The Lord of the Plains (8 page)

Aerlid stood up and let the guards pat him
down. The second guard remained by the door, his strange, long,
thin weapon at the ready. After finishing with Aerlid the guard
moved on to Riley.

‘Alright, that’s it. Go on through.’

Aerlid smiled and thanked them. Taking
Riley’s hand he led her through the open doors and into the
corridor beyond. The sword on his waist and on hers went by
unremarked.

A woman, wearing less armour than the guards
but still some, sat behind a glass window. She looked up at them,
uninterested. ‘Gemeng?’ she asked.

‘No, I am human, my companion is a gemeng,
fena.’ he repeated, using the feminine form of faya.

‘Hm. How old is she?’

‘Seven. If it is alright, I would like to
stay with her, fena.’

‘Go to the door on the left. Off you
go.’

Aerlid nodded and still holding Riley’s
hand, walked to the door on the left, which opened as he
approached.

It was a small room. A man in a coat was
waiting. He smiled and asked them to step into the room. As they
did he locked the door.

‘Ok, which one of you thinks he’s human?’ he
asked cheerfully.

Aerlid repeated what he had told the guard
and the woman. The man in the coat took some of his blood and took
it over to some vials and strange looking instruments.

‘This’ll take about ten minutes. Why don’t
you sit down and relax?’

Riley surveyed the room in wonder. She was
more than occupied for the next ten minutes.

‘Well, look at that! You are human!’ The man
unlocked the door and gestured them towards it. ‘Off you go! Have a
nice day.’

The door slid closed behind them and they
were back in the small room with the lady behind the glass. Riley
had been quite disappointed they’d had to leave.

They waited as the lady was talking to a
long, lanky man. He moved off to the door on the right. Then the
lady called Aerlid and Riley over.

‘Ok sir, you’re officially human.’ and
Aerlid was graced with a smile. ‘I just have to ask you some
questions.’

As he answered the lady made tapping motions
on little squares set in front of her. Aerlid was fascinated,
something even he had never seen! He managed to refrain from asking
about it.

Aerlid told her his name (Arntar), his age,
where he was born, why he had been travelling and so on and so
forth… most of which was lies.

‘Ok, that’s all.’ the lady said after a
quarter of an hour. ‘Now you’ll have to take the girl to the door
on the right. Room 4. Have a nice day.’ She smiled at him
again.

Aerlid murmured a response, smiled and led
Riley to the door on the right. It opened as they approached,
revealing a hallway with doors coming off it. He could see the
doors were numbered one to six. As they approached door 4 opened
for them.

Davi looked up as the door opened and a man
and a girl (or was it?) stepped into the room.

He smiled welcomingly at them as he looked
them over. The man, he had been informed, was human. There was a
slight hunch to his shoulders, though his arms were nothing but
corded muscle. Well, they’d have to be if he travelled outside the
human lands- and survived. His hair was long and grey. His skin was
lined and leathery with years of outside work, and his eyes, very
pale eyes, were quick and calculating. He smiled at Davi, and his
face brightened. Davi relaxed slightly.

The man carried a white coat in his arms.
Around his waist was a belt, upon which a sword hung. He knew
little about swords. They were gemeng weapons. For some reason, it
didn’t occur to him to question why this human was allowed to carry
a weapon.

He turned his gaze on the girl. Apparently,
she was seven. If she was human, he would have put her around that
age, but she wasn’t, and you could never be sure with gemengs. She
was holding the hand of the man and looking around with wide eyes.
She was paying Davi very little attention. She wore black. There
was little else to say. It was just a plain, unadorned black suit
that went from her neck to her ankles to her little black boots. On
her waist, like the man’s, was a belt and sword. Her eyes were big
and green in a pale face. White face. No. He looked more closely.
White? His heart skipped a beat. No, she didn’t look human at all.
He had seen white skinned humans. Most were freckly. Most were a
little sick looking. He had never seen skin like this. She was
perfectly white, there were no freckles or discolourations on her
skin. And there was nothing unhealthy or weak about it either. It
almost shone. He’d never seen skin that looked so vital and alive.
His eyes dragged as he looked towards her hair. Black. But black
like her skin was white. Black that was not different to white, but
the same. More same than different. Black looked happy on her.
Black looked positively cheerful- it looked like
yellow
! But
wait…he blinked. It was still there. A flash of green in her hair,
though the light hadn’t changed. He was momentarily reminded of
green meadows and summer leaves. Then it was gone.

She wasn’t human. Oh no, definitely not
human. (Though he’d never seen a gemeng like her either).

He smiled, his smile shaky. ‘H-hello. I’m
Davi, you are?’

The girl’s eyes flicked to his and he wished
they hadn’t. ‘My name is Riley.’ she said solemnly and somewhat
stiffly, didn’t she introduce herself often? She held out her
hand.

Davi smiled sickly and didn’t take her hand.
He turned instead to the cupboards. ‘Well Riley, we’re just going
to do a few tests, alright?’

Behind him Riley was turning to the older
man. ‘Yes, you said it right.’ There was a touch of pride in his
voice. Davi didn’t pay attention.

He turned back around, a needle in his hand.
‘We’ll take some blood first, is that alright?’

She nodded again.

But he didn’t approach. He shook his head
slightly, his brain hurting as he looked at her weapon. Something
didn’t seem quite right. But he said, ‘Uh… please remove your
weapon.’

A touch of defiance came into her features.
Somewhere in the recesses of his mind he thought, she doesn’t hide
her feelings well.

‘Riley, I will hold onto it.’

‘But-’

‘Riley, please.’

There was something in that tone that made
the monstrous girl sigh and unbuckle her belt. She handed it to the
older man. The pain in Davi’s head subsided and he forgot about the
sword.

Davi almost wished he was testing a giant
furry gemeng with fangs that couldn’t speak. The strangeness of
this girl was almost too much for him. Even so, he stepped forward
and asked her to hold out her arm. She did so.

He hesitated to touch her. But he did, and
rolled up her sleeve, and found her arm felt no different than a
human arm. Perhaps she just looked strange? He was very surprised
when the needle went into her arm without any trouble. Even more so
when dark red blood came out, doubly surprised when the needle
didn’t burst into flames. He’d seen that before. Those gemengs
failed.

He moved away quickly and went through the
tests automatically. Metal, wood, paper. Then put the blood in the
vials and watch the colours…

Nothing burst into flames. Nothing corroded
away. No strange smells, smokes, colours or fireworks. The liquid
in the vials turned the right colour too, with layered yellows and
oranges. He was horrified. No, she couldn’t be…she was a
monster
!

Despite his misgivings he turned back to the
girl and smiled. ‘Alright, now another test. This one will hurt a
bit, ok?’

Riley’s eyes narrowed in suspicion at him,
though he didn’t notice as he gathered his tools and approached
her. The girl was getting the feeling this male didn’t like her.
Didn’t trust her. Feared her. She didn’t like it.

He measured the width of her shoulder.
Narrow. ‘Hmm…you’re going to have to remove your shirt.’

Riley stared at him.

‘You have something under there, don’t
you?’

Riley slowly nodded.

‘Ok, off it comes, I need your shoulder
bare.’

Riley glanced at Aerlid, her expression
pained. Aerlid merely nodded at her, so Riley complied. She pulled
off her shirt and handed it to Aerlid. Underneath it she just wore
a singlet. These clothes she had had all her life. She’d noted she
couldn’t have made them from any animal she had ever come across,
but she had never asked Aerlid where his and her clothes came
from.

Davi turned back and measured the fat of her
shoulder. Little.

‘Alright, now go stand over there.’ he
pointed and Riley moved to stand on a red line marked on the
floor.

Davi moved back to the cupboard, replaced
the tools and got out the energy weapon. He changed the settings
and moved to his position.

He raised the weapon. For a moment it
hovered at her face. Then he lowered it to her shoulder. Pulled the
trigger.

There was a zap and hiss, the smell of
burning flesh. The girl’s mouth opened in an ‘o’, her eyes wide.
She was very still. Then she began shaking.

Davi looked at her in shock. Straight
through. He could see the wall through the hole-no more than a
centimetre across- in her shoulder.

Aerlid, sickened, asked, ‘is that all?’

Davi nodded. Aerlid moved to Riley and
touched her other shoulder carefully. ‘It’s alright now. It’s
alright…’

Davi, his fear gone, moved towards the
cupboard. He replaced the weapon and got out some medical supplies.
He’d almost been…he chuckled to himself, he’d almost been expecting
nothing
. He’d thought the gun would not hurt her. He didn’t
know why but that was what he’d thought.

He turned back to the pair. There was no
blood- the flesh was seared shut. ‘Alright, I’ll just patch that up
for you. You’ll have a big scar, perhaps some difficulty moving it,
perhaps not.’

‘That’s the last test?’ Aerlid asked, his
voice wobbling in his effort to stay calm.

Davi did not notice. He nodded. ‘Yes. Go on
back to Ingia and fill out some forms, and then you’ll be starting
your new life in Astar!’

Chapter 7

Filling out those forms felt like something
out of a nightmare. Riley could barely move from shock and pain.
Aerlid was straining at the leash. He needed to heal her. He needed
to gut that monster of a tester. Why was this woman explaining
credit repayment schedules to him?!

It was something of a miracle they got
through those forms without Aerlid threatening anybody. They rented
an apartment. He was given a loan which he would have to pay back,
and a probationary job at a clinic. If he didn’t meet the standards
of the clinic he would have to go to the bureau of something or
other to get another job. A school for Riley was organized.
Leaflets were handed out. Aerlid thought he was going to bite his
tongue in two. Riley sat on the floor, her back against the wall.
The only reason Aerlid got through it was that one hand was lightly
touching her head and that was enough, just enough, to start
healing her.

‘You’ll pass through Garrondin before coming
to Astar.’ the lady was saying. Aerlid struggled to pay attention,
this at least was important.

‘It’s a village full of gemengs, they won’t
bother you though. They’re part of the defence network, so you
needn’t be afraid, just go straight through.’

‘…huh?’ Aerlid said stupidly.

She explained slowly. ‘They’re part of
Astar’s defence system. They’re provided with gemeng weapons by
Astar, not human ones. They won’t bother you, so you can go
straight through the village without any trouble.’

Aerlid nodded slowly. ‘Yes, I understand.’
he managed. ‘Please keep going.’

She finished giving him directions, and a
map, then it was done. Finally done. He gathered Riley into his
arms, trying to be careful of that terrible hole in her shoulder.
He walked slowly, barely aware of his surroundings. Riley slept in
his arms as he made his way through forest, Garrondin, more forest,
then past a wall. Then he was inside Astar. It all passed in a
blur. He had directions, and he was determined and careful. Should
he get lost that was more time wasted that he needed to spend
fixing her shoulder. So it was that he made it to their apartment
complex without losing his way.