The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness Read Free Book Online

one who speaks first.
    "Tell me what happened to Ben or I'll rip yer effing throat out."
    "I'm yer boss, boyo," Davy says, smirking again, jumping off his horse and throwing his rucksack to the ground. "Best treat me with respect or Pa ain't gonna-"
    But I'm already off Angharrad and hitting him as hard as I can in the face, aiming right for that sad excuse for a mustache. He takes the punch but comes back fast with his own. I ignore the pain, he does, too, and we fall to the ground in a heap of fists and kicks and elbows and knees. He's still bigger than me but only just, only in a way that don't feel like much of a difference no more, but still enough so that after a bit he's got me on my back with his forearm pressed into my throat.
    His lip's bleeding, so's his nose, the same as my own poor
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    face but that ain't concerning me now. Davy reaches behind him and pulls a pistol from a holster strapped to his back.
    "Ain't no way yer pa's gonna let you shoot me," I say.
    "Yeah," he says, "but I still got a gun and you don't."
    "Ben beat you," I grunt, underneath his arm. "He stopped you on the road. We got away from you."
    "He didn't stop me," Davy sneers. "I took him prisoner, didn't I? And I took him back to Pa and Pa let me torture him. Let me torture him right to death."
    And Davy's Noise-
    I-
    I can't say what's in Davy's Noise (he's a liar, he's a liar) but it makes me strong enough to push him away. We fight more, Davy fending me off with the butt of the gun till finally, with an elbow to his throat, I knock him down.
    "You remember that, boy," Davy says, coughing, gun still gripped. "When my pa says all those nice things about you. He's the one who had me torture yer Ben."
    "Yer a liar," I say. "Ben beat you."
    "Oh, yeah?" Davy says. "Where is he now then? Coming to rescue you?"
    I step forward, my fists up, cuz of course he's right, ain't he? My Noise surges with the loss of Ben, like it's happening all over again right here.
    Davy's laughing, scrambling back away from me till he's against the huge wooden door. "My pa can read you," he says, then his eyes widen into a taunt. "Read you like a hook."
    My Noise gets even louder. "You give me that book! Or I swear, I'll kill you!"
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    "You ain't gonna do nothing to me, Mr. Hewitt," Davy says, rising, his back still against the door. "You wouldn't wanna put yer beloved bitch at risk now, would you?"
    And there it is.
    They know they got me.
    Cuz I won't put her in no more danger.
    My hands are ready to do more damage to Davy Prentiss, like they did before when he hurt her, when he shot her-
    But they won't now-Even tho they could-
    Cuz he's weak.
    And we both know it.
    Davy's smile drops. "Think yer special, do you?" he spits. "Think Pa's got a treat for you?"
    I clench my fists, unclench them. But i keep my place.
    "Pa knows you," Davy says. "Pa's read you."
    "He don't know," I say. "You don't neither."
    Davy sneers again. "That so?" His hand reaches for the cast-iron handle of the door. "Come and meet yer new flock then, Todd Hewitt."
    His weight opens the door behind him and he steps into the paddock and outta the way, giving me a clear view.
    Of a hundred or more Spackle staring right back at me.
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    4 THE MAKING OF A NEW WORLD
    ***
    [TODD]
    MY FIRST THOUGHT is to turn and run. Run and run and run and never stop.
    "I'd like to see that," Davy says, standing inside the gate, smiling like he just won a prize.
    There's so many of 'em, so many long white faces looking back at me, their eyes too big, their mouths too small and toothy and high on their faces, their ears looking nothing like a man's.
    But you can still see a man's face in there, can't you? Still see a face that feels and fears-And suffers.
    It's hard to tell which are male and which are female cuz they all got the same lichen and moss growing right on their skins for clothing but there seem to be whole Spackle families in there, larger spacks protecting their spack children and what must be spack husbands