Monsters of Men Read Online Free

huge vents at the back of the scout ship, just above the engines, cooling them down after entry into the atmosphere–
    The same vents that didn’t open on my own scout ship when the engines caught fire.
    The same vents that caused us to crash and killed my mother and father.
    Acorn reaches the top of the hill and for a second, all I see is the vast empty space where the communications tower used to be, the tower Mistress Coyle blew up rather than have the Mayor use it to contact my ships first. Most of the metal wreckage has been cleared away in huge scrap heaps and when Acorn races across the open ground, at first I only see the heaps in the moons-light, three big ones, covered in the dust and dullness of the months since the tower fell–
    Three groupings of metal–
    And behind them a fourth–
    Shaped like a huge hawk, wings outstretched–
    “There!”
    Acorn puts on a burst of energy and we race towards the back of the scout ship, steam and heat pouring out of the vents into the sky, and we get nearer and I see a shaft of light on the left that must be the bay door open under a wing of the ship–
    “Yes,” I say to myself. “They’re really
here–”
    Because they really
are
here. I almost believed they’d never come and I can feel myself getting lighter and my breath start rushing faster because they’re here, they’re actually
here–
    I see three figures standing on the ground at the bottom of the bay doors, silhouetted against the shaft of light, their shadows turning as they hear Acorn’s hoofbeats–
    Just to the side, I see a cart parked in the darkness, its oxes nibbling on grass–
    And we get closer–
    And closer–
    And the figures’ faces suddenly loom up as Acorn and I enter the shaft of light, too, juddering to a stop–
    And it
is,
it’s exactly who I thought it would be and my heart does a skip of happiness and homesickness, and in spite of all that’s happening, I feel my eyes get wet and my throat start to choke–
    Because it’s Bradley Tench from the
Beta
and Simone Watkin from the
Gamma
and I know they came looking for
me,
they came all this way looking for my mother and my father and
me–
    And they step back, startled at my sudden appearance, and then take a second to see past all the dirt and the grime and the longer hair–
    And I’m bigger, too–
    Taller–
    Almost grown–
    And their eyes get wider as they realize who I am–
    And Simone opens her mouth–
    But it’s not her voice that speaks.
    It’s the third figure, the one whose eyes – now that I finally look at them – open even wider, and she says my name, says it with a look of shock that I have to say gives me a surprising flash of pleasure.
    “
Viola!
” Mistress Coyle says.
    “Yeah,” I say, looking right into her eyes. “It’s
Viola
.”

[T ODD ]
    I don’t even think when the Mayor and Morpeth run after the soldiers into the battle. I just spur Angharrad and she trusts me and leaps right off after ’em–
    I don’t want to be here–
    I don’t want to fight anyone–
    But if it keeps her safe–
    ( Viola )
    Then I’ll bloody well fight–
    We ride past soldiers on foot still charging forward, and the battleground at the bottom of the hill is heaving with men and Spackle and I keep on looking up the zigzag road which is still pouring down with more and more Spackle soldiers and it feels like I’m an ant riding into an anthill and you can hardly see the ground for writhing bodies–
    “This way!” calls the Mayor, peeling off to the left, away from the river. The lines of men have pushed the Spackle back against both the river and the base of the hill, holding ’em there–
    N OT FOR LONG, THOUGH , says the Mayor, straight into my head.
    “You don’t do that!” I shout at him, raising my rifle.
    “I need your attention and I need a good soldier!” he shouts back. “If you can’t do that, then you’re no good in this war and you give me far less reason to help you!”
    And I think to