“How do we get out of here?!” I say, coughing in the smoke, and I turn to see a ten-metre wall of fire burning down the dry riverbed where we were just standing–
“Where’s the Sky?” Bradley says.
We turn to look at Ben and I realize for the first time that we can’t hear his Noise, that’s it’s focused away from us, that all the Spackle nearby have stopped as well, as if frozen, a sight beyond eerie in the middle of an inferno, even though there’s nowhere to run–
“Ben?” I say–
But he’s staring at the wall of flame down the riverbed–
And then we hear it–
A tearing sound, like the air being ripped in two, approaching from behind us–
1017–
Off his battlemore and on foot–
Racing towards the flames, which are already decreasing on the bare rocks–
Leaving burning piles of ash–
Like on the battlefield before when the Spackle shot the fire bolts–
Except this time it’s just two–
1017 races for them, his Noise making a sound more horrible, more full of rage and grief than anything I’ve ever heard in my entire life-
As he rushes towards the blackened corpses of the Sky and his battlemore-
(THE RETURN)
I run–
No thought in my head–
No sound in my voice except a wail I can barely hear myself–
A wail demanding that it be taken back–
A wail refusing to believe what I have seen, refusing to accept what has happened–
I am only vaguely aware of the Clearing and the Source as I run by them–
Vaguely aware of the roar forming in my ears, in my head, in my heart–
In my voice–
The rocks in the riverbed still burn but the fire is lifting off them even as I approach, so this attack was a waste in terms of setting more things ablaze–
But not a waste because it clearly had a single target–
I plunge into the flames, feeling them blister my skin, some of the rocks blazing red as coals–
But I do not care–
I reach where the Sky was riding his beast–
Reach where he has fallen to the stones–
Where he and the beast still burn–
And I am beating at the flames, trying to put them out with my bare hands, the wail getting louder, reaching beyond me, out of me, out into the world, out into the Land, trying to erase everything that has happened–
And I grab under the Sky’s burning arms and pull him from his burning steed–
And I show it out loud, No!
And my skin is burning on the rocks, my own lichen smouldering from the heat–
NO!
But he is a dead weight in my hands–
And–
And–
And then I hear him–
And I freeze–
I cannot move at all–
The Sky’s body is in my hands–
But his voice–
Removed from his body–
Hanging in the air as he leaves his body behind–
But pointed at me–
Showing–
The Sky–
He shows to me, The Sky–
And then he is gone–
And in the next instant, I hear them–
I hear the voices of all the Land–
Every one of them frozen–
Frozen though some of us burn–
Frozen though some of us die–
Frozen like I am, holding the body of the Sky–
Except it is no longer the body of the Sky–
The Sky, I hear–
And it is the Land speaking now–
The Land’s voice, twining together as one–
The Sky is the voice of the Land and for a moment it was cut off, freed from itself, lost and out in the world, without a mouth to speak it–
But only for a moment–
The Sky, I hear–
And it is the Land–
Speaking to me–
Their voice entering me–
Their knowledge entering me, the knowledge of all the Land, of all the Skies that have ever been–
Their language entering me in a rush, too, in a way I see now that I have always resisted, always wanting to keep myself apart, but in an instant I know it all–
I know them all–
I know us all–
And I know it was him–
He passed it on to me–
The Sky is chosen by the Land–
But in times of war, there must be no delay–
The Sky, he told the Land as he died–
And The Sky, the Land says into me–
And I answer back–
I answer back, The Land–
And I rise, leaving the old Sky behind, leaving my grief to wait–
Because the burden falls to me immediately–
The Land is in peril–
And the good of the Land must be the thing that comes first–
And so there is only one thing to do–
I turn back to the Land, back to the Source, who is calling me The Sky, too, back to the man from the Clearing and the Knife’s one in particular, all eyes on me, all voices on me–
And I am the Sky–
And I speak the language of the Land–
(but my own voice is there, too–)
(my own voice, full of rage–)
And I tell the Land to release the river–
All of it at once–
{VIOLA}
“It’ll destroy the town!” Bradley says, before Ben even tells us what’s happening–
Because we could see it in the Noise all around us, see 1017 telling them to release the river–
“There are still innocent people down there,” Bradley says. “The force of a river pent up this long will wipe them off the planet!”
It’s already done, Ben says. The Sky has spoken and it’s already started–
“The Sky?” I say–
The new Sky, he says and looks behind us–
We turn. 1017 is walking forward out of the shimmering haze over the hot rocks of the riverbed, a look in his eye different than before.
“He’s the new Sky?” Bradley asks.
“Oh, shit,” I say.
I can talk to him, Ben says. I’ll try to help him see the right thing but I can’t stop the river from coming–
“We have to warn the town,” Bradley says. “How much time do we have?”
Ben’s eyes unfocus for a moment and in his Noise we see the Spackle dams holding back an impossible amount of water, backed up on the plain where Todd and I once saw that herd of creatures calling Here to one another, stretched horizon to horizon, now filled with water, a whole inland sea of it. It’s way back, Ben says, and there’s work to do to release it. He blinks. Twenty minutes, if that.
“That’s not enough!” Bradley says.
That’s what you’ve got, Ben says.
“Ben–” I say.
Todd’s up there, Ben says, looking into my eyes, his Noise feeling like it’s going right into me and I can hear it in a way I’ve never heard from a man on this planet. Todd’s up there and still fighting for you, Viola.
“How do you know?”
I can hear his voice, Ben says.
“What?”
Not clearly, Ben says, sounding as surprised as I am, not anything specific, but I could feel him up there. I could feel everyone as we chose the Sky. His eyes widen. And I heard Todd. I heard him fighting for you. He rides closer on his battlemore. You have to fight for him.
“But the Spackle are dying,” I say. “And the people in town–”
If you fight for him, you fight for us all.
“But war can’t be personal,” I say, almost asking it–
If it’s the person that’ll end the war, Ben says. Then that’s not personal, it’s universal.
; “We need to go,” Bradley says. “Right now!”
I take a last second and nod at Ben and then we’re turning the horses around to try and find a safe path through the fire–
And see 1017 standing in our way.
“Let us go,” Bradley says. “The man in the ship is the enemy of us both. He’s the enemy of every creature on this planet.”
And as if on cue, we can hear the roar of the scout ship coming back this way, ready for another pass–
“Please,” I beg.
But 1017’s keeping us right there–
And I can see us in his Noise–
See us dying in his Noise–
No, Ben says, riding forward. There’s no time for revenge. You must get the Land out of the way of the river–
But we can see the fight in 1017, see his Noise twist this way and that, wishing revenge but wishing to save his people, too–
“Wait,” I say, because I’m remembering–
I pull up my sleeve, exposing the band, pink and healing and no longer killing me, but there for ever–
I feel the surprise in 1017’s Noise but he still doesn’t move–
“I hate the man who killed your Sky as much as you do,” I say. “I’ll do everything I can to stop him.”
He watches us for a moment longer, the fires still raging around us, the scout ship still coming back down the valley–
Go, he says. Before the Sky changes his mind.
[TODD]
“VIOLA!” I scream but still no answer on Communicator 1 or Communicator 3 as I feel the floor pitch below me. I look up at the screens and see us coming round after having left a scorching fire down the riverbed–
But there’s too much smoke and I can’t see her or Ben–
(please please please–)
“Look at the Spackle,” Todd, the Mayor says over the comm, sounding intrigued. “They’re not even running.”
I’ll kill him, I’ll bloody well kill him–
And then I think, stopping him is something I want, it’s something I desire more than anything and if it’s all about desire–
Stop the attack, I think, concentrating hard thru the rocking and rolling of the ship, trying to find him up there in the cockpit. Stop the attack and land the ship.
“Is that you I feel knocking on my door, Todd?” the Mayor laughs.
And there’s a flash in the middle of my head, a flash of white burning pain and the words he’s used since the beginning, YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING and I stagger back, my eyes blurry, my thoughts a mess–
“And you didn’t need to try anyway,” the Mayor says. “It looks as if our Viola has survived.”
I blink at the screens and see us flying towards two figures on horseback, one of ’em Viola–
(thank god thank god–)
Riding towards the lip of the hill in full fury, avoiding fire where they can, jumping thru it where they can’t–
“Don’t worry, Todd,” the Mayor says. “My work here is done. If I’m not mistaken, the river will be on its way and we shall await our fates at the ocean shore.”
I’m still breathing heavy but I stumble back to the comm panel.
Maybe my comm was Communicator 1 but it was Mistress Coyle who was number 3–
I reach up and press Communicator 2.
“Viola?” I say.
And on the screen where I can see her, all small and tiny on Acorn’s back as they reach the lip of the burning hill and fly right over to the jagged path below–
I see her flinch in surprise, see her and Acorn stumble to a halt, see her reach in her cloak–
“Todd?” I hear, clear as anything–
“What was that?” I hear the Mayor say–
But I’m still pressing the button–
“The ocean, Viola!” I yell. “We’re going to the ocean!”
And I’m hit with another blast of Noise–
{VIOLA}
“The ocean!?” I yell back into the comm. “Todd? What do you mean–?”
“Look!” Bradley calls, a little farther down the wrecked zigzag road on Angharrad. He’s pointing at the scout ship–
Which is hurtling through the valley away from us, heading east–
Heading towards the ocean–
“Todd?” I say again, but there’s no response from the comm. “Todd!?”
“Viola, we have to go,” Bradley says and gees Angharrad back down the hill. There’s still no sound from the comm but Bradley’s right. There’s a wall of water coming and we’ve got to warn who we can–
Even though I know as Acorn charges down the hill once more that there are probably going to be very few lives we can save–
Maybe not even our own–
[TODD]
I groan and pick myself up from the floor, where I fell on Ivan’s body. I glance back up at the screens but I don’t reckernize nothing now, don’t even see no fires, just green trees and hills below us–
So we’re on our way to the ocean–
For the end of it all–
I wipe Ivan’s blood off on my coat, the stupid uniform coat that matches the Mayor’s exactly, and even the thought of us looking the same fills me with shame–
“Ever seen an ocean, Todd?” he asks.
And I can’t help but look–
Cuz there it is–
The ocean–
And for a second, I can’t take my eyes off it–
Filling all of the screens at once, filling ’em and filling ’em and filling ’em, a stretch of water so huge it ain’t got no end, just the beach at the start, covered in sand and snow, and then water for ever and ever into the cloudy horizon–
It makes me so dizzy I gotta look away–
I go back to the comm screen where I got thru for a second to Viola but of course it’s off, the Mayor shutting down anything and everything I might use to talk to her.
It’s just me and him now, flying to the ocean–
Just me and him for the final reckoning–
He went after Viola. He went after Ben. If the fire didn’t kill ’em, the flood might, and so yeah, we’ll have an effing reckoning–
Yes, we will–
And I start thinking her name. I start thinking her name good and hard, to practise it, to warm it up in my mind, in my Noise–
Feeling my anger, feeling my worry for her–
He may have made it harder to fight by making my Noise quiet, but if he can still punch with his Noise, then so can I–
Viola, I think.
VIOLA–
(THE SKY)
I must send the Land through fire to save it. I must send them climbing up the burning hills of the valley, through trees that blaze, through secreted huts that collapse and explode, I must send them through great peril to escape an even greater peril now rushing down the riverbed–
A greater peril that I set on them–
A greater peril that the Sky deemed necessary–
Because these are the choices of the Sky, these are the choices the Sky has to make for the good of the Land. Huge numbers of us would burn to death if we let the fire keep raging through the forest, huge numbers of us might still burn to death as we make our escape–
But at least if the second happens, we will take many hundreds of the Clearing with us–
No, I hear the Source show, clambering up the steep hill behind me. We are on our battlemores, trying to find a way through the burning to get far enough above the riverbed before the water hits. The battlemores are suffering as we go but we have to press on, hoping their armour will save them.
The Sky can’t think that way, the Source shows. War against the Clearing will only destroy the Land. Peace must still be possible.
I turn to him from where I stand in my saddle, looking down to where he sits on his, like a man does. Peace? I show, outraged. You expect peace after what they’ve done?
After what one of them has done, the Source shows. Peace is not only possible, it’s vital to our
future.
Our future?
He ignores this. The only alternative is complete mutual destruction.
And the problem with that would be what?
But his own voice is already glowing with anger. That’s not something the Sky would ask.
And what do you know of the Sky? I show. What do you know of any of us? You have spoken in our voice for a fraction of your life. You are not us. You will never be us.
As long as there is an us and them, he shows back, the Land will never be safe.
I make to answer but the voice of the Land calls down from the valley to the west, warning us. Our steeds begin to climb even faster. I look up the valley, through the flakes of ice still falling, through the fires that burn on either side, the smoke that rises into the clouds above–
And down the riverbed comes a bank of steaming fog, racing ahead of the river like the whistle before an arrow–
Here it comes, I show.
The fog rushes by us and up, coating the world in white.
I give the Source one last look–
And then I open my voice–
I open it to all the Land that can hear it, seeking out Pathways to pass it on, until I know that I am speaking to all Land, everywhere–
And I hear it, the echoes of the first command I sent, the command to gather weapons–
Sitting there as if a destiny to be fulfilled–
I seize on it in the voice and send it again, send it further and wider than before–
Prepare yourselves, I tell the Land.
Prepare yourselves for war–
NO! the Source shouts again–
But his words are lost as water as tall as a city crashes through the valley below us, swallowing everything in its path–
{VIOLA}
We pound up the road into town, Acorn and Angharrad running so fast I can barely keep hold of his mane–
Girl colt hang on, Acorn says and manages to speed up even more–
Bradley’s up ahead of me on Angharrad, the falling snow whipping around us as we cut through it. We’re rapidly nearing the outskirts of town where the road meets the first houses–
What the hell–? I hear Bradley yell in his Noise–