The Crystal City

Plot summary

Alvin and Arthur lodge at a boarding house run by Papa Moose and Mama Squirrel, who look after mixed-blood children. Using his knack, Alvin purifies a well of mosquitoes and disease. A woman called Dead Mary brings him to heal her mother of yellow fever. When he does, the fever spreads across Nueva Barcelona, which stops a looming war with the United States over slavery.

Suspicion falls on Papa Moose and Mama Squirrel because Alvin heals everyone he can, and the effects ripple outward. La Tia, an African woman, asks Alvin to help all slaves and displaced French flee the city; he agrees reluctantly. Alvin’s wife Margaret sends his brother Calvin to assist. Calvin summons a thick fog, and Alvin, using blood and magic learned from the Red Prophet Tenskwa-Tawa, builds a crystal bridge over Lake Ponchartrain.

Arthur helps with the bridge. The escapees head north, taking food and supplies from plantations and freeing any slaves they encounter. Alvin goes to Tenskwa-Tawa across the Mizzippy to request safe passage through Red Man’s lands. Together, they hold back the Mizzippy River so the exodus can cross, while the pursuing army can only watch.

Calvin departs with Jim Bowie and Steve Austin to conquer the Mexica. Margaret sends Verily Cooper to find Abe Lincoln and figure out what to do with the runaways when they reach the Noisy River Territory.