The Lord of the Plains (61 page)

Two days passed before a search party was
organized. The delay frustrated Aerlid to no end, but he supposed
the Coastsiders hadn’t realized Riley’d actually
left
Coastside until the morning after.

He couldn’t help a twinge of regret as he
stood outside the walls of Astar, listening to Captain Batar Krope
give his orders. He wondered if Riley knew how much her old unit
cared about her.

‘She hasn’t contacted Coastside or Astar.’
Batar said, ‘and it’s been two days. All we know is she left
Coastside. We can only hope she was making for Astar. We’ve been
given one week to find her, so we need to move quickly.’

‘There’s a lot of ground to cover, between
here and Coastside.’ Geilar, the only gemeng in the group,
murmured.

‘Yes… but you know, she defeated the
drakilis on her own.’ Leili said, ‘I’m sure… I’m sure she can take
care of herself.’

‘We don’t have time to wonder about that.’
Jann said firmly. Aerlid remembered him as the young man Riley had
shot. ‘Come on, we gotta get going.’

‘Mr Meilis, are you sure you want to come
with us?’ Batar said, his eyes fixed on Aerlid.

‘Yes. I spent many years outside of Astar, I
can take care of myself. Besides, if she’s injured, I’ll be able to
help.’

‘He took care of my hand pretty good.’ Jann
said.

‘There was nothing
wrong
with your
hand.’ Geilar muttered.

‘Alright, let’s move out. We’ll move quickly
to the testing centre, and focus our search on the area between the
testing centre and Coastside. Let’s move.’

Aerlid almost regretted what he’d have to do
to them.

The next day, Aerlid met Riley at the border
between the Astarian forest and the hills.

In two weeks, they stood atop a cliff
looking down.

Below lay the Plains.

Chapter 50

When a particular sub returned to Coastside
the news waiting for those aboard was not greeted well.

One submariner in particular demanded to go
out searching.

He was told the Astarian Military would
handle the search. What would a submariner know about a forest?

And so he was confined to his dorm. For some
reason, the Commander of the submariners didn’t trust him.

Astar learnt the fate of the gemeng first.
Astar Home Defence Patrol Unit-16, accompanied by the uncle who had
forcefully insisted on joining them on the search for his niece,
had found the remains.

When the unit ran back to Astar with babbled
tales of horrible, hungry, murderous gemengs all of Astar was put
on alert.

A human, the poor old uncle, had been
killed.

Or so they remembered.

And so the evidence left behind
suggested.

Blood.

Claw marks.

Scraps of clothes.

And scraps of a uniform. A uniform that
belonged to a missing gemeng.

The woman in charge of transfers looked up
in surprise. This one had been here not long ago. He’d been beaming
then.

Now though… beneath his tan he was pale. His
grey eyes were red and wet.

His voice was wobbly as he asked whether it
was too late to change his mind.

‘Of course not, dear.’ She replied,
concerned. ‘Are you alright?’ He looked like he was about to start
crying.

‘T-thank you.’ his voice was thick.

He turned and walked quickly out of her
office, his shoulders hunched, his head bowed.

PART 4

Chapter 51

It was raining.

Raining was perhaps not the right word.

Aerlid was singing softly. As soon as he had
left Astar he had changed and returned to the shining moonlight and
night-dark eyes of long ago, when they were alone in the forest.
Above them the shield was visible where the rain hit it. That was
to say, it was always visible. It was white and sparkly. Rain
rolled off it to either side.

Despite the shield Riley was as wet as if
she’d been dumped in the ocean.

The world was dark.

The rain gave the darkness a particular
thickness that made it impenetrable. But then thunder would boom
and roll and lightning would strike. And for an instant the world
would be lit by blinding white light.

And then in an instant it would be gone.

And somehow it was darker than before.

Riley wrapped her arms around herself. She
was shivering. She was soaking.

Wet grass came up higher than her waist. It
clung to her. Mud came up to her ankles. That was clinging to her
too.

They stood on a hill. When lightning hit she
could see an ocean of grass all around.

And right now it was an ocean.

An ocean that just happened to be filled
with grass.

‘I-is it l-like t-t-this oft-often?’ she
managed through chattering teeth.

Aerlid glanced at her. Even this close he
was just a greyish shadow. He shook his head.

Gripped by a sudden energy, Riley started
wading down the hill.

Startled, Aerlid followed. He managed to
stay close enough to keep her under the shield.

Despite it not preventing them from getting
wet, it was slightly more comfortable than actually feeling the
pelting torrent pounding into her.

But gemengs lived on the plains. They had to
have shelter.

She was going to find it.

And no matter how violent and grumpy they
were, they couldn’t be as violent and grumpy as her.

Off the hill it was dangerous.

Water was rushing and rising. Grass was
everywhere. And under the water, sticky, sucking mud.

Aerlid’s hand gripped hers.

Lightning flashed. All she could see was
grass.

The noise of the rain filled her ears. The
smell of rain and wet grass was overpowering.

She strove onwards, Aerlid behind her. All
she knew was that she had his hand.

Her dark, patchwork outfit was sticking to
her skin. She was soaked.

She didn’t want to think what this was doing
to her weapons or their supplies.

Later.

Later.

The rain went on and on.

Cold.

Then, out of the darkness a light. Red, like
fire. It flickered and shuddered. But it kept burning.

It was so small, no larger than a
candle.

They headed towards it.

For the light to survive this night there
must be shelter.

And then another light.

And another, another.

A whole line of them.

The ground began rising.

It became suddenly much harder going. The
water was rushing down towards them.

They kept going. Aerlid was beside her. Now,
he was the one pulling her up.

She couldn’t see the fire anymore. There was
just grass and water.

And then the lights were back. The pressure
from the water against her chest eased. Riley realised they were at
the top. The water was flowing away from them, down the hill.

Riley observed the lights carefully.

They were not a line but a ring. The fires
cast strange, fitful light over the gathering. There was a blowing
sound, like giant bellows.

Above the noise of rain and grass there was
the noise of rain hitting something that resisted it.

Like a roof.

But there were no poles or anything with
which to hold a roof.

Riley approached carefully. Aerlid was close
by, she still had his hand.

The white sparkles of the shield were
suddenly gone. Rain was no longer hitting it. Startled, Riley
looked up. A fall of water showered her. There was a flare of
sparkly light as the water hit the shield. Then the rain was gone
again. She moved forward quickly.

Something was moving above them, like a
sheet in the wind.

Her eyes were adjusting to the smoky light
of the fires. It
was
like a sheet. And near the edges the
cover was not so certain, it protected, and then the collected rain
would spill from it. The fires were set a safe distance in from the
edge.

And Riley could see a pink mound lying in
the middle. Above it the sheet, or whatever it was, was rushing in,
as if sucked, and then blown out.

Her attention was drawn to the shapes
gathered around. A few stood between them and the fires.

Aerlid began speaking in one of the many
languages he knew. It was one Riley knew as well, though not the
same as that spoken in Astar.

This language was rougher.

‘We don’t come to fight. We only want to get
out of the storm. May we stay here?’

A tall shape strode over to them. In the
dark Riley could not make out much about it, except that it was
taller than her and Aerlid.

He made a move as if to push them from the
tent.

Riley moved out of the way, bringing Aerlid
with her. ‘If we have to fight to get some shelter we will.’ Riley
threatened. ‘We’ll stay on this side of the fires if it bothers you
so much.’