we retrieved you. This was not done for your benefit, but because we have long seen in you something of incredible value, some artifact of a lost world, a weapon that might turn the tide in this longest war. You know of what I speak, do you not?”
I did not reply. Instead I asked, “Where is Sophia? What happened to her?”
“There are limits to our powers, Hiram,” Corrine said.
“But you say you are the Underground,” I said. “If you are who you say you are, why didn’t you free her? Why did you leave me in that jail? Why did you leave me in that hole? Do you know what has happened to me?”
“Know?” asked Hawkins. “We caused it to happen to you. We authored it. And as for your freedom, there is a reason we are the Underground. And a reason we’ve lived to fight so long. There are rules. There is a reason you found Georgie before you found us.”
“Every night, those men hunted me,” I said, the anger growing in me. “And you let them do it. No, worse. You sent them to do this?”
“Hiram,” said Corrine, “I am sorry but that hunt was but a preview of your life now. And that dungeon was but a glimpse of the price of your failure. Your life was over the minute you engaged with Georgie Parks. Would you prefer we left you to that? Hawkins speaks the truth. We had to be sure.”
“What did you have to be sure of?” I asked.
“That you really did carry the power of Santi Bess, of Conduction,” Corrine said. “And you do. Twice now we have seen it made manifest. Surely it was the work of our Lord for Hawkins to find you the first time. And inquiring, we discovered from others that you’d once talked wildly about something much the same happening to you as a child. We needed to wait for it to happen again. We calculated where the power might send you, and we waited for you to arrive.”
“Arrive where?” I asked.
“At Lockless,” she said. “We thought you might be trying to get back to the only home you’ve ever known. We had agents watching for you every night.”
“And here you are,” said Hawkins.
“And where am I?” I asked.
“Somewhere safe,” said Corrine. “Where we bring all those newly married to our cause.”
She paused for a second here. I saw a hint of sympathy in her face and I knew she was not relishing any of this, that she had some sense of my pain and confusion.
“There is so much that you must understand, I know. We will explain, I promise you this. But you must trust us. And you must trust us because there is no going back. Right now, there is nothing else true in this world. And soon you shall see that there is nothing else truer than our cause.”
At that Corrine and Hawkins rose. “Soon,” she said as they left. “Soon you will understand it all. Soon you shall singularly comprehend, and then your comprehension will be a new binding, and in this binding—in this high duty—you will find your true nature.”
Now she paused at the door and uttered words that felt like prophecy.
“You are not a slave, Hiram Walker,” said Corrine. “But by Gabriel’s Ghost, you shall serve.”
13
THAT EVENING, STILL LYING in bed, I heard voices downstairs and the smell of what I hoped to be supper—I had not enjoyed a proper meal since my flight from Lockless. This all combined to rouse me from my stupor. I saw now that upon the bureau there were two washing pans filled with water, a toothbrush, dentifrice, and a set of clothes. I cleaned and changed and then limped downstairs, across a foyer, and into an open dining room, where I saw Corrine, Hawkins, Amy, three other coloreds, and none other than Mr. Fields.
I stood in the doorway for a moment until he saw me. He was laughing at some story Hawkins was relating, but when he saw me his smile turned grave and he looked to Corrine, who now looked to me, and then the whole table turned to me in the most solemn way imaginable. They were seated before a veritable feast, but all of them, black and white, man and woman, were dressed in work clothes.
“Please, Hiram,” Corrine said. “Join us.”
I walked in gingerly and took an empty seat near the end, next to Amy and across from Mr. Fields. We had