And he and Mistress Coyle are still smiling at each other.

Bradley sighs loudly. “Well, gosh, that was fun. Can we now please get on with the reasons why we’re here?”

“And what might those exact reasons be?” the Mayor asks him, sounding like he’s talking to a child.

“How about the avoidance of complete annihilation?” Bradley says. “How about creating a planet that has room enough for everyone, including the two of you? The convoy’s now forty days away, so how about a peaceful world for them to land in? Each of us has power. Mistress Coyle has a dedicated group behind her, though smaller and less well-equipped than your army. Our position is more easily defended than yours, but it lacks room to support a population that grows more restive by the day. Meanwhile, you’re subject to attacks you can’t combat–”

“Yes,” the Mayor interrupts, “the military wisdom of combining our forces is obvious–”

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Bradley says, and his voice gets hotter, his Noise, too, rawer and more awkward than anyone I’ve ever seen, but buzzing with a sense of how right he is, how sure he is that he’s doing the right thing, and how much muscle he’s got to back it up.

I’m finding I kinda like him.

“I’m not talking about military combinations at all,” he says. “I’m saying that I’ve got the missiles, I’ve got the bombs, and I say right now that I will happily leave you to your little conflict if you don’t agree with me that what we’re going to discuss here is a way to combine our strength to end this war, not win it.”

And for the slightest of seconds, the Mayor ain’t smiling.

“It should be easy,” Viola says, coughing. “We have water, you have food. We exchange what we have for what we need. We show the Spackle we’re united, that we aren’t going anywhere, and that we want peace.”

But all I’m seeing as she says it is how much she’s shivering in the cold.

“Agreed,” Mistress Coyle says, sounding pleased with how things have gone so far. “Then as a first point of negotiation, perhaps the President would be so kind as to tell us how to reverse the effects of the bands, which, as I’m sure was his intention all along, are now killing every woman who wears one.”

{VIOLA}

“WHAT?” Todd shouts.

“I have no idea what she’s talking about,” the Mayor says quickly but Todd’s face is already a storm.

“It’s only a theory,” I say. “They haven’t proved anything.”

“And you’re feeling just fine, are you?” Mistress Coyle says.

“No, but I’m not dying.”

“That’s because you’re young and strong,” Mistress Coyle says. “Not every woman is so lucky.”

“The bands are from a regular cattle stock you had in Haven,” the Mayor says. “If you’re saying I modified them to kill the women who were banded, then you are sorely mistaken and I take great offence–”

“Don’t you get high and mighty with me,” Mistress Coyle says. “You killed every woman in old Prentisstown–”

“The women of old Prentisstown committed suicide,” the Mayor says, “because they were losing a war they started.”

“What?” Todd says again, whirling around to look at the Mayor, and I realize this is the first time he’s heard the Mayor’s version of events.

“I’m sorry, Todd,” the Mayor says. “But I did tell you what you knew was untrue–”

“Ben told us what happened!” Todd yells. “Don’t you try to worm yer way out of it now! I ain’t forgot nothing about what kinda man you are and if you hurt Viola–”

“I did not hurt Viola,” the Mayor says strongly. “I haven’t intentionally hurt any woman. You’ll remember I only started the bands after Mistress Coyle’s terrorist attacks began, after she started killing innocent townsfolk, after we needed to keep track of those who were attacking us. If anyone’s to blame for the necessity of ID bracelets–”

“ID bracelets?” Mistress Coyle shouts.

“–then point the finger at her. If I’d wanted to kill the women, which I did not, I could have done so in the first moment the army entered the town, but that is not what I wanted then and that is not what I want now!”

“Nevertheless,” Mistress Coyle says. “I’m the best healer on this planet, and I’m unable to heal the infection. Does that seem likely to you?”

“Fine,” the Mayor says, staring at her hard. “Our first agreement then. You have full and open access to all the information I have on the bands and on how we’re treating the women in town who are affected, though they are, I must say, not in anywhere near as perilous a state as you’ve suggested.”

I look at Todd, but he obviously doesn’t know how true any of this is. I can hear a little bit of his Noise now, mostly worry and some feeling about me, but still nothing clear, still nothing like he used to have.

It’s almost like the Todd I know isn’t here at all.

[TODD]

“Are you sure yer okay?” I ask Viola, riding up close to her, ignoring the others as they keep on talking. “Are you sure?”

“There’s nothing to worry about,” she says and I can tell she’s lying to make me feel better, which of course only makes me feel worse.

“Viola, if something’s wrong with you, if something happened–”

“It’s Mistress Coyle trying to scare me into helping, that’s all–”

But I look into her eyes and I can tell that’s not the whole truth and I feel my stomach falling away cuz if something ever did happen to her, if I lost her, if she–

I am the Circle and the Circle is me, I think.

And it goes, it falls away, it quiets down, and I realize I’ve closed my eyes and when I open ’em, Viola’s staring back at me, horrified.

“What did you just do?” she asks. “The little bit of your Noise I could hear just disappeared.”

“It’s something I can do now,” I say, looking away. “Make myself quiet.”

Her forehead furrows with surprise. “You want it to be this way?”

“It’s a good thing, Viola,” I say, my face burning a little. “I can finally keep a secret or two.”

But she’s shaking her head. “I thought you’d seen something so bad it made your Noise go quiet. I didn’t think you were doing it on purpose.”

I swallow. “I did see things that bad. This makes it stop.”

“But where did you learn? He’s the one who knows how to do that, isn’t he?”

“Don’t worry,” I say. “I got it under control.”

“Todd–”

“It’s just a tool. You chant these words and that focuses you and you put that together with desire and–”

“That sounds like him talking.” She lowers her voice. “He thinks you’re special, Todd. He always has. He could be tempting you into something you don’t want, something dangerous.”

“Don’t you think I know how much I can’t trust him?” I say, a little sharp. “He can’t control me, Viola, I’m strong enough to fight him off–”

“Can you control people?” she asks, sharp right back. “If you can be silent, isn’t that the next step?”

And there’s the image in my head again, the image of James, lying dead in the square, and for a second I can’t shake it and my shame rushes up again like I’m gonna vomit and I am the Circle and the Circle is me–

“No, I can’t do that yet,” I say. “It’s bad anyway. I wouldn’t want to.”

She pushes Acorn up to me so our faces are close.

“You can’t redeem him, Todd,” she says, a little softer but I flinch a bit at the word redeem. “You can’t. Because he doesn’t want it.”

“I know,” I say, still not quite looking at her. “I know that.”

For a second we both just watch Mistress Coyle and Mayor Prentiss fighting.

“You have more than that!” Mistress Coyle’s saying. “We can see the size of your storehouse from the probes–”

“Can your probes see inside the storehouse, Mistress? Because that technology would amaze even me–”

Viola coughs into her hand. “Are you really okay, Todd?”