Monsters of Men

Mistress Coyle turns and I see three women with her. Mistress Nadari and Mistress Braithwaite, neither of whom have even bothered to say a word to me since the Answer came to the hilltop, but I’m not looking at them.

I’m looking at Simone.

“You should be in bed, my girl,” Mistress Coyle says.

I glare at her. “You don’t just ask if I’m ready for something then walk off.”

Mistress Coyle looks at the others, including Simone, who nods. “Very well, my girl. If you’re that committed to knowing.”

I’m still breathing heavy and realizing from her tone that I’m probably not going to like this at all when she holds out her hand in a way that asks if she can take my arm. I don’t let her, but I go with her as she walks away from the healing tents, the other two mistresses and Simone walking behind us like bodyguards.

“We’ve been working on a theory,” Mistress Coyle says.

“We?” I say, looking again at Simone, who still says nothing.

“One that makes more sense as the days go by, I’m afraid,” Mistress Coyle says.

“Can you get to the point, please?” I say. “It’s been a long day and I don’t feel good.”

She nods, once. “All right then, my girl.” She stops and faces me. “We’re starting to think that there may be no cure for the bands.”

I put my hand up to my arm without thinking. “What?”

“We’ve had them for decades,” she says. “We had them on Old World, for heaven’s sake, and of course there’ve been instances of cruelty or pranks when humans have been banded. But we couldn’t find a single other case, not even Simone in your very extensive database, of this sort of infection.”

“But how–?”

And then I stop. Because I realize what she’s hinting at.

“You think the Mayor put something extra on them.”

“It’d be a way for him to harm a huge number of women without anyone knowing the real agenda.”

“But we would have heard,” I say. “With all the Noise of the men, there’d have been rumours–”

“Think about it, my girl,” Mistress Coyle says. “Think about his history. Think about the extermination of the women in old Prentisstown.”

“He says it was suicide,” I say, knowing how weak it sounds.

“We’ve found chemicals even I can’t identify, Viola,” Simone says. “There’s real danger here. Real implications.”

I get a sick feeling in my stomach at the way she says implications. “Since when have you been listening to the mistresses so closely?”

“Since I found out you and all the banded women might be in real danger from that man,” she says.

“You be careful,” I say. “She’s got a way of getting people to do what she wants.” I look at Mistress Coyle. “A way of getting people to sit in half-circles of judgment on the rest of us.”

“My girl,” Mistress Coyle says, “I did not–”

“What do you want with me?” I ask. “What do you want me to do about it?”

Mistress Coyle sighs angrily. “We want to know if your Todd knows anything, if there’s something he’s not telling us.”

I’m already shaking my head. “He would have told me. The second he saw it on my arm.”

“But can he find out, my girl?” Her voice is taut. “Would he help us find out?”

And it takes a moment to sink in. But when it does–

“Oh, now I get it.”

“Get what?” Mistress Coyle says.

“You want a spy.” My voice gets stronger as I get madder. “It’s the same old tricks, isn’t it? The same old Mistress Coyle, looking for every edge to give yourself more power.”

“No, my girl,” Mistress Coyle says. “We’ve found chemicals–”

“You’re up to something,” I say. “All this time, refusing to tell me how you made the first truce, waiting for the Mayor to make his move, and now you’re trying to use Todd like you used–”

“It’s fatal, my girl,” she says. “The infection is fatal.”

[TODD]

“The shame disappears, Todd,” the Mayor says, appearing behind me in that way he does as I watch James make his way thru the army camp to get Angharrad’s extra water.

“You did this to me,” I say, still trembling. “You put it in my head and made me–”

“I did no such thing,” he says. “I merely showed you the path. You walked down it all by yourself.”

I don’t say nothing. Cuz I know it’s true.

(but that hum I hear–)

(that hum I pretend ain’t there–)

“I’m not controlling you, Todd,” he says. “That was part of our agreement, which I’m keeping to. All that’s happened is you’ve found the power I’ve repeatedly said was in you. It’s desire, you see. You wanted it to happen. That’s the secret to it all.”

“No, it ain’t,” I say. “Everyone’s got desire, but they don’t go round being able to control folks.”

“That’s because the desire of most folks is to be told what to do.” He looks back across the square, covered in tents and soldiers and townsfolk all huddled together. “People say they want freedom, but what they really want is freedom from worry. If I take care of their problems, they don’t mind being told what to do.”

“Some people,” I say. “Not everyone.”

“No,” he says. “Not you. Which paradoxically makes you all the better at controlling others. There are two kinds of people in this world, Todd. Them.” He gestures at the army. “And us.”

“Don’t you include me in no us.”

But he just grins again. “Are you sure about that? I believe the Spackle are connected by their Noise, all bound up in one voice. What makes you think that men aren’t? What connects me and you, Todd, is that we know how to use that voice.”

“I ain’t gonna be like you,” I say. “I ain’t never gonna be like you.”

“No,” he says, his eyes flashing. “I think you’ll be better.”

And then there’s a sudden pulse of light–

Brighter than any electric light we’ve got anywhere–

Blazing cross the square–