Free Alchemy and Meggy Swann by Karen Cushman Page A

of ballad sellers, sticky babies, and heads on platters. Near dawn her dreams turned to smoked sausages and hams, and she awoke to the smell of fire. Pulling on her bodice and kirtle and wrapping her cloak around her, she threw the door open and hurried into the street.
    The doors and windows of the cooper's shop were open wide, and she could see stacks of wood and piles of shavings ablaze. The barrel staves were small towers of flame. Two men of the watch pulled a wagon laden with leather buckets of water up to the shop, and they, the cooper, and two drunken gentlemen in stained padded doublets poured water onto the floor and splashed it on the walls.
    Neighborers, some still in nightclothes and bare feet, hastened from their houses and shops to help, pouring jugs of water on the hot coals and beating at the flames with wet burlap sacks. But not her father, Meggy marked. Had he not heard the commotion?
    The morning was cool and dewy, and the fire soon slowed into steaming and smoldering. The walls still stood, the room above was still covered by the roof, but inside the shop all was ash, scraps, and debris.
    The cooper crossed to where his son waited. "Charger was sleeping down here. Where is he?" the boy asked.
    His father took his hand. "Gone, boy. Your horse, the finished barrels, my stock of wood, most of the staircase ... gone." His voice dwindled as the boy broke into sobs he tried to muffle but could not.
    Master Old Cloaks watched from the shadows. After a moment he crossed over to the cooper and, pointing to Meggy, said, "It be that one, her, the Devil's spawn, the cursed cripple, who fired your shop, Master Cooper. It be that one, the daughter of the adept of the black arts. See how her house was spared. Next it will be my shop afire and then yours," he said to the neighborers standing by, "if we do not stop her." Shivers prickled Meggy's spine like icy water dripping from the eaves, and she began to back slowly toward her door.
    Everyone fell silent. There was no sound but for the crackling of sparks and hissing of embers. The cooper looked at Master Old Cloaks and then at Meggy. The watchmen and the neighborers watched them both, and then the cooper spoke. "Nay," he said, "the fire had naught to do with her. My son but dropped a candle in the night, and the shavings quickly caught."
    "I say it was her doing," Master Old Cloaks said. "See her affliction. See how she is marked by the Devil."
    Meggy's heart thumped with fright, but the taller watchman grabbed Master Old Cloaks and said, "You are ever a troublemaker, with your annoyous curses and your accusations, your gripes and grouses. Begone from here afore I take you in for spreading slander."
    Grumbling, Master Old Cloaks retreated, still casting spiteful glances at Meggy. The watchman nodded to her. In the growing light of day, she saw his cheek, disfigured by a large red birthmark of the kind that is called a witch's mark. Belike he too had been shouted at and spat upon in the streets, Meggy thought. She smiled her thanks.
    The watchman nodded again as he picked up his lantern, bell, and staff and followed his partner down Crooked Lane. The tipsy gentlemen returned to their drink, and the others, grateful that their homes were spared, drifted away to break the night's fast with warm bread and cool ale.
    The cooper's shop still smoked and smoldered. "When it has cooled a bit," Meggy heard the cooper say to his son, "we will search for what remains."
    "And we will find Charger?" asked the boy again.
    "No, belike Charger is gone."
    Meggy returned to the house at the Sign of the Sun. The day was growing lighter. She sat herself at the table and chewed a piece of yesterday's bread. Her heart finally slowed its thumping, but her thoughts raced. When she heard Master Peevish's footsteps above, she climbed the stairs to the laboratorium, carrying a piece of bread for him.
    "Ah, mistress ... err, mistress, well met," he said. "I have a task for—"
    "Sir, there was a