The Ask and the Answer (46 page)

465

He smiles. "You may have no choice."

"There's always a choice," Viola says by my side.

"Oh, people like to say that," the Mayor says. "It makes them feel better." He approaches me, looking into my eyes. "But I've been watching you, Todd. The boy who can't kill another man. The boy who'd risk his own life to save his beloved Viola. The boy who felt so guilty at the horrible things he was doing that he tried to shut off all feeling. The boy who still felt every pain, every twitch of hurt he saw on the face of the women he banded."

He leans down closer to my face. "The boy who refused to lose his soul."

I feel him. He's in my Noise now, rummaging around, turning things over, upending the room inside my head. "I've done bad things," I say and I don't even mean to say it.

"But you
suffer
for them, Todd." His voice is softer now, almost tender. "You're your own worst enemy, punishing yourself far more than I could ever hope to. Men have Noise and the way they handle it is to make themselves just a little bit dead, but
you,
even when you
want
to, you can't. More than any man I've ever met, Todd, you
feel."

"Shut up," I say, trying to look away, not being able to.

"But that makes you
powerful,
Todd Hewitt. In this world of numbness and information overload, the ability to feel, my boy, is a rare gift indeed."

I put my hands to my ears but I can still hear him in my head.

"You're the one I couldn't break, Todd. The one who wouldn't fall. The one who stays innocent no matter the blood on his hands. The one who
still
calls me Mayor in his Noise."

466

"I'm not innocent!" I shout, my ears still plugged.

"You could rule by my side. You could be my second in command. And when you learn to control your Noise, you may have power to overtake even
mine."

And then the words thunder thru my whole body.

I am the Circle and the Circle is me.

"Stop it!" I hear Viola shout but it's from miles away.

The Mayor puts a hand on my shoulder. "You could be my son, Todd Hewitt," he says. "My real and true heir. I've always wanted one that wasn't--"

"Pa?" we all hear, cutting thru everything like a bullet thru fog.

The Noise in my head stops, the Mayor steps abruptly back, I feel like I'm able to breathe again.

Davy stands behind us, rifle in one hand. He's led Deadfall up to the steps and is looking over the rubble to the three of us here. "What's going on? Who are the men out there on the ground?"

"What are you doing here?" the Mayor snaps, frowning. "Is the battle already won?"

"No, Pa," Davy says, climbing over the rubble toward us. "It was a trick." He plants his feet next to my chair. "Hey, Todd," he says, nodding in greeting. He glances at Viola but he can't hold her eye.

"What
was a trick?" the Mayor demands but he's already looking angry.

"The Answer ain't coming over the hill," Davy says. "We marched way back deep into the forest but there ain't no sign, not nowhere."

467

I hear Viola take a little gasp, a bit of pleased surprise escaping from her even as she tries to hold it back.

The Mayor looks her way, his eyes fierce, his face thinking and thinking.

And he raises his rifle at her.

"Something you'd like to tell us, Viola?"

468

40 NOTHING CHANGES EVERYTHING CHANGES

***

(V iola)

TODD'S ALREADY UP and out of his chair, standing between me and the Mayor, his Noise raging so loud and furious the Mayor takes a step back.

"You see the power in you, my boy?" he says. "This is why you watched her being Asked. Your suffering makes you
strong.
I'll teach you how to harness it and together we'll-"

"You hurt her," Todd says, clearly and slowly, "and I'll tear every limb from yer body."

The Mayor smiles. "I believe you." He hoists the rifle. "Nevertheless."

"Todd," I say.

He turns to me. "This is how he wins. Playing us off each other. Just like you said. Well, it stops here-"

"Todd-" I'm trying to stand up but my stupid ankles won't hold me and I stumble. Todd reaches for me-

But it's Davy-

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Davy catches me by the arm, stopping the fall and then lowering me back into the chair. He won't meet my eye. Or Todd's. Or his father's. His Noise flushes yellow with embarrassment as he lets me go and steps back.

"Why, thank you, David," the Mayor says, unable to mask his surprise. "Now," he says, turning back to me, "if you would please be so kind as to inform me of the Answer's
real
plan of attack."

"Don't tell him nothing," Todd says.

"I don't
know
anything," I say. "Lee must have reached-"

"There wasn't sufficient time and you know it," the Mayor says. "It's obvious what's happened, isn't it, Viola? Your Mistress misled you once more. If the bomb went off as it should have, it wouldn't have mattered if you had the wrong information because you and, she hoped,
I
would be dead. But if you were caught, well, then. The best liar is the one who believes her lie is true."

I don't say anything because how could she have misled me if it was only something Lee overheard-

But then I think-

She
wanted
him to overhear it.

She
knew
he wouldn't be able to not tell me.

"Her plan worked perfectly, didn't it, Viola?" The shadow from the setting sun reaches the Mayor's face, covering him in black. "One twist after another, lies building on lies. She played you exactly how she wanted, didn't she?"

I glare at him. "She'll beat you," I say. "She's as ruthless as you are."

He grins. "Oh,
more,
I should say."

"Pa?" Davy asks.

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The Mayor blinks, like he forgot his son was there. "Yes, David?"

"Urn, the
army?"
Davy's Noise is full of bewilderment and exasperation, trying to make sense of what his father's doing but not finding much relief. "What're we sposed to do
now?
Where're we sposed to go? Captain Hammar's waiting for yer orders."

All around us the low, frightened
ROAR
New Prentisstown seeps out of the houses, but still no faces at the windows, and from over the hill with the notch, the blacker, twistier buzz of the army. You can still see them up the hillside, shiny like a trail of black beetles sliding off one another's shells.

And here we sit, alone with the Mayor and his son, in the open ruins of the cathedral, like we're the only people on the planet.

The Mayor looks back at me. "Yes, Viola, tell us. What are we supposed to do now?"

"You're supposed to fall," I say, staring back at him, not blinking. "You're supposed to lose."

He smiles at me. "Where are they coming from, Viola? You're a clever girl. You must have heard
something,
seen some clue as to her real plans."

"She ain't telling you," Todd says.

"I
can't,"
I say, "because I don't
know."

And I'm thinking, I really
don't
know-

Unless the thing she told me about the east road-

"I'm waiting, Viola." The Mayor raises the rifle at Todd's head. "On pain of his life."

"Pa?" Davy says, shock coming out of his Noise. "What're you
doing?"

471

"Never you mind, David. Get back on your horse. I'll have a message for you to take to Captain Hammar presently."

"Yer pointing the gun at
Todd,
Pa."

Todd turns around to look at him. So do I. So does the Mayor.

"You ain't gonna shoot him," Davy says. "You can't." Davy's cheeks are red now, so dark you can even see them in the sunset. "You said he's yer second son."

There's an uncomfortable silence as Davy tries to hide his Noise.

"You see what I mean by power, Todd?" the Mayor says. "Look at how you've influenced my son. You've already got yourself a follower."

Davy looks at me, right in the eyes. "Tell him where they are." There's worry all over his Noise, anxiety at how things are playing out. "C'mon, just tell him."

I look back at Todd.

He's looking at Davy's rifle.

"Yes, Viola, tell me, why don't you?" the Mayor says. "Your best speculation. Are they coming from the west?" He looks up toward the falls, the highest point on the horizon, where the sun's disappearing behind the zigzag road carved down the hill, the hill I've only been down once and never gone back up. The Mayor turns. "The north, perhaps, though they'd have to cross the river somehow? Or a hill to the east? Yes, maybe even over the hill where your Mistress blew up the tower and any chance you had of communicating with your people."

I clench my teeth again.

"Still loyal, after all that?"

I don't say anything.

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"We could send out troops, Pa," Davy says. "To different parts. They gotta come from
somewhere."

The Mayor waits for a minute, staring us down. He finally turns to Davy and says, "Go tell Captain Hammar-"

He's interrupted by a distant
BOOM.

"That's due east," Davy says, as we all look up even though there's a wall of the cathedral in the way. It
is
east.

It's exactly the road she told me it was going to be. She made me think the truth was a lie and a lie was the truth.

If I get out of this, we're going to have words, her and me.

"The Office of the Ask," the Mayor says. "Of course. Where else would they-"

He stops again, cocking his head, listening out. We hear it several seconds after he does. The Noise of someone running at full speed toward the cathedral from the back, up the road we took to get here, around the side of the cathedral and up to the front, coming upon us, gasping.

It's the red-haired guard, the one who fled. He's obviously barely registering who he's seeing as he stumbles into the wreckage of the building. "They're coming!" he shouts. "The Answer is coming!"

There's a burst of Noise from the Mayor and the red-haired soldier falls back, catching himself. "Calm down, Private," the Mayor says, his voice slinky, snakelike. "Tell us clearly."

The guard pants, seemingly unable to catch his breath.

473

"They've taken the Office of the Ask." He looks up at the Mayor, caught by his eyes. "They killed all the guards."

"Of course they did," the Mayor says, still holding the red-haired soldier's gaze. "How many are there?"

"Two hundred." The red-haired soldier isn't blinking now. "But they're releasing the prisoners."

"Weapons?" asks the Mayor.

"Rifles. Tracers. Launchers. Siege guns on the backs of carts." Still the stare.

"How goes the battle?"

"They're fighting fierce."

The Mayor cocks an eyebrow, still staring at him.

"They're fighting fierce,
sir,"
the guard says, still not blinking, like he couldn't look away from the Mayor if he tried. There's another
BOOM
in the distance and everyone except the Mayor and the soldier flinches. "They're coming for war, sir," says the soldier.

The Mayor keeps the stare. "Then you should be trying to stop them, shouldn't you?"

"Sir?"

"You should be taking your rifle and preventing the Answer from destroying your town."

The soldier looks confused but he's still not blinking. "I should ..."

"You should be on the front line, soldier. This is our hour of need."

"This is our hour of need," the soldier mumbles, like he's not hearing himself.

"Pa?" Davy says but the Mayor ignores him.

474

"What are you waiting for, soldier?" the Mayor says. "It's time to fight."

"It's time to fight," says the guard.

"Go!" the Mayor suddenly barks and the red-haired guard springs away, back down the road toward the Answer, his rifle up, yelling incoherently, running back to the Answer as fast as he ran away from them.

We watch him go in stunned silence.

The Mayor sees Todd staring at him, mouth agape. "Yes, dear boy, better at
that,
too."

"You as good as killed him," I say. "Whatever you did-"

"What I did was make him see his duty," the Mayor says. "No more, no less. Now, as
fascinating
as this discussion is, we're going to have to settle it later. I'm afraid I'm going to have to have Davy tie you both up."

"Pa?" Davy says again, startled.

The Mayor looks at him. "Then you'll ride to Captain Hammar, tell him to bring the army down the road with all speed and fury." The Mayor casts his eyes to the far hillside where the army waits. "It's time we brought this to an end."

"I can't tie him up, Pa, it's
Todd."

The Mayor doesn't look at him. "I've had just about enough of this, David. When I give you a direct order-"
Boom!

He stops and we all look up.

Because it's different this time, a different kind of sound. We hear a low
whoosh
and a rumble starts to fill the air, getting louder as the seconds pass.

Todd looks at me, confused.

I just shrug. "Nothing I ever heard before."