The Broken Kingdom (64 page)

‘What?’ Razra asked weakly. ‘What King? What
lord?’

The creature pointed to the black, winged
monstrosity, still visible through the buildings. ‘The King. Our
lord has defeated the ehlkrid, now they serve her.’

Razra turned to the soldier, who just looked
exhausted. The soldier nodded. ‘The gemengs are helping…’ he said
tiredly, ‘I don’t know… I don’t know where anyone is, but they…
they’re taking care of things…’

Razra wasn’t looking. Following after the
dragon, he saw a woman with black hair that shone with the life of
springtime. A woman he was quite sure he recognized.

‘Mixed.’ The creature growled. ‘We are the
Mixed.’

Riley found more survivors, gemengs and
humans, and sent them back to the main group. The soldiers were
easier to deal with than the survivors, they had seen the carnage
one man
had wrought.

But as soon as the civilian survivors saw
their city, when they saw their soldiers cooperating, their
resistance evaporated.

Above the noise of creaking buildings,
shuffling feet, and barked orders, Riley thought she heard someone
call her name.

She turned, surprised. She spotted a blonde
woman in the uniform of the Astar Internal Defence Force coming
towards her.

‘Riley?’ the woman repeated.

Riley frowned, trying to place her.
‘Jillia?’ she said with a sudden smile.

The woman relaxed in a smile too. ‘You do
remember me?’

‘Yes. Are you hurt?’

‘I don’t think so, not badly anyway.’

‘Good, good.’ Riley answered, her mind
already thinking of other things. Time was of the essence, and
though she was relieved to see her alive, she had no time to talk.
‘My people will take care of you.’

‘What… what’s happening?’

‘We defeated the ehlkrid army. My people
will take care of you, Jillia, we’ll speak later.’

Jillia nodded vaguely, something close to
disappointment crossing her face. Riley directed her people to take
care of her, and watched that they did, before moving on. She had a
task to focus on. She couldn’t think of her friends in the
military, more than likely dead, or Razra, who hopefully had been
safe in a shelter.
The underground shelters didn’t take much
damage, so he should be safe…

She walked away, continuing deeper into the
city, and her focus back on the task at hand. When she reached the
centre of the city, near the destroyed Shield Tower, she looked
around for a familiar face. She spotted a human soldier and
approached him.

‘I was told Mr Briggs was here.’ she
asked.

‘Dead.’ the man said flatly. ‘Fighting
against that monster, he was out here with us, helping. Now he’s
dead.’

‘Ah. Where are your other leaders?’

‘Don’t know. Mostly dead. Everyone’s mostly
dead.’

‘What about the Mixed,’ Riley asked
hesitantly. ‘How many survived?’

‘The what?’

‘The people you call gemengs. They are part
human, part something else. They are the Mixed.’

And he did not argue, just nodded dully.
‘Don’t know.’

‘Alright. My people are here, they’ll look
after you.’ and Riley gave the man directions.

Eventually, Riley came to what had been the
Shield Tower. A man was sitting in front, his head in his
hands.

‘Do you know where the government is?’

The man looked up. He was young, but looked
very tired. ‘You’re looking at it.’

‘Are you all that’s left? Who are you?’

The man shrugged. ‘Garna Ulis…’ he said
tiredly, ‘agriculture…’

‘And tell me,’ Riley’s voice became distant,
‘did you agree to the destruction of the Gemeng Mountain?’

The man nodded. ‘Not that it helped
much.’

‘I see.’ Riley walked away, and as she did
she nodded to Aerlid. He followed her. The man continued talking to
himself in a broken whisper, ‘to think, we were planning on
fighting the ehlkrid if the gemengs failed, or the gemengs if they
won, even with the Vachi just watching… to think we were so blind…
how could one man, just one man…’

They had not gone far when a crash came from
behind. They turned to see part of the building had collapsed,
crushing the man.

‘Let’s find the others.’ Riley said.

‘Are you going to kill all of them?’ Aerlid
asked, though really
he
had killed the man. It had been hard
for Riley to ask, and still she doubted herself, but if anyone ever
suspected she was responsible…

‘They killed hundreds of my people, Aerlid.
They deserve justice. Maybe all of Astar is responsible for that,
not just the Council. But I can’t kill everyone, and I don’t want
to…I want justice, not revenge.’ she looked around at the ruined
city then. She paused for a moment. Maybe she already
had
killed everyone. Maybe she was just deluding herself when she said
she didn’t want revenge. ‘Well, anyway, let’s finish this. I’m
feeling a bit faint.’

Chapter 77

H
eavily bandaged, Riley
stood outside her tent, which was situated outside what was left of
Astar. The rest of her tribe had arrived. The Andallites had
briefly appeared out of nowhere, and then disappeared again, taking
the ehlkrid with them, except the Dragon, he had promised to stay
and help Riley a little longer.

The humans and Mixed of Astar had been split
up among the tribe. The objections had been few. Shock still
gripped them tightly.

This was just the beginning. The Mixed of
Astar were with the Mixed from outside, Mixed who were proud of who
they were. And when the Mixed from Astar learnt that, and stopped
believing everything the Astarians did, they would be able to live
among humans again.

And the humans were with the Mixed too. They
didn’t realize it, but these Mixed wouldn’t be treated as anything
other than equals. And the Astarians would be forced to see them
differently.

Astar had to be razed and rebuilt, and Riley
was going to visit Coastside tomorrow morning with the Dragon. With
Astar utterly destroyed, Coastside would not resist. And they would
be forced to change too. And of course, Cavachi could not be
forgotten.

And what Riley had been building among the
Mixed would encompass the humans too. She had a year to strengthen
her new tribe. And then she would keep her promise to Vann.

But that was for tomorrow. Now Adila, Rose
and Aerlid stood before her. Some of them would return later, Riley
still had business with the valkar.

‘The book is finished?’ Riley asked.

‘Yes, Karesh has it.’ Aerlid replied.

Riley nodded. ‘Then I have everything I need
from you, Aerlid.’

‘That’s all?’ he asked. ‘That doesn’t seem
like much.’

‘I don’t want anything else from you,
Aerlid. There’s nothing else you can give me.’

He nodded slowly. He glanced over his
shoulder. Rose would take him to his prison. And it really would be
a prison this time.

‘Perhaps this doesn’t mean anything then,
Riley, but I wish to share it with you. You have been but a tiny
part of my life, but you were the brightest part.’

Her eyes widened. She reached out a hand,
but then she drew it back.

He smiled softly. ‘It’s ok. Goodbye, Riley.
I will never see you again. I wish you all the happiness in the
world.’

Aerlid turned and walked over to Rose and
Adila.

They did not go far before they
disappeared.