Monsters of Men

I flinch and Angharrad screams as another hole is blasted into the hill and more dirt and smoke and Spackle bodies and horned creacher parts go flying into the air.

The Mayor don’t flinch at all, just looks happy as the new soldiers flood round us, as the Spackle army collapses into chaos and turns and tries to run–

And is cut down by our new arrivals–

And I’m breathing heavy–

And I’m watching the tide turn–

And I gotta say–

I gotta say–

(shut up)

I feel a rush as I see it–

(shut up)

I feel relief and I feel joy and I feel my blood pumping as I see the Spackle fall–

(shut up shut up shut up)

“You weren’t worried there, were you, Todd?” the Mayor asks.

I look back at him, dirt and blood drying on my face, the bodies of men and Spackle around us everywhere, a new bright flood of Noise filling the air even tho I didn’t think it could ever get any louder–

“Come!” he says to me. “See what it’s like to be on the wi

And he rides off after the new soldiers.

I ride after him, gun up, but not shooting, just watching and feeling–

Feeling the thrill of it–

Cuz that’s it–

That’s the nasty, nasty secret of war–

When yer wi

When yer wi

The Spackle are ru

Ru

And I raise my gun–

And I aim it at the back of a ru

And my finger’s on the trigger–

And it’s ready to pull–

And the Spackle stumbles over the body of another Spackle, but it ain’t just one body, it’s two, it’s three–

And then the smoke is clearing and I’m seeing more, I’m seeing bodies everywhere, men and Spackle and horned creachers–

And I’m back in the monastery, back where the Spackle bodies were piled up–

And it don’t feel so thrilling no more–

“CHASE THEM UP THE HILL!” the Mayor shouts to his soldiers. “MAKE THEM SORRY THEY WERE EVER BORN!”

{VIOLA}

“It’s finishing,” I say. “The battle’s ending.”

Bradley let the projection play normally again, and we all saw the arrival of the rest of the army.

Saw the second explosion.

Saw the Spackle turn and try to run back up on themselves, over the wreckage of the bottom of the hill, chaos sending some of them falling into the river, into the road below, into the battle where they didn’t live for long.

The amount of death is making me feel physically sick, throbbing along with my ankles, and I have to lean against Acorn as everyone else argues.

“If he can do that,” Mistress Coyle says, “then he’s even more dangerous to you than I’ve been saying. Is that who you want in charge of the world you’re about to join?”

“I don’t know,” Bradley says. “Are you the only alternative?”

“Bradley,” Simone says, “she’s got a point.”

“She does?”

“We can’t make a new settlement in the middle of a war,” Simone continues. “And this is our last stop. There’s nowhere else for the ships to go. We have to find a way to make it work here, and if we’re in danger–”

“We could land somewhere else on the planet,” Bradley says.

Mistress Coyle takes a sharp breath. “You wouldn’t.”

“There’s no law that says we have to join up with the previous settlement,” Bradley says to her. “We never had any communication from you so we were already landing on the assumption you hadn’t made it. We could just leave you to your war. Find our own place to start life new.”

“Abandon them?” Simone says, sounding shocked herself.

“You’d end up fighting the Spackle anyway,” Mistress Coyle says, “without anyone experienced to help you.”

“Whereas here we’d end up fighting both Spackle and men,” Bradley says. “And probably you, eventually.”

“Bradley–” Simone says–

“No,” I say, loud enough for them to hear me.

Because I’m still watching the projection, watching men and Spackle die–

And I’m still thinking of Todd, of all the death I would have caused for him–

It makes me dizzy.

And I don’t ever want to be in that position again.

“No weapons,” I say. “No bombing anyone. The Spackle are retreating. We beat the Mayor before and if we have to do it again, we will. Same thing for a truce with the Spackle.”

I look at Mistress Coyle’s face, hardening at my words. “No more death,” I say. “Not by my choice, not even for an army that deserves it, Spackle or human. We’ll find a peaceful solution.”

“Well said,” Bradley says strongly. And he looks at me with a face I remember well, a face full of kindness and love and a pride so fierce it stings.

And I have to look away because I know how close I came to having them fire the missile.

“Well, then, if you’re all so sure,” Mistress Coyle says, her voice cold as the bottom of a river. “I’ve got lives to save.”

And before anyone can stop her, she’s gone, ru

[TODD]

“CUT THEM DOWN!” the Mayor’s yelling. “SEND THEM RUNNING!”

It don’t matter what he yells, tho, he could be screaming types of fruit and the soldiers would still be surging up the lower part of the zigzag road, climbing over where it’s been blown away, hacking and shooting at the Spackle scrambling up it before ’em.

Mr O’Hare is at the front of the new group of men, leading the charge, but the Mayor’s stopped Mr Tate and called him over to where we’re waiting on the open ground at the bottom.

I hop off Angharrad to get a closer look at the arrow wound. It don’t seem that bad but she still ain’t saying nothing in her Noise, not even plain horse sounds, just silence, which I don’t know what it means but I’m sure it ain’t good.

“Girl?” I say, trying to rub calm hands over her side. “We’ll get you stitched up, okay? We’ll get you all healed up like new, all right? Girl?”

But she hangs her head down towards the ground, foam coming up round her lips and in the sweat on her sides.

“Sorry for the delay, sir,” Mr Tate’s saying to the Mayor behind me. “We’ll have to work on their mobility.”

I glance over to where the artillery sits: four big ca

Ugly brute weapons that only make him stronger.

“I leave improvements in your capable hands, Captain,” the Mayor says. “Right now, find Captain O’Hare, tell him to draw back to the base of the hill.”

“Draw back?” says Mr Tate, surprised.

“The Spackle are on the run,” the Mayor says, nodding at the zigzag road, almost clear of Spackle now as they disappear over the top of the hill into the upper valley. “But who knows how many thousands are waiting on the road above? They’ll regroup and replan and we shall do the same here and be ready for them.”

“Yes, sir,” Mr Tate says, and takes off on his horse.

I lean into Angharrad, pressing my face against her side, closing my eyes but still seeing everything in my Noise, the men, the Spackle, the fighting, the fire, the death, the death, the death–

“You did well, Todd,” the Mayor says, riding up close behind me. “Very well indeed.”

“It was–” I say but I stop.

Cuz how was it?

“I’m proud of you,” he says.

I turn to him, my face a picture.

He laughs at my expresshun. “I am,” he says. “You didn’t buckle under extreme pressure. You kept your head. You kept your steed even though she was injured. And most importantly, Todd, you kept your word.”