“This is Ben,” I say, trying to raise my Noise to block all the askings coming from the men.

“And who’s Ben when he’s at home?” Doctor Snow asks, his eyes alert and looking.

“Ben’s my pa,” I say. Cuz it’s true, ain’t it? In all that’s important. “My father.”

“Todd,” I hear Ben say behind me, all kindsa feelings in his Noise, but warning most of all.

“Your father?” says a bearded man behind Doctor Snow, his fingers flexing along the stock of his rifle, tho not lifting it.

Not yet.

“You might want to be careful who you start claiming as a parent, Todd,” Doctor Snow says slowly, pulling Jacob closer to him.

“You said the boy was from Farbranch,” says a third man with a purple birthmark under his eye.

“That’s what the girl told us.” Doctor Snow looks at Viola. “Didn’t you, Vi?”

Viola holds his look but don’t say nothing.

“Can’t trust the word of a woman,” says the beard. “This is a Prentisstown man if I ever saw one.”

“Leading the army right to us,” says the birthmark.

“The boy is innocent,” says Ben and when I turn I can see his hands are in the air. “I’m the one you want.”

“Correction,” says the beard, his voice angry and getting angrier. “You’re the one we don’t want.”

“Hold on a minute, Fergal,” Doctor Snow says. “Something’s not right here.”

“You know the law,” says the birthmark.

The law.

Farbranch talked about the law, too.

“I also know these aren’t normal circumstances,” Doctor Snow says, then turns back to us. “We should at least give them a chance to explain themselves.”

I hear Ben take a breath. “Well, I–”

“Not you,” the beard interrupts.

“What’s the story, Todd?” Doctor Snow says. “And it’s become really important you tell us the truth.”

I look from Viola to Ben and back again.

Which side of the truth do I tell?

I hear the cock of a rifle. The beard’s raised his gun. And so have one or two of the men behind him.

“The longer you wait,” the beard says, “the more you look like spies.”

“We ain’t spies,” I say in a hurry.

“The army your girl’s been talking about has been spotted marching down the river road,” Doctor Snow says. “One of our scouts just reported them as less than an hour away.”

“Oh, no,” I hear Viola whisper.

“She ain’t my girl,” I say, low.

“What?” Doctor Snow says.

“What?” Viola says.

“She’s her own girl,” I say. “She don’t belong to anyone.”

And does Viola ever look at me.

“Whichever,” the birthmark says. “We’ve got a Prentiss-town army marching on us and a Prentisstown man hiding in our bushes and a Prentisstown boy who’s been in our midst for the last week. Looks mighty fishy if you ask me.”

“He was sick,” Doctor Snow says. “He was out cold.”

“So you say,” says the birthmark.

Doctor Snow turns to him real slow. “Are you calling me a liar now, Duncan? Remember, please, that you’re talking to the head of the council of eldermen.”

“You telling me you’re not seeing a plot here, Jackson?” says the birthmark, not backing down and raising his own rifle. “We’re sitting ducks. Who knows what they’ve told their army?” He aims his rifle at Ben. “But we’ll be putting an end to that right now.”

“We ain’t spies,” I say again. “We’re running from the army just as hard as you should be.”

And the men look at each other.

In their Noise, I can hear just these thoughts about the army, about running from it instead of defending the town. I can also see anger bubbling, anger at having to make this choice, anger at not knowing the best way to protect their families. And I can see the anger focussing itself, not on the army, not on themselves for being unprepared despite Viola warning ’em for days, not at the world for the state it’s in.

They’re focussing their anger on Ben.

They’re focussing their anger on Prentisstown in the form of one man.

Doctor Snow kneels down to get to Jacob’s level. “Hey, fella,” he says to his son. “Why don’t you run on back to the house now, okay?”

Daddy daddy daddy I hear in Jacob’s Noise. “Why, Daddy?” he says, staring at me.

“Well, I’ll betcha the goat’s getting lonely,” Doctor Snow says. “And who wants a lonely goat, huh?”

Jacob looks at his father, back at me and Ben, then to the men around him. “Why is everyone so upset?” he says.

“Oh,” Doctor Snow says, “we’re just figuring some things out, is all. It’ll all be right soon enough. You just run on back home, make sure the goat’s okay.”

Jacob thinks about this for a second, then says, “Okay, Daddy.”

Doctor Snow kisses him on the top of the head and ruffles his hair. Jacob goes running back over the bridge towards Doctor Snow’s house. When Doctor Snow turns back to us, a whole raft of pointed guns accompany him.

“You can see how this doesn’t look good, Todd,” he says, and there’s real sadness in his voice.

“He doesn’t know,” Ben says.

“Shut your hole, murderer!” says the beard, gesturing with his rifle.

Murderer?

“Tell me true,” Doctor Snow says to me. “Are you from Prentisstown?”

“He saved me from Prentisstown,” Viola speaks up. “If it hadn’t been for him–”

“Shut up, girl,” says the beard.

“Now’s not really the time for women to be talking, Vi,” Doctor Snow says.

“But–” Viola says, her face getting red.

“Please,” Doctor Snow says. Then he looks at Ben. “What have you told your army? How many men we have? What our fortifications are like–”

“I’ve been running from the army,” Ben says, hands still in the air. “Look at me. Do I look like a well-tended soldier? I haven’t told them anything. I’ve been on the run, looking for my . . .” He pauses and I know the reason. “For my son,” he says.

“You did this knowing the law?” Doctor Snow asks.

“I know the law,” Ben says. “How could I possibly not know the law?”

“What ruddy LAW?” I yell. “What the hell is everyone talking about?”

“Todd is innocent,” Ben says. “You can search his Noise for as long as you like and you won’t find anything to say I’m lying.”

“You can’t trust them,” says the beard, still looking down his gun. “You know you can’t.”

“We don’t know anything,” Doctor Snow says. “Not for ten years or more.”

“We know they’ve raised themselves into an army,” says the birthmark.

“Yes, but I don’t see any crime in this boy,” Doctor Snow says. “Do you?”

A dozen different Noises come poking at me like sticks.

He turns to Viola. “And all the girl is guilty of is a lie that saved her friend’s life.”

Viola looks away from me, face still red with anger.

“And we’ve got bigger problems,” Doctor Snow continues. “An army coming that may or may not know all about how we’re preparing to meet them.”

“We ain’t SPIES!” I shout.

But Doctor Snow is turning to the other men. “Take the boy and the girl back into town. The girl can go with the women and the boy is well enough to fight alongside us.”

“Wait a minute!” I yell.

Doctor Snow turns to Ben. “And though I do believe you’re just a man out looking for his son, the law’s the law.”

“Is that your final ruling?” the beard says.

“If the eldermen agree,” Doctor Snow says. There’s a general but reluctant nodding of heads, all serious and curt. Doctor Snow looks at me. “I’m sorry, Todd.”

“Hold on!” I say, but the birthmark’s is already stepping forward and grabbing my arm. “Let go of me!”

Another man’s grabbing on to Viola and she’s resisting just as much as I am.

“Ben!” I call, looking back at him. “Ben!”

“Go, Todd,” he says.

“No, Ben!”

“Remember I love you.”

“What’re they gonna do?” I say, still pulling away from the birthmark’s hand. I turn to Doctor Snow. “What’re you gonna do?”

He don’t say nothing but I can see it in his Noise.

What the law demands.

“The HELL you are!” I yell and with my free arm I’m already reaching for my knife and bringing it round towards the birthmark’s hand, slicing it across the top. He yelps and lets go.

“Run!” I say to Ben. “Run, already!”

I see Viola biting the hand of the man who’s grabbing her. He calls out and she stumbles back.

“You, too!” I say to her. “Get outta here!”

“I wouldn’t,” says the beard and there are rifles cocking all over the place.

The birthmark is cursing and he raises his arm to strike but I’ve got my knife out in front of me. “Try it,” I say thru my teeth. “Come on!”

“ENOUGH!” Doctor Snow yells.

And in the sudden silence that follows, we hear the hoofbeats.

Thump budda-thump budda-thump.

Horses. Five of ’em. Ten. Maybe even fifteen.

Roaring down the road like the devil hisself is on their tail.

“Scouts?” I say to Ben tho I know they ain’t.

He shakes his head. “Advance party.”

“They’ll be armed,” I say to Doctor Snow and the men, thinking fast. “They’ll have as many guns as you.”

Doctor Snow’s thinking, too. I can see his Noise whirring, see him thinking how much time they’ve got before the horses get here, how much trouble me and Ben and Viola are going to cause, how much time we’ll waste.

I see him decide.

“Let them go.”

“What?” says the beard, his Noise itching to shoot something. “He’s a traitor and a murderer.”

“And we’ve got a town to protect,” Doctor Snow says firmly. “I’ve got a son to keep safe. So do you, Fergal.”

The beard frowns but says nothing more.

Thump budda-thump budda-thump comes the sound from the road.

Doctor Snow turns to us. “Go,” he says. “I can only hope you haven’t sealed our fate.”

“We haven’t,” I say, “and that’s the truth.”

Doctor Snow purses his lips. “I’d like to believe you.” He turns to the men. “Come on!” he shouts. “Get to your posts! Hurry!”

The group of men breaks up, scurrying back to Carbonel Downs, the beard and the birthmark still seething at us as they go, looking for a reason to use their guns, but we don’t give ’em one. We just watch ’em go.

I find I’m shaking a little.

“Holy crap,” Viola says, bending at the waist.

“We gotta get outta here,” I say. “The army’s gonna be more interested in us than it is in them.”

I still have Viola’s bag with me, tho all it’s got in it any more are a few clothes, the water bottles, the binos and my ma’s book, still in its plastic bag.

All the things we got in the world.

Which means we’re ready to go.

“This is only gonna keep happening,” Ben says. “I can’t come with you.”

“Yes, you can,” I say. “You can leave later but we’re going now and yer coming with us. We ain’t leaving you to be caught by no army.” I look over to Viola. “Right?”

She puts her shoulders back and looks decisive. “Right,” she says.

“That’s settled then,” I say.

Ben looks back and forth twixt the two of us. He furrows his brow. “Only till I know yer safe.”

“Too much talking,” I say. “Not enough running.”