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they’ll just keep coming and kill the rest of us.”
    “And if he beats them?” Bradley asks.
    “If he beats them, then his control over this planet will be absolute and that’s not a place you’d ever want to live.”
    “And what if
you
had absolute control over this planet?” Bradley asks, surprising fire in his voice. “What kind of place would that be?”
    Mistress Coyle blinks in surprise.
    “Bradley–” Simone starts to say–
    But I’m no longer listening to them–
    I’m looking at the projection–
    Because the camera’s moved down the hill and south a little–
    And there he is–
    Right in the middle of it all–
    Surrounded by soldiers–
    Fighting off Spackle–
    “Todd,”
I whisper–
    And then I see a man on horseback next to him–
    My stomach drops–
    The
Mayor
is next to him–
    Untied and set free, just like Mistress Coyle said–
    Todd’s let him go–
    Or the Mayor’s forced him to–
    And Todd’s at the very front of the battle–
    Then smoke rises up and he disappears.
    “Get the camera in closer!” I say. “Todd’s down there in it!”
    Mistress Coyle gives me a look as Bradley dials the controls again and the image on the projection searches through the battle, seeing bodies everywhere, living and dead, men and Spackle mixed together, until how can you tell who you’re fighting, how can you safely fire any kind of weapon without killing your own side?
    “We have to get him out of there!” I say. “We have to save him!”
    “Eight hours,” Simone says, shaking her head. “We can’t–”
    “No!” I shout, hobbling over to Acorn. “I’ve got to get to him–”
    But then Mistress Coyle says to Simone, “You have some kind of weapons on this ship, yes?”
    I spin round.
    “You wouldn’t have landed unarmed,” Mistress Coyle says.
    Bradley’s face is as stern as I’ve seen it. “That is no concern of yours, madam–”
    But Simone’s already answering, “We have twelve point-to-point missiles–”
    “No!”
Bradley says. “That is
not
who we are. We’re here to settle the planet
peacefully–
”
    “–and the standard complement of hoopers,” Simone finishes.
    “Hoopers?” Mistress Coyle says.
    “A kind of small bomb,” Simone says. “Dropped in clusters, but–”
    “Simone,” Bradley says angrily. “We did
not
come here to fight a–”
    Mistress Coyle interrupts again. “Can you fire any of them from a ship that’s landed?”

[T ODD ]
    We push forward–
    Forward forward forward–
    Into the line of attacking Spackle–
    There’s so many–
    And Angharrad is whinnying beneath me in pain and fright–
    I’m sorry, girl, I’m sorry–
    But there’s no time–
    There ain’t no time for nothing in war except war–
    “Here!” the Mayor says, shoving another gun in my hand–
    And we’re at the front of a small rush of men–
    Racing towards a bigger rush of Spackle–
    And I’m pointing the gun–
    And I’m pulling the trigger–
    BANG!
    I close my eyes at the pop and I don’t see where I shot cuz there’s too much smoke already in the air and there’s Spackle falling and men calling out on either side and Angharrad screaming and pressing forward anyway and the Spackle armour cracking and bursting under repeated fire and more arrows and white sticks and I’m so terrified I can’t even breathe and I’m just firing my gun and firing my gun, not even seeing where the bullets are going–
    And the Spackle keep coming, climbing over the bodies of soldiers, and their Noises are wide open and so are the Noises of every soldier and it’s like a thousand wars at once, not just the one I’m seeing but ones happening over and over again in the Noise of the men and the Spackle round me till the air and the sky and my brain and my soul are filled with war and I’m bleeding it outta my ears and spitting it outta my mouth and it’s like it’s the only thing I ever knew, the only thing I can ever remember, the only thing that’s ever