by Patrick Ness
Mayor Ledger points the gun at him and pulls the trigger three times. The man falls back into the doorway and all the way to the floor until only his feet are sticking out.
We all stand there, shocked, echoes of gunfire still ringing off the marble floors.
There’s a clear picture in Mayor Ledger’s Noise, of himself with a black eye and split lip, of the man on the floor giving him the beating.
He looks back at us, sees us staring at him. “What?”
“Mayor Prentiss ain’t gonna like that,” Todd says. “He knows Mr. Collins from old Prentisstown.”
“I’m sure the prize of Viola and the Answer’s attack will make up for any other misunderstandings.” Mayor Ledger’s looking around now, trying to find a place to free up his hands. He finally just tosses the book to Todd, as if he doesn’t want it any more. Todd bobbles it in his hands but catches it.
“Your mother wasn’t much of a writer, Todd,” Mayor Ledger says, bending forward and zipping open the pack with his free hand. “Barely literate.”
“You’re going to pay for that.” Todd looks back at me and I realize I’m the one who said it out loud.
Mayor Ledger digs around in my bag. “Food!” he says, his face lighting up. He takes out a crested pine from the top and immediately shoves it in his mouth. He digs some more, finding bread and more fruit, taking bites of almost everything. “How long were you planning on staying?” he asks, his mouth full.
I see Todd starting to edge forward.
“It’s not like I can’t hear you,” Mayor Ledger says, waving the gun again, digging down to the bottom of the bag. He stops, his hand deep inside, and looks up. “What’s this?” He feels around a little more and starts to drag something larger out of the pack. At first I assume it’s the gun but then he shakes it free of the bag.
He stands up.
And looks curiously at the Thrace bomb in his hand.
There’s a second where it can’t be true. There’s a second where my eyes can’t be seeing what they’re seeing, not believing that I know what a bomb looks like by now. There’s a moment where it’s in his hand but it doesn’t mean anything, it doesn’t mean anything at all.
But then Lee gasps beside me and it all makes sense, it all makes the worst goddam sense I can even think of.
“No,” I say.
Todd spins around. “What? What is it?”
Time slows down to nothing. Mayor Ledger turns it over in his hand and a beeping starts, a fast beeping, a beeping obviously set to go whenever anyone searched through my bag and picked it up, the pulse in his hand setting it off, a bomb you know is going to kill you if you let go of it.
“This isn’t–” says Mayor Ledger, looking up–
But Lee is already reaching for my arm–
Trying to grab it so we can bolt for the front door–
“Run!” he’s yelling–
But I’m jumping forward, not back–
And I’m pushing Todd sideways–
Stumbling towards the room where the dead man fell–
Mayor Ledger isn’t trying to shoot us–
Isn’t doing anything–
He’s just standing there, realization dawning–
And as we’re falling through the doorway–
And rolling over the dead man–
And curling into each other for protection–
Mayor Ledger tries to throw the bomb away from himself–
Releasing it from his hand–
And–
– it blasts him into a thousand pieces, tearing out the walls behind him and most of the room we’re falling into and the heat from the explosion singes our clothes and our hair and rubble comes tumbling down and we force ourselves under a table but something hits Todd hard in the back of the head and a long beam falls across my ankles and I feel both of them break and all I can think as I yell out at the impossible pain is she betrayed me she betrayed me she betrayed me and it wasn’t a mission to save Todd, it was a mission to kill him, and the Mayor, too, if she was lucky–
She betrayed me–
She betrayed me again–
And then there’s darkness.
Some time later, there are voices, voices in the dust and rubble, voices drifting into my pain-addled head.
One voice.
His voice.
Standing over me.
“Well, well,” says the Mayor. “Look who we have here.”
[TODD]
“LET HER GO!”
“I pound my fists on the glass but no matter how hard I hit it, it ain’t breaking.
“LET HER GO!”
My voice is cracking from the strain but I’ll go and go till it gives out completely.
“YOU LAY A FINGER ON HER, I’LL KILL YOU!”
Viola is strapped to the frame in the Arena of the Ask, her arms back and up, the skin around the metal band burning red, her head twixt the little buzzing rods that keep her from hearing Noise.
The tub of water is below her, the table of sharp tools to her side.
Mr. Hammar stands there waiting, arms crossed, and Davy, too, watching nervously from the far door, across the room.
And the Mayor is there, calmly walking round her in a circle.
All I remember is the BOOM and Mayor Ledger disappearing in a fury of fire and smoke.
I woke up here, my head aching, my body filthy from dirt and rubble and dried blood.
And I got to my feet.
And there she was
Beyond the glass.
Being Asked.
I press the button again for the speaker in the room. “LET HER GO!”
But no one acts like they can hear me at all.
“I do this with the greatest reluctance, Viola,” says the Mayor, still walking in his slow circle. I can hear him perfectly clear. “I thought we might be friends, you and I. I thought we had an understanding.” He stops in front of her. “But then you blew up my home.”
“I didn’t know there was a bomb,” she says and I can see the pain across her face. There’s dried blood all over her, too, cuts and scratches from the explozhun.
But it’s her feet that look the worst. Her shoes are off and her ankles are swollen and twisted and black and I just know the Mayor ain’t given her nothing for the pain.
I can see it on her face.
See how much she’s hurting.
I try to pull up the bench behind me so I can smash it thru the window but it’s bolted into the concrete.
“I believe you, Viola,” says the Mayor, re-starting his walk. Mr. Hammar stands there smirking, watching it all, once in a while looking up to the mirror where he knows I’m standing and smirking some more. “I believe your dismay at your betrayal by Mistress Coyle. Though you can hardly be surprised.”
Viola don’t say nothing, just hangs her head.
“Don’t hurt her,” I whisper. “Please, please, please.”
“If it helps,” says the Mayor. “I’m not entirely sure I would take it personally. Mistress Coyle saw a way to get a bomb right into the heart of my cathedral, destroying it, perhaps destroying me in the process.”
He glances up to me at the mirror. I pound my fists on it again. There’s no way they can’t hear that but he ignores me.
Davy looks over, tho, his face as serious as I’ve seen it.
And even from here I can hear the worry in his Noise.
“You presented her with an opportunity she couldn’t pass up,” the Mayor continues. “Your extreme loyalty to Todd might actually get you inside where any other bomber might not. She probably didn’t wish to kill you, but there it was, a chance to take me down, and weighed up against that, you were finally expendable.”
And I’m looking at her face.
It’s pulled down sad, pulled down so sad and defeated.
And I feel her silence again, feel the yearning and the loss that I first felt out in the swamp a lifetime ago. I feel it so much my eyes get wet and my stomach tightens and my throat
clenches.
“Viola,” I say. “Please, Viola.”
But she don’t even look up.
“And so if that’s all you mean to her, Viola.” The Mayor’s leaning down in front of her now, looking into her face. “Then maybe you finally know who your real enemy is.” He pauses. “And who your real friends are.”
Viola says something real quiet.
“What was that?” the Mayor asks.
She clears her throat and says it again. “I only came for Todd.”
“I know.” The Mayor stands again and starts his walk. “I’ve grown fond of Todd, too. He’s become like a second son to me.” He looks over at Davy, whose face flushes. “Loyal and hardworking and truly making a contribution to the future of this town.”
I start pounding my fists again. “YOU SHUT UP!” I scream. “YOU SHUT UP!”
“If he’s with us, Viola,” the Mayor says, “and your Mistress is against you, then surely your path is clear.”
But she’s already shaking her head. “I won’t tell you,” she says. “I won’t tell you anything.”
“But she betrayed you.” The Mayor comes round to her front again. “She tried to kill you.”
And at that, Viola lifts her head.
She looks him right in the eye.
And says, “No, she tried to kill you.”
Oh, good girl.
My Noise swells with pride.
That’s my girl.
The Mayor gives a signal to Mr. Hammar.
Who takes hold of the frame and plunges her into the water.
“NO!” I scream and start pounding again. “NO, GODDAMMIT!” I go to the door of the little room and start kicking it as hard as I can. “VIOLA! VIOLA!”
I hear a gasp and run back to the mirror–
She’s up outta the water, coughing up liquid and spitting hard.
“We are running short on time,” says the Mayor, picking a speck of lint off his coat, “so perhaps we should come right to it.”
I’m still pounding on the mirror and shouting while he talks. He turns and looks over to me. He can’t see me from his side but his eyes lock right on mine.
“VIOLA!” I scream and pound the glass again.
He’s frowning a little–
“VIOLA!”
And he strikes me with his Noise.
It’s way stronger than before.
Like a shout of a million people right in the middle of my brain, so far inside I can’t reach it to protect myself and they’re screaming YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING and it feels like my blood is boiling and my eyes are popping outta my skull and I can’t even stand and I stagger back from the mirror and sit down hard on the bench, the slap ringing and ringing and ringing, like it ain’t never gonna stop–
When I can open my eyes again, I see the Mayor stopping Davy from leaving the Arena and then Davy looking back towards the mirror.
And in his Noise he’s worried.
Worried about me.
“Tell me when the Answer is going to attack,” the Mayor says to Viola, his voice colder now, harder. “And from where.”
She shakes her head, sending water drops flying. “I won’t.”
“You will,” says the Mayor. “I truly am afraid you will.”
“No,” she says. “Never.”
And she’s still shaking her head.
The Mayor glances up to the mirror, finding my eye again tho he can’t see me. “Unfortunately,” he says, “we don’t have time for your refusals.”
He nods at Mr. Hammar.
Who plunges her into the water again.
“STOP!” I shout and pound. “STOP IT!”
He holds her there–
And holds her there–
I pound so hard my hands are bruising–
“LET HER UP! LET HER UP! LET HER UP!”
And she’s thrashing in the water–
But he’s still holding her there–
She’s still under water–
“VIOLA!”
Her hands are pulling hard against the binds–
The water is splashing everywhere with her struggling against it–
Oh jesus oh jesus oh jesus oh jesus viola viola viola viola–
I can’t–
I can’t–
“NO!”
Forgive me–
Please forgive me–
“IT’S TONIGHT!” I shout. “AT SUNSET! OVER THE NOTCH IN THE HILL SOUTH OF THE CATHEDRAL! TONIGHT!”
And I’m pressing the button as I shout it again and again–
“TONIGHT!”
As she struggles under the water–
But no one looks like they hear me.
He’s turned the sound off–
He’s turned the effing sound off–
I go back to the window and pound–
But no one’s moving–
And still she’s underwater–
No matter how hard I slam my fists against the glass–
Why ain’t it breaking–
Why ain’t it ruddy breaking–
The Mayor gives a signal and Mr. Hammar lifts up the frame. Viola swallows air in huge raking gulps, her hair (longer than I remember) stuck against her face, twisting in her ears, the water falling off her in great ropes.
“You’re in control here, Viola,” the Mayor says. “Just tell me when the Answer are attacking and this will all stop.”
“TONIGHT!” I scream, so loud my voice is cracking like dried mud. “FROM THE SOUTH!”
But she’s shaking her head.
And no one can hear me.
“But she betrayed you, Viola.” The Mayor’s making his voice do that fake surprised thing. “Why save her? Why–?”
He stops, as if realizing something. “You have people you care about in the Answer.”
She stops shaking her head. She don’t look up but she stops shaking her head.
The Mayor kneels down in front of her. “All the more reason to tell me. All the more reason to let me know where I can find your mistress.” He reaches forward and pulls a few wet strands of hair away from Viola’s face. “If you help me, I guarantee they won’t be harmed. I only want Mistress Coyle. Any other mistresses can remain in prison and everyone else, innocent victims of inflamed rhetoric no doubt, can be released once we’ve had a chance to talk to them.”
He gestures for Mr. Hammar to hand him a towel which he uses to wipe Viola’s face. She still don’t look at him.
“If you tell me, you’d be saving lives,” he says, gently sponging away the loose water. “You have my word on that.”
She finally raises her head.
“Your word,” she says, looking right past him at Mr. Hammar.
And her face is so angry even he looks surprised.
“Ah, yes,” the Mayor says, standing. He hands the towel back to Mr. Hammar. “You should look upon Captain Hammar as an example of my mercy, Viola. I spared his life.” He’s walking again but when he passes behind her he looks over to me. “Just as I shall spare the lives of your friends and loved ones.”
“It’s tonight,” I say, but my voice is a rasp.
How can he not hear me?
“Then again,” he’s saying, “if you don’t know, perhaps your good friend Lee will tell us.”
Her head goes right up, eyes wide, breath heavy.
I don’t know how he coulda survived the explozhun–
“He doesn’t know anything,” she says quickly. “He doesn’t know when or where.”
“Even if I believed that,” the Mayor says, “I’m sure we would have to Ask him long and hard before we could possibly be sure.”
“Leave him alone!” Viola says, trying to turn her head to follow him.
The Mayor stops just in front of the mirror, his back to Viola, his face to me. “Or perhaps we should just ask Todd.”
I pound the glass right at his face. He don’t even flinch.
And then she says, “Todd would never tell you. Never.”
And he smiles.
My stomach sinks, my heart drops, my head feels so light I feel like I’m going to drop right to the ground.
Oh, Viola–
Viola, please–
Forgive me.
“Captain Hammar,” the Mayor says and Viola’s plunged into the water again, unable to not scream out in fright as down she goes.
“NO!” I shout, pressing myself against the mirror.
But the Mayor ain’t even looking at her.
He’s looking right at me, as if he could see me even if I was behind a brick wall.
“STOP IT!” I shout as she’s thrashing again–
And more–
And more–
“VIOLA!”
And I’m pounding even tho I think my hands are breaking–
And Mr. Hammar is grinning and holding her there–
“VIOLA!”
And her wrists are starting to bleed from where she’s pulling–
“I’LL KILL YOU!”
I’m shouting into the Mayor’s face–
With all my Noise–
“I’LL KILL YOU!”–
And still holding her there–
“VIOLA! VIOLA!”–
But it’s Davy–
Of all people–
It’s Davy who stops it.
“Let her up!” he suddenly shouts, striding forward from his corner. “Jesus, yer gonna kill her!” And he’s grabbing the frame and lifting it outta the water and the Mayor gives Mr. Hammar a sign to let him and Davy gets Viola back up and out, her throat roaring from taking in the air and coughing it right back out again with all the water.
No one says nothing for a minute, the Mayor just staring at his son like he was some new kinda fish.
“How can she help us if she’s dead?” Davy says, his voice wobbly, his eyes not meeting no one’s. “Is all I meant.”
The Mayor stays quiet. Davy backs away from the frame and returns to his spot near the door.
Viola coughs and hangs from her bindings and I’m pressed so close against the window it’s like I’m trying to crawl thru it to get to her.
