The Lord of the Plains (43 page)

As he held out his hand to her he thought,
she’s as bad as Azra
.

‘You look fine.’ He said somewhat absently
as she took his hand.

He was here. There was no point in coming if
he wasn’t willing to give her another chance.

Teila, rather obviously, was a bit unsettled
by that remark.

Vann liked women and he had enough
experience with them to be able to give a better response to ‘do I
look alright’ than ‘you look fine’. He found women calming, though
not like the ocean. After a turn on the subs, or even on a ship,
he, like most of the submariners of Coastside, spent his shore time
in the company of various beautiful women. But at least he was
always very clear right at the beginning there would be various
other
women and the relationship would be
casual
. So
there was no call for Teila to behave how she had. He wasn’t even
unusual
, Coastside was full of submariners, and not all of
them were men, but they pretty much all did the same thing when
they got home.

Teila recovered quickly and clasped her hand
around his arm as they began strolling towards the theatre.

‘It’s good to see you, Vann.’

He bit his tongue to keep from saying
something like, ‘I’m not sure if it’s good to see you, Teila.’ and
instead just nodded.

‘It’s a new dress, I was sure you’d notice.’
unsaid was, you usually notice.

The women of Coastside often remade and
altered their existing clothes as buying a new dress often wasn’t
an option. Teila was particularly good at it. In fact, Vann
couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen her in a dress she’d
already worn.

‘It’s fine.’

‘Vann…’

He sighed. ‘You said you understood.’ he
said, his voice getting frostier by the second, ‘I wasn’t kidding.
I don’t want a serious relationship with you, and I’m not going to
see you exclusively.’

She swallowed. ‘It’s fine.’ she patted his
arm. ‘It’s fine, Vann, please, let’s just have fun tonight.’

He gave her a hard stare, his grey eyes
stormy.

Teila fluttered her long eyelashes
nervously, ‘please, it’s fine, I’m sorry, Vann.’

Finally he dropped his gaze and looked away.
‘Did you help with the costumes?’ Vann asked, trying to make an
effort.

‘Oh, yes, of course. Me and the girls up at
the Square all helped, it’s a lot of fun. Oh, I’ve never invited
you but did you want to come help….?’

She trailed off, her big blue eyes wide as
she clasped his arm tightly.

‘I don’t think I’d be much help.’ he said
dryly.

‘Oh, probably best you don’t come then.’ as
she patted his arm Vann thought he heard relief in her voice. For
the first time that night, he smiled.

As they settled into the padded seats in the
quickly filling theatre Vann asked Teila, ‘what show is this?’

’Oh, it’s the continuation of ‘Romance by
the Sea’.’ she said excitedly, clasping her hands together.

‘Romance by the
what
?’ he repeated in
disbelief, wondering if they could have come up with a worse
name.

‘Have you seen it? It’s a new serial play
they started this summer. Next week is the finale!’ At the shake of
his head Teila went into a not very enlightening but excited
description of what had happened in the previous plays.

Vann stopped trying to understand what she
was going on about and instead tried to look interested and nod at
regular intervals. He stopped her though when he heard the familiar
word, ‘gemeng.’

‘Wait, there are gemengs in this play?’ he
asked.

She nodded.

Vann couldn’t suppress a sigh. He could
spend all night watching an overly sentimental romance serial and
make his date feel he’d actually managed to follow and enjoy the
plot, even if he’d never seen any other shows in the serial before.
But he couldn’t stand it when they included gemengs.

‘Why, what’s wrong?’ she asked.

‘You know what’s going to happen.’

‘No,’ she shook her head, ‘no, I don’t,
what’s going to happen?’

‘The gemeng did it.’ he said as he closed
his eyes. Whatever horrible thing ‘it’ was, the gemeng was
always
responsible.

‘Oh no, no! Jann is in
love
with the
good gemeng, Lissel from Reezel!’

He shook his head. However long they dragged
it out, it was always the gemeng who was the bad guy. Something
strange came over him when he came to a play now with a gemeng.
Maybe it was a fog of disappointment that made it impossible for
him to pretend he was enjoying himself. Maybe it was because he
already knew the ending and it had been
done before
.
Whatever it was, he couldn’t summon a smile for Teila.

‘No, no,’ Teila said, trying to explain,
‘she’s a
good
gemeng, and she opposed the Evil Queen of
Reezel, and was exiled, and Jann rescued her, even though Adeia was
in love with him before and they were almost a couple, but then he
met Lissel-’

She would have kept going except that the
curtains started drawing back, revealing the stage.

A hush fell over the audience. She grabbed
his arm and got as close to him as possible without actually
climbing onto his lap. Her eyes were glued to the stage, an avid
expression on her face.

Vaan opened his eyes, but he didn’t pay much
attention. The play wasn’t worth it.

Standing outside the theatre afterwards was
a different kind of hell to being trapped in there watching that
uninspired garbage.

Teila was gossiping with her friends. He
heard snatches that made him want to grab the girl and explain in
nice simple words that it was exactly the same ending as
every
other
play with a gemeng in it.

‘I didn’t see that coming!’

‘I know, it was so
shocking
!’

’
Vann, Vann!’

Vann’s eyes snapped open as he heard Teila
calling him. She was gesturing sharply for him to come over. He
approached the group of well-dressed girls warily.

Teila clasped his arm as soon as he was
within reach. ‘Can that really happen, Vann, can they do that?’ she
asked as she pulled him into the circle.

‘Do what?’ he asked carefully, his grey eyes
flicking around the group.

‘Can gemengs really use their gemeng powers
to make you fall in love!’ one of the other girls said at the same
time as Teila said, ‘can they do what Lissel did to Jann? It was so
horrible!’

He sighed, debating whether he should
answer. Then, carefully, ‘The ones from Reezel can.’ The
submariners patrolled Reezel from a safe distance. Reezel was
perhaps full of the most dangerous gemengs around, but they
couldn’t afford to let them go unnoticed in case they started
heading for the coast.

Teila gasped in horror, as did most of the
others.

They began talking again. All the while
Teila kept an iron grip on his arm.

Vann waited for perhaps five minutes before
he whispered in her ear that he needed to leave. He didn’t try
pulling away from Teila. He knew from experience she hung on
tighter than a barnacle.

But he couldn’t stay here, and he was no
longer in any mood to spend the night with her.

She looked up at him, her blue eyes very big
and wide.

Then she looked back at her group of friends
and patted his arm reassuringly in a way that reminded him of
nothing so much as how some women patted the cute animals they kept
as pets. Irritation flashed across his face. But she was saying her
goodbyes and so he said nothing.

Soon enough they were outside the theatre.
It was cooler outside than inside. Night had fallen, though it was
lit with street lights and strings of lanterns hanging from eaves
or strung across the street. In this part of the city some of the
lanterns were blue and orange. The night was full of couples and
groups of friends leaving the theatre or heading somewhere to eat.
There was laughing and talking and good natured jostling when the
groups collided. It was a lovely night.

‘Teila,’ he said as she headed off towards
her place, him in tow.

‘Hmm?’ she looked over her shoulder with
those big eyes of hers. ‘Yes, Vann?’ she said in her sweet, pretty
voice.

‘Teila, I need to head back to the Blocks.
I’m sorry.’ he held his ground firmly enough that she was forced to
either stop walking or release his arm. She chose to stop
walking.

‘Oh,’ she fluttered her lashes at him
rapidly. She was confused.

‘I’m saying goodnight.’ he said kindly. He
kissed her cheek. ‘I need to head home now, but it was a lovely
evening.’

‘So we’re not spending the night together.’
her lashes were still fluttering.

‘No.’

Suddenly a great, beaming smile spread
across her face and she leapt at him.

Vann stood, surprised, as she wrapped her
arms around him and hugged him tightly. ‘Oh, Vann, I’m so
happy!’

‘Um.’ he patted her back awkwardly. Not
exactly the reaction he had expected… Not exactly the reaction he
wanted either!

‘W-why?’ he asked cautiously.

She leant back, her eyes were glistening
with tears. ‘I’m so happy! I knew you’d see it eventually!’

Suspicion snapped into his eyes and he
stepped back as far as he could with Teila still grabbing him.
‘What are you talking about?’

‘You want to wait. You’re going to be
serious with me. We’re going to be a proper couple.’ she said,
gazing up at him with a blissful smile on her face.

‘No, no that’s not what I meant. I’m tired,
that’s all,’ where did this woman get her ideas from? Vann wondered
desperately as he tried to
explain
. It was like they were
speaking different languages! ‘Teila, that’s not going to happen,
ok, I’m sorr-’

He stopped dead. While he had been speaking
her happy expression had been changing to one of broken-hearted
horror. Now though, she had fallen to her knees and was
sobbing.

Getting down on his knees he gently touched
her shoulders. People were staring at them as they walked past.

‘Teila,’ he tried to say gently, alarmed at
her sudden over-reaction, ‘please don’t cry. I’m sorry. Come on,
I’ll take you home.’

Sniffing, she nodded and let him help her to
her feet. He put an arm around her shoulders and began what felt
like a very
very
long walk back to her home.

She didn’t look at him the whole way
home.

When they arrived slowly she turned to look
at him. Teila was one of those rare women who could manage to cry
and not look blotchy and horrible. Her eyes were still wet as she
gazed at him but her back was straight, her head high. She almost
looked regal.

Then she slapped him.

Shocked, Vann raised a hand to his flaming
cheek. The door slammed shut. Teila had already fled back into the
house.

When he reached the military base he flopped
down onto his bed, face down.