The Broken Kingdom (4 page)

Chapter 4

W
hen Messenger finally
arrived in Coastside he was not completely surprised to find Vann
had quit the submariners. Vann proved somewhat difficult to find.
Messenger quickly learnt he was living with a woman, Lillia. But
she didn’t seem to know where he spent his time.

Messenger finally decided to just wait down
by the docks. Vann was a fisherman now. He’d turn up there
eventually.

‘Messenger!’ Vann greeted him, surprised and
oddly relieved to see him.

‘Vann.’ Messenger smiled as he looked him up
and down. ‘You look well.’

Vann smiled at the lie. ‘What are you doing
here?’ he asked.

‘Well, I said I’d come up with a reason to
visit Coastside, and I did. Now, are you going to show me
around?’

‘Sure. I’m done for the day.’ It was not
really day anymore, more like late afternoon or early evening. ‘Let
me get changed. I’m told I smell like fish.’

‘Now who would say a thing like that?’

They headed back to Lillia’s home, chatting
about inconsequential things. Vann showered and changed. Then they
headed out to places Vann had not visited in what felt like a
lifetime. He took Messenger on a route through the theatre district
to a place he used to eat, but was not hugely popular with other
submariners. He could not bear to talk to the submariners. In his
civilian clothes, with his lost weight and tired look, most of the
people he knew would not have recognized him.

‘I hope you don’t mind a little alcohol.’
Vann said as they sat.

‘No. I’ve had some in Cavachi. So, what do
you usually eat around here?’

‘Fish mostly. This isn’t the nicest
restaurant in town.
The Leili
is much more popular.’

‘I might try it out.’

‘What’s this Astarian submarine I’ve been
hearing about?’ Messenger asked after a moment.

Vann shrugged. ‘Astar funded the building of
it and crewed it. It’s been renamed now, the Astarian crew couldn’t
handle it. I heard the captain snapped and went a bit nuts. The
crew was trained by Astarians who had never actually served on a
submarine, I don’t think they prepared the crew properly for what
it’s like down there.’

‘Huh. But I heard a Coastside submariner was
let go and they were blaming the Astarians for it-’

‘Pssh,’ Vann made a derisive noise, ‘it was
no one’s fault but his own. After the Astarians couldn’t handle the
sub, some of the submariners said they ought to get free alcohol,
since clearly it’s necessary for the job. It was mostly a joke, but
one guy was mouthing off about how it was the duty of the women
here to- anyway, some girl smashed a glass over his head, and he
was kicked out of the submariners.’

‘Ah.’ Messenger replied.

After that they lapsed into silence. It was
a heavy silence.

‘I heard they gave you a commendation too.’
Vann finally ventured.

Messenger grimaced. ‘Yeah. It’s on my other
uniform.’

‘I don’t understand.’ Vann rubbed his
forehead. ‘Why now? It doesn’t make any sense for them to do this
now.’

Messenger sighed. ‘No. You know Garrondin
was destroyed?’

Vann shook his head.

‘It was not long after the ehlkrid came. It
was pretty bad. There’s not much left… the ehlkrid
ate
them.’ he was silent for a moment. ‘The entire town. Gone. Adults,
children, everyone… There was a big panic while that was
happening.’

‘They knew?’

‘Yup. They knew while it was happening. They
weren’t going to send any infantry out there with what was going
on. Astar was terrified. But then… they just left. They were so
close, Vann, so damn close, but the ehlkrid never even tried to
break the shields. They ate the people of Garrondin… and just
left.’

He was silent a moment. ‘I think that, more
than anything, gave Astar a sense of security where the ehlkrid are
concerned. With what Riley said, with the valkar shields keeping
them away, and with the results from examining an ehlkrid body,
Astar didn’t consider the ehlkrid an immediate threat. Riley, on
the other hand, united the strongest gemengs known to man, taught
them to fight as a team, and happens to know an awful lot about the
defences of Coastside and Astar. What it basically came down to
Vann, was Riley was considered a far bigger threat.’

‘But still… surely they could have
waited?’

Messenger shook his head. ‘They might have.
But it wasn’t just a military decision. The charges were laid on
the second visit to the caves. Not that I knew any of this at the
time. There was never any question of if, only when. The entire
council voted on it – barring the Coastside representative, sorry,
I don’t know his name. I think your Commander ruffled a few
feathers…’

Vann nodded, ‘mmm, when Mr Geiba was here… I
guess we’re still being punished for not involving Astar in the
attack on Molk. I guess they aren’t telling us about their military
operations anymore either.’

‘You make our council sound so childish.’
And Messenger smiled, drawing a half-hearted smile from Vann in
return. ‘Anyway, the Coastside representative hasn’t been present
at all the Council meetings, from what I understand.’

Vann felt an unexpected rush of relief.
At least we weren’t part of it… we’re just happy about it.
His relief disappeared in a bitter instant.

‘Anyway, I don’t know if everyone was happy
with the decision, but everyone at the meeting voted for it. But I
think one thing was clear from the start, they didn’t want to blow
up the valkar who accompanies her. Aerlid. This was the only time
he had ever gone any distance from the caves. Maybe if he’d
ventured out frequently… but the council seemed to think this might
be their only chance to get her, her tribe and not the valkar.’

He sighed.

Vann was silent. ‘Everyone’s happy.’ he
finally said. ‘Everyone thinks it’s great.’

‘Well, compared to what’s happening in
Astar, the Coastsiders are practically sympathetic to her. I can
understand how they view Riley. I can’t see this was ever going to
end any other way for her. Gemengs who enter Astar don’t just
leave. But children were in those caves. The entire people.’ He
rubbed his eyes. An aura of deep disappointment, but an expected
disappointment, permeated him. ‘And if I can’t make people
understand that, then relations between humans and gemengs will
never change.’

Messenger stayed for a while. Vann ventured
forth from his isolation to show him around Coastside. While
Messenger was with him, he even bore talking to other people.

Of course, whenever anyone talked to the new
Astarian Riley was brought up. But Messenger had a way of speaking,
a way of turning the conversation away from Riley and to the others
that had inhabited those caves, that could make someone pause for a
second. Think.

It lifted Vann’s spirits slightly but also
embittered him. No word he said for Riley or the gemengs mattered.
Even when he didn’t mention her name, people associated him with
her now. No thought he had mattered because it was so easy to brush
it off as due to an infatuation with Riley.

Messenger turned away from a beautiful
Coastside woman and back to Vann. His mouth was twisted in
something between bitterness and disgust. Now nearly every moment
they spent out socialising Messenger was accosted by people wanting
his opinion.

‘I’m sorry,’ Vann said, seeing the look on
his face. Having to explain to a beautiful woman why killing
children might not be a good thing did nothing for her
attractiveness. Why, if her opinions on gemengs had never come up
Messenger might have found her quite pleasing. ‘This probably isn’t
the best time to visit Coastside.’ he continued.

‘Well, it’s not a good time to visit
anywhere. Ah… a part of me hopes I don’t have to deal with gemengs
again, Vann. How could I try and build an alliance with them when I
know what my side might do to them?’

‘I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.’

‘Well, it’s not likely to come up. I fear
the ehlkrid are doing a good job of finishing them off.’

‘But you know where they came from.’

Messenger nodded. ‘Hah, we might have a
whole new race of gemengs created by these ehlkrid. But they’d have
to find some humans first.’

Messenger left a few days later. He still
had a job to do back in Astar after all.

And once again, Vann was utterly alone.

Chapter 5

T
he night was bright. The
shield around Astar gleamed softly, like it had every night for the
last several months. She had no trouble remembering what night was
like though, she only had to go inside the unlit dormitories, and
she would be plunged into heavy darkness.

Jillia faced away from the dormitories, away
from her family and friends gathered in the doorways. They didn’t
spend as much time outside the dormitories anymore. If there had
been lights inside their homes, they would have retreated fully
inside the dormitories and closed the unlockable doors and waited
fearfully for daylight.

Jillia’s sharp eyes roved across the night
sky. She shivered as a shadow darted across the sky, blotting out
stars for a brief moment.
Ehlkrid
.

Nobody else had noticed, if they had she
would have heard the stifled noises of unease, heard people head
back inside the dormitories.

Mostly, everyone tried to ignore the shadows
that prowled just past the wall and shield. Jillia wasn’t entirely
sure why she insisted on standing out in the cold, away from
everyone, watching.

Perhaps it was because she suspected she
would one day meet her end at the claws or teeth of an ehlkrid.
Like the people of Garrondin. She remembered that night too
clearly. All the human civilians were escorted to the shelters,
sirens sounded throughout the night, calling the alarm.

She’d stood not far from where she was now,
in her unit, her SIGPEW ready. Human and gemeng soldiers stood side
by side as disjointed reports came in from Predators.

There was no way to leave.
She knew
that. To leave would have required pulling the shield down. And
she’d been stationed
here
by the wall, not by the supply
tunnels that could be carefully unshielded to allow passage.
I
had no choice, there was no way for me to leave.
She remembered
the uncertainty, the confusion. No one had really known what was
going on.

Garrondin was a few hours walk away. Yet
somehow, somehow… they’d heard faint screams, cries for help.

She’d felt confused gratitude when some of
the human soldiers asked why they weren’t doing something, going
out.

She’d felt anger too, formless anger,
because gemengs were dying (gemengs far stronger than her, or any
here in Astar) yet
she wasn’t doing anything either.
And
she’d felt fear.