Chaos Walking: The Complete Trilogy (122 page)

“I’m just wondering, my girl,” she finally says. “Wondering if you’re ready.”

“Ready for what?”

But then she turns and leaves without another word.

“Ready for
what
?” I call after her, and then I swing myself out of bed, getting my feet to the floor and standing up–

And immediately falling right onto the other bed out of sheer dizziness.

I take a few deep breaths to make the world stop spinning–

Then I stand back up and set out after her.

[T
ODD
]

The soldiers raise their rifles and start looking all round but the Spackle
ROAR
seems to be coming from everywhere, closing in fast from all direkshuns–

The Mayor’s got his own rifle up. I got mine, too, one hand on Angharrad to steady her, but there’s nothing to see, not yet–

And then a soldier down the road from us falls to the ground, screaming and grabbing at his chest–

“There!” shouts the Mayor–

As suddenly a whole platoon of Spackle,
dozens
of ’em, come blazing outta the woods down the road, shooting their white sticks at the soldiers, who start falling even as they’re firing back–

And the Mayor’s riding past me, shooting his gun and ducking under an arrow coming at him–

Boy colt!
Angharrad is screaming and I’m wanting to ride her away, to get her outta this–

And there are Spackle falling everywhere under the firing of the rifles–

But as soon as one falls, there’s another right behind him–

F
ALL BACK!
I hear in my Noise–

The Mayor, sending it out–

F
ALL BACK TO ME
!

Not even yelling it, not even buzzing, just there, right in yer head–

And I see it–

Not believing it for a second–

All the soldiers left alive, about twelve now, move all together–

F
ALL BACK TO ME
!

Like a herd of sheep moving from the bark of a dog–

E
VERY MAN
!

They move, still firing their guns, but coming backwards toward the Mayor, too, their feet even walking in the same rhythm, all those different men suddenly looking like the same man, like
one
man, climbing over the bodies of other soldiers like they ain’t even there–

T
O ME
!

T
O ME
!

And even
I
can feel my hands turning Angharrad’s reins to line up behind the Mayor–

Moving with the rest of ’em–

Boy colt!?

I curse myself and turn her away from the main fight–

But the soldiers are still coming, even as one and then another of ’em falls, here they come, now in two short rows, firing in unison–

And Spackle are dying in the gunfire, dropping to the ground–

And the men move back–

And Mr O’Hare’s come up next to me on his own horse, firing, too, in exact timing with the rest of ’em and I see a Spackle coming outta the woods nearest us, raising a white stick right at Mr O’Hare and–

GET DOWN!
I think–

Think but don’t say–

And there’s a
buzz
from me to him, fast as anything–

And he gets down and the Spackle fires right over the top of him–

Mr O’Hare rises again and shoots the Spackle, then he turns back to me–

But instead of saying thanks, his eyes are full of white fury–

And then suddenly there’s silence–

The Spackle are gone. Not even so you can see ’em running away, just
gone,
and the attack’s over and there are dead soldiers and dead Spackle and the whole thing took less than a minute–

And here are two rows of surviving soldiers standing in perfectly straight lines, rifles all held up exactly the same, all looking to the spot where the Spackle first came from, all waiting to shoot again–

All waiting for their next order from the Mayor.

I see his face, burning with concentrayshun and a fierceness it’s hard to even look at.

And I know what it means.

It means his control’s getting better.

Getting quicker and stronger and sharper.

(
But so’s mine,
I think,
so’s mine
)

“Indeed,” the Mayor says. “Indeed it is, Todd.”

And it takes me a second to realize that even tho my Noise was silent, he still heard me–

“Let’s get back to town, Todd,” he says, smiling for the first time in ages. “I think maybe it’s time I tried something new.”

{V
IOLA
}

“That’s terrific, Wilf,” I hear Bradley say as I exit the scout ship, looking all around for Mistress Coyle. Wilf is moving a cart with huge vats of fresh water into place near the ship, ready for distribution.

“Tain’t nothin,” Wilf says to Bradley. “Just doin what needs doin.”

“Glad someone is,” I hear behind me. It’s Lee, returning early from the day’s hunting party.

“Did you see which way Mistress Coyle went?” I ask him.

“Hello to you, too,” he laughs. He holds up the forest hens he’s carrying. “I’m saving the fattest one for us. Simone and the Humanitarian can have the small one.”

“Don’t call him that,” I say, frowning.

Lee looks over at Bradley, who’s heading back into the ship. The half-circle of people who sit by the bay doors and watch – bigger today – just mutter to each other, and in the Noise of the few men there, Ivan included, I hear it again,
The Humanitarian
.

“He’s trying to save us,” I say to them. “He’s trying to make it so all of the people coming can live here in peace.
With
the Spackle.”

“Yeah,” Ivan calls over. “And while he’s doing it, he doesn’t seem to notice that his weapons’d bring peace a hell of a lot faster than
humanitarian
efforts.”

“His humanitarian efforts could guarantee you a long life, Ivan,” I say. “And you should mind your own goddam business.”

“I do believe survival
is
our business,” Ivan says loudly, and there’s a woman next to him agreeing, a smug smile on her dirty face, and even though she looks ashen from the same fever I’ve got and wears the same band I wear, I still want to smack her and smack her and smack her so she never looks at me that way again.

But Lee’s already taking my arm and leading me away, around the scout ship to the far side by the engines, still off, still cool, but the one place on the hill where no one’s going to make a tent.

“Stupid, small-minded people–” I’m ranting.

“I’m sorry, Viola,” Lee says, “but I kind of agree with them.”

“
Lee–
”

“President Prentiss killed my mother and sister,” he says. “Anything we could do to help stop the Spackle
and
him is fine by me.”

“You’re as bad as Mistress Coyle,” I say. “And
she
tried to kill
you
.”

“I’m just saying, if we’ve got the weapons, we could show more strength–”

“And guarantee slaughter for years to come!”

He smirks a little, infuriatingly. “You sound like Bradley. He’s the only one around here who talks like that.”

“Yes, because a hilltop full of frightened and hungry people are really going to offer a
rational
–”

And then I stop because Lee’s just looking at me. Looking at my
nose
. I can tell, because I can see myself in his Noise, see me shouting and getting angry, see my nose wrinkling like it must do when I’m mad, see the warmth of his feelings around that wrinkle–

And in a flash, there’s a picture of him and me in his Noise, holding each other tight, no clothes anywhere, and I’m seeing the blond hairs on his chest that I’ve never seen in real life, the downy, soft, surprisingly thick hair that trails all the way down to his belly button and below and–

“Oh, crap,” he says, stepping back.

“Lee?” I say, but he’s already turning and walking away fast, his Noise flooding with bright yellow embarrassment and he’s saying, loud, “I’m going back to the hunting party,” and walking away even faster–

And as I head off again in search of Mistress Coyle, I realize my skin feels incredibly hot, like I’m blushing all over–

[T
ODD
]

Boy colt?
Angharrad says to me all the way back into town after the Spackle attack, going faster than I’m even asking her to.
Boy colt?

“Almost there, girl,” I say.

I ride into camp just behind the Mayor, who’s still practically
glowing
from how he controlled the men on the road just now. He slides off Juliet’s Joy, handing her to James, who’s waiting for us. I ride over to him, too, jumping off Angharrad’s saddle.

“I need some feed for her,” I say quickly. “Some water, too.”

“I’ve got feed all ready,” he says, as I guide her over to my tent. “But we’re rationing water so–”

“No,” I say, unbuckling the saddle from her as fast as I can. “You don’t unnerstand. She needs water now. We’ve just–”

“Is she bossing you around again?” James says.

And I turn to him, eyes wide open. He’s smiling back at me, not getting what we’ve just been thru at all, thinking that I’m being pushed around by my horse and not that I know how to take care of her, that she
needs
me–

“She’s a beauty,” he says, pulling a tangle outta Angharrad’s mane. “But you’re still the boss.”

And I can see him thinking, thinking about his farm, thinking about the horses he and his pa used to have, three of ’em, all tan-coloured with white noses, thinking about how they were taken by the army but how he ain’t seen ’em since, which probably means they died in battle–

A thought which makes Angharrad say
Boy colt?
again all worried-like–

And that makes me even angrier–

“No,” I say to James. “Get some extra water for her now.”

And barely even aware that I’m doing it, I’m staring at him hard, pushing with my Noise, reaching out and grabbing his–

Taking hold of it–

Taking hold of
him
–

And I am the Circle and the Circle is me–

“What are you doing, Todd?” he says, swatting away at the front of his face like he’s batting back a fly.

“Water,” I say. “
Now
.”

And I can feel the
buzz
coming, feel it flailing about in the air–

I’m sweating now, even in the cold–

And I can see him sweating, too–

Sweating and looking confused–

He furrows his brow. “Todd?”

And he says it in such a sad way, a way that sounds, I don’t know,
betrayed,
like I reached inside him and messed him about, that I almost stop right there. I almost stop concentrating, I almost stop reaching out to him–

But only almost.

“I’ll get her plenty of water,” he says, his eyes dazed. “I’ll get some right now.”

And off he goes, back towards the water tank.

I take a second to catch my breath.

I did it.

I did it again.

And it felt
good
.

It felt
powerful
.

“Oh, help,” I whisper under my breath, and I’m shaking so hard I have to sit down.

{V
IOLA
}

I find Mistress Coyle in a small group of women near the healing tents, her back to me.

“Hey!” I call, stomping over. My voice is
very
loud after what just happened with Lee, but I’m also feeling fainter than seems plausible and I wonder if I’m about to fall flat on my face.

Mistress Coyle turns and I see three women with her. Mistress Nadari and Mistress Braithwaite, neither of whom have even bothered to say a word to me since the Answer came to the hilltop, but I’m not looking at them.

I’m looking at Simone.

“You should be in bed, my girl,” Mistress Coyle says.

I glare at her. “You don’t just ask if I’m ready for something then
walk off
.”

Mistress Coyle looks at the others, including Simone, who nods. “Very well, my girl. If you’re that committed to knowing.”

I’m still breathing heavy and realizing from her tone that I’m probably not going to like this at all when she holds out her hand in a way that asks if she can take my arm. I don’t let her, but I go with her as she walks away from the healing tents, the other two mistresses and Simone walking behind us like bodyguards.

“We’ve been working on a theory,” Mistress Coyle says.

“We?” I say, looking again at Simone, who still says nothing.

“One that makes more sense as the days go by, I’m afraid,” Mistress Coyle says.

“Can you get to the point, please?” I say. “It’s been a long day and I don’t feel good.”

She nods, once. “All right then, my girl.” She stops and faces me. “We’re starting to think that there may be no cure for the bands.”

I put my hand up to my arm without thinking. “What?”

“We’ve had them for
decades,
” she says. “We had them on Old World, for heaven’s sake, and of course there’ve been instances of cruelty or pranks when humans have been banded. But we couldn’t find a single other case, not even Simone in your very extensive database, of this sort of infection.”

“But how–?”

And then I stop. Because I realize what she’s hinting at.

“You think the Mayor put something extra on them.”

“It’d be a way for him to harm a huge number of women without anyone knowing the real agenda.”

“But we would have heard,” I say. “With all the Noise of the men, there’d have been rumours–”

“Think about it, my girl,” Mistress Coyle says. “Think about his history. Think about the extermination of the women in old Prentisstown.”

“He says it was suicide,” I say, knowing how weak it sounds.