The Broken Kingdom (15 page)

The gemengs were ready, they fought. The
circle moved, he was not so protected.

Vann was not very concerned about that, and
he moved out of the way of the gemengs to give them room to
fight.

He heard what sounded like a scream. He
looked in the direction of the noise, but heard nothing else. Then,
a few seconds later, a shadow came pelting towards him from the
darkness.

It was Riley. She was covered in blood, her
sword and dagger were in her hands.

Their eyes met for a second. Then she spun.
Her swords were raised, clashed with something. A shadowy ball went
spinning off into the darkness. Then it came back. Riley fought.
Behind him, the gemengs were still fighting the other ehlkrid.

And then Riley threw her swords down with
another scream. Bewildered, Vann saw her pummel the creature with
her bare hands. She spun back to face him, her swords back in her
hands, her eyes wild. She ran past him to the ehlkrid the gemengs
were fighting. Behind him he heard the sounds of fighting. Then it
was silent. Then he heard another angry scream. He turned. Riley
flung her weapons to the ground.

‘ADILA, ADILA, ADILA!’ she shouted.
‘GLORIOUS SUN, I AM NOT JUST TALKING ABOUT ADILA BEHIND HER BACK, I
WISH TO SPEAK TO HER. PLEASE RELAY THE MESSAGE WHEN YOU HAVE THE
TIME!’ and then in a rage she screamed, ‘ADILA! I NEED YOU RIGHT
NOW!’

Vann stared at her in shock. She caught his
gaze.

‘They’re broken!’ she yelled at him as she
pointed wildly at her weapons. ‘Broken!’

‘What are you talking about?’ he slowly
approached her, lowering the SIGPEW. The gemengs were cautiously
drifting away from her.

Riley paced, her hands on her hips. She
looked furious.

‘Riley, what happened?’ he asked.

She shot him another wild look. ‘Look!’ she
said and pointed to her shoulder. Her shirt was torn, revealing
five long, deep cuts in her shoulder. They were bleeding
profusely.

‘Riley! Sit down, that needs to be
bandaged!’ his voice was calm but firm.

She brushed him off.

‘Riley, you’re bleeding. I don’t know if
this happens to you often, but I need to stop it. Aerlid isn’t here
to fix you.’

That caught her attention. The look she shot
him was livid. But she stopped pacing. Vann hurried to his pack and
got out some medical supplies.

‘Can you come near the fire for me?’ he
asked.

Glaring at him, she stalked over to the
fire.

‘Please, sit.’ he said.

Giving him a hard look, she sat down
heavily.

Vann knelt by her.

Karesh came over as he cleaned the wound. He
spoke in Plain’s speech, which Vann could no longer understand.

Riley said something back. Vann couldn’t
understand the words, but he could understand the tone. Karesh
looked at Vann, he looked rattled. He made a gesture, as if to
help, but Vann shook his head. Vann nodded over to the fire. Karesh
seemed to understand and went over to wait, and be ready in case
the ehlkrid returned.

When Vann finished bandaging her shoulder he
leant back. ‘What do you mean broken?’ he asked.

The firelight reflected in her green eyes as
she said, ‘I mean they stopped hurting the ehlkrid. They made it
bleed, but when my strike should have killed it, nothing happened.
I thought it was me at first. Then this happened.’ she gestured to
her shoulder.

Vann let out a breath. He didn’t know how
that could be. Maybe she was just over-tired. But what he did know
was that she had to be in a lot of pain, and she needed to rest.
‘Riley, Adila will come and we’ll sort this out. But right now you
need to get some rest.’

The set of her jaw became stubborn.
‘No.’

‘You’ve barely slept in days.’

‘I’m not a human, Vann.’

‘You still need sleep.’ He said. ‘Are you
worried about the ehlkrid? Karesh and the others will keep
watch.’

She glared at him. Then she stood. Vann
quickly got to his feet with her.

He kept his voice gentle as he asked, ‘is
there a reason you don’t want to sleep?’

She gazed at him a moment, then at the fire.
She took a step closer to it. ‘My shoulder hurts too much to
sleep.’

‘I’m sorry, I don’t have anything to help
with that. Maybe if you lie down though you might be able to fall
asleep.’

Riley didn’t respond.

‘Alright.’ he relented. ‘What are you going
to do then?’

‘Keep watch.’

‘I’ll keep you company then.’

She shot him a surprised look. ‘You don’t
have to do that.’

He flashed her a smile. ‘I’m used to you
keeping me awake.’

Riley gazed at him a moment and then nodded.
She sat then, her back to the fire.

Vann joined her, getting into a comfortable
position on the ground.

They talked quietly in the night for some
time. When her voice started getting softer, her responses slower,
Vann stopped talking. Late into the night, she finally fell
asleep.

Vann sighed, watching her sleep sitting up
in front of the fire. Gently, and avoiding her shoulder, he got her
to lie down. She made a muffled protest, but she didn’t wake.

Vann moved over to his bed of blankets. He
was asleep soon as well.

Vann opened his eyes. The sky was still
dark. He didn’t know what had woken him

He sat up, looked around. The fire was still
bright, and he could see the dark shapes of gemengs on watch.

He looked over at Riley. Her head was moving
back and forth and she was making low, muffled noises.

Vann crawled over to her and gently shook
her. ‘Riley,’ he said softly, ‘Riley, wake up.’

Suddenly she sat up quickly. She brought her
hands up as well, as if to defend herself. One of those hands
connected with Vann’s face. He made a muffled cry and brought a
hand to his face. Riley was looking around wildly. Her eyes were
wide, her hair sticking to her damp skin.

‘W-what happened?’ she demanded in a
strangely vulnerable voice.

‘I woke you up. You were having a bad
dream.’

She was looking at him now. ‘I fell
asleep.’

He nodded.

Riley’s expression crumpled. She turned
around, looked at the fire, her hands tightly grabbing her
knees.

‘Whatever it was, it was just a dream,’ Vann
tried to say as gently as he could, considering how much his face
was now hurting.

‘It doesn’t feel like it,’ she said, her
voice watery, ‘it’s always the same, ever since I… I got my body
back. It’s like I’m trapped again, in here, in Strong Swimmer.’

Vann dropped his hand from his face. He
thought he was going to have an impressive black eye tomorrow.
‘It’s over now, Riley. You’re safe. You’re here.’

She nodded weakly, not looking
convinced.

Vann was at a loss for what to say. ‘Do… do
you want a hug?’ he asked lamely.

She looked over at him. Then she nodded.

Surprised, he moved over and somewhat
awkwardly wrapped his arms around her. She responded instantly and
grabbed him. She seemed to calm down almost instantly.

‘I couldn’t feel… not when
that…m-
monster
had my body… I couldn’t feel anything…’ her
words seemed partly, mostly for herself, as if trying to remind
herself. ‘It was all wrong with S-strong Swimmer,’ as she said his
name her voice caught. ‘B-but it’s right now. I can feel now. I’m
ok.’ she said it as if convincing herself.

Vann nodded, said nothing.

Moments passed. They felt quite long to
Vann. Riley didn’t seem to have any intention of letting go. It
wasn’t that he
minded
, he just wasn’t quite sure what to do.
As the seconds lengthened into minutes he suddenly relaxed. It
wasn’t him, but she needed someone. The gemengs thought of her too
much as their master, she couldn’t ask them and they couldn’t
offer.

‘Do you want to try sleeping again?’

There was a pause. Then she nodded. He
couldn’t quite see it but he could feel it.

Once they lay back down she fell asleep
quickly.

It took Vann longer.

When Riley awoke to daylight she was nearly
sick with relief.

She shook off the lingering nightmares,
forgot the unbearable pain in her shoulder and went and had another
bath in the river and washed her clothes. She was covered in dried
blood, her own and that of the ehlkrid. Beating something to death
with your bare fists was messy.

When she came back she caught sight of
Vann’s face. ‘What happened?’ she gasped.

‘You did.’ he said amiably as he prepared
breakfast. He went on as he saw her stunned expression. ‘You know,
most women rather like my face.’ he shrugged, ‘At least, they can
restrain themselves from trying to rearrange it.’

‘I-I… when did this happen?’

His smile softened. ‘I startled you when I
woke you up. It was an accident.’

‘I would never do that to you on
purpose!’

The teasing smile came back, ‘well you don’t
have to, you do it enough by mistake. Do you want to help me
cook?’

Riley paused, halfway between horror and
curiosity. One of Vann’s eyes was a dark purple colour and swollen
shut.

‘As long as you promise not to put any dirt
in it.’ he added.

Cautiously, Riley approached and sat down
next to him. ‘I’m sorry about that.’ she said, looking at his
eye.

‘Me too.’

She winced.

‘So, breakfast?’

She nodded.

‘No dirt?’

She paused. Then she nodded. She
had
given him that black eye. Some compromises were in order.

They did not move from their camp that day.
They burnt the ehlkrid bodies, some distance from the camp. They
hunted, Karesh and Vann tried to talk to each other and they more
or less relaxed, doing no more than the basic chores that were
necessary.

Riley did not wear her weapons. When she
caught sight of them the anger of last night returned. But she
pushed it away. She called Adila one more time. She would come,
eventually. And it would be dealt with.

Later in the day she joined Karesh and Vann
with the intention of helping them with the language. She felt a
twinge of guilt whenever she saw Vann’s eye.

When they saw her approach they fell silent,
though surely they could not have been saying much.

‘Do you need any help?’ she asked.

Vann and Karesh shared a look. Then Vann
said, ‘Yeah, ok.’

‘Alright. Karesh was telling you you’re very
brave. I heard my name mentioned as well, but I didn’t hear what
was said. Karesh, how about you repeat what you said for me?’ she
said, translating to Plain’s speech once she’d finished speaking to
Vann.

Vann and Karesh both paled.

Riley looked from one to the other. ‘Why,
what’s wrong?’

‘Nothing,’ Vann smiled disarmingly, ‘how
about-‘

‘Karesh, do you want to repeat what you
said?’

Karesh and Vann shared another long look.
Riley’s brows began lowering.

‘How about you start with some names? You
can tell me what some of these…trees are called?’ Vann suddenly
suggested. The eyebrow lowering stopped.

‘Alright.’ Riley agreed. ‘Karesh, I want you
to help the others learn Astarian as well.’ she said to Karesh in
Plain’s speech.

‘Yes, Mas- Riley.’ he stumbled, in Plain’s
speech.

Riley let the slip pass. She spent the rest
of the afternoon with Karesh and Vann.

When the sky began darkening dread filled
her.

Riley had never been afraid of the dark
before. But now… now it was sinister and frightening. The darkness
had gained a new depth for her. The darkness was not the darkness
of night, but of the place she had been trapped. A place she could
not escape on her own. It was the darkness that Strong Swimmer’s
mind had disappeared into. It was the darkness that had crept up on
her when her hold on his body had slipped.