Alvin Journeyman: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Volume IV

It wasn’t till afternoon that Alvin realized something serious was wrong. A couple of months ago, Alvin had asked Clevy Sump, Goody Sump’s husband, to teach them all how to make a simple one-valve suction pump. It was apart of Alvin’s idea to teach folks that making is making, and everybody ought to know everything they can possibly learn. Alvin was teaching them hidden powers of Making, but they ought to be learning how to make with their hands as well. Secretly Alvin also hoped that when they saw how tricky and careful it was to make fine machinery like Clevy Sump did, they’d realize that what Alvin was teaching wasn’t much harder if it was harder at all. And it was working well enough.

Except that today, after the noon bread and cheese, he went on out to the mill to find the men gathered around the wreckage of the pumps they’d been making. Every one of them was broke in pieces. And since the fittings were all metal, it must have have took some serious work to break it all up. “Who’d do a thing like this?” Alvin asked. ‘There’s a lot of hate goes into something like
this
.” And thinking of hate, it made Alvin wonder if maybe Calvin hadn’t come back secretly after all.

“There’s no mystery who done it,” said Winter Godshadow. “I reckon we ain’t got us a pump-making teacher no more.”

“Yep,” said Taleswapper. “This looks like a specially thorough way of telling us, ‘Class dismissed.’ ”

T
OR
B
OOKS BY
O
RSON
S
COTT
C
ARD

Empire

The Folk of the Fringe

Future on Fire
(editor)

Future on Ice
(editor)

Hart’s Hope

Invasive Procedures

(with Aaron Johnston)

Lovelock
(with Kathryn Kidd)

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Saints

Songmaster

The Worthing Saga

Wyrms

E
NDER

Ender’s Game

Speaker for the Dead

Xenocide

Children of the Mind

Ender’s Shadow

Shadow of the Hegemon

Shadow Puppets

Shadow of the Giant

T
HE
T
ALES OF
A
LVIN
M
AKER

Seventh Son

Alvin Journeyman

Prentice Alvin

Red Prophet

Heartfire

The Crystal City

H
OMECOMING

The Memory of Earth

The Call of Earth

The Ships of Earth

Earthfall

Earthborn

W
OMEN OF
G
ENESIS

Sarah

Rebekah

Rachel & Leah

S
HORT
F
ICTION

Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card
(hardcover)

Maps in a Mirror, Volume 1: The Changed Man
(paperback)

Maps in a Mirror, Volume 2: Flux
(paperback)

Maps in a Mirror, Volume 3: Cruel Miracles
(paperback)

Maps in a Mirror, Volume 4: Monkey Sonatas
(paperback)

ORSON SCOTT CARD

ALVIN
JOURNEYMAN

A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK
NEW YORK

NOTE: If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

ALVIN JOURNEYMAN

Copyright © 1995 by Orson Scott Card

All rights reserved.

A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Tor
^®
is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8125-0923-6

ISBN-10: 0-8125-0923-4

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 95-22693

First Edition: September 1995

First International Mass Market Edition: February 1996

First Mass Market Edition: September 1996

Printed in the United States of America

0  9  8  7

To Jason Lewis,
long-legged wanderer,
walker through woods,
dreamer of true dreams.

For the past few years, at every book signing or speech I gave, I was asked one question more than any other: Will there be another Alvin Maker book? The answer was always, Yes, but I don’t know when. My original outline for
The Tales of Alvin Maker
had long since been abandoned, and while I knew certain incidents that would happen in this book, I still did not know enough about what would happen to Alvin, Peggy, Taleswapper, Arthur Stuart, Measure, Calvin, Verily Cooper, and others to be able to start writing.

At last the logjam broke and the story came right, or as near right as I could get it. As I composed, I was constantly aware of those hundreds of readers who were waiting for
Alvin Journeyman.
It was encouraging to know that this book was much looked for; it was also frightening, because I knew that for some, at least, the expectations would be so high that any story I wrote would be bound to disappoint. To the disappointed I can only express my regret that the reality is never as good as the anticipation (cf. Christmas); and to all who hoped for this book, I give my thanks for your encouragement.

I thank the many readers on America Online who came to the Hatrack River Town Meeting and downloaded each chapter of the manuscript as I wrote it, responding with many helpful comments. These sharp-eyed readers caught inconsistencies and dangling threads—questions raised in earlier books that needed to be resolved. Newel Wright, Jane Brady, and Len Olen, in particular, won my undying gratitude: Jane, by preparing a chronology of the events in the previous books, Newel, by saving me from two ghastly continuity errors, and Len, by a thorough proofreading that caught several errors that all the editors and I had missed. Thanks also go to David Fox for an
insightful reading of the first nine chapters at a key point in the composition of the book.

Quite without my planning it, a peculiar and delightful community has grown up within the Hatrack River Town Meeting on AOL; people began to arrive, not as themselves, but as characters living within Alvin’s world, and set up in trade or farming in that fictional town. Thus Hatrack River has taken on a life of its own. The temptation was irresistible to include mention of as many of these characters as I could within this storyline; I only regret that I couldn’t work them all into the plot. If you want to know more about the wonderful characters these good people have created, come visit us online (keyword: Hatrack).

The only active online character I made extensive use of in this book was one I devised myself as a fictional foil, whom Kathryn Kidd (town identity: GoodyTradr) and I (town identity: HoracGuest) referred to from time to time in a comical way as a notorious gossip: Vilate Franker. A couple of years after we invented her, along came a good friend, Melissa Wunderly, who volunteered to portray her in the online community; so it was Melissa who brought her to life, false teeth, hexes, and all. Vilate’s “best friend,” however, was mine, and Melissa is not to be blamed for Vilate’s unpleasant behavior in this book. And I appreciate Kathryn Kidd’s allowing me to use her character, Goody Trader, at a couple of key moments.

I must tip my hat to Graham Robb, whose excellent, well-written
Balzac: A Biography
(Norton, 1994) gave me not only respite from writing but also the foundation of a character I personally enjoy.

As with many previous novels, each chapter was read as it emerged from the printer or the fax machine by my wife, Kristine; my son Geoffrey; and my friend and sometime collaborator, Kathryn H. Kidd. Their responses have been of incalculable value.

My thanks also go to those who keep our office and household functioning when I’m (too rarely) in writer mode: Kathleen
Bellamy, who tends to the business, and Scott Allen, who keeps the computers and the house itself in running order. A tip of the hat also goes to Jason, Adam, and (on one occasion) Michael Lewis, for holes dug and holes filled; and to Emily, Kathryn, and Amanda Jensen for giving us those nights out.

If it weren’t for Kristine, Geoffrey, Emily, Charlie Ben, and Zina Meg, I doubt that I would ever write at all: They make the work worth doing.

Chapter

  1    I Thought I Was Done

  2    Hypocrites

  3    Watchers

  4    Quest

  5    Twist

  6    True Love

  7    Booking Passage

  8    Leavetaking

  9    Cooper

10    Welcome Home

11    Jail

12    Lawyers

13    Maneuvers

14    Witnesses

15    Love

16    Truth

17    Decisions

18    Journeys

19    Philadelphia