by Patrick Ness
“It’s going back to the falls!” Lee says, pointing back to the main projection, where the fiery thing has risen up out of the army, still curving, still flying viciously fast. We watch as it lifts higher in the air, completing one long circle, rising up the zigzag hill, heading towards the ledge under the now-dry falls, still spinning and burning. We can see the Spackle there now, dozens of them holding more burning blades at the end of their bows. They don’t flinch as the flying one heads right towards them, and we see a Spackle with an empty bow, the one who fired the first shot–
We watch as he flips his bow up, revealing a curved hook at the bottom end, and with perfect timing he snatches the flying S right out of the air, turning it with a practised motion, and immediately it’s reset, ready to fire again, tall as the body of the Spackle itself.
In the reflected light of the fire, we see the Spackle’s hands, arms and body are covered in a thick, flexible clay, protecting him from the burning.
“Todd?” I say, into the comm. “Are you there? You need to run, Todd! You need to run–”
And in the larger view, we can see all the Spackle raising their bows–
“Todd!” I yell. “Answer me!”
And as one–
They all fire–
[TODD]
“VIOLA!” I scream–
But I don’t got the comm no more, the binos neither–
They were knocked outta my hands by a wall of running soldiers, pushing and shoving and screaming–
And burning–
The spinning fire ripped a curve thru the men right in front of me, killing ’em so fast they barely knew what happened and setting ’em alight in two or three rows on either side–
And just as it was about to take off my own head–
It lifted–
Up into the air–
Curving round–
And flying back to the ledge where it came from–
I whirl round now to see where I can run–
And then, over the shouting of the soldiers–
I hear Angharrad screaming–
And I’m pushing back and hitting out and shoving men aside to get to my horse–
“Angharrad!” I yell. “ANGHARRAD!”
And I can’t see her–
But I hear her screaming in terror–
I push forward even harder–
And I feel a hand on my collar–
“No, Todd!” the Mayor shouts, pulling me back–
“I’ve got to get to her!” I shout back and yank away from him–
“We have to run!” he yells–
And this is so completely something the Mayor would never say I spin round to look at him–
But his eyes are on the falls–
And I look, too–
And–
And–
Holy God–
An expanding arc of fire is racing out from the ledge–
The Spackle have fired every single bow–
Dozens of ’em–
Dozens of ’em that’ll reduce the army to nothing but ash and bodies–
“Come on!” the Mayor’s yelling, grabbing me again. “To the city!”
But I see a break in the men–
I see Angharrad rearing up in fright–
Her eyes wide open at the hands grabbing her–
And I lunge towards her–
Away from the Mayor–
Soldiers filling the space twixt us–
“I’m here, girl!” I yell, pressing forward–
But she’s just screaming and screaming–
I reach her and I knock back a soldier trying to climb into her saddle–
And the spinning fires are getting closer and closer–
Curving both ways, this time–
Coming from either side–
And the men are running in every direkshun, up the road to the town, into where the river’s trickling away, even back to the zigzag hill–
And I say, “You have to run, girl!”
And the spinning fires reach us–
{VIOLA}
“Todd!” I scream again and I see the fires zooming in over the river and some coming round the other way, curving along the hills of the valley–
Coming at the army from both sides–
“Where is he?!” I yell. “Can you see him?”
“I can’t see anything in this mess,” Bradley says.
“We have to do something!” I say.
Mistress Coyle catches my eye. She’s searching my face, searching it hard–
“Todd?” I say into the comm. “Answer me, please!”
“They’ve reached the army!” Lee yells.
And we all look back at the projection–
Where the spinning fires are slashing through the fleeing army in all directions–
They’re going to reach Todd–
They’re going to kill him–
They’re going to kill every man down there–
“We have to stop this!” I say.
“Viola,” Bradley says, a warning in his voice.
“Stop it how?” Simone says, and I can see her considering it again.
“Yes, Viola,” Mistress Coyle says, staring right into my eyes. “Stop it how?”
I look back in the projection, back at the army burning and dying-
“They’ll kill your boy,” Mistress Coyle says, like she’s reading my mind. “No two ways about it this time.”
And she can see my face–
See me thinking it–
Thinking it again–
Thinking about all that death.
“No,” I whisper. “We can’t–”
Can we?
[TODD]
WHOOSH!
One spinning fire flies right by us on our left and I see the head taken off a soldier trying to duck–
I pull on Angharrad’s reins but she rears up again in panic, her eyes wide and white, her Noise just a high-pitched scream I can barely stand–
And another fire WHOOSHES across the path in front of us, spilling flames everywhere, and Angharrad’s so terrified she lifts me off my feet by the reins and we fall back into a crowd of soldiers–
“THIS WAY!” I hear yelled behind us.
The Mayor, screaming, as a spinning fire makes a wall of flames outta the soldiers just behind me and Angharrad–
And when he yells it, it’s like I feel a pull in my feet, almost turning me round to face him–
But I force myself back to Angharrad–
“Come on, girl!” I yell, trying to get her moving, any way, any how-
“TODD! LEAVE HER!”
I turn and I see the Mayor, somehow back up on Morpeth, leaping twixt men and racing out from under a spinning fire as it rises back into the sky–
“TO THE CITY!” he shouts at the soldiers–
Planting it in their Noises–
Planting it in mine–
Throbbing thru it with a low hum–
And I knock him back again in my head–
But the soldiers near him are running even faster–
I look up and see the spinning fires still cutting thru the sky like swooping birds–
But they’re heading back to the ledge–
There are burning men everywhere but the army that’s still alive is also noticing that the fires are going back–
That we’ve got a few seconds before they come again–
And the men are reaching the city now, the first ones heading up the road, running where the Mayor’s yelling–
“TODD! YOU’VE GOT TO RUN!”
But Angharrad’s still screaming, still pulling away from me, still flailing in terror–
And my heart’s ripping in two–
“COME ON, GIRL!”
“TODD!” shouts the Mayor–
But I ain’t leaving Angharrad–
“I AIN’T LEAVING HER!” I shout back at him–
Dammit, I ain’t–
I lef
t Manchee–
I left him behind–
And I ain’t doing it again–
“TODD!”
And I look back–
And he’s away from me, peeling back to the city–
With the rest of the men–
And me and Angharrad are being left alone in the emptying camp–
{VIOLA}
“We are not firing a missile,” Bradley says, his Noise roaring. “That decision has already been made.”
“You have missiles?” Lee says. “Why the hell aren’t you using them?”
“Because we want to make peace with this species!” Bradley shouts. “If we fire, the consequences would be disastrous!”
“They’re disastrous right now,” Mistress Coyle says.
“Disastrous to an army you wanted us to fight,” Bradley says. “Disastrous for the army that brought on the attack!”
“Bradley–” Simone says.
He spins round to her, his Noise filled with incredibly rude words. “We have nearly 5000 people that are our responsibility. You really want them to wake up to find we’ve thrown them into an unwinnable war?”
“You’re already in the war!” Lee says.
“No, we’re not!” Bradley says even louder. “And because we’re not, we might just be able to get the rest of you out of it!”
“All you have to do is show them they’ve got more than just cannons to worry about,” Mistress Coyle says, strangely, to me, rather than Bradley or Simone. “We negotiated peace with them the first time, my girl, because we were in a position of strength. That’s how wars work, that’s how truces work. We show them we’ve got more power than they imagine and they’re more willing to make peace.”
“And then they come back in five years’ time when they’ve gotten stronger and kill every human here,” Bradley says.
“Five years’ time where we can build bridges with them and make sure a new war isn’t necessary,” Mistress Coyle says back.
“Which you obviously did a fantastic job of last time!”
“What are you waiting for? Fire the missile!” Ivan calls from the crowd and more voices join around him, too.
“Todd,” I whisper to myself and I look back at the projection–
The burning fires are flying back to the falls again, being caught and reloaded–
And then I see him–
“He’s alone!” I yell. “They’re leaving him behind!”
The army is fleeing down the road to the city, pushing against each other in crowds past Todd and into the first trees–
“He’s trying to save his horse!” Lee says.
I click on the comm again and again. “Dammit, Todd! Answer me!”
“My girl!” Mistress Coyle snaps to get my attention. “We are here at the crucial moment again. You and your friends are getting a second chance to make your decision.”
Bradley’s Noise makes an angry sound and he turns to Simone for help, but Simone’s eyes just flick to the crowd around us, the crowd demanding that we fire. “I don’t see how we have any choice,” she says. “If we do nothing, those people will die.”
“And if we do something, those people will also die,” Bradley says, his surprise flashing everywhere. “And so will we and so will everyone arriving on the ships. This is not our fight!”
“It will be one day,” Simone says. “We’d be demonstrating strength. That might make them willing to negotiate with us now.”
“Simone!” Bradley says and his Noise says something really rude. “The convoy wants us to pursue peaceful–”
“The convoy aren’t seeing what we’re seeing,” Simone says.
“They’re firing again!” I say–
Another arc of spinning fire is launching from the ledge under the falls–
And I think to myself, What would Todd want?
He’d want me safe, first of everything–
Todd would want a world that was safe for me–
He would, I know he would–
Even if he wasn’t in it–
But he’s still down there in the middle of the battle–
Still down there alone with the fire coming at him–
And the fact I can’t get out of my head, peace or not, is what I also know to be true–
True but not right–
True but so dangerous–
Which is that if they kill him–
If they hurt him–
Then there won’t be enough weapons on this ship for all the Spackle who’ll have to pay.
I look over to Simone, who reads my face easily.
“I’m getting a missile ready,” she says.
[TODD]
“Come on, girl, please,” I say–
There’s bodies around us everywhere, burning in heaps, some of ’em still screaming–
“Come on!” I shout–
But she’s resisting me, flinging her head this way and that, pulling away from the fire and smoke, from the bodies, from the few soldiers still running past us–
And then she falls–
Back and down, onto her side–
Dragging me to the ground with her–
I land near her head–
“Angharrad,” I call, right into her ears. “PLEASE, get up!”
And there’s a twist to her neck–
A twist to her ears–
And her eye spins to me–
Spins right at me for the first time–
And–
Boy colt?
Quivery and small–
Tiny and quiet and frightened as anything–
But it’s there–
“I’m right here, girl!”
Boy colt?
And my heart’s leaping with hope–
“Come on, girl! Get up, get up, get up, get up–”
And I’m leaning back on my knees, pulling on the reins–
“Please please please please please–”
And she’s lifting her head–
And her eyes go back to the falls–
Boy colt! she shouts–
And I look back–
Another arc of spinning fires is coming right at us–
“Come on!”
She rocks up to her feet, unsteady on the ground, stumbling away from a burning body near us–
Boy colt! she’s still screaming–
“Come on, girl!” I say and try to get to her side–
Get on her saddle–
But here come the fires–
Like swooping burning eagles–
One sails right over the top of her–
Right over where my head woulda been if I’d been on her back–
And suddenly she’s dashing forward in terror–
I hang onto her reins and run after her–
Stumbling along the ground–
Half-running, half-pulled–
As spinning fires come flying in from all direkshuns around us–
Like the whole sky is ablaze–
And my hands are twisted in the reins–
And Angharrad is screaming, Boy colt!
And I’m falling–
The reins are pulling away–
Boy colt!
“Angharrad!”
And then I hear SUBMIT!
Yelled in a different horse voice–
And as I fall to the ground, I hear another set of hooves, another horse–
The Mayor, riding Morpeth–
Swinging a cloth round Angharrad’s head–
Covering her eyes, blinding her from the rain of fire storming down around us–
And then he reaches down and grabs me hard by the arm–
Lifting me up and into the air–
And throwing me outta the way of a spinning fire that burns the ground where I had just fallen–
“COME ON!” he yells–
And I scrabble over to Angharrad, grabbing her reins to guide her–
And the Mayor is riding a circle round us–
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Dodging the fires in the sky–
Watching me–
Watching to see me get safe–
He came back to save me–
He came back to save me–
“BACK TO THE CITY, TODD!” he yells. “THEIR RANGE IS LIMITED! THEY CAN’T REACH–”
And he disappears as a spinning fire slams right into the broad chest of Morpeth–
{VIOLA}
“Think what you’re doing,” Bradley says, his Noise roaring Stupid, selfish bitch behind Simone in the cockpit seat. “Sorry,” he says immediately through clenched teeth. “But we don’t need to do this!”
We’re crammed in here, Bradley and Mistress Coyle stepping into each other’s space behind me and Lee.
“I’ve got telemetry,” Simone says. A small panel opens, exposing a square, blue button. You can’t just press on a screen to fire a weapon. It has to be physical. You have to mean it. “Target locking,” Simone says.
“The field is clearing!” Bradley says, pointing at the viewscreen above the cockpit. “It doesn’t even look like the fires can reach any further!”
Simone doesn’t respond but her fingers hesitate above the blue button–
“Your boy is still down there, my girl,” Mistress Coyle says, still talking right to me, as if I was in charge of this whole thing–
But it’s true, he is still down there, trying to pull Angharrad to her feet, somehow we can still see him, in the middle of the twisting smoke and fire, small and alone and not answering my comm–
“I know what you’re thinking, Viola,” Bradley says, trying to keep his voice calm even as his Noise rages. “But it’s one life against thousands.”
“Enough talking!” Lee yells. “Fire the goddam thing!”
But on the viewscreen, I see the battlefield is emptying, clearing out except for Todd and a few other stragglers and I think, if he can make it, if he can just make it out, then maybe it’s true, maybe the Mayor will realize how out-matched he is against weapons that powerful, because who’d want to fight this? Who could?
But Todd has to make it–
He has to–
And his horse is running now, pulling him along–