“Not if I can help it,” he says. He stands up and he swoons for a second but I hear him call Acorn with his Noise.
Boy colt, I hear clearly and Davy’s horse tugs free of where he’s tied and walks up over the rubble, boy colt, boy colt, boy colt.
Todd, I hear from farther out and there’s more clopping of hooves as Angharrad follows Acorn in and stands beside him. “Forward,” she nickers. “Forward,” Acorn nickers.
“Absolutely forward,” Todd says to them.
He puts an arm under my shoulders to lift me up. Acorn sees in his Noise and kneels down so it’s easier for me to get up top. When I’m sat in the saddle, Todd slaps his flank gently and up he stands.
Angharrad comes close to Todd and starts to kneel, too, but, “No, girl,” he says, petting her nose.
“What?” I say, alarmed. “What about you?”
He nods at the Mayor. “I have to take care of him,” he says and doesn’t meet my eye.
“What do you mean, take care of him?”
He looks past me. I turn. The beetle march of the army has reversed its course and stretches to the bottom of the hill now.
It’ll be marching here next.
“Go,” he says. “Get to the ship.”
“Todd,” I say. “You can’t kill him.”
He looks at me and his Noise is a muddle and he’s still struggling to stay upright. “He deserves it.”
“He does but–”
But Todd’s already nodding. “We are the choices we make.”
I nod back. We understand each other. “You’d stop being Todd Hewitt,” I say. “And I ain’t losing you again.”
[TODD]
I give a little snort when she says ain’t.
“I’m gonna have to stay with him, you know,” I say. “Yer gonna have to go to the ship as fast as you can and I’m gonna have to wait for the army to come.”
She nods, even tho there’s sadness there. “And what’ll you do then?”
I look over at the Mayor, still sprawled on the rocks, unconshus and moaning slightly.
I feel so heavy.
But I say, “I reckon they might not be too unhappy to see him beaten. I reckon they just might be on the lookout for a new leader.”
She smiles. “And that’ll be you?”
“And if you meet the Answer?” I say, smiling back. “What’ll you do then?”
She brushes her hair outta her eyes. “I reckon they may need a new leader, too.”
I step forward and I put my hand near hers on Acorn’s side. She don’t look at my face, just slides her hand till the tips of our fingers are touching.
“Just cuz yer going there and I’m staying here,” I say. “It don’t mean we’re parting.”
“No,” she says and I know she understands. “No, it certainly doesn’t.”
“I ain’t parting from you again,” I say, still looking at our fingers. “Not even in my head.”
She pushes her hand forward and laces her fingers in mine and we both look at ’em wrapped together.
“I have to go, Todd,” she says.
“I know.”
I look deep into Acorn’s Noise and I show him where the road is, where the ship landed, and how fast fast fast he’s gotta run.
“Forward,” he whinnies, loud and clear.
“Forward,” I say.
I look back up at Viola.
“I’m ready,” she says.
“Me, too,” I say.
“We’ll win,” she says.
“I reckon we just might.”
One last look.
One last look where we know each other.
Right down to our souls.
And I slap Acorn hard on the flanks.
And off they go, over the rubble, right down the road, tearing hard towards the people who (I hope I hope I hope) can help us.
I look down at the Mayor, still lying on the ground.
I hear the army marching down the hill, three kilometres away, if that.
I look for the rope.
I see it but before I pick it up, I take a second to close Davy’s eyes.
{VIOLA}
We fly down the road, and it’s all I can do not to fall off and break my neck.
“Watch for soldiers!” I shout in the space between Acorn’s flattened-back ears.
I have no idea how far into town the Answer’s managed to march, no idea if they’ll wait to see who I am before they blow me off the road.
No idea what her reaction will be if she sees me–
When she sees me–
When I tell her and everyone else the things I’ve got to tell them–
“Faster if you can!” I shout and there’s a jolt like an engine firing and Acorn goes even faster.
She’ll head for the ship. No doubt about that. She’ll have seen it land and gone straight for it. And if she gets there first, she’ll tell them how sorry she is that I died so tragically, how I fell so cruelly at the hands of the tyrant the Answer are trying to overthrow, how if the scout ship has any weapons that can be used from the air–
Which it does.
I lean down farther in the saddle, biting hard against the pain in my ankles, trying to make us go even faster.
We get well past the cathedral, down through the rows of shuttered-up shops and bolted-in houses. The sun is completely down, everything turning to silhouette against the darkening of the sky.
And I think about how the Answer will respond when they find out the Mayor’s fallen–
And what they’ll think when they find out Todd did it–
And I think of him–
I think of him–
I think of him–
Todd, Acorn thinks.
And we race down the road–
And I nearly tumble off as a BOOM rises in the distance.
Acorn judders to a halt, twisting round to keep me on his back. We turn and I look–
And I see the fires burning down the road.
I see houses on fire.
And stores.
And grain sheds.
And I see people running this way through the smoke, not soldiers, just people, running past us in the dark.
Passing us so fast they don’t even stop to look at us.
They’re fleeing from the Answer.
“What is she doing?” I say out loud.
Fire, Acorn thinks, nervously clattering his hooves.
“She’s burning everything,” I say. “She’s burning it all.”