The Ask and the Answer

by Patrick Ness

  "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."

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  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.

  470

  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?"

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  "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.

  472

  "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.

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  "They've taken the Offi
ce 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.

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  "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."

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  The roar starts to get louder, filling the darkening sky.

  "That don't sound like no bomb," Davy says.

  The Mayor looks at me. "Viola, is there-"

  He stops and then turns his head.

  And we all realize-

  It's not coming from the east.

  "Over there," Davy points, raising his hand toward the falls, toward where the sky is bright pink with sunset.

  The Mayor looks at me again. "That's too loud for a simple tracer." His face tightens. "Have they got missiles?" He takes a step so big he's almost on top of me. "Have they built missiles?"

  "You back off!" Todd yells, trying to get between us again.

  "I will know what this is, Viola!" the Mayor says. "You will tell me!"

  "I don't know what it is!" I say.

  Todd's shouting and threatening, "You lay a finger on her-"

  "It's getting louder!" Davy shouts, putting his hands to his ears. We all turn and watch the western horizon, watch as a dot rises, getting lost in the last of the sun before reappearing, growing larger as it comes.

  As it comes straight for the city.

  "Viola!" the Mayor shouts, through clenched teeth, sending some Noise at me but I don't feel whatever it is that men feel.

  "I DON'T KNOW!" I yell.

  And then Davy, who hasn't stopped watching it, says, "It's a ship."

  476

  41 THE MOMENT OF DAVY PRENTISS

  ***

  [TODD]

  It's a ship.

  It's a ruddy ship.

  "Yer people," i say to Viola.

  But she's shaking her head, tho not to say no, just staring at it as it rises over the falls.

  "Too small for a settler ship," Davy says.

  "And too early," the Mayor says, aiming his rifle at it as if he could shoot it from this distance. "They're not due for another two months at least."

  But Viola still ain't looking like she can hear any of this, hope rising on her face so painful it hurts my heart just to see it. "A scout," she whispers, so quiet I'm the only one who hears it. "Another scout. Sent to look for me."

  I turn back to the ship.

  It clears the crest of the falls, soaring out over the river.

  A scout ship, just like the one she crashed in back in the

  477

  swamp, killing her parents and stranding her here all those months and lifetimes ago. It still looks as big as a house, stubby wings looking too short to keep it in the air, flames coming outta the tail end as it flies flies flies down the river, using it as a road hundreds of feet below. We watch it come.

  "David," the Mayor says, his eyes still on it. "Get my horse."

  But Davy's got his face up to the sky, his Noise opening up in wonder and amazement.

  And I know exactly how he feels.

  Nothing flies on New World except the birds. We got machines that go down the roads, fissionbikes, a few fissioncars, but mainly we just got horses and oxes and carts and our feet.

  We don't got wings.

  The ship comes down the river, nearing the cathedral and flying almost right over us, not stopping, so close you can see lights on the underside and the sky above the exhaust shimmering with the heat. It flies right on past, down the river.

  Down east toward the Answer.

  "David!" the Mayor says sharply.

  "Help me up," Viola whispers. "I have to get to them. I have to go."

  And her eyes are wild and her breath is heavy and she's staring at me so hard it's like a solid thing I can feel.

  "Oh, he'll help you up," the Mayor says, pointing the gun. "Because you're coming with me."

  "What?" Viola says.

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  "They're your people, Viola," the Mayor says. "They're going to be wondering where you are. I can either bring you to them right away..." He looks at me. "Or I can sadly inform them that you died in the crash. Which would you prefer?"

  "I'm not going with you," she says. "You're a liar and a murderer-"

  He cuts her off. "David, you'll remain guard over Todd while I take Viola to her ship." He looks back at her. "I think you know firsthand my son's eagerness with a gun if you don't cooperate."

  Viola looks furiously at Davy. I look at Davy, too, standing there, rifle in hand, looking back and forth twixt me and his pa.

  His Noise roiling.

  His Noise saying clearly there ain't no way he's ever gonna shoot me. "Pa?" he says.

  "Enough of this, David," the Mayor frowns, trying to catch Davy's eye-And catching it.

  "You will do what I say," he says to his son. "You will tie Todd up with the rope he so helpfully brought and you will stand guard over him and when I return with our newly arrived guests, everything will be peaceful and happy. The new world will begin."

  "New world," Davy mumbles, his eyes glazing over, just like the ginger-haired soldier, askings and doubt being pushed outta his Noise.

  As he bends to the will of another.

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  I get an idea. Forgive me, Davy.

  "You gonna let him talk to you like that, Davy?"

  He blinks. "What?"
/>   He looks away from his pa.

  "You gonna let him point a gun at me and Viola?"

  "Todd," the Mayor warns.

  "All that Noise you say you hear," I say to the Mayor but I still look at Davy, still hold his eye. "All the way you say you know everything, but you don't know yer own son very well, now, do ya?"

  "David," the Mayor says.

  But I got Davy's eye now.

  "You gonna let him get his way again?" I say to him. "You gonna let him boss you round with no reward?"

  Davy watches me nervously, trying to blink away the mess his pa's put in his head.

  "That ship changes everything, Davy," I say. "A whole new batch of people. A whole city's worth to try and make this place something better than the stinking toilet it is."

  "David," the Mayor says. There's a flash of Noise and Davy flinches.

  "Stop it, Pa," he says.

  "Who do you want to get to that ship first, Davy?" I say. "Me and Viola to get some help? Or yer pa so he can rule them, too?"

  "Be quiet?" says the Mayor. "Are you forgetting who has the gun?"

  "Davy has one, too," I say.

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  ***

  There's a bit of a pause as we all see Davy remember he's holding a rifle.

  There's another flash of Noise from the Mayor and another flinch from Davy. "Jesus, Pa, effing quit it already!"

  But he looks at his pa to say it.

  And his pa catches his eyes again.

  "Tie Todd up and get my horse, David," the Mayor says, holding his stare.

  "Pa?" Davy says, his voice gone quiet.

  "My horse," says the Mayor. "He's out back."

  "Get between them." Viola hisses at me. "Break the eye contact!"

  I move but the Mayor turns the gun on her without taking his eyes off Davy. "One move, Todd." I stop.