Monsters of Men (63 page)

“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–

[T
ODD
]

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 needed 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?”

And I glance into the surf–

See the shadows, the
huge
shadows, big as houses, swimming this way and that, even in the crashing waves–

And
Eat
is what I hear–

Simple as that one word–

Eat–

And they’re talking about the Mayor–

Gathering around where he’s walking backwards towards them–

Where Todd is making him do it–

“Todd?” I say–

And then the Mayor says, “Wait.”

[T
ODD
]

“Wait,” says the Mayor.

And it’s not a controlling thing he’s trying, not a
buzz
returning along the one I’m sending to him, the one that’s making him walk towards the ocean, to drown himself in it, to be eaten by the creachers that are swimming closer and closer, waiting to get a bite. He just says, “Wait,” like he’s asking politely.

“I ain’t sparing you,” I say. “I would if I thought I could save you, but I can’t. I’m sorry bout that, but you can’t be saved.”

“I know,” he says. He smiles again, full of sadness this time, sadness I can feel is real. “You did change me, you know, Todd. In a little way, for the better. Enough to recognize love when I see it.” He looks over at Viola and back at me. “Enough for me to save you now.”

“Save
me
?” I say and I think
Step back
and he steps back one more step.

“Yes, Todd,” he says, sweat forming on his upper lip, trying to resist me. “I want you to stop forcing me into the surf–”

“Fat chance of that–”

“Because I’ll go into it myself.”

I blink at him. “No more games,” I say, forcing him back another step. “This is finished.”

“But Todd Hewitt,” he says, “you’re the boy who couldn’t kill.”

“I ain’t no boy,” I say. “And I’ll kill
you
.”

“I know,” he says. “And that would make you just a little bit more like me, wouldn’t it?”

I stop, holding him there for a second, the waves crashing in behind him, the creachers starting to fight amongst themselves, and boy are they
big–

“I never lied about your power, Todd,” he says. “Powerful enough to be the new me, if you wanted–”

“I
don’t–”

“Or powerful enough to be like Ben.”

I frown. “What’s Ben got to do with it?”

“He hears the voice of the planet, too, Todd, just like me. Just like you will eventually. But he lives within it, lets himself be part of it, lets himself ride the current of it without losing himself.”

The snow’s still falling, sticking to the Mayor’s hair in white bits. I realize again how cold I am.

“You could be me,” the Mayor says. “Or you could be him.”

He takes a step back.

A step that I didn’t make him take.

“If you kill me, it’s one step further away from being him,” he says. “And if that’s as far as the goodness of you has changed me, goodness enough to stop you
becoming
me, then that’ll have to do.”

He turns to Viola. “The cure for the bands is real.”

Viola glances at me. “What?”

“I put a slow-acting poison in the first batch to kill all the women. The Spackle too.”

“WHAT?” I shout.

“But the cure is real,” the Mayor says. “I did it for Todd. I’ve left the research on the scout ship. Mistress Lawson can easily confirm it. And that,” he says, nodding at her, “is my parting gift to
you,
Viola.”

He looks back at me, the sad, sad smile on his face. “This world will be shaped by the two of you for years to come, Todd.”

He sighs deeply.

“And I, for one,” he says, “am glad that I shall never have to see it.”

And he spins round and takes one big stride toward the surf, then another and another–

“Wait!” Viola calls after him–

But he don’t stop, he keeps striding, almost running, and I feel Viola slip off Angharrad and both of ’em come over next to me and we watch the Mayor’s boots splash in the water and he wades in deeper, a wave nearly knocking him over, but he keeps upright–

He twists back to look at us–

His Noise is silent–

His face unreadable–

And with a yawning grunt, one of the shadows in the water breaks the surface, all mouth and black teeth and horrible slime and scales, surging towards the Mayor–

Twisting its head sideways to grab his torso–

And the Mayor makes no sound as the huge creacher slams him into the sand–

And drags him back under the water–

And as quick as that–

He’s gone.

{VIOLA}

“He’s gone,” Todd says, and I share every bit of the disbelief in his voice. “He just walked in.” He turns to me. “He just walked right in.”

He’s breathing heavy, looking startled and exhausted by what’s just happened.

And then he sees me, really
sees
me.

“
Viola,
” he says–

And I take him in my arms and he takes me in his and we don’t have to say anything, anything at all.

Because we know.

“It’s over,” I whisper. “I can’t believe it. It’s
over
.”

“I think he really wanted to go,” Todd says, still holding me. “I think it was destroying him in the end, trying to control it all.”

We look back at the ocean and see the huge creatures still circling, waiting to see if Todd or I will offer ourselves up next. Angharrad sticks her nose right between us, bumping Todd in the face, saying
Boy colt
with enough feeling to bring tears to my eyes.
Boy colt.

“Hey, girl,” Todd says, rubbing a hand along her nose but still holding onto me, and then his face looks sad as he reads her Noise. “Acorn,” he says.

“I left Bradley behind,” I say, tearing up again. “Wilf and Lee, too, but I don’t know what happened–”

“The Mayor said Mr Tate failed him,” Todd says. “Said the Spackle failed him, too. That can only be good.”

“We need to get back.” I twist in his arms and look at the scout ship. “I don’t suppose he taught you how to fly that?”

And then Todd says, “Viola,” in a way that makes me turn back to him.

“I don’t wanna be like the Mayor,” he says.

“You won’t,” I say. “That’s impossible.”

“No,” he says. “That’s not what I mean.”

And he looks me in the eyes.

And I feel it coming, feel the strength surging through him, finally free of the presence of the Mayor–