“There,” Bradley stops it and runs it forward again in slow motion.
The battle is as chaotic and terrible as it was, the men being overwhelmed by the Spackle army and then–
BOOM!
There’s an explosion at the base of the hill, a sudden violent eruption sending dirt and rock and the bodies of Spackle and their battlemores flying up and out, spinning into the cloud of smoke that rapidly covers everything–
Bradley rewinds again and we watch it once more, a small flash and then a whole section of the hill is picked up and thrown into the air and right there on the screen we see Spackle die–
Die and die and die–
Dozens of them–
And I remember the one on the riverbank–
I remember his fear–
“Is this you?” Simone says to Mistress Coyle. “Has your army reached the fighting?”
“We don’t have missiles,” Mistress Coyle says, not taking her eyes off the projection. “If we did, I wouldn’t be asking you to fire yours.”
“Then where did it come from?” Simone says. Bradley’s fiddled with the controls and the picture is bigger and clearer and on the slowest setting you can see something flying into the base of the hill, see even more slowly the earth flying up, the Spackle bodies being torn, not caring what lives they had, who they loved, what their names are or were–
Just bodies flying apart–
Lives ending–
We did this to them, we made them attack, we enslaved and killed them, or at least the Mayor did–
And here we are killing them all over again–
Simone and Mistress Coyle are arguing but I’m really not hearing them–
Because I also know this.
When Simone asked me what to do–
I was going to say fire the missile.
I was.
I was going to cause this damage myself. I was going to say, yes, do it, fire it–
Kill all these Spackle, these Spackle with their real reason to attack someone who deserves it more than anyone on this planet–
If it would save Todd, it wouldn’t have mattered, I was going to do it–
I would have killed hundreds, thousands to save him.
I would have started an even bigger war for Todd.
And that realization is so huge I have to reach out a hand to Acorn to steady myself.
Then I hear Mistress Coyle’s voice rise over Simone’s, “It can only mean that he’s been building artillery himself!”
[TODD]
In the smoke and the screaming, Angharrad rocks her way back up to her feet, her Noise not saying nothing now, not saying it in a way that makes me really scared for her, but she’s up again and I’m looking back and I’m seeing it, I’m seeing where the blast came from–
The other army units. Led by Mr Tate and Mr O’Hare, back from collecting the rest of the soldiers, back from collecting the armaments the Mayor was talking about.
Armaments that I for one didn’t know he had.
“Secret weapons only work if they’re secret,” he says, riding back up to me.
He’s smiling wide now.
Cuz here comes a surge of new soldiers from the city road, hundreds of ’em, fresh and screaming and ready to fight–
And already the Spackle are turning–
Already the Spackle are looking back up the hill, trying to see if there’s any way over where the ground exploded–
And there’s another flash and a whistling sound over our heads and–
I flinch and Angharrad screams as another hole is blasted into the hill and more dirt and smoke and Spackle bodies and horned creacher parts go flying into the air.
The Mayor don’t flinch at all, just looks happy as the new soldiers flood round us, as the Spackle army collapses into chaos and turns and tries to run–
And is cut down by our new arrivals–
And I’m breathing heavy–
And I’m watching the tide turn–
And I gotta say–
I gotta say–
(shut up)
I feel a rush as I see it–
(shut up)
I feel relief and I feel joy and I feel my blood pumping as I see the Spackle fall–
(shut up shut up shut up)
“You weren’t worried there, were you, Todd?” the Mayor asks.
I look back at him, dirt and blood drying on my face, the bodies of men and Spackle around us everywhere, a new bright flood of Noise filling the air even tho I didn’t think it could ever get any louder–
“Come!” he says to me. “See what it’s like to be on the winning side.”
And he rides off after the new soldiers.
I ride after him, gun up, but not shooting, just watching and feeling–
Feeling the thrill of it–
Cuz that’s it–
That’s the nasty, nasty secret of war–
When yer winning–
When yer winning, it’s ruddy thrilling–
The Spackle are running back up the hill, climbing over the rubble and running–
Running away from us–
And I raise my gun–
And I aim it at the back of a running Spackle–
And my finger’s on the trigger–
And it’s ready to pull–
And the Spackle stumbles over the body of another Spackle, but it ain’t just one body, it’s two, it’s three–
And then the smoke is clearing and I’m seeing more, I’m seeing bodies everywhere, men and Spackle and horned creachers–
And I’m back in the monastery, back where the Spackle bodies were piled up–
And it don’t feel so thrilling no more–
“CHASE THEM UP THE HILL!” the Mayor shouts to his soldiers. “MAKE THEM SORRY THEY WERE EVER BORN!”
{VIOLA}
“It’s finishing,” I say. “The battle’s ending.”
Bradley let the projection play normally again, and we all saw the arrival of the rest of the army.
Saw the second explosion.
Saw the Spackle turn and try to run back up on themselves, over the wreckage of the bottom of the hill, chaos sending some of them falling into the river, into the road below, into the battle where they didn’t live for long.
The amount of death is making me feel physically sick, throbbing along with my ankles, and I have to lean against Acorn as everyone else argues.
“If he can do that,” Mistress Coyle says, “then he’s even more dangerous to you than I’ve been saying. Is that who you want in charge of the world you’re about to join?”