The Lord of the Plains (73 page)

Not that they’d ever be able to do anything
else. The power around them was too weak, their awareness of it too
tentative.

Aerlid and his students were making the
rounds. They spent a lot of time with the other children. There
were all sorts of fantastic deformities and illnesses that would
kill the children before they made it to adulthood. Riley had
alerted him of it soon after taking control of the tribe. Not that
he hadn’t expected it, considering what they were. She’d gotten the
idea into her head that if he could fix some of the children the
gemengs would have more respect for what he did.

‘What do you want?’ a loud, angry voice
demanded.

It snapped Aerlid out of his thoughts. They
were standing in front of a tent. A large, snarling woman stood in
front of the entrance.

Aerlid fixed his dark, star-studded eyes on
her. ‘We’re here to inspect the children.’

‘He’s not ready for the Warrior’s Trial.’
she snarled defensively. Her body was tense, as if ready for a
fight.

Aerlid did not feel much empathy for this
snarling, ugly ball of a woman. As soon as the child passed the
Warrior’s Trial, she’d probably kill him with her bare hands if the
opportunity came up.

‘Lukash, they’re not going to hurt him.’

Aerlid turned, Karesh was coming towards
them.

There was a certain delicacy to him, a
pleasing arrangement of features, and no apparent deformities.
Aerlid didn’t mind him. It didn’t hurt his eyes to look at him.

The woman, Lukash, relaxed a bit. Her eyes
darted from Karesh to Aerlid. ‘He’s just a child. Not a warrior.
Too young.’

‘Of course.’ Aerlid said smoothly. ‘May we
enter?’

She shuffled out of the way. Aerlid brushed
past her, his students following. Inside, the tent was dark. Aerlid
had no trouble seeing in the dark.

Karesh and Lukash followed them in, making
the small tent rather crowded.

Karesh often watched while Aerlid worked.
Aerlid wondered if Karesh had an interest in learning medicine. As
far as students went, he would probably be the best he could get
here.

A slender form stood in the darkness.

‘It’s alright, little-one,’ Lukash called.
‘It’s the shiny man.’

Aerlid bristled.
Shiny man
. Aerlid
stepped forward smartly, so he was standing next to the child.

‘Is there something wrong with your child?’
he asked Lukash.

‘No, nothing wrong, he’s fine.’ she said
defensively.

Aerlid ignored her and began visually
inspecting the boy. He was not wearing much. Why soon became clear-
much of his skin was covered in blisters. Looking closer, Aerlid
was surprised to see patches of almost translucent skin. The rest
of his skin was very pale, would burn easily. But those patches-
why, going into the sun would probably destroy them. And his eyes,
Aerlid noted were red.

‘Can you see well now?’ Aerlid asked.

‘Y-yes. I can see alright in the dark.’

‘What about in sunlight?’

He hesitated.

‘I can’t help you if you don’t tell me
what’s wrong.’ he said sternly.

‘He
fine
!’ Lukash said again.
‘Fine!’

‘Clearly, he’s
not
fine, woman.
Sunlight causes you pain, doesn’t it?’

‘Just a bit. N-not much…’

Aerlid sighed. He turned to his students.
‘This is one of the main problems you’ll face. Patients will lie
and hide and try to pretend they’re perfectly normal. Come and look
at this boy and tell me what you think is wrong.’

The children came up.

‘He looks like a fish!’ the male said.

Aerlid sighed. He closed his eyes. ‘Yes.
Like a fish. Exactly.’

‘Would covering up those ugly bits fix him?’
the female asked.

‘Ugly bits’ was an excellent way to describe
those translucent patches. Muscle and veins could be seen pulsing
beneath the skin.

‘Well,’ Aerlid asked the boy, ‘does covering
them up help?’

The boy hesitated. Then, his voice teary,
‘no, they tear and bruise easily, I’m going to
die
, I’ll
never make it as a warrior!’

‘And his eyes.’ the it said. ‘His eyes are
broken too. Well, maybe he could just come out at night.’

The boy sniffed. ‘Night is ok.’ he
mumbled.

‘I’m afraid you children don’t have the
ability to fix this.’ he waited. ‘But I can. Boy, sit down.’

‘What are you going to do to him?!’ Lukash
demanded.

‘If you’re going to bother me, leave now.’
And Aerlid sat down too, across from the boy. ‘You’ll get a strange
sensation, possibly some pain. It’s important you tell me where all
the patches are.’

Aerlid took the boy’s hands in his. There
was a large patch covering the back of his hand and two fingers.
There was a slimy feel to it. A slimy, delicate feel, as if he
pushed too hard he’d break it. He held the hand gently and closed
his eyes.

When he opened his eyes a few minutes later
the hand was normal.

Aerlid realised everyone was leaning over
his shoulders and trying to get a look at the hand.

‘I need space!’ he called.

They hurriedly moved away.

When they were gone, and his disgruntlement
had faded, Aerlid moved on to the next patch.

It wasn’t terribly difficult. The eyes were
going to be harder, but nothing he couldn’t handle.

Not five minutes after Riley left their
camp, Karesh appeared out of the grasses. Aerlid’s eyebrows rose in
surprise. Karesh cautiously approached and crouched down opposite
him. All the while Aerlid wondered what was going on.

‘You healed that boy.’ Karesh began in that
hesitant way he had.

‘I did.’ Aerlid replied as a thought
occurred to him. ‘Is there something wrong with you?’

Karesh stiffened. He drew back. Then he
sighed. His eyes averted, he nodded cautiously.

Aerlid began looking at him with new eyes.
Quickly, he settled on his back. As always, Karesh wore a heavy
cloak.

‘I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s
wrong.’ Aerlid said, his voice softer.

Karesh grimaced. But in one move he stood
and swept the cloak off his back.

Aerlid rose too. Curiously he walked around
behind Karesh.

It took him a moment to understand what he
was seeing.

‘Hmm… do you want me to remove it or fix
it?’

Karesh started. ‘You could fix it?’

‘Well, I can’t say. I’d have to look at it
more closely. Even if it was physiologically sound, you might not
be able to use it.’

Karesh hesitated.

‘Let me examine it more closely, and I’ll
tell you whether it’s possible. What about the second one? It
appears to be alright.’

‘I’ll keep that.’ Karesh said quickly,
defensively.

Aerlid fell silent.

‘I’ve used it to confuse my opponents
before. It’s been useful to me.’

‘Alright. I’ll leave the second one alone.
Have you tried to have it removed?’

‘No, not really. It… it’s very sensitive. It
bleeds a lot too. I was afraid to try in case…’

‘That’s probably for the best.’ Aerlid said
briskly. ‘Will you let me examine it?’

‘Y-yes… and… thank you.’

Chapter 67

Training and managing five hundred gemengs
was tiring work. The fact that Aerlid had developed a habit of
mysteriously disappearing didn’t help either.

Today, as a young, strong, ferocious gemeng
challenged her for control of the tribe again, Riley felt like
she’d spent the last few months going in circles.

Riley observed him in irritation. Finally
she said, ‘why should I?’

He puffed up and scowled boldly at her. Then
he spouted off a load of nonsense about how weak she was and so on.
Mostly, it came down to her being back at square one.

She was not going to fight every damn gemeng
in her tribe- or every
new
gemeng (Gakra’s tribe had already
been thrashed by her enough times to know they had no chance)! And
certainly not multiple times, for they had an annoying habit of
thinking they’d gotten better (or she’d gotten worse) and coming
back and demanding another fight. If anything, Riley felt like
she
was the one getting better. Now that she no longer had
to hide her strength, and with all the fighting and hunting she was
doing, she felt her skills were only improving. Not that that
stopped the gemengs from challenging her…

She was starting to see why gemeng leaders
killed whoever challenged them.

She regarded him coolly. She needed another
way to deal with this.

‘When did you come up with this?’ Aerlid
demanded. ‘How come whenever I talk to you you have another crazy
idea?’

Startled, Riley replied, ‘crazy? I thought
it was a good idea.’

Aerlid just stared at her. Then he said,
‘that’s the problem. I can’t leave you alone for five seconds
without, without… this!’

‘You left me alone for more than five
seconds.’ Riley said reproachfully.

And that just got her another stunned
stare.

‘Well, do you have any other ideas?’

‘Yes, leaving and never, ever coming back to
this place.’

Riley didn’t think that was an idea.

And so the tournament was announced.

‘And so,’ Riley finished, ‘whoever wins will
get the opportunity to fight me. Further, I expect all challenges
to go through my second. I will only waste my time fighting those
who can defeat my second.’

Riley was getting very used to people
staring at her blankly.

A clawed hand suddenly shot up into the
air.

‘Yes?’ she asked.

‘You said no killing.’

‘That’s right.’

The hand stayed up.

‘Are you having trouble understanding
that?’

There was feverish nodding from the
crowd.

Riley, her hands on her hips, glared out at
the crowd. ‘How hard is it to understand?! No killing. It’s very
simple, and I won’t explain it again!’