THE CRYSTAL CITY

by Orson Scott Card

  "Any horse with you on it's gonna be uncomfortable," said Abe.

  "So Peggy knew that we'd be here," said Verily.

  "Who is this Peggy," said Abe, "and how did she supposedly know days ago a thing I didn't find out about till yesterday?"

  "A man who fights like a big-armed baby oughtn't to imply that a man that just whupped him is a liar," said Mike.

  "Didn't accuse a soul," said Abe. "I asked a question."

  "Peggy is Margaret Larner," said Verily. "Alvin's wife. I told you about her."

  "She didn't happen to say," said Abe, "whether the plan that brought us here is a good idea."

  "I'm not here for you," said Mike. "No offense. Nor for Verily Cooper, neither."

  "Well I sure hope you ain't here for me," said Coz, "cause I peed my pants just looking at you, and if you rassle me it'll get all over you."

  "I appreciate the warning," said Mike. "But I'm here for Alvin."

  "I thought Peggy sent you," said Verily.

  "Peggy sent me," said Mike, "to meet Alvin here. And Alvin's coming here because you're here."

  Coz was delighted. "Alvin's a-coming here! Did you have any idea of that, Abe? Or was that your plan?"

  "That makes this a right propitious spot," said Abe.

  "No it doesn't," said Verily. "Margaret wouldn't have sent Mike Fink unless Alvin was in danger."

  "What Peggy says is, when neither Alvin nor his lawyer showed up in court, the judge put out a summer judgment against Alvin and demanded that he be arrested for theft and brought back to Carthage City where he will either produce the gold item in question or be jailed for attempt of court."

  "Let me guess," said Verily. "Is there a reward?"

  "Somebody put up five hundred dollars," said Mike.

  "And you're here to help Alvin resist arrest?"

  "I'm here to take anybody who tries to earn that reward and grind him into flour and bake him like bread."

  "We ain't looking to do that," said Coz.

  "Five hundred dollars is a lot of money," said Abe.

  Mike took a step toward Abe-who, to his credit, did not flinch.

  "Calm down, Mike," said Verily. "Abe Lincoln is a man who likes his joke. He's a trusted friend of Al's."

  "Ain't trusted by me" said Mike.

  "My question is," said Coz, "if he's got you willing to protect him, how come he runs around all the time with that scrawny brother-in-law of his?"

  "He don't need me to protect him from the kind of danger you meet on the road," said Mike. "He can defend himself just fine against that. It's when they come to him with legal papers and he gets all honorable and starts believing that he should let them haul him off to jail and then he stays there even though we know there ain't no jail can hold him-that's when he needs me. Because I don't mind beating in the face of a man who's just doing his job."

  "Or biting off his ear," added Coz, hopefully.

  "Gave up ear-biting long ago," said Mike. "And eye-gouging. Alvin made me promise."

  "Made you?" asked Abe.

  Mike looked embarrassed. "He's a blacksmith, don't you know. Look at them shoulders he's got. Not to mention that he could just look at my leg and break it."

  "I think the fight, which is legendary, was equally unfair on both sides," said Verily.

  "Oh, that's so," said Mike. "I wasn't accusing Alvin of nothing, I was just explaining how he could beat a fellow as mean as me." He took a step and loomed over Coz. "I am mean, you know. It ain't all show. I like that scrinchy sound a man's face makes when I'm grinding it into the ground."

  "Ha ha," said Coz lamely. "You're such a joker, you are."

  "When's Alvin getting here?" said Verily.

  "Well, you know how Peggy gets kind of vague when it comes to Alvin's doings. I don't think she knows, except he'd get here while you were here, so here I am."

  "Came by train," said Verily. "Would've been nice if I could've done that."

  "So I wondered if you folks already et," said Mike. "Because I just couldn't see no point in hotting up a pot just for me, and I also didn't much care to eat my beans cold."

  Soon they had a fire going right on the bluff, with two pots beside it, one full of stew, the other full of water, waiting to come to a boil.

  "I reckon we're putting this fire right out in the open like this," said Abe, "so anybody seeking a reward won't waste time tripping over foxes and beavers in the dark."

  "Alvin ain't here yet," said Mike, "so there's no reward, is there?"

  It wasn't that Mike Fink was completely incautious, though. He volunteered for the first watch of the night, and warned Verily that he was next.

  So it was that a groggy Verily Cooper was the one leaning against a tree looking out over the river when suddenly there was a man standing beside him. "River's beautiful at night," said Alvin softly.

  Verily didn't even bat an eye. "Someday I'd like to see it with no fog."

  "Someday," said Alvin. "When there ain't no need for it."

  "Glad to see you," said Verily.

  "Glad to be seen."

  "Where's your company of five thousand?"

  "Six thousand now. They're coming north. I ran on ahead to meet you and see if you're doing what I hope you're doing."

  "Finding a place for your people to come."

  "Have you? Found a place?"

  "Abe Lincoln and I have been up and down, here and there," said Verily. "There are abolitionist towns that'll take a hundred or so. But I don't think there are sixty such towns in the whole state."

  "Bad news," said Alvin.

  "So tell me some good news, Alvin," said Verily. "Tell me that there's nobody near us, so we don't have to keep watch and I can go back to sleep."

  Alvin grinned. "There's nobody near us," he said. "Go back to sleep."

  "Before I do," said Verily, "tell me this. Did you come here tonight because this is the right place for us to be?"

  "I came here tonight because tomorrow I need you to make the handles for my plow."

  When Dead Mary told Alvin about her vision of the Crystal City, it filled him with hope. He hadn't told her about the Crystal City, had he? And what she described, it wasn't like what he saw in Tenskwa-Tawa's whirlwind. Or rather, it was more than what he saw.

  All he had ever seen or thought of was the part of it that was made of crystal, the part of it that would be filled with dreams and visions like the ball, like the bridge, like the dam. And he had always thought that to live in such a place, all the citizens would have to be makers, like him. That's why he had been teaching them, or trying to teach them, all these eager people who simply couldn't do it. All had accomplished something, some slight increase of awareness or ability. Verily Cooper, of course, already had something of makery in his knack, and Calvin was a maker, after his fashion. And Arthur Stuart-now, he was a marvel, all these years and suddenly he makes his breakthrough and he sees it. But that's what, four people? And Calvin none too reliable. You don't make a Crystal City out of that.

  But that's why Dead Mary's vision of the Crystal City changed everything. Because they weren't all living in the palace, as she called it. In fact, probably nobody was living there. They lived in regular houses on regular streets, and most of them did regular jobs and had regular lives, except that for a few hours a week they helped to build this extraordinary palace or... or library, or theater, or whatever the building was supposed to be... and when it was built, then for a few hours a week you go inside and look at what you see there, what the walls of it show you, and you learn from it what you can and try to understand what it means. Not some grand, earthshaking thing, maybe just... who your wife really is, or what your children might be, or some danger to avoid, or why the suffering in your life is bearable after all. Or why it isn't. Not everything would be happy. But you'd know things that you didn't know otherwise. Even if all you saw was your own hopes and dreams and fears and guilt and shame thrown back in your face, even that would be worth going inside to see, because how else
can you come to know yourself, unless you have some kind of faithful mirror that can show you more than just your face?

  It's a city of makers, not because everyone in it is a Maker, but because the whole city cooperates in making the Making possible, and the whole city participates in the good thing that they have made.

  So obvious now. Who is the builder of a great cathedral? The architect can truly say, I built this, even though he never lifts a stone. The stonecutters can say, I built this, even though it was not their hands that put the stones in place. The masons, the glassmakers, the carpenters, the weavers of rugs, they are all part of the building of it. And the bishop who caused them to build it, and the rich people who donated the money, and the women who brought the food to the workers, and the farmers who grew the food they serve, all the people of the city caused that building to exist. And fifty years later, when all the people whose hands did the work, they're all dead now, or old and doddering, their grandchildren can walk inside that building and say, "This is our cathedral, we built this," because it was the city that built the building, and the city that goes inside to use it, and each new generation that keeps the city alive, and walks into the building with veneration and pride, the cathedral is theirs as much as anyone's.

  I can still teach makery to those who want to learn, thought Alvin. But I don't have to wait until they master it. Because I can make the crystal blocks one by one, and others can set them into place. Verily Cooper can set them into place, because he'll know how to make them fit. And other people, with other knacks, they can help. It might even be that Arthur Stuart can make some of the building blocks.

  And since everyone will have contributed in one way or another to the crystal edifice, then they are part of it, aren't they? Part of the Crystal City. And a maker is the one who is part of what he makes. So... they are all makers, then, aren't they? Makers of the Crystal City.

  Which means the Crystal City will truly be the City of Makers.

  Through the morning he watched and then tried not to watch and then watched again, as Verily Cooper stroked the wood and with his bare hands made it into what it needed to be. Verily did not set a tool to the wood. Nor did he choose a fallen log or fell a tree. He found two saplings that were of a size, and stroked them until they separated from the tree. He didn't exactly knead the wood like clay, but the effect was the same. Bark stripped away from the living wood, and the wood shaped itself, bent itself until each of the saplings was now the shape of a plow handle.

  Abe and Coz and Mike watched too, for a while. In awe, at first. But miraculous as it might seem, it was a slow and repetitive process, and after a while they wandered off to do other things-survey the area, Abe said.

  So it was that when Verily was done, it was just him and Alvin there. The two saplings were now joined at the base as completely as if they had grown that way.

  "Time to take that plow out of the sack," said Verily.

  "The wood is still alive," said Alvin.

  "I know," said Verily.

  "Have you made anything out of living wood before?" asked Alvin.

  "No," said Verily.

  "Then how did you know how?"

  "You asked me to do it, and I didn't have any tools," said Verily. "But all this work you've had me doing, learning how to actually see and understand what was going on inside the wood when I made barrel staves and hooped them-well, Al, did you think I wouldn't learn anything!"

  Alvin laughed. "I knew you were learning, Very. I just... didn't know it would happen like this."

  "So let's see if it'll fit."

  Alvin set down the poke and rolled back the top until it made a thick cloth circle around the top of the golden plow. Then he picked up the plow and knelt down before the handles that Verily had made.

  "Gold is soft," said Verily. "It'll wear away quickly in hard ground, won't it?"

  "A living plow don't fit into the world the way ordinary ones do, and I expect it'll be as hard as I need it to be." Alvin rotated the plow this way and that, trying to figure out how to do the job with only two hands. "So do I fit the plow to the handles, or the handles to the plow?" he asked.

  Verily laughed. "I'll hold the handles in place, and you work it out from there."

  Alvin laughed, too. Then he brought the plow closer to the end where it was supposed to fit. His intention was to see how close a fit it was, and how exactly to insert it into place. But this was a living plow, and the handles were made of living wood, and when they got near enough, it was as if they recognized each other the way magnets do, lining themselves up in exactly the right way and then leaping together.

  Leaping together, joining, the plowshare sliding into exactly the right spot, the wood flexing a bit to let it in, then closing back down over it, so it looked as if the handles had been carved from a tree that had the golden plow already embedded inside it.

  Neither of them had a chance to marvel and admire, though, for the moment the plow leapt into place, there came such a music as Alvin had never heard before. It was the greensong-the song of the living wood, the living world, he recognized it, and felt how the handles vibrated with it. And yet it was another music, too. The music of worked metal, of machinery, of tools made to fit human needs and to do human work. It was the beating throb of the engine in a steamboat, and hissing and spitting of a locomotive, the whine of spinning wheels, the clatter and clump of power looms. Only instead of the cacophony of the factory, it all blended together into a single powerful song, and to Alvin's joy it fitted perfectly with the greensong and became one music that filled the air all around them.

  Even then, he scarcely had time to realize what the music was before the plow started bucking and bouncing. It was clear that it no longer intended to be still, and Verily, far from controlling it, was barely able to hang on as the plow lurched forward-no ox or horse pulling it, nothing at all but its own will. It skipped a few feet and then dug into the thatch of the meadowgrass, cut through it like a hot knife through butter, then raced forward, Verily hanging on for dear life, running and twisting to keep up with it.

  Whatever else this plow might want, it had no respect for the idea that the best furrow is a straight one. It twisted and turned all around the meadow, as if it were a dowser's stick searching for water.

  Which, when Alvin thought about it, it very well might be. Not searching for water, but a dowser's wand all the same. Hadn't Verily shaped it into a single piece of living wood? Wasn't it shaped like a dowser's wand, with the two handles joined at the base?

  "I can't hold on any longer!" cried Verily, and he fell to the ground as the plow lurched forward another yard and then ... stopped.

  The plow just stood there in the ground, unmoving.

  Alvin ran over as Verily got up off the ground.

  Gingerly, Verily reached a hand out to it. The moment his skin touched it, the plow bucked again and moved forward.

  "I have an idea," said Alvin. "You take the right handle, I'll take the left."

  "Both at once," said Verily.

  "One," said Alvin. And Verily joined in on "two" and "three."

  "Wait a minute," said Verily. "How high are we counting?"

  "I was thinking of three, but looks like that won't be it after all."

  "When we say three, or when we would have said four?"

  "When we say three, we should be grabbing right then," said Alvin.

  One.

  Two.

  And away they went.

  Only this time there was no bucking. The plow moved, all right, cutting deep into the ground and turning up the soil just like a plow should do. But its path was no longer so crooked.

  And its purpose seemed to be to get out of the meadow, move through the trees, and climb back up onto the bluff.

  It was steep going-this wasn't all that gentle a slope- and there were low branches that looked like they were designed to take the head right off anyone foolish enough to be hanging on behind a living plow.

  But the greensong
in the music of the plow was powerful, and the branches seemed to rise up or bend back, and neither Alvin nor Verily suffered so much as a scrape or scratch or bump. Nor did they get weary as they ran up the hill behind the plow.

  When it reached the top, the plow turned a little and ran across the face of the bluff. That was when Alvin became vaguely aware of the voices of Mike and Abe and Coz, somewhere in the distance, whooping and hollering like little boys. But there was no waiting for them to catch up. For the plow was zeroing in on its destination and speeding up as it grew closer.

  Closer to a stony outcropping some twenty yards back from the front of the bluff, a spot where no trees grew because the stone continued under the meadow, leaving too little soil for any tree to root deep enough to withstand a storm.

  They headed straight for the bare rock in the middle of the clearing, and Alvin was not altogether surprised when the plow cut right through the stone without so much as a stutter. It cut a furrow into the rock just as it had with the soil, only where the soil behind the plow had been loose and warm, the upturned stone hardened in place, like a sculpture of a furrow.

  And when the plow got to a spot where a puddle of water had formed in a depression in the stone, it went straight to the middle of the puddle and stopped.

  The water drained down the furrow the plow had made. A thin stream of pure water being guided by the stone furrow, and then the furrow in the soil, to the edge of the bluff and along it down to the meadow where Verily had made the handles.

  The plow did not move.

  Alvin and Verily took their hands from the handles.

  The music faded.

  "I think we're done here," said Alvin.

  "What is it we did?" said Verily.

  "We found the spot for the Crystal City," said Alvin.

  "Is that what we've been looking for?" asked Verily.

  "I think it's what this plow has been looking for since it was first made."

  Alvin knelt beside the plow that he had carried for so long. All these years of toting it, and now its work was done, and wild and joyful as the trip up the hill was, it hadn't taken long. Just a few minutes. But when Alvin reached out and touched a finger to the golden face of the plow, the thing quivered, and the handle came loose and fell away. Fell to the ground.