Monsters of Men

Go, he says. Before the Sky changes his mind.

[TODD]

“VIOLA!” I scream but still no answer on Communicator 1 or Communicator 3 as I feel the floor pitch below me. I look up at the screens and see us coming round after having left a scorching fire down the riverbed–

But there’s too much smoke and I can’t see her or Ben–

(please please please–)

“Look at the Spackle,” Todd, the Mayor says over the comm, sounding intrigued. “They’re not even running.”

I’ll kill him, I’ll bloody well kill him–

And then I think, stopping him is something I want, it’s something I desire more than anything and if it’s all about desire–

Stop the attack, I think, concentrating hard thru the rocking and rolling of the ship, trying to find him up there in the cockpit. Stop the attack and land the ship.

“Is that you I feel knocking on my door, Todd?” the Mayor laughs.

And there’s a flash in the middle of my head, a flash of white burning pain and the words he’s used since the beginning, YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING and I stagger back, my eyes blurry, my thoughts a mess–

“And you didn’t need to try anyway,” the Mayor says. “It looks as if our Viola has survived.”

I blink at the screens and see us flying towards two figures on horseback, one of ’em Viola–

(thank god thank god–)

Riding towards the lip of the hill in full fury, avoiding fire where they can, jumping thru it where they can’t–

“Don’t worry, Todd,” the Mayor says. “My work here is done. If I’m not mistaken, the river will be on its way and we shall await our fates at the ocean shore.”

I’m still breathing heavy but I stumble back to the comm panel.

Maybe my comm was Communicator 1 but it was Mistress Coyle who was number 3–

I reach up and press Communicator 2.

“Viola?” I say.

And on the screen where I can see her, all small and tiny on Acorn’s back as they reach the lip of the burning hill and fly right over to the jagged path below–

I see her flinch in surprise, see her and Acorn stumble to a halt, see her reach in her cloak–

“Todd?” I hear, clear as anything–

“What was that?” I hear the Mayor say–

But I’m still pressing the button–

“The ocean, Viola!” I yell. “We’re going to the ocean!”

And I’m hit with another blast of Noise–

{VIOLA}

“The ocean!?” I yell back into the comm. “Todd? What do you mean–?”

“Look!” Bradley calls, a little farther down the wrecked zigzag road on Angharrad. He’s pointing at the scout ship–

Which is hurtling through the valley away from us, heading east–

Heading towards the ocean–

“Todd?” I say again, but there’s no response from the comm. “Todd!?”

“Viola, we have to go,” Bradley says and gees Angharrad back down the hill. There’s still no sound from the comm but Bradley’s right. There’s a wall of water coming and we’ve got to warn who we can–

Even though I know as Acorn charges down the hill once more that there are probably going to be very few lives we can save–

Maybe not even our own–

[TODD]

I groan and pick myself up from the floor, where I fell on Ivan’s body. I glance back up at the screens but I don’t reckernize nothing now, don’t even see no fires, just green trees and hills below us–

So we’re on our way to the ocean–

For the end of it all–

I wipe Ivan’s blood off on my coat, the stupid uniform coat that matches the Mayor’s exactly, and even the thought of us looking the same fills me with shame–

“Ever seen an ocean, Todd?” he asks.

And I can’t help but look–

Cuz there it is–

The ocean–

And for a second, I can’t take my eyes off it–

Filling all of the screens at once, filling ’em and filling ’em and filling ’em, a stretch of water so huge it ain’t got no end, just the beach at the start, covered in sand and snow, and then water for ever and ever into the cloudy horizon–

It makes me so dizzy I gotta look away–

I go back to the comm screen where I got thru for a second to Viola but of course it’s off, the Mayor shutting down anything and everything I might use to talk to her.

It’s just me and him now, flying to the ocean–

Just me and him for the final reckoning–

He went after Viola. He went after Ben. If the fire didn’t kill ’em, the flood might, and so yeah, we’ll have an effing reckoning–

Yes, we will–

And I start thinking her name. I start thinking her name good and hard, to practise it, to warm it up in my mind, in my Noise–

Feeling my anger, feeling my worry for her–

He may have made it harder to fight by making my Noise quiet, but if he can still punch with his Noise, then so can I–

Viola, I think.

VIOLA–

(THE SKY)

I must send the Land through fire to save it. I must send them climbing up the burning hills of the valley, through trees that blaze, through secreted huts that collapse and explode, I must send them through great peril to escape an even greater peril now rushing down the riverbed–

A greater peril that I set on them–

A greater peril that the Sky deemed necessary–

Because these are the choices of the Sky, these are the choices the Sky has to make for the good of the Land. Huge numbers of us would burn to death if we let the fire keep raging through the forest, huge numbers of us might still burn to death as we make our escape–

But at least if the second happens, we will take many hundreds of the Clearing with us–

No, I hear the Source show, clambering up the steep hill behind me. We are on our battlemores, trying to find a way through the burning to get far enough above the riverbed before the water hits. The battlemores are suffering as we go but we have to press on, hoping their armour will save them.

The Sky can’t think that way, the Source shows. War against the Clearing will only destroy the Land. Peace must still be possible.

I turn to him from where I stand in my saddle, looking down to where he sits on his, like a man does. Peace? I show, outraged. You expect peace after what they’ve done?

After what one of them has done, the Source shows. Peace is not only possible, it’s vital to our future.

Our future?

He ignores this. The only alternative is complete mutual destruction.

And the problem with that would be what?

But his own voice is already glowing with anger. That’s not something the Sky would ask.

And what do you know of the Sky? I show. What do you know of any of us? You have spoken in our voice for a fraction of your life. You are not us. You will never be us.

As long as there is an us and them, he shows back, the Land will never be safe.

I make to answer but the voice of the Land calls down from the valley to the west, warning us. Our steeds begin to climb even faster. I look up the valley, through the flakes of ice still falling, through the fires that burn on either side, the smoke that rises into the clouds above–

And down the riverbed comes a bank of steaming fog, racing ahead of the river like the whistle before an arrow–

Here it comes, I show.

The fog rushes by us and up, coating the world in white.

I give the Source one last look–

And then I open my voice–

I open it to all the Land that can hear it, seeking out Pathways to pass it on, until I know that I am speaking to all Land, everywhere–

And I hear it, the echoes of the first command I sent, the command to gather weapons–

Sitting there as if a destiny to be fulfilled–

I seize on it in the voice and send it again, send it further and wider than before–