The Broken Kingdom (49 page)

Unexpectedly, that thought resonated with
her. An image of her mother, her sisters came to her mind. People
who had never wanted her. She shook her head.

‘Maybe I’ve been unfair.’ Riley replied.
‘Mm, but listen. I’m the Master here. I’m trying to run this place
fairly, even if we’re friends, you need to be treated the same as
everyone else. Do you understand?’

Ellis blinked. ‘Sure. Um, what about
Vann?’

‘What about him?’ she said, and suddenly her
voice was cold.

‘I mean, would you really treat him the same
as just anyone else?’

‘Vann has earned his position. He’s proved
himself time and again. But no, I’m not capable of treating him
like anyone else.’ and she glared at him.

‘Hey,’ he laughed. ‘That’s what friends do,
right?’

‘Huh?’ her frosty anger faded a bit.

‘Point out what maybe you don’t see. You can
say all that stuff about treating everyone fairly, but you’ll sound
like a hypocrite if you try and pretend Vann’s the same. I’m just
helping you out.’

Riley was silent. ‘Oh.’ she finally
said.

‘Friends?’

Smiling a little nervously Riley said,
‘let’s see how it goes.’

‘That’s all I ask!’ he smiled in return.

Riley could not let go of her last lingering
suspicion, though everything told her it was unfair. She had
trusted others before and it had ended very badly. She’d let that
little seed of doubt stay where it was, though she hoped that
Ellis’s offer was genuine.

‘What’s your name?’ Vann asked kindly.

The girl, tiny and dressed in tattered rags,
looked up at him with big eyes.

Vann pointed at himself and said, ‘Vann.’ he
pointed at her then and waited.

‘C-Catariah.’ she stumbled.

Miming eating food, Vann said, ‘hungry?’

She nodded eagerly.

Using motions and talking slowly, Vann was
able to get the group to eat. They were surprised at the amount of
food there was, and after eating and seeing the river and tents
they began to relax. The girl stayed near him, even going so far as
to grab onto him. Everyone was so short and underfed it was hard to
tell their age.

He had some trouble getting Catariah to let
go of him.

Vann pointed at the tent that she was
sharing with some other girls and then mimed sleeping, using his
hands as a pillow. ‘Sleep.’ he said. ‘I’ll come back tomorrow.’

On the verge of tears, Catariah hung on.

It took some rather creative miming on
Vann’s part to get that message across, and finally, she let
go.

Sighing, Vann headed to his own tent.
Finding Riley there already, lounging on their animal-skin bed
spread, his tiredness drained away.

Her face lit up when she saw him. ‘How’d it
go?’ she asked.

‘I think they’ll be ok. It’ll take some time
to teach them the language.’

She snuggled up closer to him and he held
her tightly. She was quiet for a moment. ‘Ellis said he wanted to
be friends.’

‘I’m happy for you.’ Vann replied.

‘I had a few friends in Astar…’ Riley went
on, ‘it feels like so long…’

‘You’ve never told me much about that
time.’

‘You want to know?’

‘Mmhmm.’

Riley was silent for a moment.

‘Hey,’ and he squeezed her tight. ‘They’ll
be ok.’

‘I hope so.’ she sighed quietly. ‘I hope
so.’

Chapter 61

‘
H
ow do you think they
survived?’ Riley asked Aerlid.

‘Judging from what Karesh has told me,’
Aerlid mused, ‘when the ehlkrid arrived centuries ago they must
have hid in caves in the area, which collapsed at some point. They
were virtually inaccessible, most gemengs wouldn’t have been able
to get to them. The only danger would have come from the sea. Most
of the humans who survived were like these people. They have
nothing, no culture, no traditions, no beliefs, all they do is
survive. They lost everything.’

‘You haven’t even talked to them.’

‘I’ve heard them talking, besides, you
merely need to look at them to know. Also… I
did
live in
Astar.’

‘What about Astar?’

‘They are exactly the same as these people,
Riley. Over the years they hid in the caves from the gemengs they
lost everything they were. The Seiaans had a rich culture, but now
all they have is fear of the gemengs. They have forgotten they were
ever anything else. I imagine the population became quite small at
some point, and as Seiaan was mainly an oral language, not enough
people remained to remember their stories. Fear may also have
played a part, and pain at everything they lost. Perhaps it was
easier to forget.’

‘Hm. How’s the book coming along?’

‘You may as well stop asking me, Riley. It
could take me years.’

Riley looked aghast for a moment. Then, ‘do
you think you can continue it in the valkar prison?’

‘Seeing as I won’t be able to move, no,
Riley, I don’t think so.’

Riley left then and headed over to Vann, who
was with the humans. They clung together, refusing to mix with the
rest of the tribe. For the moment, Riley was willing to allow that,
though it certainly slowed their learning of the language. Vann was
teaching them Astarian. The rest of the tribe was also slowly
learning that too. If her plans went as she hoped, they would need
it.

‘How’s it going?’ Riley asked Vann.

He smiled as he saw her. The short girl
clinging to him gave Riley a dark scowl. Riley ignored it. It was
almost amusing watching him trying to free himself from the girl
and walk over to her. The humans looked much healthier now than
when they’d arrived, and cleaner. The girl was small, but she had
big dark eyes and a pleasant wave to her brown hair.

‘They’re afraid of the Mixed.’ Vann finally
said when he reached her. The girl did not leave, she followed,
standing very close to him.

‘It’s not a surprise. I don’t know whether I
want the Mixed spending too much time with them when they’re acting
like this, they won’t respect them. But it won’t get any better if
I let them stay apart.’

‘I’ll pick a few of the Mixed kids I teach
R-Ball too. Meguk’s always friendly with the new children, and the
human children aren’t as fearful as the adults.’

‘Wait,
R-
ball?’

Vann nodded. ‘You’re the Master, they named
it after you.’

Riley stared, flabbergasted, while he just
grinned at her.

Just then the girl said something to Vann.
It was not in any language either of them understood.

‘Catariah, I don’t understand you when you
talk like that.’ Vann sighed.

Casting Riley another dark look, the girl
said this time in clear Astarian, ‘who is she?’

‘This is Riley, the Master of this tribe and
my partner.’

Catariah scowled at Riley and moved a little
behind Vann.

‘She’s not going to hurt you.’ he glanced
quickly at Riley.

‘Hello.’ Riley said, recovering from her
shock at
R-
Ball. She held out her hand and said, ‘my name’s
Riley.’

Catariah ignored the hand.

Vann sighed. ‘I’ll work on it.’

‘Is she an adult or a child?’ Riley
asked.

‘I’m not quite sure. Cata, how old are
you?’

‘I’m an adult.’ Catariah declared. ‘I’m old
enough to choose a man and have children.’

Vann looked momentarily surprised. ‘Well,
there you go.’ and he shrugged.

Riley frowned, but said nothing along the
lines of ‘she’s too old to hold on to you like that then.’ Instead
she just said her goodbyes and headed off to inspect the rest of
the camp.

Though it was only a camp of tents, it was
orderly and clean. The tents were well made and kept the rain out
and everyone was safe and clean and well fed.

She paused, observing some of the warriors
as they trained. She spotted Ellis and smiled. Karesh told her
Ellis was behaving himself well and was well liked by the rest of
the tribe. She had no reason to doubt his words.

Many days after leaving, Rose finally
returned to the camp, an unknown valkar man with her.

Vann immediately dropped whatever he was
doing, fetched Riley, and dragged her over to the meeting. Rose,
the man, Adila and Ladana were all gathered around Aerlid. The
unfamiliar valkar looked different to the other valkar, though it
took Vann a moment to realise what the difference was. This new
valkar somehow looked distant, as if he was fading into the world.
He looked like he might vanish if Vann closed his eyes. When Vann
mentioned it in an aside to Riley she murmured back, ‘I think he is
very old, even for a valkar.’

The valkar spoke their own language, while
Riley translated for Vann, but they soon switched to Plains
speech.

‘You are welcome to come to the city.’
Ladana said. ‘You may stay or just visit, as it pleases you.’

‘The Judgement Master has told me this.’ The
man said, ‘but I must think on it… it is… we never expected this. I
never thought I would meet my own kind again.’

‘You don’t have to leave the home you have
made.’ Adila said. ‘As Ladana said, you are free to come and go as
you please.’

‘Yes… well, I think I will visit then.’

‘We have some questions for you.’ Aerlid
interrupted. ‘We have a man here, part valkar, part human. How is
it he is whole and claims he will live two hundred years?’

The man looked surprised. ‘Oh. Well. There
weren’t enough valkar to sustain a valkar population, but we didn’t
want our community to die out. Or the ones who started it didn’t.
So they worked very hard on fixing the half breeds. They are whole,
yes, and can breed with each other and produce children on their
own that are also whole. Mostly they don’t do that though, I
prepare the child for couples who want them. It has kept them… let
us say, half and half, when they should be only a very small part
valkar by now.’

It was while he was talking that Ellis
wandered up. He looked at Riley and smiled, who did not quite smile
back.

‘Hello. I was wondering if I could come
listen, as you have Taelid here, who I know.’

‘Very well, you may stay.’ Riley said.

‘Thank you.’

‘Vayellis, this is where you went.’ Taelid
said to him. ‘I know many who are worried about you.’

Riley glanced at Ellis quickly, hearing him
referred to by a different name.

‘I told them where I was going,’ Ellis
replied, though in a much more deferential tone than he used with
anyone else, ‘there was no need to worry.’

‘I’ll tell them you’re well then.’

‘I would be fascinated to hear exactly how
you managed all that.’ Aerlid interrupted again.

‘Some from the city may also be interested.’
Rose added. ‘Whether we like it or not, we cannot deny the
existence of the half human children.’

‘I will be happy to show you.’ Taelid said.
‘It’s a long process though, before the egg is implanted back in
the mother. We’ve refined and improved it, but it can still take a
year or more.’