The Lord of the Plains (76 page)

While Adila was visiting, Riley received an
unexpected, though pleasant, surprise.

She surveyed the two gemengs before her
carefully. They were frowning and glaring at her, but she wasn’t
getting a sense of violence. They seemed more uncomfortable than
anything else.

‘Both of you?’ Riley asked carefully, trying
to keep her rising elation from her voice.

The two glanced at each other and then back
at Riley.

The woman said, ‘you’ll stop it if we ask,
right?’

‘If you decide you don’t want to be
together? Yes, I’ll keep him away from you.’

‘And her from me!’ the man demanded
hurriedly.

‘Of course. I’ll protect you from each
other.’

The two glanced at each again warily.

‘And if I can’t come and tell you I don’t
want him?’ the woman demanded.

‘Do you want me to check up on you?’

The woman nodded firmly, as did the man.

Such intervention from her would not be
possible with the entire tribe, not anymore. But this was the first
couple who actually wanted to be together.

Riley beamed, ‘yes, of course. I’ll check up
on you.’

The two glanced at each other again, then
back to Riley.

‘Alright.’ The woman said. ‘For now.’

The man nodded too, then said, ‘and only
until the children are warriors.’

‘Yes, of course.’ Riley replied.

‘But maybe not that long.’ the woman
added.

‘As long as you both like. Before, after,
you have children. I don’t care, as long as you’re both happy.
Alright?’

The woman smiled brightly, before it was
quickly quashed. ‘Alright. Thank you, Master.’

The woman reached out and took the man’s
hand.

Riley had to restrain herself from jumping
with glee as she saw the two walk away, holding hands.

‘Actually, there was something I needed to
tell you.’ Adila said to Aerlid one day, weeks after she had
arrived.

Aerlid, surprised, asked, ‘what is it?’

It did not take Adila long to explain.

When she had finished she said, ‘you can
always return to the city. And… you can bring her with you.’

Aerlid glowered. ‘She would not be welcome
there.’

‘Perhaps not, but she could stay until the
ehlkrid leave, and it would be safer there.’ she hesitated.

Aerlid knew the reason. And it caused him a
moment’s pause too. But there was nothing to say. So he continued,
‘they could be here for a year or a thousand, Adila. Her entire
life. No, I don’t think I’ll take her to the city. We’ll be fine
down here. Besides, I can always find the city if I need to. When
is it coming?’

‘Before the ehlkrid return.’ she said
seriously.

‘I will visit then, before it leaves.’

Chapter 69

If Aerlid had been hoping Riley would leave
the Plains when he delivered his news he was sorely
disappointed.

She listened quietly. Somewhere in his tale
her interest sharpened and she became very businesslike, asking
pointed questions, preparing plans. But she did not panic and she
brushed aside his suggestion of leaving.

‘Less than a year.’ She mused. ‘Where will
they come from?’

‘I don’t know. Somewhere.’

At Riley’s unimpressed look he added, ‘I’m
sorry. When the city returns I can ask the valkar there, I think
they’d have a better idea, though I really can’t say.’

‘Alright. We’ll prepare as if they’ll turn
up here then. Do you know their numbers?’

‘Last time the ehlkrid were here they
reduced civilizations to ashes. They sent the few humans that
survived running to the caves. I imagine it would be the same this
time.’

‘Alright.’ Riley responded, and thought
briefly of the ruins they’d come across during their travels. Even
with this extra knowledge, the ruins were of no more interest to
her than before, and her thoughts moved on from them quickly. ‘How
much stronger are they than the gemengs?’

‘Well, they aren’t all the
same
, but
it’s safe to say most would be stronger than any gemeng around
here, except you.’

‘Aerlid,’ she began slowly, ‘do you remember
that man back in the first village we went too?’

‘Yes, I think I do.’

‘You remember how he broke the ground?’

‘Yes.’

‘I’ve never seen any other gemeng do that.
Can the ehlkrid do things like that?’

‘That… what he did requires the ability to
affect things with your will. It’s how I usually heal things. It’s
what Karesh will need to fly. Among gemengs it’s very rare, and if
it’s present it’s usually weak. Olef’s ability ought to have made
him powerful among the gemengs of his land… perhaps he was weaker
in other ways…’ Aerlid mused, before returning to the matter at
hand, ‘among ehlkrid… it’s common enough to be unremarkable.’

‘Alright.’ She was silent for a moment as
she mulled that over. ‘Are they like the gemengs?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Are they violent, refuse to work together,
that sort of thing?’

‘Oh, definitely, even more so I would
say.’

Riley smiled grimly. ‘Alright. That’s
something. Is there any chance we could talk to them-’

‘No. If you try you’ll get your head bitten
off. These things eat each other, Riley.’

Riley looked more thoughtful than worried,
and
that
made Aerlid worried. ‘Riley-’

‘Wouldn’t you have said the same thing about
the gemengs?’

Aerlid gazed at her coldly. ‘You’ve never
met these creatures. I have.’

Riley nodded, but still, Aerlid felt she was
keeping her options open- at least in her head.

‘Do they have a leader?’

‘Yes. You remember I said the valkar are
stronger than the ehlkrid, with a few exceptions?’

‘I do.’

‘Well, the Ehlkrid King is the exception.’
Aerlid did not say anything else, but he didn’t need to.

Riley held his gaze. Her green eyes were
sharp and determined. ‘You mentioned another problem.’

‘Yes… but it may not be a problem. We may
all be dead a thousand years before that becomes a problem.’

Riley waited.

‘But we might not be.’ he sighed.
‘Eventually the ehlkrid will be chased away, back to their
home.’

Riley frowned. That didn’t sound like a bad
thing.

‘The people who will do the chasing won’t be
very careful in how they do it. At least, they never have been
before. It’s entirely possibly they’ll kill all of us in the
process.’

‘Who are they?’ she asked.

Aerlid looked away. ‘I’m not quite sure.
Their leader is as different from his people as the Ehlkrid King is
from his. If it weren’t for those two, they would not be so
dangerous.’

‘Their leader, who is he?’

‘His name is Andalla.’ A dark look came to
Aerlid’s eyes. ‘He and his kind were here before the valkar. He
makes all sorts of claims about who he is, but I have no reason to
believe them. The valkar have their own theories.’

‘Which are?’ Riley pressed.

Aerlid looked at her in surprise. ‘You’re
interested?’

‘Aerlid,’ she said briskly, ‘If we’re going
to be fighting these people, I need to know as much as I can about
them.’

Aerlid paused, after a moment he shrugged.
‘Alright. Let’s see… the ehlkrid and Andalla’s… people… are much
weaker than their leaders. So one theory says they’re not related.
That is, the Ehlkrid King isn’t an ehlkrid and just came and took
them over. Another says that the King and Andalla are just the
strongest representatives of their people. If this is the case it
suggests the ehlkrid and Andalla’s people are, or were once, the
same. There are other things that support that… but… then there are
others like Andalla and the King, which would mean that they are
also part of that group…’

‘Others?’ Riley exclaimed, ‘do I have to
worry about them too?’

‘No! Well, I wouldn’t think so.’ he glanced
away. Then he said quickly. ‘And don’t even
think
about
asking for help. They’re all as bad as each other.’

She sighed. ‘Alright. This Andalla, can I
talk to him?’

‘No.’

At Riley’s insistent look Aerlid continued,
‘Riley, that man used to run around getting humans to build temples
for him and claiming he created them. He’s attacked my
own
people for the sole reason that most humans think we look more…
strange,
than he does.’

Riley didn’t know what to make of this.

Aerlid saw her expression and tried to back
track. ‘Andalla looks like a human. When humans see him, they think
he’s human. When humans see valkar, mostly they can tell we’re not
human. That upsets him. And it’s his own fault,’ he muttered, ‘he
can
change
how he looks.’

Aerlid looked like he was about to go on so
Riley quickly interrupted.

‘So you can’t arrange a meeting?’

‘Riley!’

‘I understand.’ Riley said, standing.

‘I could.’ Aerlid said bitterly. ‘But I
don’t know that I will.’

‘That’s fine, Aerlid.’ Riley calmed him.
‘We’ll discuss this more later.’

Later that day Riley made an announcement to
her tribe. She told them a war was coming to them. She did not go
into details, but she assigned tasks. First, she sent people out to
scout the lay of the land. They needed to find somewhere with more
cover to hide. Out on the plains they’d be sitting ducks against a
more powerful foe. They’d need to store food, water and supplies.
They also needed to train and improve their coordination- that
might be the only advantage they had over the ehlkrid. And she
needed to warn the other tribes- give them time to prepare.

And if they wouldn’t listen, she needed to
subjugate them and
make
them listen.

Riley was very busy from then on. She was
expanding her kingdom, setting up a command structure- since it was
getting far, far too big for her to handle everything personally,
integrating her new conquests into her tribe, having them trained,
overseeing the exploration of the land around the Plains, keeping
her growing tribe fed and so on.

So it was that she was the last person to
see Karesh’s new wings.

Riley surveyed the new additions to Karesh’s
back with interest. For once, he was not wearing a heavy cloak.
Karesh was instead beaming and happily twirling around to show off
his now un-deformed back.

He opened and closed his wings, flapping
them and then pulling them close to his body. ‘Look! I can move
them! They both work!’

It had been a few days since the last
operation, but he was still giddy with excitement.

‘Can you fly?’ Riley asked.

‘I don’t know yet.’ Karesh looked over his
shoulder at her (he had turned around again). ‘Aerlid’s going to
try and teach me. He says I might be able to glide, he’s not sure
about flying. But even if I can’t glide, it’s fixed! I can still
use it for other things!’ and he beamed.