The Ask and the Answer

"That's the source," he says. "Control your Noise and you control yourself. Control yourself," he lowers his chin, "and you can control the world."

"You killed Davy," I say, stepping up to him, gun still pointed. "Yer the one with no fixed center. And now yer really go

And then a low and powerful sound rumbles thru the sky, like some giant, deep horn.

A sound God would make when he wanted yer attenshun.

I hear whi

I hear the Mayor's Noise spike and pull back.

"What the hell was that?" I say, looking up and around.

"No," the Mayor breathes.

And there's delight in it.

"What?" I say, poking the rifle at him. "What's going on?" But he's just smiling and turning his head. Turning it toward the hill by the falls, by the zigzag road coming down into town. I look there, too. Lights are at the top.

Lights are starting to come down the zigzag.

"Oh, Todd," the Mayor says, amazement and, yeah, it's joy coming thru his voice. "Oh, Todd, my boy, what have you done?"

"What is it?" I say, squinting into the dark, as if that'll help me see it clearer. "What's making that--"

A second horn blast comes, so loud it's like the sound of the sky folding in half.

I can hear the ROAR of the town rising, so many asking marks you could drown in em.

"Tell me, Todd," the Mayor says, his voice still bright. "What exactly were you pla

"What?" I say, my forehead furrowing, my eyes still trying to see what's coming down the zigzag road, but it's too far and too dark to tell. Just lights, individual points of 'em, moving down the hill.

"Were you going to offer me up for ransom?" he goes on, still sounding cheerful. "Were you going to give me to them for execution?"

"What were those blasts?" I say, grabbing him by the shirtfront. "Is that the settlers landing? Are they invading or something?"

He just looks in my eyes, his own sparkling. "Did you think they'd elect you leader and you'd single - handedly usher in a new era of peace?"

"I'll lead them," I hiss into his face. "You watch me."

I let him go and climb up one of the higher piles of rubble. I see people poking their heads outta their houses now, hear voices calling to one another, see people start ru

Whatever it is, it's enough to get the people of New Prentisstown out of hiding.

I feel a buzz of Noise at the back of my head.

I whip round, pointing the gun at him again, climbing back down the rubble and saying, "I told you, none of that!"

"I was just trying to keep our conversation going, Todd," he says, false i

I want to punch the smile off his face.

"What's going on?" I shout at him. "What's coming down that hill?"

There's a third blast of the horn sound, even louder this time, so loud you can feel it humming thru yer body.

And now people in town are really starting to scream.

"Reach in my front shirt pocket, Todd," the Mayor says. "I think you'll find something that once belonged to you." I stare at him, searching him for a trick, but all that's there is that stupid grin. Like he's wi

I push the rifle at him and use my free hand to dig in his pocket, my fingers hitting something metal and compact. I pull it out.

Viola's binocs.

"Really remarkable little things," the Mayor says. "I do so look forward to the rest of the settlers landing, seeing what new treats they bring us."

I don't say nothing to him, just climb back up the rubble and hold the binocs to my eyes with my free hand, clumsily trying to get the night vision to work. It's been a long time since I--

I get the right button.

Up pops the valley, in shades of green and white, cutting thru the dark to show me the town.

I raise them up the road, up the river, to the zigzag on the hill, to the points of lights coming down it--

And-

And oh my God.

I hear the Mayor laugh behind me, still tied to his chair. "Oh, yes, Todd. You're not imagining it." I can't say nothing for a second. There ain't no words. How?

How can this be possible?

***

An army of Spackle is marching for the town.

Some of 'em, the ones near the front, are riding on the backs of these huge, wide creachers covered in what looks like armor and there's a single curving horn coming out the end of their noses. Behind 'em are troops, cuz this ain't a friendly march, nosiree, it ain't nothing like that at all, there are troops marching down the zigzag road, troops marching over the lip of the hill at the top of the falls.

Troops that are coming for battle.

And there are thousands of 'em.

"But," I say, gasping, hardly able to get the words out. "But they were all killed. They were all killed during the Spackle War!"

"All of them, Todd?" the Mayor asks. "Every single one of them on this whole planet when all we live on is one little strip? Does that make sense to you?"

The lights I've been seeing are torches carried by the Spackle riding on the creachers' backs, burning torches to lead the army, burning torches that light up the spears that the troops carry, the bows and arrows, the clubs.

All of 'em carrying weapons.

"Oh, we beat them," says the Mayor. "Killed them in their thousands, certainly, every one within miles of here. Though they outnumbered us by a considerable margin, we had better weapons, stronger motivation. We drove them out of this land on the understanding that they would never return, never get in our way ever again. We kept some of them as slaves, of course, to rebuild our city after that war. It was only fair."

The town is really ROAR ing now. The marching of the army has stopped and I can hear people ru

I run back down the rubble to him, pushing the gun hard into his ribs. "Why did they come back? "Why now?"

And still he grins. "I expect they've had time to work on how they might get rid of us once and for all, don't you? All these years? I expect they were only looking for a reason."

"What reason?!" I shout at him. "Why--"

And I stop.

The genocide.

The death of every slave.

Their bodies piled up like so much rubbish.

"Quite right, Todd," he says, nodding like we're talking about the weather. "I suspect that must certainly be it, don't you?"

I look down at him, understanding coming too late like always. "You did it," I say. "Of course you did it. You killed every Spackle, every single one, made it look like it was the Answer." I push the rifle into his chest. "You were honing they'd come back."

He shrugs. "I was hoping I'd have the chance to beat them once and for all, yes." He purses his lips. "But it's you I have to thank for speeding the plan along."

"Me?" I say.

"Oh, yes, definitely you, Todd. I set the stage. But you sent them the messenger."

"The messen--?"