. "Soon as you're gone, she'll notice some other strapping boy and pretty soon the dreams and stories will be about him and folks'll realize that you never done nothing wrong."
"Hope you're right," said Alvin. "Because I don't intend to stay away for long."
Those words hung in the silence for a moment, because they all knew it was quite possible that this time Alvin might be gone for good. Might never come home. It was a dangerous world, and the Unmaker had plainly gone to some trouble to get Alvin out of here and onto the road.
He kissed and hugged all around, taking care not to let the heavy plow smack into anybody. And then he was off for the woods behind the house, sauntering so as to give anyone watching him the impression that this was just a casual errand he was on, and not some life-changing escape. Arthur Stuart had ahold of his left hand again. And to Alvin's surprise, Taleswapper fell into step right beside him.
"You coming with me, then?" asked Alvin.
"Not far," said Taleswapper. "Just to talk a minute."
"Glad to have you," said Alvin.
"I just wondered if you've given any thought to finding Peggy Larner," said Taleswapper.
"Not even for a second," said Alvin.
"What, are you mad at her? Hell, boy, if you'd just listened to her..."
"You think I don't know that? You think I haven't been thinking of that this whole time?"
"I'm just saying that you two was on the verge of marrying back there in Hatrack River, and you could do with a good wife, and she's the best you'll ever find."
"Since when do you meddle?" asked Alvin. "I thought you just collected stories. I didn't think you made them happen."
"I was afraid you'd be angry at her like this."
"I'm not angry at her. I'm angry at myself."
"Alvin, you think I don't know a lie when I hear it?"
"All right, I am angry. She knew, right? Well, why didn't she just tell me? Amy Sump is going to tell lies about you and force you to leave, so get out now before her childish imaginings ruin everything."
"Because if she said that, you wouldn't have left, would you, Alvin? You would have stayed, figuring you could make everything work out fine with Amy. Why, you would have taken her aside and told her not to love you, right? And then when she started talking about you, there'd be witnesses who remembered how she stayed after class one day and was alone with you, and then you would be in trouble because even more people would believe her story and - "
"Taleswapper, I wish you sometime would learn the knack of shutting up!"
"Sorry," said Taleswapper. "I just don't have any gift for that. I just blather on, annoying people. The fact is that Peggy told you as much as she could without making things worse."
"That's right. In her judgment, she decided how much I was entitled to know, and that's all she told me. And then you have the gall to tell me I should go marry her?"
"I'm not following your logic here, Al," said Taleswapper.
"What kind of marriage is it, when my wife knows everything but she never tells me enough to make up my own mind! Instead she always makes up my mind for me. Or tells me exactly what she needs to tell me in order to get me to do what she thinks I ought to do."
"But you didn't do what she said you ought to do. You stuck around."
"So that's the life you want for me? Either to obey my wife in everything, or wish I had!"
Taleswapper shrugged. "I'm still not getting your objection."
"It's this simple: A grownup man doesn't want to be married to his mother. He wants to make his own decisions."
"I'm sure you're right," said Taleswapper. "And who's this grownup man you're talking about?"
Alvin refused to be