“Easier to walk into a trap?” I say, nervously gripping Acorn’s reins.
Bradley makes to go up the path first, but Acorn puts himself in front of Angharrad, feeling her hesitation, trying to make her more comfortable by appearing confident. Follow, his Noise says, almost gently, Follow.
And she does. And up we go.
As we climb, we hear the hum of engines in the valley behind us as Simone pilots the ship into the air, where it’ll watch us like a hawk hovering on an updraft, ready to swoop down with weapons if anything goes astray.
My comm beeps. I take it out of my pocket and see Todd looking back at me. “You all right?” he asks.
“I only just left,” I say. “And Simone’s already on her way.”
“Yeah,” he says. “We can see you, bigger than life. Like yer the star of yer own vid.”
I try to laugh but it only comes out as coughing.
“Any sign of danger,” he says, more serious, “any sign at all you get yerself outta there.”
“Don’t worry,” I say. And then I say, “Todd?”
He looks at me through the comm, guessing what I’m about to say. “You’ll be okay,” he says.
“If something happens to me–”
“It won’t.”
“But if it does–”
“It won’t.” He says it almost angrily. “I ain’t saying goodbye to you, Viola, so don’t even try. You get up there, you get peace, and you get back down here so we can make you well again.” He leans in closer to the comm. “I’ll see you soon, all right?”
I swallow a little. “All right,” I say.
He clicks off.
“Everything okay?” Bradley asks.
I nod. “Let’s get this over with.”
We climb up the makeshift path, getting closer to the summit of the hill. The ship’s high enough to see what’s waiting for us. “It looks like a welcoming party,” Simone calls over Bradley’s comm. “Open ground with what has to be their leader sitting on one of their battlemore things.”
“Anything threatening?” Bradley asks.
“Nothing obvious. But there are an awful lot of them.”
We ride on and, in the wreckage of the hill, I see we must be at about the point where Todd and I ran to get away from Aaron, leaping across to the ledge under the waterfall, the same ledge where the Spackle lined up and shot their fiery arrows, the same ledge that’s not there any more, not after I blasted it away–
We keep on past the place where I got shot and where Todd beat back Davy Prentiss Jr–
And we near the last rise, only bits of it still there in its original shape, but close enough to the last place Todd and I thought we were safe, looking out onto what we thought was Haven.
But instead, it led us to this.
“Viola?” Bradley says, his voice low. “You all right?”
“I think the fever’s rising again,” I say. “I was drifting off there a little.”
“Nearly there,” he says gently. “I’ll greet them. I’m sure they’ll greet us back.”
And then we’ll see what happens, says his Noise.
We climb the last bit of the ruined zigzag road, climb over the top of the hill.
And into the camp of the Spackle.
[TODD]
“They’re nearly there,” I say.
Me and Wilf and the Mayor and everybody else in the square are watching the big projeckshun above the ruins of the cathedral, watching as Viola and Bradley and two horses that suddenly look real small walk up into a waiting half-circle of Spackle.
“That has to be their leader,” the Mayor says, pointing to the one standing on the biggest battlemore in the row of ’em waiting there. We watch him as he sees Viola and Bradley crest the hill on the horses, that half-circle of Spackle giving ’em nowhere to run except back the way they came.
“First they’ll exchange greetings,” the Mayor says, his eyes not leaving the picture. “That’s how these things start. And then both sides will declare how strong they are and then finally they’ll give an indication of intentions. It’s all very formal.”
We watch Bradley in the projeckshun, who seems to be doing exactly what the Mayor predicted.
“The Spackle’s getting down,” I say.
The leader of the Spackle slowly but gracefully swings a leg back over the animal. He gets down and takes off this helmet thing he was wearing, handing it to a Spackle next to him.
Then he starts walking cross the clearing.
“Viola’s getting off her horse,” Wilf says.
And she is. Acorn’s kneeling to let her off and she gingerly steps to the ground. She turns from Acorn, readying to meet the leader of the Spackle, who’s still coming towards her slowly, his hand outstretched–
“This is going well, Todd,” the Mayor says. “Very well indeed.”
“Don’t say stuff like that,” I say.
“Hey!” Wilf suddenly shouts, sitting forward–
And I see it–
There’s a rumble thru the crowd of soldiers as they see it, too–
A Spackle is running from the half-circle–
Breaking ranks and running towards the leader of the Spackle–
Heading straight for him–
And the leader of the Spackle is turning–
As if he’s surprised–
And in the cold morning sunlight, we can see–
The Spackle who’s running has got a blade–
“He’s gonna kill the leader–” I say, getting to my feet–
And the ROAR of the crowd rises–
And the running Spackle reaches the leader, blade up–
Reaches him–
And goes past–
Past the leader whose arms move to stop him–
But he avoids ’em–
And keeps on running–
Running towards Viola–
And that’s when I reckernize him–
“No,” I say, “No!”
It’s 1017–
Running flat out at Viola–
Carrying a blade–
He’s gonna kill her–
He’s gonna kill her to punish me–
“Viola!” I shout–
“VIOLA!”
The One In Particular
(THE RETURN)
Dawn is coming, the Sky shows. They will be here soon.
He stands above me in his fullest armour, intricately sculpted clay covering his chest and arms, far too ornate and beautiful to ever be worn in battle. The ceremonial helmet teeters on his head like a spired hut, matched by an equally heavy ceremonial stone blade at his side.