The Ask and the Answer

“Is there a trough still out front?” I ask the Mayor. “Or did it get blown up?”

“It did,” the Mayor says. “But there’s one round the back where my own horse is tied. She can go there.”

Morpeth, I think to Angharrad, the name of the Mayor’s horse, and a feeling rises in her.

Morpeth, she thinks. Submit.

“Attagirl,” I say, rubbing her nose. “Damn right he’ll submit.”

She pushes me playfully once or twice then clops off outta the rubble, making her way round the back.

There’s another BOOM. I have a little flash of worry for Viola. I wonder how far down the road she’s got by now. She must be getting near where the Answer is, she must be–

I hear a little stirring of Noise from the Mayor.

I c**k the gun.

“I said, don’t try it.”

“Do you know, Todd?” he says, like we were having a nice lunch. “The attacking Noise was easy. You just wind yourself up and slam someone with it as hard as you can. I mean, yes, you have to be focused, tremendously focused, but once you’ve got it, you can pretty much do it at your will.” He spits away a little blood pooling on his lip. “As we saw with you and your Viola.”

“Don’t you say her name.”

“But the other thing,” he continues. “The control over another’s Noise, well, I must say, that’s a lot trickier, a lot harder. It’s like trying to raise and lower a thousand different levers at once and sure on some people, some simple people, it’s easier than others and it’s surprisingly easy on crowds, but I’ve tried for years to get it to work as a useful tool and it’s only recently I’ve had any level of success at all.”

I think for a minute. “Mayor Ledger.”

“No, no,” he says brightly. “Mayor Ledger was eager to help. Never trust a politician, Todd. They have no fixed centre, so you can never believe them. He came to me, you see, with your dreams and things you said. No, no control there, just ordinary weakness.”

I sigh. “Would you just be quiet already?”

“My point is, Todd,” he presses on, “that it’s only today that I’ve been able to even come close to forcing you to do what I want you to do.” He looks at me, to see if I’m getting it. “Only today.”

Another BOOM in the distance, another thing destroyed by the Answer for no good reason at all. It’s too dark to see the army but they must be marching into town by now, down the road straight to here.

And night is falling.

“I know what yer saying,” I say. “I know what I’ve done.”

“It was all you, Todd.” He keeps his eyes on me. “The Spackle. The women. All your own action. No control needed.”

“I know what I’ve done,” I say again, my voice low, my Noise getting a warning sizzle to it.

“The offer’s still open,” the Mayor says, his voice low, too. “I’m quite serious. You have power. I could teach you how to use it. You could rule this land by my side.”

I AM THE CIRCLE AND THE CIRCLE IS ME, I hear.

“That’s the source,” he says. “Control your Noise and you control yourself. Control yourself,” he lowers his chin, “and you can control the world.”

“You killed Davy,” I say, stepping up to him, gun still pointed. “Yer the one with no fixed centre. And now yer really gonna shut the hell up.”

And then a low and powerful sound rumbles thru the sky, like some giant, deep horn.

A sound God would make when he wanted yer attenshun.

I hear whinnies from the horses out back. I hear a filament of shock race thru the still-hiding Noise from the people of New Prentisstown. I hear the steady marching of the army’s feet collapse into a racket of sudden confuzhun.

I hear the Mayor’s Noise spike and pull back.

“What the hell was that?” I say, looking up and around.

“No,” the Mayor breathes.

And there’s delight in it.

“What?” I say, poking the rifle at him. “What’s going on?”

But he’s just smiling and turning his head.

Turning it towards the hill by the falls, by the zigzag road coming down into town.

I look there, too.

Lights are at the top.

Lights are starting to come down the zigzag.

“Oh, Todd,” the Mayor says, amazement and, yeah, it’s joy coming thru his voice. “Oh, Todd, my boy, what have you done?”

“What is it?” I say, squinting into the dark, as if that’ll help me see it clearer. “What’s making that–”

A second horn blast comes, so loud it’s like the sound of the sky folding in half.

I can hear the ROAR of the town rising, so many asking marks you could drown in ’em.

“Tell me, Todd,” the Mayor says, his voice still bright. “What exactly were you planning on doing when the army arrived?”

“What?” I say, my forehead furrowing, my eyes still trying to see what’s coming down the zigzag road, but it’s too far and too dark to tell. Just lights, individual points of ’em, moving down the hill.

“Were you going to offer me up for ransom?” he goes on, still sounding cheerful. “Were you going to give me to them for execution?”

“What were those blasts?” I say, grabbing him by the shirt front. “Is that the settlers landing? Are they invading or something?”

He just looks in my eyes, his own sparkling. “Did you think they’d elect you leader and you’d single-handedly usher in a new era of peace?”

“I’ll lead them,” I hiss into his face. “You watch me.”

I let him go and climb up one of the higher piles of rubble. I see people poking their heads outta their houses now, hear voices calling to one another, see people start running to and fro.

Whatever it is, it’s enough to get the people of New Prentisstown out of hiding.

I feel a buzz of Noise at the back of my head.

I whip round, pointing the gun at him again, climbing back down the rubble and saying, “I told you, none of that!”

“I was just trying to keep our conversation going, Todd,” he says, false innocence everywhere. “I’m very curious to know your plan for leadership now that you’ll be head of the army and President of the planet.”

I want to punch the smile off his face.

“What’s going on?” I shout at him. “What’s coming down that hill?”