The Broken Kingdom (34 page)

‘That’s fine. I’m just worried, that’s
all.’

‘One way or another, it’ll be over
soon.’

The preparations for the party came along
quickly. It was set up in the forest, but away from Riley’s camp.
Far away.

She’d already given Karesh his orders. If
she didn’t come back, he was to take everyone and disappear. No one
from the camp would be at the party, not even Vann. Especially not
Vann.

Riley watched as the ballroom took shape,
light was twined into shapes and effervescent walls, trees and
water and wind forming the contours of the room. She didn’t know if
this appealed to the valkar, or whether they did it this way
because of Andalla.

But it was coming together. And Andalla was
eagerly awaiting.

Aerlid handed Riley the sword. She took it
sombrely, gazed down its iron gray length.

Then she looked up. ‘You’re coming with
me.’

‘Hm?’

‘Adila will let you out. I may need you to
back me up. And I’m not leaving you with my people if things go
bad.’

‘How bad could things go, exactly?’

‘It depends if Andalla realizes what I’m
trying to do. If he doesn’t, well, nothing will happen. I’ll just
wait for Adila and Rose to get me. If he does…’ she shrugged.

‘Very well.’

They waited in silence for Adila. When she
arrived anger flamed in her eyes, as usual these days. She freed
Aerlid. Riley sheathed the sword in her no longer necessary
scabbard and picked up a stump of wood from the ground.

‘What’s that for?’ Aerlid asked.

Riley shook her head. They headed towards
the celebration in silence.

The magical light, like a waterfall, soon
became visible through the trees. Colourful birds sung and flew
through the woods. Bright flowers wove around the columns of
light.

Once they entered the light the air was
filled with a sparkling, bright, colourful but translucent
mist.

Many valkar were gathered, including Rose
and Ladana. Rilodana was not there. Riley wondered if she’d even
been told.

The valkar waited in angry silence for the
guests of honour to arrive. Once they did, with an entourage of
Andallites, the change was remarkable. Anger was immediately tucked
away for false delight. But an undercurrent of sour fear was
present, which only made Andalla happier.

He and Ralana glided from group to group of
valkar who made efforts to chat. Small morsels of food were offered
only to Andalla and Ralana. Seeing how no one else was offered any,
Andalla smiled even wider.

Riley waited in silence for what seemed a
very long time. She waited until the beginning of the party had
drifted out of sight and the end was a long time coming. She waited
until Andalla was relaxed and confident.

Then she strode into the middle of the room
and in a loud carrying voice started talking about Andalla and
Ralana. Conversation slowly stopped and attention was on her.
Andalla preened as she talked about how honoured everyone was, how
happy they were for Ralana. And then she said, ‘and now in
accordance with valkar traditions, the judgement may commence.’

The valkar went quiet in surprise and well
hidden anger. Ralana looked merely curious while Andalla asked,
‘what judgement?’

‘It is merely a formality, your
magnificence.’ She said as she bowed, ‘well not usually. But for
you of course. It is valkar tradition to judge whoever is to marry
royalty. To ensure they are worthy.’ She managed to look
embarrassed. ‘I’m sorry, your magnificence. Of course if you don’t
want to, we can waive it for you.’

‘No, no.’ he said, stepping forward. ‘Of
course I will go through with it.’

Ralana beamed.

Andalla looked around. His eyes stopped on
Adila and Rose. ‘So, who will have the honour?’

‘I will, your magnificence.’ Riley said as
she placed the stump on the ground. In a contrite voice she said,
‘certain events lately… well, it was not felt the Judgement Master
was… up to the task.’

‘Are you a judge?’ he asked, confused.

‘I am the daughter of the Queen. A mere
Judgement Master is not worthy enough, your magnificence.’

‘Ah.’ he smiled at that. ‘Very well.’

‘Thank you, your magnificence. Please put
your head here.’ she said and pointed at the stump.

‘Why?’

‘Ah, I’m sorry, your magnificence.’ Riley
said, reddening in embarrassment. She drew her sword and held it
out to him. ‘This is how I judge. For a normal person failing my
judgement would mean…grave injury. Of course, I doubt you would
even feel it. That is not to say I think you would ever fail. That
is, I mean, do you want to examine my sword?’ Riley fumbled for a
bit, looking embarrassed. Inside she was calm and cold.

‘Do not fret.’ he said magnanimously,
rescuing her from her embarrassment. ‘I know that sword. I gave it
to you.’ and he smiled widely. ‘You may proceed.’

Andalla got down on his knees and placed his
head on the block. Riley stared, shocked for a moment. But she held
her sword in two hands above his head. She shifted her grip, spread
her feet apart.

Seconds ticked by, and then she raised it
above her head and slammed it down as hard as she could.

There was a horrible, wet sound. Then a
thunk. And then blood was gushing everywhere.

Riley stared, stunned. Andalla’s head rolled
off the stump and onto the floor. Blood was flooding out. The sword
was buried in the stump.

The forest was silent.

And then she heard a loud thump from behind.
She did not look but she said dazedly, ‘is he really dead?’

She noticed then that blood was getting on
her shoes. She stepped back, stepped back again.

People were stepping forward, getting
closer.

Riley just stared. She pulled her sword from
the stump. And then she poked his body with it.

‘He is dead.’ Rose said in hushed awe. ‘You
have killed him.’

‘Will he stay dead?’ Riley asked.

Suddenly the body burst into flames. They
were so hot Riley had to jump back. She looked up to see Adila. The
body burned and burned. It was only for a few minutes, but it
seemed a lifetime.

And then the flames flickered out. Nothing
was left but ash. And then suddenly that ash was picked up and
blown in every direction. Riley did not need to look, she knew
another valkar must have done that.

‘He will stay dead.’ Aerlid said quietly,
his eyes wide.

Riley finally looked up at everyone. The
anger was gone now. All that was left was shock. She realised then
the light was unravelling, going back to normal. Trees were moving
back into their original positions. Birds were fluttering away,
others returning.

She noticed Ralana was being held up by a
number of valkar.

‘Is she ok?’ Riley asked of no one in
particular.

‘She will be fine.’ Adila said and then
lapsed into silence.

Riley did not really move. The world changed
around her, valkar disappeared until there were few remaining. And
then everyone was gone but four.

Rose walked over to Riley. ‘You have been
told our secret.’ she stated. For once, Rose was not frowning.

Riley looked at Rose and then nodded
carefully. ‘None of you could have changed this.’

And suddenly Rose smiled. ‘I will remember
this.’ and she walked over to Ladana, who was looking at Riley
critically. The two left.

And then Adila approached. It was a relief,
Riley realized, to see the anger finally gone from her. ‘I owe you
an apology.’

‘For what?’ Riley asked in surprise. ‘If
anything, I owe you one.’

‘You were very convincing.’ Adila said with
a smile. And then it faded. ‘How much of what you said was
true?’

Riley looked at her blankly. After a moment
Riley said, ‘How about we both forgive each other?’

Adila looked at Riley searchingly for a
moment. And then she smiled and nodded. ‘Very well.’

And then Adila was gone.

Riley looked down at the sword in her hand.
It was hard to believe she had really succeeded. The sword was
covered in blood. She would have to clean it. She looked around
suddenly. ‘Where are the Andallites?’

The only person left answered, ‘they left.’
Aerlid said. ‘You’ll have to deal with the King now. I imagine
they’ll hide from him until you do.’

‘I thought only of Andalla when I made this
sword. Do you think it will work on anyone else?’

Aerlid hesitated. ‘You’ll have to try and
see. Andalla’s pot is very specific. I don’t think it would work on
the King if you didn’t think of him… but it may still be useful for
the ehlkrid, as they are much weaker than Andalla.’

Riley nodded, expecting as much. It didn’t
matter anyway; the King wasn’t going to put his head on the
chopping block for her.

‘What do you think he’ll do now?’

‘Stay far away from you, at least for a
time. You have done an amazing thing, Riley. I don’t think anyone
not of them has ever managed to kill one of their kind before.’

‘You have to go back in your circle.’ Riley
said suddenly as she turned towards the campsite, suddenly feeling
uneasy at his obvious lapse. The forest was back to normal now. The
only sign something had happened here was the blood stained
block.

When she arrived at the door to the camp she
saw Vann waiting for her. When he saw her he grinned. He walked
over to her. She dropped the sword and ran to him. She hugged him
fiercely, and he hugged her back. Behind her Aerlid picked up the
sword.

She leant back and gazed up at Vann, a smile
on her face. She was distracted from her sheer joy when out of the
corner of an eye she saw Karesh coming towards her, smiling.

She looked back to Vann. ‘We have a lot of
planning to do.’ she said.

‘What do you have in mind?’ he asked.

‘We have to go all the way, Vann. We can’t
just change the gemengs. We need to change Astar and Coastside too.
And we need to deal with the Ehlkrid King before he deals with
us.’

His eyes widened, and something close to awe
was there for just a moment. And then he smiled at her. ‘We better
get started then.’

Chapter 44

W
hen Adila brought Riley
to the Land of the Ehlkrid she spotted the Dragon right away. He
was sitting up on an island, far away. It was the island the
underground tunnel led to, but for once he was outside.

‘I won’t be long.’ Riley told Adila. She
made her way into the cave and walked quickly along it. Since
Andalla’s death having the valkar around was much more pleasant.
Adila stayed, as she was guarding Aerlid, and Rose and Ladana
occasionally visited too, though they didn’t necessarily talk to
anyone other than Adila during their visits.

Riley reached the open cave the Dragon
usually laid in. ‘Hello!’ she called up to the creature sitting far
above her.