The Ask and the Answer

by Patrick Ness

  "NO!" Viola screams-

  And the look on her face--

  The look on her face about me--

  And my chest tears right in two.

  425

  ***

  The Mayor pulls back the frame, lifting her away from the water and setting her back down. "No," she whispers.

  And it's only then that she actually starts to cry.

  "Thank you, Todd," the Mayor says. He turns to Mr. Hammar. "You know where and when, Captain. Pass on the orders to Captains Morgan, Tate, and O'Hare."

  Mr. Hammar stands to attenshun. "Yes, sir," he says, sounding like he just won a prize. "I'll take every single man, sir. They won't know what hit em."

  "Take my son," the Mayor says, nodding at Davy. "Let him see all the battle he can stomach."

  Davy's looking nervous but proud and excited, too, not noticing the odd twist Mr. Hammar's smile has taken.

  "Go," the Mayor says, "and leave none alive."

  "Yes, sir," Mr. Hammar says as Viola lets out a little sob.

  Davy snaps a salute at his father, trying to make his Noise look brave. He sends the mirror a look meant for me, a look of sympathy, his Noise full of fear and excitement and more fear.

  Then he's following Mr. Hammar out the door.

  And then there's just me, Viola, and the Mayor.

  I can only look at her, hanging from the frame, her head down, crying, still tied up and soaking wet and so much sorrow coming from her I can practically feel it on my skin.

  "Tend to your friend," the Mayor says to me, just on the other side of the glass again, his face close to mine. "I return to my burned-out home to prepare for the new dawn."

  426

  He don't even blink, don't even act like nothing's even happened.

  He ain't human.

  "All too human, Todd,'' he says. "The guards will escort both of you to the cathedral." He raises his eyebrows. "We have much to discuss about your futures."

  427

  36 DEFEAT (Viola)

  I HEAR TODD come into the room, hear his Noise come first, but I can't look up.

  "Viola?" he says.

  I still don't look up.

  It's over.

  We've lost.

  I feel his hands on the binds at my wrists, pulling at them, finally getting one free, but my arm is so stiff from being held back it hurts more when it's released than it did when it was bound.

  Mayor Prentiss has won. Mistress Coyle tried to sacrifice me. Lee's a prisoner if that wasn't a lie and he's not already dead. Maddy died for nothing. Corinne died for nothing.

  And Todd-

  He comes around in front of me to take off the second bind and when it's loose and I fall from the frame, he catches me, kneeling us gently down to the floor.

  428

  "Viola?" he says, holding me against himself, my head against his chest, the water on me soaking into his dusty uniform, my arms out, not able to grab anything, the metal band throbbing.

  And I glance up to see the shiny silver A on his shoulder.

  "Let me go," I say.

  But he still holds me there.

  "Let me go," I say, louder.

  "No," he says.

  I try to push him away but my arms are so weak and I'm so tired and everything is over. Everything is over. And still he holds me.

  And I start to cry again and I feel him hold me tighter and I cry harder and when my arms can move a little I put them around him and cry even harder because of how he feels and how he smells and how his Noise sounds and how he's holding me and his worry and his fretting and his care and his softness-

  And I didn't know until just now how much I missed him. But he told the Mayor-He told him-

  And I have to try and push him away again, even though I can hardly bear to do it.

  "You told him," I say, choking it out.

  "I'm sorry," he says, his eyes wide and terrified. "He was drowning you and I couldn't, I just couldn't-"

  And I look at him and there I am in his Noise, dropping down into the water with him pounding on the other side of the mirror and worse, I can see what he felt, see the hopeless rage of it, see him unable to save me-

  429

  And his face is so worried. "Viola, please," he says, begging me. "Please."

  "He'll kill them," I say. "Every one of them. Wilf is there, Todd. Wilf."

  He looks horrified. "Wilf?"

  "And Jane," I say. "And so many others, Todd, all of them. He'll slaughter them and that'll be the end. That'll be the end of everything."

  His Noise goes black and barren and he sort of crumples down next to me, splashing in the little puddle that's formed around us. "No," he says. "Aw, no."

  I don't want to say it but I hear my voice saying it anyway. "You did exactly what he wanted. He knew exactly how to get it out of you."

  He looks at me. "What choice did I have?"

  "You should have let him kill me!"

  And he's looking at me and I can see his Noise trying to find me, trying to find the real Viola that's deep down in this mess and pain, I can see him looking-

  And for a minute I don't want him to find me.

  "You should have let him kill me," I say again quietly.

  But he couldn't, could he?

  He couldn't and still be himself.

  He couldn't and still be Todd Hewitt.

  The boy who can't kill.

  The man who can't.

  We are the choices we make.

  ***

  430

  "We have to warn them," I say, feeling ashamed and not looking into his eyes. "If we can." I grab the edge of the tub of water to pull myself up. Pain shoots up my legs from my ankles. I call out and fall forward again. And once more, he catches me.

  "My feet," I say. We look at them, bare and swollen badly, turning ugly shades of blue and black.

  "We'll get you to a healer." He puts an arm around me to lift me.

  "No," I say, stopping him. "We have to warn the Answer. That's the most important thing."

  "Viola-"

  "Their lives are more important than my-"

  "She tried to Ml you, Viola. She tried to blow you up." I'm breathing hard, trying not to feel the pain from my legs.

  "You don't owe her nothing," he says.

  But I feel his arms on me and I'm realizing things don't seem so impossible anymore. I feel Todd touching me and there's anger rising in my gut but it's not at him and I grunt and I pull myself up again, leaning on him to keep me there as I stand. "I do owe her," I say. "I owe her the look on her face when she sees me alive."

  I try to take a small step but it's too much. I cry out again.

  "I have a horse," he says. "I can put you on her."

  "He's not Just going to let us leave," I say. "He said guards would escort us back to him."

  "Yeah," he says. "We'll see about that."

  He puts his arm tighter around me and leans down to put his other arm under my knees.

  431

  And he lifts me in the air.

  The pull on my ankles makes me cry out again but then he's holding me up, carrying me like he did down the hillside into Haven.

  Holding me up.

  He remembers it, too. I can see it in his Noise. I put my arm around his neck. He tries to smile. And it's crooked like it always is.

  "We just keep on having to save each other," he says. "We ever gonna be even?"

  "I hope not," I say.

  He frowns again and I see the clouds roiling in his Noise. "I'm sorry," he says quietly.

  I grab the cloth of his shirtfront and squeeze it tight. "I'm sorry, too."

  "So we forgive each other?" The crooked smile climbs up one more time. "Again?"

  And I look right into his eyes, right into him as far as I can see, because I want him to hear me, I want him to hear me with everything I mean and feel and say.

  "Always," I say to him. "Every time."

  He carries me to a chair and then goes over to the door
and starts pounding on it. "Let us out!" he shouts.

  "This does mean something, Todd," I say, taking as little breath as possible because my feet are throbbing. "Something we have to remember."

  "What's that?" He pounds on the door again and says "Ow" quietly at how it's hurting his hands.

  432

  "The Mayor knows I'm your weakness," I say. "All he has to do is threaten me and you'll do what he wants."

  "Yeah," Todd says, not looking back. "Yeah, I knew that already."

  "He'll keep trying it."

  He turns around to face me, fists clenched at his sides. "He won't be laying his eyes on you. Not never again."

  "No." I shake my head and wince at the pain. "It can't be that way, Todd. He has to be stopped."

  "Well, why's it have to be us that stops him?"

  "It's got to be somebody." I arch my back a certain way to keep any weight off my feet. "He can't win."

  Todd starts kicking at the door. "Then let yer Mistress do it. We'll get to her somehow, warn 'em if we can, and then we're outta here."

  "Out of here where?"

  "I don't know." He starts looking around for something that might knock down the door. "We'll go to one of the abandoned settlements. We'll hide out till yer ships get here."

  "He'll beat Mistress Coyle and then he'll go right for the ships." I gasp a little as I turn my head to follow him. "There's only a small number of people awake when they land, Todd. He can overpower them and keep everyone else asleep as long as he wants. He doesn't ever have to wake them up if he doesn't want to."

  He stops his search. "Is that true?"

  I nod. "Once he destroys the Answer, who's left to stop him?"

  He clenches and unclenches his fists again. "We have to do it."

  433

  "We find the Answer first," I say, trying to pull myself upright. "We warn them-"

  "And tell 'em exactly what kinda leader they got."

  I sigh. "We're going to have to stop both of them, aren't we?"

  "Well, that's easy, ain't it?" Todd says. "We tell the Answer all about yer mistress and then someone new will lead 'em." He looks at me. "Maybe you."

  "Maybe you." I take a minute to try and catch my breath. It's getting harder. "Either way, we have to get out of here."

  And then the door suddenly opens.

  A soldier stands there with a rifle.

  "I have orders to take you both to the cathedral," he says.

  And I think I recognize him.

  "Ivan," Todd says.

  "Lieutenant," Ivan nods. "I've got my orders."

  "You're from Farbranch," I say, but he's staring at Todd, not blinking. I can hear something in his Noise, something-

  "Lieutenant," he says again in a way that seems like some kind of signal.

  I look at Todd. "What's he doing?"

  "You have orders," Todd says, concentrating on Ivan. I can hear stuff flying between their Noises, fast and blurry. "Private Farrow."

  "Yes, sir," Ivan says, standing at attention. "Orders from my superior officer."

  Todd looks at me. I can hear him thinking. "What's going on?" I say.

  434

  I see Lee rise in Todd's Noise. He turns back to Ivan. "Is there another prisoner? A boy? Blond shaggy hair?"

  "There is, sir," Ivan says.

  "And if I ordered you to take me to him, you'd do it?"

  "You are my superior officer, Lieutenant." Ivan's looking harder at Todd now. "I'd have to follow any orders you gave me.

  "Todd?" I say, but I'm beginning to understand.

  "I've been a-trying to tell you this for some time, Lieutenant," Ivan says, impatience in his voice.

  "Are there any higher-ranking officers on the premises than me?" Todd asks.

  "No, sir. Just myself and the guards. Everyone else has gone off to fight the war."

  "How many guards?"

  "Sixteen of us, sir."

  Todd licks his lips, thinking. "Would they regard me as their superior officer, too, Private?"

  Ivan looks away for the first time, glancing quickly behind him before saying again in a lower voice, "There is some concern with our current leadership, sir. They might be persuaded."

  Todd stands up straighter, pulling at the hem of his uniform jacket. I notice again how tall he is, how much taller than the last time I saw him, how his face is lined in a way that's not at all boyish, how his voice is deeper and fuller.

  I look at him, and I begin to see a man.

  He clears his throat and stands at attention before Ivan. "Then I order you to take me to the prisoner called Lee, Private."

  435

  "Even though I have been instructed to take you straight to the President," Ivan says in an official voice, "I feel I cannot disobey your direct order, sir."

  He steps back out of the door to wait. Todd comes to my chair and kneels down in front of me.

  "What are you planning?" I ask, trying to read his Noise, but it's spinning so fast I can hardly keep up with it.

  "You said it's us who has to stop him cuz no one else will," he says, the crooked smile inching higher. "Well, maybe there's a way we can."

  436

  37 THE LIEUTENANT

  ***

  [TODD]

  I FEEL VIOLA WATCHING ME as I leave and follow Ivan down the hallway. She's wondering whether we can trust him.

  I wonder it, too.

  Cuz the answer's no, ain't it? Ivan joined the army as a volunteer, saving his own skin in Farbranch, and I remember him slinking up to me all those months ago even before it happened and telling me he was on the side of Prentisstown. He probably couldn't wait to join the army when it marched into town and then he led troops here and was even a Corporal.

  Till Mayor Prentiss shot him in the leg.

  You go where the -power is, he said to me once. That's how you stay alive.

  So maybe he thinks he's found the new power.

  "Exactly what I'm a-thinking, sir," Ivan says, stopping outside a door. "He's in here."

  437

  "Can he walk?" I say as Ivan unlocks the door--

  But Lee's already jumping out with an AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHU! and knocking Ivan over and punching him again and again in the face and I have to grab his shoulders and pull him back and he turns to me, fists ready, till he sees who it is.

  "Todd!" he says, surprised.

  "We need--" I start.

  "Where is she?" he shouts, already looking round, and I have to step forward to keep Ivan from smashing the back of his head with a rifle.

  "She's hurt," I say. "She needs bandages and splints." I turn to Ivan. "You got those here?"

  "We got a first aid kit," Ivan says.

  "That'll do. Give it to Lee and he'll take care of Viola. Then tell the men I wanna talk to 'em out front." Ivan's glaring at Lee, Noise blaring. "That's an order, Private," I say.

  "Yes, sir," Ivan says, all sour, before he disappears down the hallway.

  Lee goggles at me. "Yes, sir?"

  "Viola'll explain." I push him after Ivan. "You get those bandages on her! She's hurting!"

  That gets him moving. I turn about-face and go toward the lobby. Two guards watch me walk past. "What's going on?" one of em asks.

  "What's going on, sir," I snap without turning round. I walk out the front door of the Office of the Ask, down the little path and out the front gate.

  Where it's almost peaceful.

  438

  And there's Angharrad.

  Davy musta brought her.

  "Hey, girl," I say, coming up on her slow, rubbing her nose. Boy colt? says her Noise. Todd ?

  "It's all right, girl," I whisper. "It's all right."

  Hurt , she says, sniffing at the dried blood still on my face. She takes her big wet tongue and gives me the sloppiest lick right across my mouth and cheek.

  I laugh a little and rub her nose again. "I'm okay, girl, I'm okay."

  Her Noise keeps saying my name, Todd, Todd , as I

  move
to where my bag is still tied to the saddle. My rifle's still there.

  So's my ma's book.

  I'll bet Davy brought that, too.

  I untie Angharrad's reins from the post and lead her out onto the road a little bit till she's pointing right at the gate with the big silver a. "Gotta give a little speech," I say, tightening the saddle. "Better from up top of you."

  Boy colt? she says. Todd ?

  "Angharrad," I say.

  I put my foot in a stirrup, hop up and swing my leg round till I'm sitting in the saddle, looking up at the sky. It's not darkening yet but the sun's getting down toward the falls. Afternoon is ticking away.

  There ain't much time.

  "Wish me luck," I say.

  "Forward," Angharrad whinnies. "Forward."

  ***

  439

  The guards look up at me and back to Ivan who's trying to get 'em to stop talking, which would only help if they shut up the clatter of their Noise, too, cuz it's wailing like sheep on fire.

  "He's a lieutenant," Ivan's saying to 'em.

  "He's a boy," another guard says, one with ginger hair.

  "He's the President's boy," Ivan responds.

  "Yeah, and you were sposed to take him into town, Private," says another with a big pot belly and Corporal stripes on his sleeve. "Don't tell me yer disobeying a direct order."

  "The Lieutenant gave me a different direct order," Ivan says.

  "And he overrules the President, does he?" says Ginger Hair.

  "Come on!" Ivan shouts. "How many of you got this assignment as punishment for something?" That quiets 'em.

  "Yer an idiot if you think I'm following a boy to face the President," says Corporal Pot Belly.

  "Prentiss knows stuff," says Ginger Hair. "Stuff he shouldn't."

  "He'd have us shot," says another soldier, a tall one this time, with sallow skin.