A small intake of breath is all the Mayor gives when Mistress Lawson presses the bandages against the back of his scalp, tho the burns there are horrible to see.
“Severe,” Mistress Lawson says, “but shallow. The flash was so fast it didn’t go very deep. You’ll scar, but you’ll heal.”
“Thank you, Mistress,” the Mayor says, as she wipes a clear gel over the burns on his face, which ain’t as bad as on the back of his head.
“I’m merely doing my job,” Mistress Lawson says sharply. “And now there are others to be treated.”
She leaves the healing room of the scout ship, taking a pile of bandages with her. I’m sitting in a chair near the Mayor, burn gel on my hands, too. Wilf is on the other bed, burnt up his front but still alive cuz he was already falling when the bomb went off.
Outside is another story. Using the Noise of the crowd, Lee’s out there helping the dozens of people who were burnt and injured in Mistress Coyle’s suicide.
Killed, too. At least five men and one woman in the crowd.
And Mistress Coyle herself, of course.
And Simone.
Viola ain’t spoken to me since the bomb. She and Bradley are off doing something.
Something away from me.
“It’ll be all right, Todd,” the Mayor says, seeing me keep checking the door. “They’ll realize you had to make a split-second decision and I was closest–”
“No, you weren’t,” I say. I clench my fists and wince at the pain from the burns. “I had to reach farther to grab you.”
“And you did grab me,” the Mayor says, marvelling a little.
“Yeah, yeah, all right,” I say.
“You saved me,” he says, almost to himself.
“Yeah, I know–”
“No, Todd,” he says, sitting up on the bed, tho it obviously pains him. “You saved me. When you didn’t have to. I can’t tell you how much that means to me.”
“You sure keep trying.”
“I’ll never forget this, that you think of me as worth saving. And I am, Todd. And it’s you who’s made me that way.”
“Quit talking like that,” I say. “Other people are dead. Other people I didn’t save.”
He just nods, nods and lets me feel crap all over again for not saving Simone.
And then he says, “She won’t have died in vain, Todd. We’ll make sure of that.”
And he sounds truthful, like he always does.
(it sure feels true–)
(and the faint hum–)
(it’s glowing with joy–)
I look over to Wilf. He’s staring up at the ceiling, soot-covered skin poking out thru white bandages. “Ah think you mighta saved me, too,” he says. “Yoo said, Jump. Yoo said, Get offa the cart.”
I clear my throat. “That ain’t really saving you, Wilf. It didn’t save Simone.”
“Yoo were in mah head,” Wilf says. “Yoo were in mah head sayin, Jump and my feet were jumpin afore Ah even tole ’em to. Yoo made me jump.” He blinks at me. “How d’yoo do that?”
I look away at the thought of it. I probably did do it, reached out and controlled him, and if Simone didn’t have Noise, she wouldn’t have responded to it.
But the Mayor might have. I might not have even needed to grab him.
The Mayor sets both feet on the floor and painfully, slowly, brings himself to standing.
“Where do you think yer going?” I say.
“To address the crowds,” he says. “We need to tell them that the peace process doesn’t end because of the actions of one mistress. We need to show them that I am still alive and that Viola is.” He puts a hand gingerly to the back of his neck. “This peace is fragile. The people are fragile. We need to tell them there’s no reason to give up hope.”
I wince a little at his last word.
Mr Tate comes thru the door carrying a pile of clothes. “As requested, sir,” he says, handing ’em to the Mayor.
“Yer putting on clean clothes?” I say.
“So are you,” he says, handing me half the pile. “We certainly can’t go out there in burnt rags.”
I look down at my own clothes, what’s left of ’em after Mistress Lawson peeled the burnt ones off my skin.
“Put them on, Todd,” the Mayor says. “You’ll be surprised at how much better they make you feel.”
(and the faint hum–)
(the joy of it–)
(it’s kinda making me feel not so terrible–)
I start putting on the new clothes.
“There.” Bradley points at the screen in the cockpit. “He is closer to Simone, but Prentiss is closer to the edge of the platform.”
He slows down the recording and stops it at the point where Mistress Coyle is about to press the button on the bomb. The point where Simone is still heading straight for her and where Wilf is stepping backwards to jump off the cart.
And where Todd is already reaching for the Mayor.
“He wouldn’t have even had a chance to think,” Bradley says, his voice thick, “much less choose.”
“He went right for the Mayor,” I say. “He didn’t have to think.”
We watch the explosion again, an image that was broadcast to the town outside and to the people watching on the hilltop, who are thinking God knows what right now.
We watch as the Mayor is saved again.
And Simone isn’t.
Bradley’s Noise is so sad, so broken, I can barely look at it.
“You told me,” he says, closing his eyes, “that whoever else I doubted on this planet, Todd was the one I could trust. You said that, Viola. And you’ve been right every time.”
“Except this time.” Because I can read Bradley’s Noise, read what it really thinks. “You blame him, too.”
He looks away from me, and I see his Noise struggling with itself. “Todd obviously regrets it,” he says. “You can see it all over his face.”
“But you can’t hear it. Not in his Noise. Not the truth.”
“Have you asked him?”
I just look again at the screen, at the fire and chaos that followed Mistress Coyle blowing herself up.
“Viola–”
“Why did she do it?” I say, too loud, trying to ignore the sudden Simone-shaped hole in the world. “Why when we had peace?”
“Maybe with the both of them gone,” Bradley says sadly, “she hoped the planet would rally around someone like you.”
“I don’t want that responsibility. I didn’t ask for it.”
“But you could probably have it,” he says. “And you’d use it wisely.”
“How do you know?” I say. “I don’t even know that. You said war should never be personal, but that’s all it’s ever been for me. If I hadn’t fired that missile, we wouldn’t even be here. Simone would still be–”
“Hey,” Bradley says, stopping me because I’m getting even more upset. “Look, I need to contact the convoy, tell them what happened.” His Noise folds with grief. “Tell them we’ve lost her.”
I nod, my eyes wetting further.
“And you,” he says, “you need to talk to your boy.” He lifts my chin. “And if he needs saving, then you save him. Isn’t that what you told me you did for each other?”
I let go a few more tears but then I nod. “Over and over again.”
He gives me a hug, a strong and sad one, and I leave him so he can call the convoy. I walk the short hallway back to the healing room as slow as I can, feeling like someone’s torn me in two. I can’t believe Simone is dead. I can’t believe Mistress Coyle is dead.
And I can’t believe Todd saved the Mayor.
But it’s Todd. Todd, who I trust with my life. Literally. I trusted him to put these bandages on me, which frankly have me feeling better than I have in months.
And if he saved the Mayor, then there must be a reason. There must be.
I take a deep breath outside the door of the healing room.
Because that reason is goodness, isn’t it? Isn’t that what Todd basically is? Despite the mistakes, despite killing the Spackle by the riverside, despite the work he did for the Mayor, Todd is essentially good, I know this, I’ve seen it, I’ve felt it in his Noise-
But I can’t feel it any more.
“No,” I say again. “It’s Todd. It’s Todd.”
I push the panel to open the door.
And see Todd and the Mayor wearing matching uniforms.
I see her in the doorway, see how healthy she’s looking–
See her see the clothes me and the Mayor are wearing, the same right down to the gold stripe on the sleeves of the jackets.
“It’s not what you think,” I say, “my clothes were all burnt–”
But she’s already stepping back from the door, stepping away–
“Viola,” the Mayor says, strong enough to stop her. “I know this is a tough time for you, but we must address the people. We must reassure them that the peace process will go forward as planned. And as soon as we can, we must send a delegation to the Spackle to assure them of the same thing.”
Viola looks him square in the eye. “You say must way too easy.”
The Mayor tries to smile thru his burns. “If we don’t talk to the people right now, Viola, things could fall apart. The Answer might wish to finish Mistress Coyle’s action and use this moment of chaos to do so. The Spackle could attack us for the same reason. My own men might even get it into their heads that I’m incapacitated and decide to stage a coup. I trust that these are not outcomes you would want.”
And I can see that she feels it, too.
The weird joy coming from him.
“What would you say to them?” she says.
“What would you like me to say?” he asks. “Tell me and I’ll repeat it word for word.”
She narrows her eyes. “What are you playing at?”
“I’m not playing at anything,” he says. “I could have died today and I did not. And I did not because Todd saved me.” He steps forward, eagerness in his voice. “It may not have been what you wanted, but if Todd saved me, then I’m worth saving, don’t you see? And if I’m worth saving, then we all are, this whole place, this whole world.”
Viola looks to me for help.
“I think he’s in shock,” I say.
“I think you may be right,” the Mayor says, “but I’m not wrong about talking to the crowds, Viola. We need to do it. And quickly.”
Viola’s looking at me now, looking at the uniform I’m wearing, searching for some truth. I try to make my Noise heavy, to let her see how I’m feeling, to show her how everything’s spun outta control, how I didn’t mean for this to happen, but now that it has, maybe–
“I can’t hear you,” she says quietly.
And I try to open up again but it feels like something’s blocking me–
She glances over to Wilf, and her face gets even frownier.
“All right,” she says, not looking at me. “Let’s go talk to the people.”
“Viola,” Todd calls after me down the ramp. “Viola, I’m sorry. Why won’t you even let me say that?”
And I stop there, trying to read him.
But there’s still just silence.
“Are you really sorry?” I say. “If you had to choose all over again, are you sure you wouldn’t do the same thing?”
“How can you even ask that?” he says, frowning.
“Have you seen what you’re wearing lately?” I look back up at the Mayor, walking slowly to the top of the ramp, taking care with his injuries but still smiling through the burn gel on his face, still wearing an impossibly clean uniform.
Just like Todd.
“You could be father and son.”
“Don’t say that!”
“It’s true, though. Look at yourselves.”
“Viola, you know me. Out of everyone left alive on this planet, yer the one who does.”
But I’m shaking my head. “Maybe not any more. Since I stopped being able to hear you–”
He really frowns at this. “So that’s what you want, is it? I’m fine as long as you can hear everything I think but not the other way round? We’re friends as long as you got all the power?”
“It’s not about power, Todd. It’s about trust–”
“And I ain’t done enough for you to trust me?” He points up the ramp at the Mayor. “He’s fighting for peace now, Viola. And he’s doing that cuz of me. Cuz I changed him.”
“Yeah,” I say, flicking the gold stripe on his sleeve. “And how has he changed you? Enough so you save him and not Simone?”
“He hasn’t changed me, Viola–”
“Did you control Wilf to get him to jump off the cart?”
His eyes open wide.
“I saw it in his Noise,” I say. “And if it bothered Wilf, it can’t be a good thing.”
“I saved his life!” he shouts. “I was doing it for good–”
“So that makes it okay? That makes it okay that you said you couldn’t do it? That you wouldn’t do it? How many other people have you controlled for their own good?”
He fights with his words for a minute and I can see some real regret in his eyes, regret over something he hasn’t told me, but which I still can’t see in his complete lack of Noise–
“I’m doing all this for you!” he finally shouts. “I’m trying to make this a safe world for you!”
“And I’ve done it for you, Todd!” I shout back. “Only to find out that maybe you’re not you any more!”
And his face is so angry but also so horrified, so shocked and hurt by what I’m saying I can almost–
For a second I can almost–
“IT’S HIM!”
A single voice, cutting thru the ROAR of the crowd gathered round the scout ship.
“IT’S THE PRESIDENT!”
Other voices follow, one, then a hundred, then a thousand, and the ROAR gets higher and louder, until it feels like we’re in an ocean of Noise, surging up the ramp and lifting the Mayor above it all. He starts walking slowly down, his head up, his face beaming, his hand reaching out to the crowd to show them that, yes, he’s all right, he’s survived, he’s still their leader.
Still in charge. Still the victor.
“Come, Todd, Viola,” he says. “The world awaits.”
“The world awaits,” the Mayor says, taking my arm, pulling me away from Viola, his eyes on the crowd cheering him, ROARing for him, and I see that the projeckshuns are still running, the probes still programmed to follow us, follow him, and there we are on the walls of the buildings around the square, the Mayor leading the way, me being pulled along behind him, Viola still standing on the ramp with Bradley and Wilf coming down behind her–
“Listen to them, Todd,” the Mayor says to me and again I feel the hum–
The hum of joy–
I feel it even in the ROAR of the crowd–
“We can really do it,” he’s saying as the crowd parts before us, giving us room to walk to a new platform Mr Tate and Mr O’Hare musta cobbled together. “We can really rule this world,” the Mayor says. “We can really make it a better place.”
“Let me go,” I say.
But he don’t let go.
He don’t even look at me.
I turn back to find Viola. She ain’t moved from the ramp. Lee’s come thru the crowd to her and they’re all watching me let myself get dragged away by the Mayor, both of us wearing the same uniform–
“Let me go,” I say again, pulling away.
The Mayor turns round, grabbing me hard by the shoulders and the crowds are closing up the pathway twixt me and Viola–
“Todd,” the Mayor says, the hum of joy coming off him like sunshine. “Todd, don’t you see? You’ve done it. You’ve led me down the road to redemption and we’ve arrived.”
The crowd are still ROARing, loud as anything now that the Mayor’s among them. He stands up straighter, looks round at the soldiers and townsfolk and even women round us all cheering, and with a smile on his face, he says, “Quiet, please.”
“What the hell?” I say, as the ROAR of the crowd vanishes almost instantly, spreading out in circles till the cheering stops, in voice and in Noise, as near as this place ever comes to silence. Even the women as they see how quiet the men have gone.
“I heard it,” Bradley whispers.
And Wilf whispers, “Ah heard it, too.”
“Heard what?” I say, too loud in the new quiet, causing faces from the crowd to look back and shush me.
“Just the words Quiet, please,” Bradley whispers. “Right in the middle of my head. And I swear my Noise is quieter, too.”
“And mine,” Lee says. “It’s like I’ve gone blind all over again.”
“How?” I say. “How can he have that much power?”
“There’s something funny bout him since the blast,” Wilf says.
“Viola,” Bradley says, putting his hand on my arm. “If he can do that to a thousand people at once–”
I look out and see the Mayor standing in front of Todd, looking right into his eyes.
I start forward towards the crowd.
“I’ve been waiting for this my entire life,” the Mayor’s saying to me and I’m finding I can’t look away.
I’m finding I don’t really want to.
“I didn’t even know it, Todd,” he’s saying. “All I wanted was to bring this planet under my thumb and, failing that, to destroy it completely. If I couldn’t have it, then no one else could either.”
The Noise around us is almost a complete hush. “How are you doing this?” I ask.
“But I was wrong, you see?” he says. “When I saw what was going to happen with Mistress Coyle, when I saw that I had failed to predict it but that you had, Todd, and you saved me–” He stops and I swear it’s cuz his voice is too filled with emoshun to go on. “When you saved me, Todd, that’s when everything changed. When everything fell into place.”
(and the hum, gleaming like a lighthouse in my head–)
(that joy–)
(it feels good–)
“We could make this world better,” he says. “You and I could make it better together. With your goodness, with everything about you that feels and hurts and regrets and refuses to fall no matter what you’ve done, Todd, if we combined that with how I can lead men, how I can control them–”
“They don’t wanna be controlled,” I say.
His eyes, I can’t look away from ’em–
“Not that kind of control, Todd,” he says. “Peaceful control, benevolent control–”
And the joy–
I feel it–
“Like the leader of the Spackle has over his own people,” the Mayor keeps saying. “That’s the voice I’ve been hearing. The one voice. They’re him and he’s them and that’s how they survive, that’s how they learn and grow and exist.” He’s breathing heavy now, the burn gel on his face making him look like he’s coming up from under water. “I can be that for the people here, Todd. I can be their voice. And you can help me. You can help me be better. You can help me be good.”
And I’m thinking–
I could help him–
I could–
(no–)
“Let me go,” I say–
“I’ve known you were special since Prentisstown,” he says, “but it’s only today, only when you saved me that I realized exactly why.”
He grips me harder.
“You’re my soul, Todd,” he says, the crowd around us swooning at how strong he says it and their Noise confirming it and answering it back. “You’re my soul and I’ve been looking for you without even knowing it.” He smiles at me wonderingly. “And I’ve found you, Todd. I’ve found you–”
And then there’s a sound, a different sound, coming from somewhere at the edges of the crowd, a murmuring in their Noise, rumbling its way from the far end of the square towards us.
“A Spackle,” the Mayor whispers, seconds before I see it, surprisingly clear in the Noise of the crowd.
There’s a Spackle coming up the road on a battlemore.
“And . . .” the Mayor says, frowning slightly and standing up to look.
“And what?” I say–
But then I see it in the crowd Noise, too–
The Spackle’s not alone–
There are two battlemores–
And then I hear it–
I hear the sound that turns the entire world upside down–
I press hard through the crowd, caring less and less if I’m stepping on people or shoving them out of the way, especially since most of them barely seem to notice. Even the women, who seem caught up in the moment, their faces filled with the same strange anticipation–
“Move,” I say, through gritted teeth.
Because I’m realizing it now, too late, too late, that of course the Mayor’s got inside Todd, of course he has, and maybe Todd has changed him, changed him for the better, no doubt, but the Mayor’s always been stronger, always been smarter, and changing for the better doesn’t mean that he’s ever going to reach good and of course he’s been changing Todd, too, of course he has, how could I be so stupid not to see it, not to talk to him–
Not to save him–
“Todd!” I call–
But it’s drowned out by a surge in the Noise of the crowd, images from the far side where something’s happening, something that’s being passed along through the Noise of the people seeing it, spreading through the crowd–
Noise that shows two Spackle coming up the road–
Two Spackle on battlemores, one of them sitting rather than standing–
And with a jolt, I see that the standing one is the same Spackle who attacked me–
But there’s no time for that feeling, because the Noise suddenly corrects itself–
And the seated Spackle isn’t a Spackle–
It’s a man–
And in the Noise of the crowd, passed along like a baton in a race, I can hear it–
The man is singing–
My stomach drops outta the bottom of my feet and my breath feels like I’m choking and my legs are moving and I’m tearing outta the Mayor’s grip, feeling the bruises as he don’t wanna let me go–
But I’m going–
Oh, Christ, I’m going–
“Todd!” he calls after me, real shock in his voice, real pain that I’m running from him–
But I’m running–
There ain’t nothing gonna stop me from running–
“MOVE!” I shout–
And the soldiers and men in front of me move right outta the way, like they didn’t even decide to themselves–
Cuz they didn’t–
“Todd!” I hear behind me still, the Mayor, but getting farther behind–
Cuz up ahead–
Oh, Jesus, I don’t believe it I don’t believe it–
“MOVE IT!”
And I’m trying to listen, trying to listen for the sound again, trying to listen for the song–
And the crowd keeps moving, getting outta my way like I’m a fire come to burn ’em–
And the Spackle’s coming thru their Noise, too–
It’s 1017–
The Spackle is 1017–
“NO!” I call and run even harder–
Cuz I don’t know what it means that 1017 is here–
But there he is in the Noise of the crowd–
Getting brighter and clearer as I get closer–
Way clearer than Noise usually is–
“Todd!” I hear behind me–
But I don’t stop–
Cuz as I’m getting closer even the rising Noise of the crowd can’t cover it up–
The song–
Clear as the air–
Ripping my heart right in two–
The song, my song–
Early one mo-o-rning, just as the sun was rising . . .
And my eyes are wetting and the crowd is thinning and the path they’re clearing for me is meeting the path they’re clearing for the Spackle–
And just a few more people–
Just a few more–
And the crowd opens up–
And there he is–
There he is in front of my eyes–
And I have to stop–
I have to stop cuz it feels like I can’t even stand up–
And when I say his name, it barely comes out as more than a whisper–
But he hears it–
I know he hears it–
“Ben.”
It’s Ben.
I can see him as clearly in the Noise of the crowd as if he were standing right in front of me. There’s the Spackle that tried to kill me, 1017, riding a battlemore, and Ben’s sitting behind him on another one, the song he’s singing coming clear, I heard a maiden call from the valley below–
But his mouth isn’t moving–
Which must be a mistake of the crowd Noise–
But he’s there, riding up the road, and since no one here can know him, his face must be accurate, it must really be Ben–
And I can feel the Mayor’s medicine surging through me and I use my new strength to start shoving people out of the way even harder–
Because in their Noise, I can see the Mayor pushing forward ahead of me, too–
And I see that Todd’s reached Ben–
See it like I’m right there–
Feel it like I’m right there because Todd’s own Noise has opened, as he’s got farther away from the Mayor and closer to Ben, his own Noise is opening as wide as it used to be, opening with astonishment and joy and so much love you can hardly bear to look at it and those feelings are surging back along the crowd like a wave and the crowd is staggering under it, staggering under the feeling that Todd’s transmitting to them–
Transmitting it just like the Mayor can–
I can’t even say nothing, I just can’t, there ain’t no words for it as I’m running to him, running right past 1017, and Ben’s coming down off his battlemore and his Noise is rising to greet me with everything I know about him, everything since I was a baby, everything that means he’s really Ben–
And he ain’t quite saying it in words–
And he’s opening up his arms and I’m throwing myself into ’em and I’m hitting him so hard we fall back against the beast he was riding and–
How big you’ve gotten, he says–
“Ben!” I say, gasping the words, “Aw, Jesus, Ben–”
You’re as tall as me, he says. Big as a man.
And I’m barely noticing that he says it a bit strange cuz I’m just holding him tight and my eyes are leaking water and I can barely speak as I feel him here, right here, right here in the flesh, alive and alive and alive–
“How?” I finally say, pulling back a little but still holding onto him and I can’t say no more but he knows what I mean–
The Spackle found me, he says. Davy Prentiss shot me–
“I know,” I say and my chest gets heavier, my chest weighing down and my Noise feeling heavier, too, heavy like it ain’t felt in a good long while, and Ben can see it and he says–
Show me.
And I do, right there before I can even get any proper words out, I show him the whole terrible story of what happened after we left him and I’d swear he was helping me do it, helping me show him the death of Aaron, the wounding of Viola, our separation, the attacks by the Answer, the banding of the Spackle, the banding of the women, the deaths of the Spackle, and I look over to 1017 still up on his battlemore and I show Ben all about that, too, and everything that followed, Davy Prentiss coming round to being human and then dying at the Mayor’s hand and the war and more deaths–
It’s all right, Todd, he says. It’s all over. The war is over.
And I can tell–
I can tell he forgives me.
He forgives me for all of it, tells me I don’t even need to be forgiven, tells me I did the best I could, that I made mistakes but that’s what makes me human and that it’s not the mistakes I made but how I responded to ’em and I can feel it from him, feel it from his Noise, telling me how I can stop now, how everything’s gonna be all right–
And I realize he ain’t telling me with words. He’s sending it right into the middle of my head, actually, no, he ain’t, he’s surrounding me with it, letting me sit in the middle of it, knowing it to be true, the forgiveness, the – and here’s a word I don’t even know but suddenly do–absolushun, absolushun from him if I want it, absolushun for everything–
“Ben?” I say, feeling puzzled, feeling more than puzzled. “What’s going on? Yer Noise–”
There’s a lot we need to talk about, he says, again not with his mouth, and I start to feel weird about it but the warmth of it is all round me, the Ben of it’s all there, and my heart just breaks open again and I smile back at the smile he’s giving me–
“Todd?” I hear behind us.
We turn to look.
The Mayor stands at the edge of the crowd, watching us.
“Todd?” I hear the Mayor say as I stop right beside him–
Because it is Ben, it is, I don’t know how, but it really is him–
And he and Todd turn to look, a dazed cloud of happy Noise swirling round them, expanding over everything, including the Spackle still up on the battlemore next to them and I move toward Ben, my own heart surging–
But I glance at the Mayor’s face as I run past–
And I see pain there, just for a second, fleeting across his gel-shiny features, and then it’s gone, replaced with the face we know so well, the face of the Mayor, bemused and in charge–
“Ben!” I call and he opens an arm to receive me. Todd steps back but the feelings from Ben are so good, so strong that after a second Todd embraces both of us together and I feel so happy about it I start to cry.
“Mr Moore,” the Mayor calls from a distance away. “Reports of your death seem to have been exaggerated.”
As have reports of yours, Ben says, but in the strangest way, not using his mouth, using his Noise more directly than I’ve ever heard–
“This is most unexpected,” the Mayor says, glancing at Todd, “but joyful of course. Very joyful indeed.”
But I don’t see much joy behind the smile he’s giving.
Todd doesn’t seem to notice, though. “What’s with yer Noise?” he says to Ben. “Why are you talking like that?”
“I believe I have an idea,” the Mayor says.
But Todd isn’t listening.
“I’ll explain everything,” Ben says, using his mouth for the first time, though his voice is scratchy and clogged, as if he hasn’t used it in ages. But let me say first, he says, back through his Noise, reaching up to the Mayor and the crowd behind him, that peace is still with us. The Land still wants it. A real new world is still open to all of us. That’s what I came to tell you.
“Is that so?” the Mayor says, still smiling his cold smile.
“Then what’s he doing here?” Todd says, nodding at 1017. “He tried to kill Viola. He don’t care about peace.”
The Return made a mistake, Ben says, for which we must forgive him.
“The who did what now?” Todd says, perplexed.
But 1017 is already turning his battlemore back towards the road without acknowledging us, riding back through the crowds on his way out of the city.
“Well, now,” the Mayor says, his smile still stuck there. Ben and Todd lean into each other, the feelings rolling off them in waves, waves that make me feel great in spite of all my worries. “Well, now,” the Mayor says again, a little louder, trying to make sure he has all our attention. “I would very, very much like to hear what Ben has to say.”
I’m sure you would, David, Ben says in that weird Noise way. But first I’ve got a lot of catching up to do with my son.
And there’s a surge of feeling from Todd–
And he doesn’t see the glimmer of pain flash again on the face of the Mayor.
“But I don’t unnerstand,” I say, not for the first time. “Does that make you Spackle now or something?”
No, Ben says, thru his Noise, but way clearer than Noise speech ever usually is. The Spackle speak the voice of this planet. They live within it. And now, because of how long I was immersed in that voice, I do, too. I’ve connected with them.
And there’s that connected word again.
We’re in my tent, just me and him, Angharrad tied outside in a way that blocks the opening. I know the Mayor and Viola and Bradley and all them are out there waiting for us to come out to tell ’em what the hell’s going on.
But let ’em wait.
I got Ben back and I ain’t letting him outta my sight.
I swallow and think for a minute. “I don’t unnerstand,” I say again.
“I think it could be the way forward for all of us,” he says with his mouth, croaky and crackling. He coughs and lets his Noise take over again. If we can all learn to speak this way, then there won’t be any more division twixt us and the Spackle, there won’t be any division twixt humans. That’s the secret of this planet, Todd. Communication, real and open, so we can finally understand each other for once.
I clear my throat. “Women don’t got Noise,” I say. “What’ll happen to them?”
He stops. I’d forgotten, he says. It’s been so long since I’ve really been around them. He brightens again. Spackle women have Noise. And if there’s a way for men to stop having Noise – he looks at me – There must be a way for women to start.
“The way things’ve gone round here,” I say, “I don’t know that yer gonna have much success with that kinda talk.”
We sit quietly for a moment. Well, not quietly, cuz Ben’s Noise churns around us constantly, taking my own Noise and mixing it in like the most natural thing in the world, and in any instant I can know anything and everything about him. Like how, after Davy shot him, he stumbled into the undergrowth to die and lay there for a day and a night before he was found by a hunting party of Spackle and then what followed was months of dreaming where he was nearly dead, months away in a world of strange voices, learning all the knowledges and histories of everything the Spackle know, learning new names and feelings and unnerstandings.
And then he woke up and was changed.
But was still Ben, too.
And I tell him, thru the best use of my Noise, which feels open and free again like it ain’t done for months, about everything that happened here and how I still don’t quite unnerstand how I ended up wearing this uniform–
But all he asks is, Why isn’t Viola in here with us?
“Don’t you feel excluded?” the Mayor says, pacing around the campfire one more time.
“Not really,” I say, watching him. “It’s his father in there.”
“Not his real father,” says the Mayor, frowning
“Real enough.”
The Mayor keeps pacing, his face hard and cold.
“Unless you mean–” I say.
“If they ever do emerge,” he says, nodding at the tent where Ben and Todd are talking, where we can hear and see a cloud of Noise spinning denser and more intricately than any usual man’s Noise, “please send Todd to retrieve me.”
And off he goes, Captain O’Hare and Captain Tate following him.
“What’s with him?” Bradley asks, watching the Mayor leave.
It’s Wilf who answers. “He thinks he’s lost his son.”
“His son?” Bradley asks.
“The Mayor’s somehow got it into his head that Todd’s a replacement for Davy,” I say. “You saw how he was talking to him.”
“I heard some of it through the crowd,” Lee says, from where he’s sitting by Wilf. “Something about Todd transforming him.”
“And now Todd’s real father’s here,” I say.
“At the worst possible moment,” Lee says.
“Or just in the nick of time,” I say.
The curtain of the tent opens and Todd pokes his head out.
“Viola?” he says.
And I turn to look at him–
And when I do, I can hear everything he’s thinking.
Everything.
Clearer than before, clearer than seems possible–
And I’m not even sure I’m supposed to, but I look him in the eyes and I see it–
In the middle of everything he’s feeling–
Even after we fought-
Even after I doubted him-
Even after I hurt him–
I see how much he loves me.
But I see more, too.
“So what happens now?” Viola says to Ben, sitting next to me on my cot. I’ve taken her hand. Didn’t say nothing about it, just took it, and she let me and we sit side by side.
Peace is what happens, Ben says. The Sky sent me to find out about the explosion, to see if peace was still possible. He smiles and again it’s thru his whole Noise, reaching out to us so that it’s hard not to smile yerself. And it is possible. That’s what the Return is telling the Sky right now.
“What makes you think 1017 is trustworthy?” I say. “He attacked Viola.”
I squeeze Viola’s hand.
She squeezes it back.
Because I know him, Ben says. I can hear his voice, hear the conflict in it, hear the good that wants to come. He’s like you, Todd. He can’t kill.
I look at the floor at that.
“I think you need to talk to the Mayor,” Viola says to Ben. “I don’t think he’s too happy that you’re back.”
No, Ben says. I got that impression too, though he is very difficult to read, isn’t he? He stands. “But he needs to know the war is over,” he rasps in his spoken voice.
He looks at me and Viola sitting there, gives another little smile, and then leaves us in the tent.
We don’t say nothing for a minute.
Or for another minute more.
And then I tell her the thought that’s been coming ever since I saw Ben.
“I wanna go back to old Prentisstown,” Todd says.
“What?” I say, surprised, even though I’d seen it swirling in his Noise.
“Maybe not old Prentisstown itself,” he says. “But not here.”
I sit up. “Todd, we’ve barely started–”
“But we will start and soon,” he says, still holding my hand. “The ships’ll come and the settlers will wake up and then there’ll be a new city. With all new people.” He looks away. “After living in one for a while, I don’t think I like cities much.”
His Noise is getting quieter now that Ben’s left, but I can still see him imagining life after the convoy, things getting back to normal, people spreading up the river again. “And you want to go,” I say.
He looks back to me. “I want you to come with me. And Ben. And Wilf and Jane, maybe. Bradley, too, if he wants, and that Mistress Lawson seems nice. Why couldn’t we all make a town of it? A town far away from all this.” He sighs. “A town far from the Mayor.”
“But he needs to be watched–”
“There’ll be 5000 new people who’ll know all about what he is.” He looks down at the ground again. “Besides, I think maybe I’ve done all I can for him,” he says. “And I’m tired.”
The way he says it makes me realize how tired I am, too, how tired I am of all of this, and how tired he must be, how tired he looks, how worn out and through with it all, and my throat starts to clench with the feeling of it.
“I want to go away from here,” he says. “And I want you to come with me.”
And we sit there in silence for a good long while.
“He’s in your head, Todd,” I finally say. “I saw him there. Like you’re connected somehow.”
Todd sighs again at the word connected. “I know,” he says. “That’s why I wanna go. I came close but I ain’t forgot who I am. Ben reminded me of all I ever need to know. And, yeah, I’m connected to the Mayor, too, but I’ve pulled him away from all this war stuff.”
“Did you see what he did with the crowd?”
“It’s almost over,” Todd says. “We’ll have peace, he’ll have his victory, and he won’t need me, even tho he thinks he does. The convoy’ll come, he’ll be the hero but he’ll be outnumbered, and we’ll get the hell outta here, okay?”
“Todd–”
“It’s almost over,” he says again. “And I can hang on till it is.”
And then he looks at me in a different way.
His Noise keeps getting quieter, but I can see it there still–
See how he feels the skin of my hand against his, see how he wants to take it and press it to his mouth, how he wants to breathe in the smell of me and how beautiful I look to him, how strong after all that illness, and how he wants to just lightly touch my neck, just there, and how he wants to take me in his arms and–
“Oh, God,” he says, looking away suddenly. “Viola, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean–”
But I just put my hand up to the back of his neck–
And he says, “Viola–?”
And I pull myself towards him–
And I kiss him.
And it feels like, finally.
“I’m in complete agreement,” the Mayor says to Ben.
You are? Ben says, surprised.
We’re all gathered round the campfire, Viola sitting next to me.
Holding my hand again.
Holding like she ain’t never gonna let it go.
“Of course I am,” the Mayor says. “As I’ve said many times, peace is what I want. It’s what I genuinely want. Believe it out of self-interest if nothing else.”
Excellent then, Ben says. We’ll continue with the council as planned. That is, if your injuries will allow you to take part?
The Mayor’s eyes spark a little. “What injuries would those be, Mr Moore?”
There’s a stillness as we all see the burn gel covering his face and the bandages on the back of his neck and head.
But no, he don’t look like he’s feeling any injuries at all.
“In the meantime,” the Mayor says, “there are certain things that need to be done right away, certain assurances to be made.”
“Assurances to who?” Viola asks.
“The people on the far hilltop, for one,” the Mayor says. “They may not be gathering themselves into the Army of the Martyress just yet, but I would feel no surprise if Mistress Coyle had left instructions with Mistress Braithwaite should she fail. Someone needs to go back up there and settle things.”
“I’ll go,” Mistress Lawson says, frowning. “The mistresses will listen to me.”
“Me, too,” says Lee, aiming his Noise away from me and Viola.
“And our friend Wilf to drive them,” says the Mayor.
We all look up at that. “I’ll fly them,” Bradley says.
“And be gone all night?” the Mayor asks, looking at him hard (and I wonder if I hear the hum–) “Not to return until morning with a burn unit far surpassing anything we have in the city? Plus, I think you, Bradley, need to go back to the Spackle today, right now, with Ben and Viola.”
“What?” Viola says. “But we agreed on tomorrow–”
“By tomorrow, the schism Mistress Coyle wanted may have taken firmer hold,” the Mayor says. “How much better if you, hero of the first talks, come back tonight with matters already settled? With, for example, a river flowing slowly down the banks?”
“I wanna go with Ben,” I say. “I don’t–”
“I’m sorry, Todd,” the Mayor says, “I really am, but you have to stay here with me, as usual, and make sure I don’t do anything anyone would disapprove of.”
“No,” Viola says, surprisingly loud.
“All this time and you’re worried now?” the Mayor says to her, smiling. “It’s only a few hours, Viola, and with Mistress Coyle gone, the credit for winning this war falls solely to me. I’ve got plenty of reason to behave, believe me. The convoy may just crown me king.”
There’s a long pause where everyone looks at each other, considering this.
I have to say that all sounds rather sensible, Ben finally says. Aside from the king part, obviously.
And I watch the Mayor as everyone starts talking it thru. He looks right back at me. I expect to see anger.
But all I see is sadness.
And I realize–
He’s saying goodbye.
“That Ben’s Noise is amazing,” Lee says, as I help him up on the cart that will take them back to the hilltop. “It’s like the whole world in there, and everything is so clear.”
We decided, after a bit more debate, to go with the Mayor’s plan. Me, Bradley and Ben will ride up to the Spackle now. Lee, Wilf and Mistress Lawson will go to the hilltop to calm things down. Todd and the Mayor will stay in town to hold things together here. And we’ll all try to get back together as fast as we can.
Todd says he thinks the Mayor just wants to say goodbye to him in private, now that Ben’s come back, and that it would probably be more dangerous for Todd not to be there. I still argued against it until Ben agreed with Todd, saying it was the last hours before real peace and whatever good influence Todd had over the Mayor, now was when it would be needed most.
I’m still worried, though.
“He says it’s how all the Spackle talk,” I say to Lee. “How all the Spackle are, how they evolved. To fit the planet perfectly.”
“And us not so much?”
“He said we could learn if he did.”
“And the women?” Lee asks. “What about them?”
“What about the Mayor? He doesn’t have Noise any more.”
“Neither does Todd,” Lee says, and he’s right. The farther Todd gets away from Ben, the quieter he is. And then I see Todd in Lee’s Noise, see me and Todd in Todd’s tent, see me and Todd–
“Hey!” I say, blushing red. “That didn’t happen!”
“Something did,” he mumbles. “You were in there for ages.”
I don’t say anything, just watch Wilf yoke up oxes to the front of the cart and Mistress Lawson fuss over supplies she wants to take back to the hilltop.
“He asked me to go away with him,” I say, after a long minute.
“When?” Lee asks. “Where?”
“When this is all over,” I say. “As soon as we can.”
“And will you?”
I don’t answer.
“He loves you, you idiot,” Lee says, not unkindly. “Even a blind man can see that.”
“I know,” I whisper, looking back over to the campfire where Todd’s saddling up Angharrad for Bradley to ride.
“We’re ready,” Wilf says, coming over.
I embrace him. “Good luck, Wilf,” I say. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yoo too, Viola.”
I embrace Lee as well who whispers in my ear, “I’ll miss you when you go.”
I pull away and even hug Mistress Lawson. “You’re looking so healthy,” she says. “Like a new girl.”
Then Wilf strikes the reins and the cart starts making its way around the ruins of the cathedral, around the lonely bell tower, still standing after all this time.
I watch them until they disappear.
And then a snowflake lands on the tip of my nose.
I’m smiling like a loon as I hold out my hand to catch the flakes as they fall. They land like perfect little crystals before almost instantly melting on my palm, where the skin from my burns is still red.
“First time in years,” the Mayor says, looking up like everyone else, into the snow dropping down like white feathers, everywhere and everywhere and everywhere.
“Ain’t that something?” I say, still smiling. “Hey, Ben!” I start over to where he’s introducing Angharrad to his battlemore.
“Wait for a moment, Todd,” the Mayor says.
“What?” I say, a little impayshuntly cuz I’d much rather be sharing snow with Ben than the Mayor.
“I think I know what happened to him,” the Mayor says and we both look over to Ben again, still talking to Angharrad and the other horses now, too.
“Nothing happened to him,” I say. “He’s still Ben.”
“Is he?” the Mayor asks. “He’s been opened up by the Spackle. We don’t really know what that will do to a man.”
I frown and feel a roil in my stomach. It’s anger.
But there’s a little bit of fear there, too.
“He’s fine,” I say.
“I say this out of concern for you, Todd,” he says, sounding sincere. “I can see how happy you are to have him back. How much it means to have your father again.”
I stare at him, trying to figure him out, keeping my own Noise light, so we’re just two stones giving nothing away to each other.
Two stones getting slowly covered in snow.
“You think he may be in danger?” I finally say.
“This planet is information,” the Mayor says. “All the time, never-ceasing. Information it wants to give you, information it wants to take from you to share with everyone else. And I think you can respond to that in two ways. You can control how much you give it, like you and I have done in shutting off our Noise–”
“Or you can open yourself up to it completely,” I say, looking back at Ben, who catches my eye and smiles back.
“And which way is the proper way,” the Mayor says, “well, we’ll have to see. But I’d keep an eye on your Ben if I were you. For his own good.”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” I say, turning back to him. “I’ll be keeping an eye on him the rest of his life.”
And I’m smiling as I say it, still warm from Ben’s smile to me, but I catch a glint in the eye of the Mayor, brief and vanishing, but there.
And it’s a glint of pain.
But then it’s gone.
“I hope you’ll be around to keep an eye on me, too,” he says, his own smile returning. “Keep me on the straight and narrow.”
I swallow. “You’ll do fine,” I say. “With or without me.”
And there’s the pain again. “Yes,” he says. “Yes, I expect I will.”
“You look like you’ve rolled in flour,” I say down to Todd as he approaches.
“So do you,” he says.
I give my head a shake and bits of snow fall down around me. I’m already up on Acorn and I can hear the horses greeting Todd, Angharrad especially, standing underneath Bradley.
She’s a beauty, Ben says, next to us on his battlemore. And I think she’s got a little crush.
Boy colt, Angharrad says, ducking her head at the battlemore and looking away.
“I suggest your first order of business be reassurance,” the Mayor says, coming over. “Tell the Spackle we’re more committed to peace than ever. And then see if you can get some demonstrable action from them right away.”
“Like the river being released,” Bradley says. “I agree. Show the people they’ve got something to hope for.”
“We’ll do our best,” I say.
“I’m sure you will, Viola,” the Mayor says. “You always have.”
But I notice he keeps his eyes steady on Todd and Ben as they say their goodbyes.
It’s only a few hours, I hear Ben say, his Noise bright and warm and reassuring.
“You keep yerself safe,” Todd says. “I ain’t losing you a third time.”
Well that would just be terrible bad luck, wouldn’t it? Ben smiles.
And they embrace, warm and strong, like a father and son.
I keep watching the Mayor’s face.
“Good luck,” Todd says, coming up to my saddle. He lowers his voice. “You keep thinking bout what I said. You just keep thinking bout the future.” He grins shyly. “Now that we actually have one.”
“Are you sure about this?” I ask. “Because I can stay. Bradley can–”
“I told you,” he says. “I think he just wants to say goodbye. That’s why it all feels so weird. It’s actually over.”
“Are you sure you’ll be all right?”
“I’ll be fine,” Todd says. “I’ve managed all this time with him. I can last a couple more hours.”
And we squeeze hands again, holding it a second longer.
“I’ll do it, Todd,” I whisper. “I’ll come with you.”
And he doesn’t say anything, just squeezes my hand harder and brings it up to his face like he wants to breathe me in.
“The snow’s getting thicker,” I say.
Viola and Ben and Bradley have been on the road for a little while now and I’m watching the projeckshun as they start up the hill to the Spackle, riding slowly in the weather. Viola said she’d call me when she got there but there ain’t no harm in checking their progress, is there?
“The flakes are too big to be much of a worry,” says the Mayor. “It’s when they’re small and coming down like rain that you’ve got a proper blizzard on the way.” He brushes them off his sleeve. “These are just a false promise.”
“It’s still snow,” I say, watching the horses and the battlemore in the distance.
“Come, Todd,” the Mayor says. “I need your help.”
“My help?”
He gestures around his face. “I may say I have no injuries, but the burn gel makes it easier to believe.”
“But Mistress Lawson–”
“Has gone back up to the hilltop,” he says. “You can put some on your hands at the same time. It’s efficient.”
I look down at my hands, starting to sting again as the medicine wears off. “Okay,” I say.
We head on over to the scout ship, landed in a corner of the square not far from us, get ourselves up the ramp and into the room of healing, where the Mayor sets himself down on a bed, takes off his uniform jacket and folds it next to him. He starts peeling off the bandages from the back of his head and neck.
“You should keep those on,” I say. “They’re still fresh.”
“They’re binding,” the Mayor says. “I’d like you to put new ones on a little more loosely, please.”
I sigh. “Fine.” I go to the treatment drawers and take out some burn bandages, as well as a canister of the burn gel for his face. I unpeel the bandage wrappers and tell him to lean forward, placing them loosely on the horrible burnt stretch on the back of his head. “This don’t look too good,” I say, setting the bandage down lightly.
“It’d be worse if you hadn’t saved me, Todd.” He sighs in relief as the medicine reaches into the burn, moving thru his system. He sits up for the gel, showing me his face, which has a smile on it, a smile that looks almost sad. “Remember when I bandaged you, Todd?” he asks. “All those months ago.”
“I ain’t likely to be forgetting,” I say, spreading the gel on his forehead.
“I think that was the moment we first really understood one another,” he says. “Where you saw that maybe I wasn’t all bad.”
“Maybe,” I say, carefully, using two fingers to slop it across his red cheekbones.
“That was the moment where this all really started.”
“It started a hell of a lot earlier for me.”
“And now here you are bandaging me in return,” he says. “At the moment where it ends.”
I stop, hands still in the air. “Where what ends?”
“Ben’s returned, Todd. I’m not ignorant of what that means.”
“What does it mean?” I say, looking at him all wary.
He smiles again and this time there’s sadness all over it. “I can still read you,” he says. “Nobody else can but then nobody else on this whole planet is like me, are they? I can read you even when you’re as silent as the black beyond.”
I lean back from him.
“You want to go with Ben,” he says, shrugging a little. “Perfectly understandable. When this is all over, you want to take Ben and Viola and start a new life away from here.” He grimaces a little. “Away from me.”
His words ain’t threatening, they’re actually the goodbye I was expecting, but there’s this feeling in the room, this weird feeling–
(and the hum–)
(I’m noticing now for the first time–)
(it’s completely gone from my head–)
(which is somehow even more frightening than it being there–)
“I ain’t yer son,” I say.
“You might have been,” he says, almost in a whisper. “And what a son you would have made. Someone I could have finally handed over to. Someone with power in their Noise.”
“I ain’t like you,” I say. “I ain’t never gonna be like you.”
“No, you won’t,” he says. “Not with your real father here. Even though our uniforms match, eh, Todd?”
I look down at my uniform. He’s right. It’s even nearly the same size as the Mayor’s.
Then he turns his head slightly, looking past me. “You can come out now, Private. I know you’re there.”
“What?” I say, turning towards the door.
In time to see Ivan step into it. “The ramp was down,” he says, looking sheepish. “I was just a-making sure no one was in here who shouldn’t be.”
“Always seeking where the power is, Private Farrow,” the Mayor says, smiling sadly. “Well, I’m afraid it’s not in here any more.”
Ivan gives me a nervous glance. “I’ll just be a-going, then.”
“Yes,” says the Mayor. “Yes, I think you finally will.”
And he reaches calmly for his uniform jacket, folded nicely on the bed, and me and Ivan just stand there and watch as he reaches inside a pocket, takes out a gun, and without changing the expresshun on his face, shoots Ivan thru the head.
We’re right at the top of the hill when we hear it, taking the first steps into the Spackle camp, the Sky and 1017 waiting to greet us.
I turn round in the saddle, looking back towards the city.
“Was that a gunshot?” I say.
“Yer mad,” I say, my hands up now, edging towards the door, where Ivan’s body is spilling blood everywhere. He didn’t move, didn’t even flinch when the Mayor raised the gun, didn’t do nothing to stop his own death.
And I know why.
“You can’t control me,” I say. “You can’t. I’ll fight you and I’ll win.”
“Will you, Todd?” he says, his voice still low. “Stop right there.”
And I stop.
My feet feel like they’re frozen to the ground. My hands are still up and I ain’t going nowhere.
“All this time, you really believed you had the upper hand?” The Mayor rises from the sickbed, still holding the gun. “That’s almost sweet.” He laughs, as if fond of the sweetness. “And you know what? You did. You did have it. When you were acting like a proper son, I would have done anything you asked, Todd. I saved Viola, I saved this town, I fought for peace, all because you asked.”
“Back off,” I say, but my feet still ain’t moving, I still can’t get them off the goddam ground.
“And then you saved my life, Todd,” he says, still coming towards me. “You saved me instead of that woman and I thought, He’s with me. He’s really with me. He really is all I’ve ever wanted in a son.”
“Let me go,” I say, but I can’t even put my hands to my ears.
“And then Ben comes to town,” he says, a flash of fire in his voice. “Right at the moment when everything was complete. The moment where you and I had the fate of this world in the palm of our hands.” He opens his palm as if to show me the fate of the world. “And then it melted away just like the snow.”
VIOLA, I think at him, right at his head.
He smiles back. “Not quite as strong as you used to be, are you?” he asks. “Not quite as easy to do when your Noise is silent.”
My stomach drops as I realize what he’s done.
“Not what I’ve done, Todd,” he says, stepping right up to me. “What you’ve done. This is about what you have done.”
He raises the gun.
“You broke my heart, Todd Hewitt,” he says. “You broke a father’s heart.”
And he slams the butt of the gun against my temple and the world goes black.
The sky rides over to me through the ice falling gently from the clouds above. It comes down like white leaves, already spreading a blanket of itself across the ground, coating us, too, on the battlemores we still ride.
It is a messenger of things to come, the Sky shows happily. A sign of a new beginning, the past wiped clean so that we can start a new future.
Or maybe it is just the weather, I show.
He laughs. That is exactly how the Sky must think. Is it the future or is it just the weather?
I ride forward to the lip of the hill, where I can see more clearly the group of three crossing the last empty field before the climb. They are coming now, not waiting until tomorrow, eager no doubt for further signs of peace to calm the dissension that is tearing them apart. The Sky already has the Land prepared where we blocked the river, as we know they will ask for it to be released, slowly, letting it resume its natural course.
And we will give it to them. After negotiation, but we will give it to them.
How do you know I will be the Sky? I ask. You cannot tell the Land who to choose. I have seen it in their voices. The Land comes to an agreement after the Sky has died.
Correct, the Sky shows, pulling his lichen cloak around him tighter. But I can see no other choice they would make.
I am not qualified, I show. I am still angry with the Clearing, and I cannot kill them, even when they deserve it.
And do you not think that conflict is what makes the Sky? he shows. To seek a third choice when the two offered seem impossible? You alone know what it is like to carry that weight. You alone have already made these choices.
Looking down, I can see now that, in addition to the Source, it is the two of the Clearing who were here before, the noisy man with the darker skin–
And the Knife’s one in particular.
And what do you make of the Knife, the Sky asks, now that you have seen him again in the flesh?
Because there he was.
Running towards the Source, seeing me but not even slowing, greeting the Source with so much joy, so much love, that I very nearly had to ride away right then. And the Source’s voice opened up so wide with the same feelings that it expanded out around everyone nearby.
Including the Return.
And for a moment, I was in that joy, I was inside that love and happiness, inside the reunion and the reconnection, and I saw the Knife again for the flawed Clearing that he was, and as the Source forgave the Knife, as the Source provided absolution for everything the Knife had done–
For everything Todd had done–
I felt my voice provide it, too, I felt my voice join with the Source’s and offer my own forgiveness, offer to let go and forget every wrong he had done to me, every wrong he had done to our people–
Because I could see through the Source’s voice how the Knife punishes himself for his crimes more than I ever could–
He is just one of the Clearing, I show to the Sky. As unremarkable as any of them.
He is not, the Sky shows gently. He is as remarkable among them as the Return is among the Land. And that is why you could not forgive him when you arrived here. That is why your forgiveness of him now, even if only through the voice of the Source–
I do not forgive him on my own–
But you have seen how it is possible. And that in itself marks you yet again as remarkable.
I do not feel remarkable, I show. I only feel tired.
Peace is here at last, the Sky shows, reaching over to place a hand on my shoulder. You will rest. You will be happy.
His voice is surrounding me now and I take a breath in surprise–
For the future is in the Sky’s voice, a future he rarely speaks of, because it has been so dark lately–
But here it is as bright as the falling flakes of ice–
A future where the Clearing keeps its word and stays within its borders and where the body of the Land that surrounds us now on this hilltop can live unbothered by war–
But one where the Clearing can learn to speak the voice of the Land, too, one where understanding is not only possible, but desired–
A future where I work by the Sky’s side, learning what it is to be a leader–
A future where he guides and teaches me–
A future of sunlight and rest–
A future with no more death–
The Sky’s hand squeezes my shoulder ever so slightly.
The Return has no father, he shows. The Sky has no son.
And I understand what he is saying, what he is asking–
And he sees my indecision–
Because if he was lost to me like my one in particular–
It is one possible future, he shows, warmth still in his voice. There may be others. He looks up. And here one arrives now.
The Source leads them, happiness and optimism in his voice preceding him and greeting us as he crests the hill. The Clearing man is second, “Bradley” in their language, his own voice louder and harsher and much less far-reaching than the Source.
And finally her. The Knife’s one in particular.
Viola.
She rides up over the hill, her steed leaving hoofprints in the gathered white of the ice. She looks far healthier than before, almost well, and I wonder for a moment at the change, I wonder if they have found a cure for the band, the one that still stings and burns on my own arm–
But before I can ask, before the Sky can properly greet them, a crack resounds over the valley, strangely muffled under the blanket of white.
A crack that is unmistakable.
The Knife’s one in particular turns around quickly in her saddle.
“Was that a gunshot?” she asks.
A cloud immediately comes over the voice of the Source and the man of the Clearing, too.
And the Sky. It could be nothing, he shows.
“When has it ever been nothing in this place?” the man of the Clearing says.
The Source turns to the Sky. Can our eyes see it? he asks. Are we near enough to see?
“What do you mean?” the man of the Clearing asks. “See what?’
Wait a moment, the Sky says.
The Knife’s one in particular is holding a small box she has taken from her pocket. “Todd?” she says into it. “Todd, are you there?”
But there is no answer.
Not before we all hear a familiar sound–
“That’s the ship!” the man from the Clearing says, spinning his steed round to see the vessel rising from the valley floor.
“Todd!” the Knife’s one in particular yells into the metal box–
But again there is no answer.
What is happening? shows the Sky, command in his voice. We thought the pilot of the ship was killed–
“She was,” the man from the Clearing says. “And I’m the only other one who knows how to fly it–”
But there it is, lumbering into the air from the centre of their city–
And beginning to fly right towards us–
With increasing speed–
“Todd!” the Knife’s one in particular is saying in increasing panic. “Answer me!”
It’s Prentiss, the Source shows to the Sky. It can only be him.
“But how?” the man from the Clearing demands.
It doesn’t matter now, the Source shows. If it’s the Mayor–
We need to run, finishes the Sky, turning to the Land and sending out the order instantly, run and run and RUN–
And there is a whisking sound from the vessel, the vessel that is almost upon us, a whisking sound that makes us turn from where we have already started to flee–
The vessel has fired its biggest weapons–
Fired them right at us–