Eleazar spoke again, in that foreign tongue, touching his fingertips to Charlie’s eyelids, his nostrils, and then his lips. When he reached the lips, he held his fingers there, his head bent, words flowing faster until…
Eleazar stopped abruptly, as if in midsentence. His head jerked up. His fingers pulled back and…
Charlie’s lips parted. Or they seemed to, opening so little that Addie was certain she’d blinked, certain she was seeing wrong, that his lips had been like that already or were moved by the man’s fingers.
Yes, moved by the man’s fingers. A trick. Isn’t that what Sophia warned of? Charlie’s lips moved by chicanery and?—
His eyes opened. Addie stopped breathing.
Trick. It’s a trick.
Charlie sat up and looked about. His gaze lit on Mayor Browning and he smiled, and Addie knew there was no trick.
Charlie lived.
AfterCharlie sat up in his coffin, the village erupted like a volcano in one of Sophia’s books. Some people ran shrieking that the dead had risen. Others fell and gave thanks to God for his infinite mercy. And still others barely drew breath before demanding to know why Charlie had been resurrected—why him, why not their child.
“Charlie was returned to us as proof of this man’s holy power!” Browning’s voice boomed over half the town. “I offered my own child to be tested, as is only right. As your mayor, I must take that risk for my family, before asking you to take it for yours!”
“Is he truly alive?” Millie Prior pushed through and peered at Charlie as Doc Adams examined him. When she reached to poke him, Eleazar grabbed the old woman’s hand hard enough to make her shriek.
“Please,” Charlie said, his voice low and rough with disuse. “She meant no harm.”
“He speaks,” Millie breathed.
He speaks,Addie thought.But he doesn’t sound like?—
She bit her lip, as if that could stopper her thoughts.
“Yes,” Charlie said. “I can speak, but barely. I feel…” He gripped Eleazar’s hand for support.
“He’s very weak,” Eleazar said. “I’m sorry if I startled you, my good woman. I do not wish him to be poked and prodded about during his recovery. Your doctor is examining him now.”
Doc Adams rose. “The boy lives. He breathes. He speaks. His heart beats. His blood flows.”
Millie dropped to her knees. “Praise be. Dear Lord, thank you…”
As she continued, Doc Adams explained which children could be resurrected. Eleazar took Charlie’s hand and helped him from the coffin. He told Mayor Browning to fetch his wife and then announced that he would take Charlie inside to rest. Addie waited until they were gone, then scampered back across the roof.
Addieeased open the back door to the community hall. Inside, she could hear Eleazar talking to his assistant. She closed the door silently behind her. While Eleazar was occupied, she’d speak to Charlie. Yes, he was weak, but she’d take up none of his time or his strength. She simply wanted to…
She didn’t know what she wanted. What she expected. Only that she’d been robbed of the chance to see him before, and she would get it now. No one would take that from her now, and if something went wrong?—
It won’t. He’s back.
If something went wrong, at least she wouldn’t lie awake, wishing she’d seen him one last time. So she crept into the community hall while Eleazar spoke to Rene.
She hadn’t even reached the kitchen door, though, before the conversation stopped.
“I need to rest now,” Charlie said, and she realized Eleazar hadn’t been talking to his assistant, Rene, at all.
This would make things more difficult. Eleazar and Charlie were both in the front room, and the assistant was here somewhere, too.
It didn’t matter. Shewouldsee Charlie.
She peered into the back room before she slid through. There were three coffins now, the fourth gone. Something caught her attention on the floor. An eagle’s feather, under the table where Charlie’s coffin had lain. When they’d picked it up, they’d let his treasures scatter.
Anger darted through her. Those things of Charlie’s had been so important to his parents after he’d died. Now they were as they’d been in his life—useless clutter. How many times had his mother tried to throw out that eagle feather, saying it was filthy? It was treasured only after he was gone, like Charlie himself. His father had paid him no mind when he was alive?—
