On the riverbank, Arthur and Mike and Jean-Jacques had no idea that the Unmaker had been stalking them.

In his cell, Alvin wanted only to lie back and sleep. That was when the sheriff came for him, to bring him into the court for his arraignment.

Verily had only a few minutes to confer with Alvin before the arraignment began, and always with the sheriff present, so there couldn’t be much candor—but such was the rule with witch trials, so no potions or powders could be passed between them, or secret curses spoken. “No matter how it seems, Alvin, you must trust me.”

“Why? How is it going to seem?”

“The judge is John Adams. I’ve been reading his writings and his court cases, both as lawyer and as judge, since I first began the study of law. The man is decent to the core. I had no knowledge of his ever doing a witch trial, though, and so I had no idea of his position on them. But when I came out of jail this morning, I was met by a fellow who lives here—”

“No need for names,” said Alvin.

Verily smiled. “A fellow, I say, who’s made some study of witch law—in fact that’s his name, Study—and he tells me that Adams has never actually rendered a verdict in a witchery case.”

“What does that mean?”

“There’s always been some defect in the witchers’ presentation and he’s thrown the whole thing out.”

“Then that’s good,” said Alvin.

“No,” said Verily. “That’s bad.”

“I’d go free, wouldn’t I?”

“But the law would still stand.”

Alvin rolled his eyes. “Verily, I didn’t come back here to try to reform New England, I came in order to—”

“We came to help Purity,” said Verily. “And all the others. Do you know what it would mean, if the law itself were found defective? Adams is a man of weighty reputation. Even from the circuit bench of Boston, his decisions would be looked at carefully and carry much precedence in England as well as in America. The right decision might mean the end of witch trials, here as well as there.”

Alvin smiled thinly. “You got too high an opinion of human nature.”

“Do I?”

“The law didn’t make witch trials happen. It was the hunger for witch trials that got them to make up the law.”

“But if we do away with the legal basis—”

“Listen, Verily, do you think men like Quill will flatout disappear just cause witchery ain’t there to give them what they want? No, they’ll just find another way to do the same job.”

“You don’t know that.”

“If it ain’t witchcraft, they’ll find new crimes that work just the way witchcraft does, so you can take ordinary folks making ordinary mistakes or not even mistakes, just going about their business, but suddenly the witcher, he finds some wickedness in it, and turns everything they say into proof that they’re guilty of causing every bad thing that’s been going wrong.”