Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness Read Free Book Online

almost see the sound, bending the air, twisting it, and there’s a new note to it–
    A note of victory–
    We spin round–
    The line of soldiers has broken–
    Mr Morgan has fallen under the feet of a horned creacher–
    Spackle are pouring down the hill now–
    Pouring onto the battlefield from all direkshuns–
    Cutting thru the men who still fight–
    Pouring like a wave straight at me and the Mayor–
    “Ready yourself!” shouts the Mayor–
    “We have to retreat!” I shout back. “We have to get outta here!”
    And I try to turn Angharrad’s reins–
    But I look behind us–
    The Spackle have come round the back of the men–
    We’re surrounded–
    “Ready!” the Mayor shouts into the Noise of the soldiers around him–
    Viola, I think–
    There’s too many of ’em, I think–
    Oh, help, I think–
    “FIGHT TO THE LAST MAN!” screams the Mayor.

{VIOLA}
    “Her?!”
Mistress Coyle says. “She’s just a
girl–
”
    “A girl we
trust,
” Simone says. “A girl trained to be a settler just as much as her parents were.”
    My face flushes a little at this but only partly out of embarrassment. Because it’s
true
. I did train for this. And I’ve been through more than enough in this place for my opinion to count–
    I look back at the projection, back at the battle, which seems to be getting even worse, and I try to
think
. It looks awful as anything down there, but the Spackle aren’t attacking for no reason. And their target could just be the Mayor and we did beat him before but–
    “Your Todd’s down there,” Mistress Coyle says. “He’s going to be killed if you don’t do something.”
    “Don’t you think I know that?” I say. Because that’s the thing, the thing that overrides everything. I turn to Bradley and Simone. “I’m sorry, but we
have
to save him. We
have to
. Me and him were
this close
to saving the whole planet until they screwed it all up–”
    “But would saving him be at the cost of something
greater
?” Bradley says, kindly, but very serious, trying to make me see. “Think hard now. What you do first anywhere is remembered
for ever
. It sets the whole future.”
    “I’m not inclined to trust this woman, Viola,” says Simone and Mistress Coyle glowers. “But that doesn’t mean she’s not right about this. If you say it’s right, Viola, we’ll intervene.”
    “If you say it’s right, Viola,” Bradley says, echoing Simone with a little snap, “we start our new life here as conquerors and you’ll be setting up brand new wars for generations to come.”
    “Oh, for goodness’ sake!” Mistress Coyle shouts in frustration. “The power is
here,
Viola! Here is where we can change
everything
! Not even for me, my girl, for
Todd,
for
you
! Right here, right now, what you decide can
end
all of this!”
    “Or,” Bradley says, “you can start something even worse.”
    They’re all looking at me. I look back to the projection. The Spackle are throughout the men now and more and more are coming–
    And Todd’s down there in it–
    “If you do nothing,” Mistress Coyle says. “Your boy dies.”
    Todd,
I think–
    Would I start a new war just to save you?
    Would I?
    “Viola?” Simone says again. “What’s the right thing to do?”

[T ODD ]
    I fire my gun but there’s so many Spackle and men mixed together I have to aim high to make sure I don’t hit none of my own side and cuz of that I don’t hit no Spackle neither and one is suddenly in front of me raising a white stick to Angharrad’s head and I swing the barrel of the gun round and hit the Spackle hard behind his too-high ear and he falls and another one is already right there and it’s grabbing my arm and I’m thinking VIOLA right into its face and it stumbles back and there’s a rip at my opposite sleeve and an arrow’s flown right thru it and just misses going into the soft spot underneath my jaw and I’m pulling Angharrad’s reins to turn her cuz there ain’t no way outta this alive and