by Patrick Ness
Except I’m here now and I’m effing freezing.
“SHOW YERSELF, YOU COWARD!” I shout.
“Oh, cowardice is one thing you could never accuse me of, Todd.” His voice again but sounding like it’s coming from somewhere else.
“THEN WHY ARE YOU HIDING?” I shout, turning again, crossing my arms hard against the cold. We’re both gonna die if we stay out here.
And then I see the scout ship, down the beach, parked by itself, waiting–
“I wouldn’t try, Todd,” the voice comes again. “You’d be dead before you reached it.”
I turn round one more time. “YER ARMY AIN’T COMING, IS IT?” I shout. “THAT’S WHAT YOU MEANT ABOUT MR TATE FAILING YOU! HE AIN’T COMING!”
“Correct, Todd,” the Mayor says and this time the voice sounds different.
It sounds like a real voice spoken across a real area.
I whirl round again–
And there he is, by the corner of one of the wrecked wooden houses.
“How do you know?” I say, flexing my Noise, getting myself ready.
“I heard it, Todd,” he says. “I told you I heard everything.” He starts walking towards me. “And slowly, slowly, that’s become literally true. I opened myself up to the voice of this world. And now.” He stops at the edge of the sand-covered square, snow blowing everywhere. “Now I hear every piece of information in it.”
And I see his eyes.
And I finally get it.
He does hear everything.
And it’s driving him mad.
“Not yet,” he says, his eyes black, his voice echoey. “Not before I finish my business with you. Because one day, Todd Hewitt, you’ll hear it, too.”
I’m pumping my Noise, raising its temperature, circling round the one word, making it as heavy as possible, not caring if he can hear it cuz he’ll know it’s coming anyway–
“Indeed,” the Mayor says.
And sends a blast of Noise right at me–
I jump outta the way, hearing it whoosh by me–
I land and roll on the snow and the sand and look back up at him, coming for me–
VIOLA! I fling at him–
And the fight is on–
(THE SKY)
You’ve done right, the Source shows to me as we ride through the trees towards the ocean.
The Sky needs no confirmation of his choices, I show back.
We make good speed. Battlemores are faster than Clearing animals, more used to trees and running without roads. The river settles deep into the valley below us, maybe even changing its course. The fog is still thick, the snow still falling, some fires still burning in the valley behind. But we are on the move, on the move towards our enemy across a sudden plain through a herd of startled animals–
Wait, the Source calls, and I realize I am leaving him behind, the soldiers, too. Wait! he shows again. I hear something up ahead–
I do not slow but I open my voice in front of me–
And there it is, heard before we see it, a Clearing man’s voice–
Bradley, I hear the Source call, and then we are on him, coming through a section of trees to find him backing quickly away as we pull the battlemores to a stop.
“Ben?” the man called Bradley says, looking at me in alarm.
It’s all right, the Source says. The war’s over.
For now, I show. Where is the Knife’s one in particular?
The man called Bradley looks puzzled until the Source shows Viola to him.
And then we see the body of the animal, covered in leaves and brush, now with a light dusting of snow on him.
“Her horse,” the man says. “I covered him and I’ve been trying to start a fire–”
And Viola? the Source shows.
“Gone to the ocean,” Bradley says. “To help Todd.”
There is a rush of feeling in the voice of the Source, a rush that fills my own voice, a rush of love and fear for the Knife–
But I am already off, pushing my battlemore to faster and faster speeds, outrunning the Source behind me and the soldiers behind him–
Wait, I hear the Source call again–
But I will reach the ocean first–
I will reach the ocean myself–
And if the Knife is there–
Well, I shall see what I see–
[TODD]
I catch the Mayor with the first VIOLA I hurl at him, see him stumble to one side, not quite quick enough to dodge it–
But he’s already turning and firing his Noise back at me and tho I duck again I feel like the top of my head’s being ripped open and I jump off the little flat of sand and concrete, down the slope towards the waves, rolling in the sand and snow but getting outta the Mayor’s eyeline for a brief second–
“Oh, but I don’t need to see you, Todd,” I hear–
And bam another blast of white Noise, screaming YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING–
And I roll back up, gripping the side of my head and I force my eyes open–
And I see the river up the beach in front of me, dumping itself into the ocean and I look out to the water beyond it and see wreckage floating there, getting tossed in the waves, wreckage of trees and houses and no doubt people–
People I know–
Maybe even Viola–
And I feel a rage rise in my Noise–
And I get to my feet–
VIOLA!
I think it at him and I realize I’m doing it without having to find him, that I just feel where he is instinctively, and I send it to him and turn to look and he’s falling back hard onto the concrete square, catching himself with his wrist–
Which I hear break with satisfying snap.
He grunts. “Very impressive,” he says, his voice husky with pain. “Very impressive indeed, Todd. Your control is better and stronger.” He starts pulling himself to his feet with his unbroken arm. “But control comes at a price. Can you hear the voice of the world gathering behind you, Todd?”
VIOLA! I think again at him–
And again he staggers back–
But he don’t fall this time–
“Because I can hear it,” he says. “I can hear it all.”
And his eyes flash and I freeze–
And he’s inside my head, along with the hum, connecting to me–
“Can you hear it?” he says again–
And–
And I can–
I can hear it–
There, like a roar behind the roar of the waves, the roar of the river–
A roar of everything on this planet that lives–
Speaking in an impossibly loud single voice–
And for a second I’m overwhelmed by it–
Which is all he needs–
There’s a flash of pain in my head so bright that I black out–
Falling to my knees–
But only for an instant–
Cuz in that roar of voices–
Even tho it ain’t possible–
Even tho she ain’t got Noise–
I swear I heard her–
I swear I heard her coming–
And so without even opening my eyes–
VIOLA!
And I hear another grunt of pain–
And I get back up to my feet–
{VIOLA}
The ground starts to slope steeply down and we’re seeing the ocean constantly now–
“Almost there,” I gasp. “Almost there.”
Boy colt, Angharrad says–
And with a jump, we clear the last line of trees out onto the beach, Angharrad’s hooves kicking up snow and sand as she scrambles to turn left, towards the abandoned town, towards the river–
Towards Todd and the Mayor–
“There they are!” I shout and Angharrad sees them, too, surging forward across the sand–
BOY COLT! she shouts–
“TODD!” I yell–
But the waves are crashing too loud and hu
ge–
And I swear I hear something, Noise coming from the ocean, and I get a glimpse through the crashing water of dark shapes moving beneath–
But I keep my eyes ahead, shouting, “TODD!” over and over again–
And I see–
He’s battling the Mayor, across some kind of sand-covered square in front of what looks like a chapel–
And I get a sinking feeling of how many terrible things have happened to me and Todd in churches–
“TODD!” I call again–
And I see one of them staggering back from what must be a Noise hit–
And then the other jumping away but grabbing his head–
But I can’t tell which is which from this distance–
They’re wearing those stupid uniforms–
And I’m seeing again how tall Todd’s grown–
So tall it’s hard to tell him and the Mayor apart–
And worry clenches my chest even harder–
Angharrad feels it, too–
Boy colt! she calls–
And we race even faster–
[TODD]
Get back, I think at the Mayor and I see him take a step back but just the one and another flash of Noise comes back at me and I grunt with pain and I stumble to one side and I see a broken hunk of concrete in the sand and I grab it and spin round to throw it at him–
“Drop it,” he buzzes.
And I drop it–
“No weapons, Todd,” he says. “You don’t see me armed, do you?”
And I realize I don’t, he ain’t carrying a gun and the scout ship’s too far away to be of use. He wants us to just fight with our Noises–
“Exactly,” he says, “and may the stronger man win.”
And he hits me again–
I grunt and hit him back with a VIOLA and take off running cross the little square, slipping on the snow and heading for one of the wrecked wooden houses–
“I don’t think so,” the Mayor buzzes–
And my feet stop running–
But then I pick up one–
And then the other–
And I’m running for it again–
I hear the Mayor laugh behind me. “Well done,” he says.
I scramble behind a pile of old wood, laying down low so he can’t see me, tho I know that don’t have no effect, but I need a second to think–
“We’re well-matched,” says the Mayor. I can hear him clearly despite the surf, despite the river, despite everything that should be blocking him out. He’s talking right inside my head.
Like he always has.
“You were always my best disciple, Todd,” he says.
“You SHUT UP with that talk,” I shout back, looking round the wood pile, seeing if there’s anything, anything at all that’ll help–
“You control your Noise better than any man but me,” he keeps saying, getting closer. “You control other men with it. You use it as a weapon. I’ve said from the very beginning that your power would outstrip mine.”
And he hits me again harder than ever and the world goes white but I keep thinking Viola in my head and grip the planks of wood and I pull myself to my feet and I think with the heaviest buzz I can muster, GET BACK!
And he steps back.
“Whoo, Todd,” he says, still acting impressed.
“I ain’t taking yer place,” I say, stepping out from the wreckage. “No matter what.”
And he takes another step back, even tho I didn’t tell him to.
“Someone has to,” he says. “Someone has to control the Noise, to tell people how to use it, tell them what to do.”
“Nobody has to tell nobody nothing,” I say, taking another step forward.
“You never were a poet, were you, Todd?” he says. He takes another step back. He’s on the edge of the sandy square now, still holding out his broken wrist, a bloody bone poking out thru the skin, but it don’t look like he’s feeling no pain. The only thing behind him is a long slope down to the waves and the dark shapes lurking beneath–
And I see how black the eyes of the Mayor are, how echoey his voice is becoming–
“This world is eating me alive, Todd,” he says. “This world and the information in it. It’s too much. Too much to control.”
“Then stop trying,” I say and I hit him with a VIOLA.
He flinches but don’t fall down. “I can’t,” he says with a smile. “It’s not in my nature. But you, Todd. You’re stronger than I am. You could handle it. You could rule this world.”
“This world don’t need me,” I say. “For the last time, I ain’t you.”
He looks down at my uniform. “Are you sure about that?”
I feel a rush of anger and hit him hard again with another VIOLA.
He flinches again but don’t step back and hits me with his own blast. I grit my teeth and ready another one, ready to fling it into his stupid smiling face–
“We could stand here all afternoon blasting each other into gibbering wrecks,” he says. “So let me tell you the stakes, Todd.”
“Shut up–”
“If you win, you take over the world–”
“I don’t want–”
“But if I win–”
And suddenly he’s showing me his Noise–
The first time I’ve seen it, seen all of it, in I don’t know how long, maybe even old Prentisstown, maybe not ever–
And it’s cold, colder even than this freezing beach–
And it’s empty–
The voice of the world surrounds him like the black beyond coming in to crush him under an impossible weight–
Knowing me made it bearable for him for a while but now–
He wants to destroy it, destroy everything–
And I realize that’s what he wants–
That’s what he wants more than anything–
To hear nothing–
And the hate of it, the hate in his Noise, of his Noise, is so strong, I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to beat it, he’s stronger than me, he’s always been stronger, and I’m looking straight into the emptiness of him, the emptiness that lets him destroy and destroy and I don’t know if–
“Todd!”
I look away and the Mayor calls out as if I’ve ripped something from him–
“TODD!”
And there, thru the snow, riding my horse, riding my bloody great horse–
Viola–
And the Mayor hits me with all he’s got–
{VIOLA}
“TODD!” I yell and he turns to see me–
And he calls out in pain from an attack by the Mayor and he reels back, blood flying from his nose, and Angharrad screams out Boy colt! and rides right for him across the sand and I’m still calling his name, calling it with all my voice–
“TODD!”
And he hears me–
He looks up at me–
And I still can’t hear his Noise, just what he’s using to fight–
But I see the look in his eye–
And I say it again–
“TODD!”
Because this is how you beat the Mayor–
You don’t beat him alone–
You beat him together–
“TODD!”
And he’s turning to the Mayor and I can see the nervousness on the Mayor’s face as I hear my own name roared out as loud as a thunderclap–
[TODD]
Cuz she’s here–
She came–
She came for me–
And she calls my name–
And I feel her strength coursing thru my Noise like a fire–
And the Mayor staggers back like he’s been punched in the face by a row of houses–
“Ah, yes,” he grunts, hand to his head. “Your tower of strength has arrived.”
“Todd!” I hear her call again–
And I take it and I use it–
Cuz I can feel her there, riding to the end of the world to find me, to save me if I nee
ded saving–
Which I did–
And–
The Mayor staggers back again, holding onto his broken wrist, and I see some blood trickling outta his ears–
“Todd!” she says again but this time in a way that asks me to look at her and I do and she stops Angharrad at the edge of the square and she’s looking at me, looking right into my eyes–
And I read her–
And I know exactly what she’s thinking–
And my Noise and my heart and my head fill up fit to burst, fill up like I’m gonna explode–
Cuz she’s saying–
She’s saying with her eyes and her face and her whole self–
“I know,” I say back to her, my voice husky. “Me, too.”
And then I turn to the Mayor and I’m filled with her, with her love for me and my love for her–
And it makes me big as an effing mountain–
And I take it and I slam all of it into the Mayor–
{VIOLA}
The Mayor’s flung backwards down the slope, tumbling and sliding towards the crashing waves, before stopping in a heap–
Todd looks back at me–
And my heart leaps to my throat–
I still can’t hear his Noise, even as I know he’s gathering it for another attack on the Mayor–
But “I know,” he said. “Me, too.”
And he looks at me now, a twinkle in his eye, a grin on his face–
And though I can’t hear him–
I know him–
I know what he’s thinking–
Right now, at this moment of all moments, I can read Todd Hewitt without hearing his Noise–
And he sees me doing it–
And for an instant–
We know each other again–
And I can just feel the strength of us as he turns back to the Mayor–
And he doesn’t hit him with Noise–
He sends a low buzz through the air–
“Walk backwards,” Todd says to the Mayor, who’s slowly got to his feet, holding his wrist–
And he starts to walk backwards–
Backwards towards the surf–
“Todd?” I ask. “What are you doing?”
“Can’t you hear ’em?” he says. “Can’t you hear how hungry they are?”
