The Lord of the Plains (84 page)

Along the corridor made by the winged
creatures a man strode towards them.

Riley remembered what she was to do and
quickly knelt down on her knees, her forehead to the ground. Beside
her, Aerlid was doing the same thing.

The horns fell silent. Riley could see a
pair of fancy, gold-worked boots in front of her.

A voice spoke- an exceedingly lovely voice.
‘You may rise and look upon my visage, children. Though I must
caution you, my beauty may send you mad.’

Riley quickly got to her feet, Aerlid doing
the same beside her. Riley doubted she’d be sent mad, but she kept
her head bowed anyway. Aerlid had suggested this was the best thing
to do.

Aerlid however was standing straight.

There was a pause.

Then, ‘I said you could look at me.’ Andalla
prompted.

Riley did not quite know how to take that
after his warning. She noticed Aerlid glancing at her out of the
corner of an eye. ‘Uh…’ she began a bit uncertainly, ‘Aerlid has
told me so much about you, oh magnificent one, I fear looking at
you would be too much. Why, even your feet are almost too much for
my feeble mind to bear.’

‘Well,’ Andalla replied, sounding very
happy, ‘they are, aren’t they? Very well, you have my permission to
look at my feet. Would you like to kiss them?’

‘Um-’ Riley saw Aerlid making a face at her.
‘I’m not worthy of that honour.’ she said.

‘That’s true.’ Andalla agreed. ‘But I’ll
allow it.’

Without looking up, Riley glanced at Aerlid
again. He was making little nodding motions.

Riley looked down at Andalla’s boots. They
were very nice boots, but she did not feel particularly like
kissing them. And besides, it was impossible to have a conversation
like this.

And so she straightened up. She got her
first look at Andalla, whose eyes were now wide open, his eyebrows
up somewhere in his hair. He looked very much like the trumpeting
winged creatures, except his features were even more perfect. Not
maddeningly so- Riley still felt quite sane.

‘Hello.’ Riley said. ‘My name is Riley, it’s
very nice to meet you.’

‘She’s gone mad!’ Aerlid suddenly cried. ‘Oh
curse you, how could you! You know the effect you have on
people!’

‘I’m very sorry.’ Andalla said gravely,
though he seemed pleased at the same time. ‘I doubt there’s
anything you can do to fix her.’

‘Yes.’ Riley said, trying to keep her tone
even. ‘I’m quite mad. Can we talk about the ehlkrid…ah!’ Riley
stopped, her head buzzing painfully. Her mouth tasted coppery.

Aerlid merely grimaced.

‘Wh-what was that?’ she demanded.

‘Oh,’ Andalla merely raised his eyebrows.
‘The ehlkrid-’ the buzzing, vibrating pain came back, Riley
clutched her head, ‘have such an awful name,’ Andalla continued,
‘to even say it causes great pain.’

Riley stared. That had never happened
before!

‘You can say my name if you like. I give you
permission.’

Riley wasn’t sure she wanted to, but Aerlid
was glaring at her, so, ‘Andalla.’ she said. She went stock still,
heat flooding her face.

‘Yes.’ Andalla smiled. ‘My name is so very
beautiful, it has that effect on people.’

Riley almost preferred her reaction to
ehlkrid. ‘It’s… it’s… there are many things we should discuss.’ she
said, deciding she didn’t want to think about his name any
more.

‘Andallites too.’ he said.

Riley closed her eyes slowly as pleasure
flooded her body.

‘That’s very beautiful. You were not aware,
Aerlid, but that is what my people are now called.’

‘You finally saw fit to name them, did you?’
Aerlid shot back. Riley noted his cheeks were also a bit pink.

‘Yes. They finally earned the right to a
name.’

Aerlid said nothing.

Riley quickly sought to get the conversation
back on track. ‘I understand you… your people have fought the…’ she
paused, gathering her strength, ‘the ehlkrid before?’ the pain came
back. At least it washed away the memory of what Andalla and
Andallites had done to her.

Andalla’s smile slowly faded.

‘She’s quite mad.’ Aerlid reminded him.
‘Would you do us the honour of coming and sitting?’ Aerlid gestured
to Riley’s tent. ‘It is the best we could do, I’m sorry it’s not
nearly good enough.’

‘Oh, not at all.’ Andalla’s smile slowly
returned. He followed Aerlid into the tent. Riley came after.

The furs that made up her bed, along with a
dozen other furs borrowed from the rest of the tribe, had been
scattered around the room. Furniture was somewhat lacking among the
gemengs of the Plains, so Aerlid had done his best trying to make
fur cushions on which they could lounge.

‘I expect you’ll want to throw yourself on
your sword after this. Out of shame.’ Andalla said, sounding very
happy with the notion.

‘Most likely.’ Aerlid muttered. ‘It was a
struggle not to do it before you arrived, oh transcendent one.’

Andalla, satisfied, settled himself on a
pile of furs.

Riley remained standing before him while
Aerlid quickly ducked out of the tent. He returned with some bowls
of food and drink.

‘Ah, refreshments. You may both serve
me.’

Riley managed to go about that task without
saying anything. When Andalla had finished commenting on how awful
everything was- and suggesting Riley should join Aerlid when he
threw himself off a cliff, Riley again tried to turn the
conversation to the ehlkrid.

‘Yes, of course my people have fought and
vanquished the monstrous ones many times.’ Andalla said. ‘And
certainly, we will do so again.’

This was not necessarily a good thing. ‘I
understand…’ Riley began carefully, ‘in the past many..
non-ehlkrid,’ pain flashed through her, ‘died when your people
fought them?’

‘Yes. The unworthy died.’

‘The unworthy?’

‘Yes, of course my people would not have
killed anyone worthy. Though the ehlkrid probably did. Why, I
imagine those are the only ones they killed!’

‘And what makes people unworthy?’ she
asked.

‘Many things.’ he shrugged nonchalantly.
‘Mainly getting killed by my people, the Andallites.’

Riley could not respond for a moment.
‘I-is,’ she began shakily, ‘is there a way to become worthy?’

‘Many ways. The only way you’ll know for
certain is by who kills you, ehlkrid or Andallite.’

The combination of the two- pain and
pleasure, was almost more than she could bear. It took what felt
like an age to get control of her body again. ‘Is there any way
your people could kill
less
people?’

‘Certainly, if they become worthy the
ehlkrid will kill them instead.’

When the pain faded she noticed Aerlid
looking at her, as if to say ‘I told you so’.

Riley wasn’t quite sure what to say.
Clearly, the Andallites were as deadly as the ehlkrid. Aerlid was
right, she did
not
want Andalla’s help. ‘I’m sorry, these
questions must sound very stupid to you. I’m often told how slow I
am.’

Andalla beamed, even happier about this than
when she complimented him. ‘Indeed, you are! Horribly so!’

‘But I would like to prove myself worthy of
kissing your feet.’

‘Oh, I don’t think you could do that.’ he
shook his head.

‘I know, you’re right. Of course, you’re
always right. But might you stay away for a while, so I may try and
deal with the ehlkrid and prove myself to you?’ It felt like her
skull was going to shake itself apart. With great effort, she kept
her expression blank.

‘Oh,’ Andalla seemed pleased. ‘Well, that
might work. I suspect you’ll have to give me many gifts as
well.’

‘Nothing I have is worthy of you.’

‘No. But you should give me things
anyway.’

‘A-alright… and you’ll stay away?’

‘And judge her?’ Aerlid interjected. ‘You
could watch and judge like a… like the most wise and just of all
Judgement Masters.’

A small smile curved up Andalla’s lips. He
leant back in the furs and looked them over as if already judging
them. ‘Yes. Yes I believe I shall.’

‘By staying away,’ Aerlid went on, ‘judge by
staying away and not interfering.’

‘Yes…’ Andalla’s smile faded as he looked
around, as if the novelty of the situation was wearing off. ‘It’s
not very nice here. I expect you’ll have a palace for me, next time
I come and visit.’

‘We’ll work on that, though it wouldn’t be
good enough for you.’

‘No, of course not.’ Andalla said, still
with that little frown on his face. Suddenly he stood. He strode
from the tent, out in front of his people.

Alarmed, Aerlid and Riley followed.

‘Very well, my children.’ he intoned once
they had arrived. Now that he was out of the tent he was smiling a
bit. ‘I shall watch you closely from above. Be warned, I shall be
your judge, the ehlkrid, your trial!’

And as the pain was still buzzing in Riley’s
ears Andalla rose from the ground. The Andallites began blowing on
the horns again, and after he was above them, followed behind.

And just like that, they were gone.

When he was gone Riley stormed into her
tent, Aerlid watching.

‘That man is dangerous?!’ she demanded,
gesturing wildly. ‘He’s a fool!’ She had a throbbing headache from
all the times ehlkrid had been said.

‘Yes.’ Aerlid agreed. ‘That’s a
very
nice way of putting it. Unfortunately, he’s also a very strong and
powerful fool.’

‘And what on earth was he doing?! Was he
making the words hurt?’

Aerlid nodded. ‘Yes. That was him. I’m glad
you finally see why I didn’t want to talk to him, Riley. I suppose
it did not go too bad- if he does stay away. But don’t
underestimate him, he
is
very powerful.’

Riley nodded curtly. The fact that he could
hurt her without any apparent effort demonstrated that quite
clearly. She did not feel like staying still right now.

‘I’m going for a walk.’ and with that she
strode from the tent.

Chapter 72

The next day Aerlid, Karesh, and a small
group of gemengs left the tribe to go investigate the
mountains.

While they were gone Riley continued as she
had been- training the tribe, trying to implement a system of laws,
keeping everyone fed and so on. All the while the tribe kept moving
towards the mountains, getting bigger as it went.

Finally, Aerlid and Karesh returned.

‘They will do.’ was the first thing Aerlid
said.

Riley waited, letting them continue. She
hadn’t realized how much she’d missed them both.

‘There’s an underground river- it’s quite
far into the caves but the water’s drinkable, and there’s enough of
it. The caves are quite extensive, they go all through the
mountains. There should be room enough to store supplies and to
move the tribe in. We left some of the gemengs behind, they’re
mapping the caves more thoroughly.’

‘That’s great.’ Riley said. ‘Alright, we’ll
head there and set up. Is there any cave mould?’

Aerlid didn’t speak for a moment. Then
grudgingly he said, ‘yes.’

‘How much?’

‘It looked like a lot, but I don’t know how
fast it grows. It might not last long.’

‘Hmm, do the valkar know of any other plants
that grow in caves?’

Aerlid knew what she was thinking. They
could only store so much food. If the ehlkrid were around for too
long they might easily find themselves starving if they couldn’t
replenish their supplies. ‘I don’t want you asking the valkar for
anything, Riley.’ Aerlid said warningly. He remembered too well the
way humans had demanded things of the valkar once they realised
what they were capable of. ‘I’ll see what I can find out. But you
mustn’t ask, or I will not help. At all.’

There were other things she wished to ask-
such as did valkar ever actually eat? Instead she met Aerlid’s gaze
levelly for a moment. ‘Alright, Aerlid. I will leave that to you.’
she said, ‘But I need you to stay with the tribe for a bit.’