Chapter Seven:

Heartless

The next night, Davy knocked on the door of the House of Healing. An older woman answered; he recognised her from the banding. She had called him heartless. The word flared loudly in his Noise.

"I'm looking for 1595," he grumbled. The woman frowned at him.

"We have names here, not numbers."

"I'm looking for Lana."

"Lana who?"

"Well I don't bloody know, do I? Just go and find her."

"I'll ask her if she wants to come."

"Ask her?" Davy spat. "You'll bloody well tell her, or I'll come in there myself and drag her out."

A woman frowned, saying nothing as she headed back inside to look for Lana. Heartless, Davy's Noise said, betraying him as it so often did.

The woman returned with Lana, who was wearing her brother's denim coat. Her breath formed little clouds in the icy air as she tried for a smile.

"Here she is," said Helena. "No need to for you to come in and 'drag her out.'"

Davy's cheeks burned red, his Noise flickering the same colour.

Lana exchanged a glance with the older woman before following him out into the evening air.

"I didn't mean that about dragging you out," Davy said, and plunged a hand into his jacket. "She was winding me up on purpose."

He withdrew a flower, somewhat crushed, drooping as though it had a broken neck. Davy frowned at the state it was in.

"It's perfect," she said.

"D'you wanna go for a walk?"

"Sure."

Davy saw the whiteness of Lana's fingers and gave her his gloves. She threaded her arm through his. The ground beneath their feet had gone to frost. It crunched as they walked together, leading Deadfall along with them.

And so it began. Every evening since, Lana had met with Davy for a turn about the town. Even though it had been her idea in the first place, Helena had begun to treat Lana as though she were something of a traitor.

"Another late night," Helena said two weeks later, as Lana returned home from another evening's ride.

"You can stop looking at me like that," Lana said. "I'm not sleeping with the enemy, and even if I were, you had no problems with the concept back when you wanted me to prostitute myself for the cause. It was your idea for me to start spending time with Davy in the first place, remember. You're the one who insisted I should try and farm him for whatever useful information."

"And a fat lot of good it's done for us," Helena grumbled. "You've had access to both the President and his son, yet you've failed to give us anything useful."

"I'm trying," Lana argued. "It's taken time to build trust."

"No matter. Your sister has been more than helpful this past week."

Lana felt a sudden stab of anger. Avery and Helena had become as thick as thieves the past fortnight, with her sister having agreed to keep the Answer informed of anything which might be useful. She had been transferred from Captain Collins' division to the new group of soldiers serving under Captain Tate, who had put out a call for soldiers with good control of their Noise; Avery had made the top of that list. A week later, and Avery had provided the Answer with a breakthrough; Tate and his men were manufacturing weapons in a disused storage warehouse out by the town's waterfall; bullets, explosives, even guided missiles. Through subtle prodding, Lana had managed to confirm as much from Davy. The President was preparing for all out war.

"I'm glad Avery is helping you," Lana said to Helena, "but if you put her in harm's way there'll be hell to pay."

"Your sister is willing to do what's necessary for the cause. Something tells me your heart is not quite in it. You've started to feel something for that boy, haven't you? And helping the Answer feels like a betrayal."

Lana felt that she could not look at the woman. "He's not like his father."

Helena made a sound like a cat whose tail had just been stepped on. She pointed at the metal band on her arm. "Didn't seem that way when he did this to me. Or when he did it to you."

Lana wondered how to make her understand. She didn't want to tell her about Cinda, or how Davy saved her in the barn.

"You saw how he walked out of the banding," she said. "Davy saw what he was doing and he stopped."

"And how many people do you think he's banded since? One flicker of a conscience does not a good man make."

"You don't know him."

"And you do?!"

"Yes!"

Helena looked at her as though she was stupid. Perhaps she was.

"He trusts you," Helena said; half statement, half asking. Lana nodded with stubborn pride. "His father is a monster. You know that more than most, having been unfortunate enough to spend time with him. We are going to win this war, Lana. What do you think will be done with the son of the President once he's been overthrown?"

Lana thought of the stage set up in the courtyard, the one which looked suspiciously like a gallows. Helena was right; if the President was defeated by the Answer, Davy Prentiss Jr would not be celebrating with the rest of the town.

"He could win himself a pardon if he helps us," Helena said. "If you manage to get some more useful information out of him, you could even win it for him. Remember whose side you are on."

Those words had stayed with Lana. They stayed with her as she waited at the window of the House of Healing the following week, watching the sun as it fell from the sky. She was pulled from her worrisome thoughts by the sound of Deadfall's hooves striking the cobbles. When she saw Davy approaching, she felt a little ill to see how much he looked like his father. He climbed down and talked with the guards a moment; one of them unlocked the front door to the dormitory and let Lana pass. The soldiers had started to think of her as Davy Prentiss' girl. She wondered if the women in the town thought the same.

Lana approached Davy as he waited for her beside Deadfall.

"Let's get out of here," she said. He nodded in hasty agreement.

As the days had gone by, Davy was beginning to find it more and more difficult to follow his father's orders. Since meeting Lana, the bandings had become even more torturous than before, and at night he often struggled to sleep, remembering all the faces of the women he had hurt. He prayed that he could be more like Todd, who seemed to have given up on feeling all together. How wonderful it must be to feel nothing, he thought.

The evening was warm and dry. Davy helped Lana onto the horse and the two rode the hills surrounding the town, as had become their routine. They rode beneath the arch of the waterfall which glittered golden in the sunset. Lana reached her hand out to the spray, water cascading through her fingers, the droplets in her hair sparkling like diamonds. Davy watched her profile and was struck once again by her beauty. Davy had seen plenty of women in New Prentisstown, but she had become the most beautiful in his eyes. He imagined what it would be like to kiss her now, their lips dewy-wet from the ice-cold spray. He was thankful that the roar of the falls concealed his Noise. The strange feeling came upon him that he would be quite happy never leave this place. How great it would be to freeze the moment, to forget all the troubles of the nearby town.

But he couldn't forget. The arm which reached for the water was corrupted by the chrome brand he had placed upon her. Shame pierced Davy like a knife. He remembered the words of Helena that day.

Where is your heart? She had asked. Where is your heart, if you can do such things?

Davy put his hand to his chest; it was still beating. The blood still thundered beneath his skin. Surely that had to count for something?

As they rode along the road where Davy had shot Viola all those months ago, he tried to keep the event squashed in his Noise. Lana knew many of the things he had done, but he was certain that she wouldn't want to be friends with him anymore if she found out that he had shot Viola Eade in cold blood, for no other reason than she had bested him.

Davy's stomach tightened a little. Friends… were they friends? Did she like being around him, the way he liked being around her?

Lana turned to him.

"We're friends," she smiled, hearing the anxiety in his Noise. "I think we could both do with one of those."

Davy's Noise filled with such a pleasant pink rush that he had to fake a cough to try and disguise it a little.

To Lana's own surprise, the feeling was genuine. She had told herself that her plans to grow close with Davy Prentiss were born only out of wanting to help the Answer and the other women of New Prentisstown, but in truth, it was more than that. Learning that he had helped Cinda all those years ago had left her feeling drawn to him. More than anything wanted to find a way to merge her dual perceptions of him; firstly as the President's son who had banded her, and secondly as the boy who had saved her life in the barn. She could not help believing that the ropes of her life and Davy Prentiss' were entwined, and that they would stay that way so long as the two of them were alive.

"I'm glad we're friends," Davy said, aware of her warmth against him. Her hair smelled wonderful, like honey-soap and smoke. He was careful to muddy his thoughts. "Though part of me thinks we'd be better off staying away from each other."

"Why? We haven't done anything wrong. Besides, you're the President's son. You can do whatever you want, can't you?"

Davy shook his head. He had no clue where everyone had got the idea that he lived like some sort of King.

"If my Pa found out about you, he'd want you out of the way. I've seen what he does to people. I don't want you getting hurt."

His Noise became filled with awful things, things he never wanted to see again; loudest of them all came flashes of a woman he and Todd had watched being interrogated in the Office of the Ask. His father had called it an Asking, but to Davy it had looked more like torture. He was not even certain if she were alive of dead by the end of it. The screaming of the woman Captain Hammar had interrogated rang cold and clear in the air around them. Lana's eyes grew watery.

"How long is it going to be like this?" she asked, and her voice was filled with real fear. "Every terrible thing that's happening here… it can't go on forever, can it?"

Davy could not meet her eye. "I don't know."

Lana let out a long sigh. Again she was struck by a sense of how wrong it was, to feel some kinship with this boy, this boy whose father had ruined so many lives, and who himself had done so many terrible things.

"You were mad, following us here," Davy said. "You'd have been better off staying in Farbranch with the rest of the women."

Lana puzzled over him as though he were a jigsaw piece. Could he really not know?

"After you left, your father had everyone in Farbranch killed and left their bodies to rot. I only got out because someone helped me to escape."

Liar, Davy's Noise said. Can't trust girls.

"Why would I lie?"

Davy couldn't give her an answer. He couldn't look at her, either.

"I keep thinking about my mum," Lana confessed. "About what your dad did to her and the rest of the women in Old Prentisstown. They must have been so frightened."

"I think about my mum, too."

"Did your dad… did he kill her, too?"

Davy stared at the hypnotic churn of the abyss below the waterfall. He imagined what it would be like to simply fall into it, to give himself over to the waves and let them wash him and all of his thoughts away forever.

"I never thought to ask," he said. It was a lie. In truth, he did not think he would be able to live with the answer.

As they crested the hill, Lana turned at the sound of a sharp shout. The building where Avery had been working for the past fortnight was surrounded by a crowd of people, men and women in makeshift military gear.

"What the hell?" Davy muttered.

Something inside Lana sank. So this was it; the artillery raid. Though she had been kept out of the loop, common sense had told her that it was coming. There was no way the Answer, having learned that the President was manufacturing weapons, would allow Captain Tate's work to continue. But, of course, they would never let such precious resources go to waste; the guards at the building had been put out of action, and now row after row of Answer insurgents were loading New Prentisstown's custom weaponry onto carts. Among them, with a jolt, Lana recognised a soldier's uniform… a soldier with blonde hair twisted up into a bun.

Oh, no.

She grabbed for Deadfall's reigns, and in a moment she was steering them towards the raid. Members of the Answer, seeing a New Prentisstown soldier riding towards them at full speed, started firing. Davy and Lana ducked down, Deadfall veering into the thickets of the trees and screaming in terror as he narrowly avoided the bullets.

"That's my sister!" Avery was shouting, waving her arms about over her head. "Don't shoot! Don't shoot!"

"We have to warn my father!" Davy was saying.

"No!" Lana yelled, taking off through the trees and towards Avery, who was already running in her direction. Davy called out after her, but she paid him no mind.

"I told that bloody woman not to involve you in any of this!" Lana shouted, grabbing at her sisters arms.

"You have to go, Lana!" Avery was shouting. "We have to clear the area before-"

BOOM! In a roar of fire and debris, the artillery workshop burst into brilliant flame. The Answer carts were already rolling their way back up the hills at full speed, those on foot chasing after them whooping and hollering, brandishing their new weapons in celebration. Lana turned to see that Davy was trying to wrestle Deadfall closer, but the horse was kicking and screaming, terrorized by the blaze.

"We need to get out of here," Lana said. Any moment New Prentisstown soldiers would be cresting that hill, running to the source of the commotion. For a moment, everything was quiet, but for the crackling of the flames and Deadfall's whinnying. Then, Lana heard someone yelling in pain.

Avery's eyes locked onto hers. The screaming was coming from the wreckage.

"It was supposed to be empty," Avery said, wide-eyed. "The only people there should have been the guards, and we tied them up and left them in the bushes-!"

Lana was already running to the smoking pyre, calling out to the wounded person. Avery saw Davy taking after her, leaving his horse to its hysterics, and she in turn took after him.

"No!" Avery screamed, "you have to get away!"

Lana was not listening. She had found the wounded soldier, and was calling out to Davy to help her move debris. Together they hauled away smoking planks of wood, coughing through the smog. Then Avery saw him; a young soldier in her Division, Carlton, who was no older than she was. He was crying and moaning. His legs were all but gone.

"We can't move him," Lana said. "We need to wait for the medics."

"There'll be a second bomb!" Avery shouted. Davy and Lana looked at one another, realization hitting; there was always a second explosion, designed to catch any stragglers or doo-gooders who had come to help.

"We have to move him," Davy said. Between them, Davy and Lana dragged the screaming boy from the wreckage, leaving a trail of blood as they went.

"Is this far enough?" Davy said.

"It'll have to do," Lana answered. "He'll bleed out otherwise."

Lana demanded that both Davy and her sister relinquish their uniform belts, and set about tying tourniquets above the boy's legs. It was the best she could do, other than soft platitudes. The boy wept, and Lana held him close, whispering to him. At last, they heard the footfalls of the cavalry approaching. Davy knew how things looked; they would hold Lana and Avery responsible as Answer defectives.

"Run," he said to the sisters. "Get as far away from here as possible before they get here."

"No," wept the boy, whose hands were clutched tightly in Lana's. "Don't leave me. Oh, please."

Avery called for her sister to move. But Lana would not let go of the boy. She stroked his hair, told him everything was going to be alright. That much was far from the truth. Both Avery and Davy were calling for her to move, but she only shook her head, her eyes locked on the boy.

The world was suddenly drowned out by the vortex of the second bomb; they were not far enough from the bomb site, and the blast flung the four of them through the air, sending them over like tumbleweeds. Lana lay still for a minute, hearing nothing but the ringing in her ears. When she opened her eyes, she could see only Davy through the smoke, rolling around and trying to stumble to his feet. There was no sign of Avery, but she could see the boy; the poor, injured boy, lying on his front in the scorched earth. Lana crawled to him, coughing, wishing for a breath of clean air. With trembling hands, she turned the boy onto his back. It was too late. He was dead.

Lana held him in her arms, cradling him, and began to call out for Avery. Davy was stumbling towards her, but she could not see her sister through the smoke and the dark spots of her vision. As he stumbled, Davy stopped. The cavalry was upon them. First to break through the smoke was the white-suited figure the whole planet had learned to fear.

"Well well," President Prentiss said. His voice was unchanged by the smoke; he breathed it easily, the way a dragon might. "I'm sure there's a very interesting explanation for all of this... and I for one can't wait to hear it."