The Lord of the Plains (83 page)

‘Well it’s
easier
when its close.
Perhaps it doesn’t bother you, Sunsinger, but I know some who would
have great difficulty returning to the city when it’s not right
above.’

‘I’ll be here, Aerlid. I may not take them
with me, but I
can
lend them my strength. You know
that.’

Aerlid sighed. He had not lied when he told
Riley he could not help her reach the city. Even if he leant her
strength, it would not have improved her humming or helped her
reach the city, unlike with other valkar. He noticed Riley was
looking at him curiously.

‘Very well,’ he said in a tone that
suggested it was all talked about and decided upon. ‘Go present
this invitation to the valkar.’

Adila smiled and gracefully rose to her
feet.

‘Is something wrong?’ Riley asked him once
Adila left.

‘Riley, please don’t try and treat the
valkar the way you do the gemengs.’ his tone became deadly
serious.

‘What do you mean?’

‘You’re trying to make a world without fear
so everyone can live happily ever after together. The valkar are
not the same as humans or gemengs. They have different concerns.
You can’t understand them. You can’t make it better.’

‘Well. You could tell me.’ she said, her
eyes lighting up. An offer like that never failed to improve
Aerlid’s mood.

He shook his head, his expression grim. ‘No.
The valkar are too different. They can never, should never, have
lived among the humans.’

‘Adila didn’t seem upset.’ Riley said,
confused.

Aerlid just shook his head again as he
stood. ‘Adila was the Judgement Master. By necessity, she can’t
ignore the rest of the world. And neither can Rose, now. But for
the rest, it would be cruel to force them to engage with the rest
of the world again.’

Riley, confused more than anything else,
said ‘Alright.’ And then she changed the subject. ‘Well, I have an
idea of the land around the Plains now. Can you help me make a
map?’

Surprised, Aerlid agreed. ‘Do you know where
you’re going to move the tribe?’

‘The best bet is the mountains.’ Riley
turned and pointed to the line of brown, jagged peaks that were
just visible to the east. She had already sent people to
investigate them of course, but seeing the land from high above had
confirmed the importance of the mountains. ‘There may be caves
there. On the other side is a desert. If the mountains don’t prove
suitable there is a forest to the north. That would still be better
than here.’

They talked for some time about the current
plan. They had yet to hear back from the scouts sent to the
mountains. It was not the distance that was a problem but the other
tribes between here and there. The tribe was slowly moving in that
direction anyway and enveloping the other tribes. If the scouts
failed, they would be close enough soon that Riley would be able to
go and investigate the mountains herself.

When they were finished Aerlid said, ‘Riley,
I have something for you.’

Riley waited expectantly.

Aerlid picked up the cloth wrapped package
that had been lying next to him since they’d begun talking. Riley
had not asked what it was. She hadn’t changed
that
much.

‘Here.’ he held it out to her and could not
keep a smile from his face.

Riley unwrapped the present. When the silky
black cloth fell away and she saw what was beneath she beamed. She
leapt to her feet- Aerlid quickly rescued the cloth from getting
trampled.

‘A sword!’ she cried. She made a few
experimental swings with it.

It was an unadorned length of greyish-silver
metal. The hilt was wrapped in black leather. Or something close to
it anyway- it had come from the city. Riley’s sword did not look
nearly as impressive as his own- but he had spent much more time
planning and making his own. Looks weren’t the point anyway.

‘You’ll be able to use that sword against
ehlkrid without it breaking.’ Aerlid said.

‘It’s heavier than mine.’ Riley noted.

‘Yes, though that shouldn’t be a problem for
you. It may take you a while to get used to it though. Here, I got
you something else as well.’

And he handed her what Fearlid had made for
him, a short dagger that did not look much like a dagger. It had a
wider guard than most daggers Aerlid had seen, as well as slots
that would be able to catch and hold fast a sword or claw.

Riley beamed. ‘Thank you! This is
perfect!’

Aerlid smiled, gratified. ‘And I got you one
more thing.’

Riley looked up in surprise. Aerlid smiled
and held up the black cloth that the sword and dagger had been
wrapped in. He could not help feeling a moment of sadness at her
pleasure at the dark cloth. It was a regular black, not the dark of
the Nights, or the Mountain valkar. In the valkar city, black was a
sign to all who saw it: not valkar, half human. Mixed. But Riley
had grown fond of her dark clothes, and the colour looked good on
her. Why spoil her pleasure in it by telling her what it stood for?
‘I think your clothes are getting a bit tatty.’

Riley looked down at her outfit. It was a
patchwork of faded blue and black, as well as the deep dark black
of the original valkar cloth. There were rips and tears in it, much
mended, and in a few places blood that hadn’t quite come out. Yet
compared to what the gemengs wore, it was a very nice outfit
indeed.

‘Yes,’ he said, as he gazed at her clothes.
‘Those will have to be burned.’

‘Burned?’

‘I’m afraid so.’

‘But Aerlid, I’ll just get the new clothes
ripped as well.’

The look Aerlid gave her silenced her
immediately.

Chapter 71

Not long after, the city of the valkar left
the Plains. Aerlid told Riley it would return once more, just
before the ehlkrid arrived, in case there was a problem or they
decided to take Adila up on her offer of seeking safety in the
city. After that it would leave- go somewhere far away from other
people.

After the city left Riley began pressuring
Aerlid again for a meeting with Andalla. She couldn’t see the harm
in
talking
to him, and surely the potential benefit was
worth the annoyance it was causing Aerlid.

Aerlid disagreed with every part of her
argument. But she kept pushing and so finally he relented.

For five days Aerlid was gone. Where he
went, Riley didn’t know. He had, in a huff, finally agreed, stalked
out of her tent and began singing to the moon. And then he was just
gone.

When he finally returned he was in a worse
mood than when he left. He announced that he’d spoken to Andalla.
Whether he would come, or when, well… that was anyone’s guess.

Riley listened with rising excitement as her
returned scouts gave her their report.

‘We didn’t see how far the caves go, but
there were a lot. Enough to store a lot of supplies, if not hold
most of the tribe.’ a young gemeng was saying.

‘Thank you.’ Riley said. ‘You’ve done a
great job, go get something to eat.’

The gemeng nodded and moved off.

Riley, pleased, turned to look at Aerlid and
Karesh. ‘Aerlid, I’d like you to come with me to look at those
caves. We need to see what we can do with them. Karesh, do you
think you can handle things here?’

‘I… don’t know.’ he said in that way he had.
Things had been going much better lately, but that didn’t mean the
gemengs wouldn’t suddenly rebel if she disappeared for a few
days.

Riley had, truthfully, expected that.
‘Alright. I’d like you and Aerlid to go then. Take whoever you
need. I want to know if we can move the tribe there and if we can
defend the caves from the ehlkrid.’

‘We can do that.’ Aerlid replied calmly.

They began discussing how many people they’d
need to take, what they’d need and how soon they could leave.

Aerlid’s voice slowly trailed off. His eyes
were getting very big, fixed on something behind Riley.

Suddenly he swore.

Startled, Riley turned. She looked around.
Then up.

‘He’s coming right
now
!’ Aerlid
nearly shouted. Suddenly he ran off. He yelled to Riley as he
sprinted away, ‘this is a special occasion!’

Riley spun around to see Aerlid disappearing
into the campsite. She turned to look at Karesh, whose eyes were
also fixed on the vision in the sky. ‘They can fly…’ he
whispered.

Riley looked back up at the procession,
gliding towards them from the clouds. ‘Yes. Karesh, I need to go
change, can you handle things?’

He nodded.

And Riley sprinted off after Aerlid.

Riley quickly but calmly changed into the
clothes Aerlid had finished for her less than a week ago. They were
in the same style as her normal clothes- just not ripped or patched
or blood stained. She did not have a mirror to look at herself, so
she could not see that the deep, rich black looked very nice on
her. It felt nice too. They were ‘special occasion’ clothes. Her
ordinary clothes had not, in fact, been burnt by Aerlid. She needed
everyday clothes too.

Finished, she quickly began re-arranging
things in her tent. It was the biggest tent in the tribe, so it had
been decided that if Andalla showed up they would greet him here.
Why that mattered, Riley didn’t know.

Aerlid had made arrangements in case Andalla
arrived without warning, and he had told her how she must behave.
So at least they weren’t
completely
unprepared.

She had barely finished dressing when Aerlid
arrived. He hurried around, giving her instructions all the while.
‘Get outside. Look humble, no that’s not humble, Riley. Look… look,
I don’t know- not like that! And make sure you get all the way on
the ground when he arrives. Don’t look him in the eye unless he
gives you permission, and compliment him lots.’

Riley, who remembered all this, did not
comment. Instead she calmly left her tent which was being
transformed from where she slept into a place fit to greet
Andalla.

The procession was now nearly to the ground.
Riley noted that her tribe was behaving as they should and turned
her attention to the procession. It was hard to make out shapes
yet, just that Andalla’s people were coming through the sky in two
columns and had a golden glow to them.

It took nearly an hour for the procession to
reach the ground. By then the campsite had been rearranged so there
was room for them to land. Aerlid had come out of Riley’s tent some
time ago and was standing by her side. He did not look happy.

Finally, the creatures landed on the ground.
They formed two lines, a space in between. Immediately they began
blowing on large, golden and silver horns. It was very loud.

Riley observed them carefully. They wore
very little clothes. Mostly, they wore a short white skirt with
gold or silver embroidery along the hem. A few wore robes that
looked like sheets casually draped around themselves. The scanty
clothing showed off their well-muscled and perfectly proportioned
bodies. Riley noted they all appeared to be men. Their skin was
golden brown and their faces as perfect as their bodies. On their
backs were their… wings. It looked like a giant maple leaf had been
attached to each man’s back, maple leaves that were a reddish gold
colour- like during fall. The flesh in between the veins of the
leaf were a gold translucent colour and the veins a darker line
against that background. If it wasn’t for the wings they could
easily have been mistaken for very good looking humans. They looked
practically normal compared to the valkar.