Troops that are coming for battle.
And there are thousands of ’em.
“But,” I say, gasping, hardly able to get the words out. “But they were all killed. They were all killed during the Spackle War!”
“All of them, Todd?” the Mayor asks. “Every single one of them on this whole planet when all we live on is one little strip? Does that make sense to you?”
The lights I’ve been seeing are torches carried by the Spackle riding on the creachers’ backs, burning torches to lead the army, burning torches that light up the spears that the troops carry, the bows and arrows, the clubs.
All of ’em carrying weapons.
“Oh, we beat them,” says the Mayor. “Killed them in their thousands, certainly, every one within miles of here. Though they out-numbered us by a considerable margin, we had better weapons, stronger motivation. We drove them out of this land on the understanding that they would never return, never get in our way ever again. We kept some of them as slaves, of course, to rebuild our city after that war. It was only fair.”
The town is really ROARing now. The marching of the army has stopped and I can hear people running about and screaming to each other, stuff that don’t make no sense, stuff of disbelief, stuff of fear.
I run back down the rubble to him, pushing the gun hard into his ribs. “Why did they come back? Why now?”
And still he grins. “I expect they’ve had time to work on how they might get rid of us once and for all, don’t you? All these years? I expect they were only looking for a reason.”
“What reason?!” I shout at him. “Why–”
And I stop.
The genocide.
The death of every slave.
Their bodies piled up like so much rubbish.
“Quite right, Todd,” he says, nodding like we’re talking about the weather. “I suspect that must certainly be it, don’t you?”
I look down at him, understanding coming too late like always. “You did it,” I say. “Of course you did it. You killed every Spackle, every single one, made it look like it was the Answer.” I push the rifle into his chest. “You were hoping they’d come back.”
He shrugs. “I was hoping I’d have the chance to beat them once and for all, yes.” He purses his lips. “But it’s you I have to thank for speeding the plan along.”
“Me?” I say.
“Oh, yes, definitely you, Todd. I set the stage. But you sent them the messenger.”
“The messen–?”
No.
No.
I turn and run up the rubble again, binos back on, looking and looking and looking.
There’s too many, they’re too far away.
But he’s there, ain’t he?
Somewhere in that crowd.
1017.
Oh, no.
“I should say, Oh, no is right, Todd,” the Mayor calls up to me. “I left him alive for you to find, but even with your special relationship, he wasn’t very fond of you, was he? No matter how much you tried to help him. You’re the face of his torturers, the face he took back to his brothers and sisters.” I hear a low laugh. “I really wouldn’t want to be you right now, Todd Hewitt.”
I spin round, looking at the horizon on all sides. I spin round again. There’s an army to the south, one to the east, and now one marching down from the west.
“And here we sit,” says the Mayor, still sounding calm. “Right in the middle of it all.” He scratches his nose on his shoulder. “I wonder what those poor people on the scout ship must be thinking.”
No.
No.
I spin round once more, as if I could see them all coming. Coming for me.
My mind is racing.
What do I do?
What do I do?
The Mayor starts whistling, as if he had all the time in the world.
And Viola’s out there–
Oh, Jesus, she’s out there in it–
“The army,” I say. “The army’s gonna have to fight them.”
“In their spare time?” the Mayor says, raising his eyebrows. “When they’ve got a few free minutes from fighting the Answer?”
“The Answer will have to join us.”
“Us?” says the Mayor.
“They’ll have to fight alongside the army. They’ll have to.”
“You really think that’s how Mistress Coyle is going to play it?” He’s smiling but I can see his legs starting to bounce up and down now, energy coursing thru him. “She’ll see herself and them as having a common enemy, now won’t she? You mark my words. She’ll try to negotiate.” He catches my eye again. “And where will that leave you, Todd?”
I’m breathing heavy. I don’t got no answer.
“And Viola’s out there,” he reminds me, “all on her own.”
She is.
She is out there.
And she can’t even walk.
Oh, Viola, what have I done?
“And under these circumstances, my dear boy, do you really think the army is going to want you as leader?” He laughs as if it was always the dumbest idea anywhere. “Do you think they’ll trust you to lead them into battle?”
I spin round again with the binos. New Prentisstown is in chaos. Buildings burn to the east. People run thru the streets, running away from the Answer, running away from the Mayor’s army, and now running away from the Spackle, running all direkshuns with nowhere to go.
The horn blasts again, shaking glass outta some of the windows.
I spy it in the binos.
A great long trumpet, longer than four Spackle put together, carried on the backs of two of the horned creachers, being blown by the biggest Spackle I’ve ever seen.
And they’ve reached the bottom of the hill.
“I think it’s time you untied me, Todd,” the Mayor says, his voice a low buzz in the air.
I spin around to him, aiming the gun one more time. “You won’t control me,” I say. “Not no more.”
“I’m not trying to,” he says. “But I think we both know it’s a good idea, don’t you?”
I hesitate, breathing heavy.
“I’ve beaten the Spackle before, you see,” he says. “The town knows it. The army knows it. I don’t think they’ll be quite so eager to discard me and unite behind you now that they know what we’re up against.”