Free Being a Green Mother by Piers Anthony Page B

had to go elsewhere for the nails.
    “The soldiers were half-drunk, but they had the sense not to mention the name of the victim to the next blacksmith. They simply told him to make four nails for the forty pennies they had. He protested that he could make only four small nails for that price. They threatened to run him through with their lances if he did not get to work. Suspicious, he refused. Enraged, the soldiers made good their threat, and killed him, and went on to a third blacksmith.
    “This one they gave no choice: he would make the nails immediately, or they would kill him. Frightened, he went to his forge—but then the voice of the dead blacksmith seemed to cry out, telling him that these nails were to crucify an innocent man, and he threw down his tools and refused to work. So the drunken soldiers struck him down and hurried on to a fourth blacksmith.
    “This one was a Gypsy, who was just passing through and knew nothing of the local politics. He was glad to take themoney and make the nails. As he made each one, the soldiers took it and put it in a bag. But as he forged the fourth nail, the soldiers said that these were to be used to crucify Jesus. At those words, the voices of the other blacksmiths sounded, pleading with the Gypsy not to make the final nail. Frightened by this manifestation, the soldiers fled with the three nails they already had.
    The Gypsy finished the fourth nail and tried to cool it, but the water went up in steam and the nail continued to glow. Alarmed, he packed away his tent and equipment and fled, leaving the hot nail behind. But when he sought to pitch his tent at another place, that glowing nail appeared, still sizzling. He fled again—but wherever he stopped, that hot nail was there.
    “But an Arab had a wheel that needed patching. So the Gypsy blacksmith took the hot nail and used it to patch the iron hoop. When the Arab left, the wheel carried the nail away. But months later the blacksmith was brought a sword to repair, and its hilt began to glow. It had been forged from the iron nail in the wheel and returned to haunt him.
    “He fled, but the nail reappeared wherever he went. All his life that dread nail pursued him and when he died it haunted his descendants. Jesus had been crucified with only three nails, his feet pierced by one instead of two, and the fourth one pursued the members of the tribe who had forged them. So it has been to this day, and it is supposed to be the reason that we must constantly travel, so that it will not catch up. It is also said amongst us that only the grace of the Llano can cool that nail and give us peace, for the Llano is the universal absolver. But I doubt it; I suspect that the Llano is but an illusion sent to tempt us, like the Grail of the Christians, having no tangible reality. How could a mere song abate the crime of making such a nail?”
    Universal absolver? That was interesting! “But why weren’t the Romans haunted for doing the deed?” Orb asked.
    “How do we know they were not? Where is the Roman Empire today?”
    Orb nodded. “Maybe they did pay. But I think it is time for the nail to be put to rest. I will keep looking for the Llano.”
    “I think you have as much of the Llano as any mortal person can have. Woman, give up this chase and marry me.”
    Orb stared at him, uncertain whether he was joking.
    “You have magic in your music. With you by my side, I can achieve a closer semblance of the art I crave. Besides, you are beautiful.”
    He was serious! Orb had no interest in such a marriage, but realized that it would not be politic to turn such a man down arbitrarily. “I am not certain this is wise,” she said. “Perhaps you had better have a seer pronounce on such a union.”
    “By all means!” Csihari snapped his fingers, and a Gypsy boy ran up. “Fetch a seer, the best,” he said.
    Soon an old woman arrived. “I mean to marry this woman,” Csihari said. “What are the auspices?”
    “Give me your hands,”