Free A Spell for the Revolution by C. C. Finlay

passions run away with his head. Martial ardor is not unexpected in a young man, though I hesitate to call it a virtue. But we are not the witchcraft militia, ready to muster off to battle. We are healers, no matter what Mister Brown may think. Isn’t that right, Esther dear?”
    “Absolutely,” Esther said. “I know I’m always ready to heal.”
    “That’s a dear woman,” Sukey said, patting Esther’s hand. “We didn’t come here to play parlor tricks with flames and pebbles. The only proper use of our talents is to heal people, to make them well when they are ill, to ward off evil influences. I must believe that. Young Mister Brown may stay if he pleases, or go after this boy if that pleases him more. Whichever he does, I say we turn our attention to basics here and learn things that can truly help people.”
    “We can’t let him go alone,” Deborah said. “With no one to watch his back or stand guard while he sleeps.” She turned to Proctor. “The Covenant will kill you the first opportunity they get.”
    The fearful look in their eyes said the rest:
Bootzamon is already waiting out there, just beyond our barriers
.
    “Well, then,” Proctor said. “I promise not to give them any opportunity.”
    “I’ll go with you,” Abby said.
    Everybody at the table turned their heads to the farm girl. She had picked the river stone up off the floor and turned it over in her hands.
    “To be honest, I’m no good at the lessons you’re setting for us, Miss Deborah,” she said, smacking the stone down on the table. “And I’m tired of being cooped up here, with no neighbors to visit, no town to go shopping in, and no meeting on Sunday mornings. If it’s dangerous, it can’t beany more dangerous than living out on the edge of Indian country.”
    Deborah shook her head firmly no. “Your mother wouldn’t approve if I sent you on a journey with a young man and no chaperone. In fact, she’d have my hide.”
    “Oh, no, she’d understand if
you
explained it,” Abby said. “She said you were the only young woman she ever met who she trusted completely around my brothers.”
    Proctor glanced at Deborah in time to see her blush.
    “You just tell her that Proctor is like your brother,” Abby said. “She’ll be fine with it if you tell her that he’s like a brother to all of us.”
    Proctor stared at his feet and felt something like a ball of ice form in his stomach. Was it true? Had he and Deborah worked so hard at staying proper around each other, they’d become like brother and sister? Maybe Deborah had even said as much to Abby.
    “You’re too young,” Deborah said firmly. “I made a promise to your mother to keep my eye on you, and I can’t do that if you’re not here. Besides, it’s far more dangerous than the frontier. Your mother would not approve, even if Proctor were one of your brothers.”
    Abby’s shoulders sagged.
    “Ezra will go,” Zoe said. “Won’t you, Ezra?”
    “Aye, I will,” he said. He pushed his chair back from the table. “If those are the captain’s orders. What time’s the tide?”
    “We have no captain here,” Deborah said.
    “It’s a foolish suggestion,” Sukey said. “I will not have both men gone at once, and not just in case this Bootzamon creature returns. There is too much to be done. Furthermore, I hope you don’t mean to suggest that Esther or I should undertake so arduous a journey after this elusive orphan. Esther could do it, I’m certain. She has the strength and endurance of an ox, an absolute ox. But my own delicate constitution …”
    “I, no, I,” Esther sputtered, her eyes wide with dismay.
    “Of course not,” Deborah said. “That’s exactly the problem. Proctor can’t go alone, but there is no one here whom we can spare to go with him.”
    Another silence followed this statement.
    Magdalena, who had not spoken since the opening prayer, sighed. Everyone looked at her. She shrugged and opened her hands palms-up.
    “It is exactly as