Alvin Journeyman: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Volume IV (44 page)

“I already did,” said Alvin.

Verily walked to the door of the cell. “I’m going to interview Ramona tonight in case you change your mind, Alvin,” he said.

“I won’t,” said Alvin.

“I’m quite sure, but other than that there’s nothing else I
can
do.” He debated saying the next words, but decided that he might as well. What did he have to lose? Alvin was going to go to prison and Verily’s journey to America was going to turn out to have been in vain. “I must say that I think you and Miss Larner are a perfect match. The two of you together must have more than seventy percent of the world’s entire store of stupid bullheadedness.”

It was Verily’s turn to head for the outer door. Behind him as he left, he heard Alvin say to Measure and Arthur: “That’s my lawyer.” He wasn’t sure if Alvin spoke in pride or mockery. Either way, it only added to his despair.

Billy Hunter’s testimony was pretty damaging. It was plain that he liked Alvin well enough and had no desire to make him look bad. But he couldn’t change what he saw and had to tell the truth—he’d looked into the jail and there was nowhere Alvin and Vilate could have hidden.

Verily’s cross-examination consisted merely of ascertaining that when Vilate entered the cell, Alvin was definitely there,
and that the pie she left behind tasted right good. “Alvin didn’t want it?” asked Verily.

“No sir. He said . . . he said he sort of promised it to an ant.”

Some laughter.

“But he let you have it anyway,” said Verily.

“I guess so, yes.”

“Well, I think that shows that Alvin is unreliable indeed, if he can’t keep his word to an ant!”

There were some chuckles at Verily’s attempt at humor, but that did nothing to ameliorate the fact that the prosecution had cut into Alvin’s credibility, and rather deeply at that.

It was Vilate’s turn then. Marty Laws laid the groundwork, and then came to the key point. “When Mr. Hunter looked into the jail and failed to see you and Alvin, where were you?”

Vilate made a great show of being reluctant to tell. He was relieved to see, however, that she was quite the actress Amy Sump had been, perhaps because Amy half-believed her own fantasies, while Vilate . . . well, this was no schoolgirl, and these were no fantasies of love. “I should never have let him talk me into it, but . . . I’ve been alone too long.”

“Just answer the question, please,” asked Laws.

“He took me through the wall of the jail. We passed through the wall. I held his hand.”

“And where did you go?”

“Fast as the wind we went—I felt as though we were flying. For a time I ran beside him, taking strength from his hand as he held mine and led me along; but then it became too much for me, and I, fainting, could not go on. He sensed this in that way of his and gathered me into his arms. I was quite swept away.”

“Where did you go?”

“To a place where I’ve never been.”

There were some titters at that, which seemed to fluster her a little. Apparently she was not aware of her own double entendre—or perhaps she was a better actress than Verily thought.

“By a lake. Not a large one, I suppose—I could see the far shore. Waterbirds were skimming the lake, but on the grassy bank where we . . . reclined . . . we were the only living things. This beautiful young man and I. He was so full of promises and talk of love and . . .”

“Can we say he took advantage of you?” asked Marty.

“Your Honor, he’s leading the witness.”

“He did
not
take advantage of me,” Vilate said. “I was a willing participant in all that happened. The fact that I regret it now does not change the fact that he did
not
force me in any way. Of course, if I had known then how he had said the same things, done the same things with that girl from Vigor Church . . .”

“Your Honor, she has no personal knowledge of—”

“Sustained,” said the judge. “Please limit your responses to the questions asked.”

Verily had to admire her skill. She managed to sound as if she were defending Alvin rather than trying to destroy him. As if she loved him.

  16  

When it came Verily’s turn to question Vilate, he sat for a moment contemplating her. She was the picture of complacent confidence, with her head just slightly cocked to the left, as if she were somewhat—but not very—curious to hear what he would ask of her.

“Miss Franker, I wonder if you can tell me—when you passed through the wall from the jail, how did you get up to ground level?”

She looked momentarily confused. “Oh, is the jail below ground? Well, I suppose when we went through the wall, we—no, of course we didn’t. The jail is on the second floor of the courthouse, and it’s about a ten-foot drop to the ground. That was mean of you, to try to trick me.”

“My question still stands,” said Verily. “That must have been quite a drop, coming through the wall into nothing.”

“We handled it gently. We . . . floated to the ground. It was part of the remarkable experience. If I had known you wanted so much detail, I’d have said so from the start.”

“So Alvin . . . floats.”

“He
is
a remarkable young man.”

“I imagine so,” said Verily. “In fact, one of his extraordinary talents is the ability to see through hexes of illusion. Did you know that?”

“No, I . . . no.” She looked puzzled.

“For instance, he sees through the hex you use to keep people from seeing that little trick you play with your false teeth. Did you know that?”

“Trick!” She was mortified. “False teeth! What a terrible thing to say!”

“Do you or do you not have false teeth?”

Marty Laws was on his feet. “Your Honor, I can’t see what relevancy false teeth have to the case at hand.”

“Mr. Cooper, it does seem a little extraneous,” said the judge.

“Your Honor has allowed the prosecution to cast far afield in trying to impugn the veracity of my client. I think the defense is entitled to the same latitude in impugning the veracity of those who claim my client is a deceiver.”

“False teeth is a bit personal, don’t you think?” asked the judge.

“And accusing my client of seducing her
isn’t
” asked Verily.

The judge smiled. “Objection overruled. I think the prosecution opened the door wide enough for such questions.’

Verily turned back to Vilate. “Do you have false teeth, Miss Franker?”

“I do not!” she said.

“You’re under oath,” said Verily. “For instance, didn’t you waggle your upper plate at Alvin when you said that he was a beautiful young man?”

“How can I waggle an upper plate that I do not have?” she said.

“Since that is your testimony, Miss Franker, would you be willing to appear in court without those four amulets you’re wearing, and without the shawl with the hexes sewn in?”

“I don’t have to sit here and . . .”

Alvin leaned over and tugged at Verity’s coattail. Verily wanted to ignore him, because he knew that Alvin was going to forbid him to pursue this line any further. But there was no way he could pretend that he didn’t notice a movement so broad that the whole court saw it, He turned back to Alvin, ignoring Vilate’s remonstrances, and let Alvin whisper in his ear.

“Verily, you know I didn’t want—”

“My duty is to defend you as best I—”

“Verily, ask her about the salamander in her handbag. Get it out in the open if you can.”

Verily was surprised. “A salamander? But what good will that do?”

“Just get it out in the open,” said Alvin. “On a table in the open. It won’t run away. Even with the Unmaker possessing it, salamanders are still stupid. You’ll see.”

Verily turned back to face the witness. “Miss Franker, will you kindly show us the lizard in your handbag?”

Alvin tugged on his coat again. Mouth to ear, he whispered, “Salamanders ain’t lizards. They’re amphibians, not reptiles.”

“Your pardon, Miss Franker. Not a lizard. An amphibian. A salamander.”

“I have no such—”

“Your Honor, please warn the witness about the consequences of lying under—”

“If there’s such a creature in my handbag, I don’t have any idea who put it there or how it got there,” said Vilate.

“Then you won’t object if the bailiff looks in your bag and removes any amphibious creatures he might find?”

Overcoming her uncertainty, Vilate replied, “No, not at all.”

“Your Honor, who is on trial here?” asked Marty Laws.

“I believe the issue is truthfulness,” said the judge, “and I find this exercise fascinating. We’ve watched you come up with scandal. Now I’ll be interested to see an amphibian.”

The bailiff rummaged through the handbag, then suddenly hooted and jumped back. “Excuse me, Your Honor, it’s up my
sleeve!” he said, trying to maintain his composure as he wriggled and danced around.

With a flamboyant gesture, Verily swept his papers off the defense table and pulled it out into the middle of the courtroom. “When you retrieve the little fellow,” he said, “set him here, please.”

Alvin leaned back on his chair, his legs extended, his ankles crossed, looking for all the world like a politician who just won an election. Under his chair, the plow lay still inside its sack.

Alone of all the people in the court, Vilate paid no attention whatever to the salamander. She simply sat as if in a trance; but no, that wasn’t it. No, she sat as if she were at a soiree where something slightly rude was being said, and she was pretending to take no notice of it.

Verily had no idea what would come of this business with the salamander, but since Alvin wouldn’t let him try any other avenue to discredit Vilate or Amy, he’d have to make it do.

Alvin had been watching Vilate during her testimony—watching close, not just with his eyes, but with his inner sight, seeing the way the material world worked together. One of the first things he marked was the way Vilate cocked her head just a little before answering. As if she were listening. So he sent out his doodlebug and let it rest in the air, feeling for any tremors of sound. Sure enough, there
were
some, but in a pattern Alvin had never seen before. Usually, sound spread out from its source like waves from a rock cast into a pond, in every direction, bouncing and reverberating, but also fading and growing weaker with distance. This sound, however, was channeled. How was it done?

For a while he was in danger of becoming so engrossed in the scientific question that he might well forget that he was on trial here and this was the most dangerous but possibly the weakest witness against him. Fortunately, he caught on to what was happening very quickly. The sound was coming from two
sources, very close together, moving in parallel. As the sound waves crossed each other, they interfered with each other, turning the sound into mere turbulence in the air. When Alvin listened closely, he could hear the faint hiss of the chaotic noise. But in the direction where the sound waves were perfectly parallel, they not only didn’t interfere with each other, but rather seemed to increase the power of the sound. The result was that for someone sitting exactly in Vilate’s position, even the faintest whisper would be audible; but for anyone anywhere else in the courtroom, there would be no sound at all.

Alvin found this curious indeed. He hadn’t known that the Unmaker actually used sound to talk to his minions. He had supposed that somehow the Unmaker spoke directly into their minds. Instead, the Unmaker spoke from two sound sources, close together. Then Alvin had to smile. The old saying was true: The liar spoke out of both sides of his mouth.

Looking with his doodlebug into Vilate’s handbag, Alvin soon found the source of the sound. The salamander was perched on the top of her belongings, and the sound was coming from its mouth—though salamanders had no mechanism for producing a human voice. If only he could hear what the salamander was saying.

Well, if he wasn’t mistaken, that could be arranged. But first he needed to get the salamander out into the open, where the whole court could see where its speech was coming from. That was when he began to pay attention to the proceedings again—only to discover, to his alarm, that Verily was about to defy him and try to take away Vilate’s beautiful disguise. He reached out and tugged on Verily’s coat, and whispered a rebuke that was as mild as he could make it. Then he told him to get the salamander out of the bag.