The Lord of the Plains (21 page)

The girl, who could easily be mistaken for a
human and yet never was, glanced at her. ‘Home.’ There was
something more than the features of a face and the proportions of a
body that marked one as gemeng or human. Nobody ever got mixed up,
except perhaps, Riley.

Riley was silent. Then she spoke that which
had been brewing for a while. ‘Do you all live together?’

Jillia’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘Yes of
course.’

‘May I see?’ Riley was aware this was a very
personal thing to ask, but she was curious that all these gemengs
who were not related lived together. That was not how the humans
lived.

‘Why?’ Jillia asked. ‘They’re all the
same.’

‘What’s all the same?’

‘The dormitories.’

Riley was momentarily confused. She had
never heard her apartment referred to as a dormitory, not that she
knew what a dormitory was. She said, ‘there is only room for me and
Arntar in our home.’

Jillia looked at her in disbelief.

Riley returned the look.

Clearly neither one knew what to make of
this.

‘Can I see your home?’ Riley asked again. ‘I
can show you mine.’

Jillia hesitated for a moment, ‘will you be
alright to go home alone?’

Aerlid didn’t like Riley walking around
alone, though she was now allowed to walk home from school alone,
but Riley didn’t want to pass up this opportunity. ‘Yes, if I know
the way.’

Jillia hesitated again. ‘You might get
lost.’

‘I won’t get lost.’ Riley said, in
uncharacteristic quickness, sensing Jillia’s cooperation was
slipping away. ‘I have a good memory.’

Jillia nodded then. ‘Ok…we’ll go past your
place and then to mine.’

When Riley agreed Jillia turned to one of
her gemeng friends to tell her what was happening. He turned to
look at Riley and didn’t seem very happy. ‘Will you be alright on
your own?’

Riley noted his words, his tone, his face.
Her brows furrowed, but she said nothing.

Jillia glanced back at Riley, then to the
boy. ‘Yes, we’ll be quick.’

Once Jillia was done Riley led the way back
to her apartment. Though Riley’s social skills were much improved
she was not very good at small talk. This wasn’t a problem with
Razra, who liked to fill any silence he found. Riley took her cues
from Jillia. As Jillia did not seem to mind the silence neither did
Riley.

When they reached the apartment Jillia
looked up, as if she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing and
thought she was being tricked. Riley gestured and led her up the
stairwell and unlocked the door to her apartment. Jillia looked
around. ‘You live here?!’ she gaped.

‘Yes.’ Riley said. ‘With Arntar, my uncle.’
Aerlid had been very strong in telling her that they were in no way
related, that this was just something to tell the people of Astar.
He had been quite dissatisfied with her uninterested nod. ‘He’s
human.’ Riley added.

‘Oh…are you part human then?’ Jillia
asked.

‘I don’t know.’ Riley answered, and for the
first time thought she should ask. ‘Are you?’

‘No, I’m a gemeng. I guess that explains it,
if he’s a human…’ Jillia shrugged. It was a sharp shrug and she
didn’t seem happy.

Jillia exited the apartment, trotted quickly
down the stairs and out the entry of the apartment complex to stand
by the road. ‘Can you take me back to the school?’ she asked, ‘I
don’t know the way home from here.’

Riley nodded and led Jillia back to the
school. They were silent again as they walked, and Riley noticed
that Jillia was not happy. This made her somewhat
uncomfortable.

They reached the school and stood in front
of the gate, facing away from the school buildings. Jillia pointed
in the direction they were going and started explaining the route
they’d take. She looked at Riley to make sure she was listening
before heading off. Jillia stopped every now and then to explain
the directions and make sure Riley knew where they were going.

Riley was surprised at how far they walked,
more than twice as far as her own home. They came to the edge of
Astar, to a long, unadorned block of a building. Behind the
building was forest. Riley’s eyes went to the trees above. She
almost missed Jillia talking to her. She shook her head and turned
her attention back to Jillia, aware of the forest so close.

The building was plain and unmarked, though
in good repair. There were similar buildings nearby, but that
didn’t mean much. All the buildings in Astar were similar. Only
then did Riley notice the wall that these buildings rested against.
She didn’t remember any walls or gates coming into Astar, but then
she didn’t remember very much after being shot.

They entered the building. It was long and
low and dark with few windows to let light in. The building was
entirely filled with rows of beds. Between some of the beds were
curtains, but no walls. Riley noted possessions were kept under the
beds. There were no trunks or bedside tables where things might be
stored. The door closed behind them. There was no lock. Riley
noticed a glimmer on the wall. She turned and saw behind a pane of
glass a sheet of paper. On it were written rules. It was hard to
read in this light, though the light was better here than anywhere
else in the building.

Jillia pressed her lips together firmly as
she noticed Riley reading. ‘Come,’ she gestured. ‘I’ll show you my
home.’

Riley turned and followed. The writing was
nothing new, it detailed the basic rules and principles of Astar
they learned in immersion.

They went perhaps halfway down the room
before Jillia stopped beside a curtained area filled with three
beds. ‘This is my home.’ Jillia said. Riley looked around.

Then she turned on her heel and looked
around the rest of the building. Curtains and beds and gemeng
families gathered around, all minding their own business. ‘This is
different. When we arrived we got a loan and the apartment. Why do
you live here?’

Jillia smiled a brittle smile, the sort of
smile an eleven year old really shouldn’t be smiling.

‘Do all gemengs live here…?’ Riley
asked.

‘Yes.’ she paused. Then, ‘Except ones like
you.’

Riley hadn’t understood what Jillia meant.
She hadn’t understood the smile. She left quickly after that,
making her way home easily. The only difficulty had been staying
away from the forest.

When Riley arrived home it was dark and
Aerlid was very unimpressed. He withheld his scolding however as
Riley had a pensive look on her face.

She sat down on the chair and looked around
their home. Then she told him where the gemengs lived. ‘I don’t
understand.’ she said finally. ‘Why would they give us this
apartment? Jillia was born here.’ she added.

Aerlid shrugged. ‘Because they believe I’m
human.’

‘Is that all?’ she asked.

He nodded.

Riley dropped her gaze to her lap.

She forgot to ask him Jillia’s question.

After some time Riley came to the conclusion
she needed to expand her circle of human contacts. She didn’t
understand why the other gemengs lived differently to her. Jillia
did, she thought, from the way she’d smiled. But Riley didn’t.
Razra was a good friend but perhaps not a reliable source of
information.

So she started spending more time with the
human children, while still trying to improve her relationship with
the gemengs. The gemengs looked at her differently now. Riley
thought they must have learned from Jillia that she didn’t live
like them. That didn’t bother her. At least they no longer treated
her like an embarrassing, distant relative who they hoped they
could pretend wasn’t related to them.

Chapter 15

Riley sat with Jillia eating lunch. They sat
somewhat apart from the larger group. Riley wasn’t so much eating
as watching and waiting for the right time to ask. It was the first
time they’d been together since Jillia had shown Riley her
home.

Jillia took a bite, chewed and then
swallowed. She looked up at Riley, a hint of that brittle smile in
her eyes.

Riley took that as her cue. ‘Do you like
living in the dormitories?’ she asked.

Jillia was silent for a moment. ‘I haven’t
lived anywhere else.’ she sighed. ‘Yes, I do. I have my family all
around me.’ She said as she looked towards the group of
gemengs.

Riley followed her eyes. ‘They are your
family?’ she asked.

Jillia’s eyes flicked back to hers. ‘Not by
blood but yes, they are.’ she sighed. ‘I like it there I just…’ she
screwed up her face and gestured towards the human children. ‘They
don’t live like us!’ there was some temper in her voice though she
was careful to keep it quiet.

‘Can you move?’ Riley asked, ‘if you had
enough money?’

That brittle smile. ‘No.’ That was all. That
was all that was needed.

She looked down at her lunch. ‘Do you have
the rules hanging on your wall?’ Jillia asked, her tone said she
knew the answer already. ‘They think because we’re gemengs we’ll
run through the city killing everyone if they don’t control us. You
know my parents and their parents were born here but I still have
to do immersion!’

‘Did they shoot you?’ she asked
curiously.

Jillia’s eyes widened. ‘What?’

‘When I came into Astar they shot me.’ Riley
explained. ‘It was a test.’

‘Oh-oh, no. No, they don’t test gemengs born
here. Not usually. Not unless there’s a problem.’ she said, her
face ashen at the thought.

‘Why not?’ Riley asked carefully, noting
Jillia’s sickly expression.

‘What? Well, I guess they don’t think
gemengs who have parents weak enough to come here would be a
problem. My mum says it’s wild out there… gemengs kill each other
all the time. That’s why they have to be careful about letting any
in, because they’re all violent. She says new gemengs are always
causing trouble.’ she eyed Riley somewhat carefully, ‘and if they
have a broken arm at least if they cause trouble they can be taken
care of easy. Gemengs who are born here aren’t like that. They
aren’t… they aren’t violent like the ones outside. We’re civilised.
We have proper names, not like the gemengs from outside.’

Riley for her part, was not offended. She
nodded to show she understood, noted it, and decided to tell
Aerlid. This was something that would interest him.

‘Is that why some gemengs don’t have last
names?’ Riley asked.

Jillia nodded. ‘Yeah, if they’re from
outside, or their parents are. Gemengs from outside don’t name
themselves properly. I guess you have a name from your human
parent?’

‘I guess so.’ Riley replied carefully. She
wasn’t a good liar, and she remembered that Meilis wasn’t her real
name, no more than Arntar was Aerlid’s real name.

Jillia fell silent. She watched Riley for
some time before asking, ‘What’s it like out there?’