The Lord of the Plains (89 page)

The hardest thing, he thought, was that he
still admired her.

If anything, he could respect her vision
even more now. And he wanted to be a part of that. He thought of
Zap Zap, of Coastside. He couldn’t promise her more than
friendship, though he would very much like to give her that. It was
blatantly obvious she was upset, though she was being very
dignified about it. He had to respect that as well.

So he hoped that maybe with a little time,
she would be willing to be his friend.

Chapter 75

Vann and Messenger were gone and she was
alone by her tent. The night was cool, but not cool enough for a
fire.

She heard the crunch of grass beneath
boots.

‘You were right.’ she said as Aerlid sat
down beside her.

‘I’m sorry, Riley. You couldn’t have known,
it’s not your fault.’

She shook her head. ‘Let’s not talk about it
anymore.’

‘This isn’t such a bad thing. If you two
kept making goo goo eyes at each other, no one would have believed
him if he’d said you weren’t planning on invading.’

‘Goo-goo…?’

‘Yes.’ he said firmly.

It was hard but she thought about what
Aerlid said. And he was probably right. She sighed, let out a
breath. ‘Alright. You’re right, it’s better this way.’ That didn’t
help how much it hurt inside though.

Aerlid was silent.

‘Aerlid,’ she said as she forced her mind
from Vann. ‘I don’t want the valkar city to come here while the
humans are here.’

‘Why do you say that?’ his voice was
carefully neutral.

‘There’s too much going on right now. I
don’t want them to panic and do something stupid. I think it’s
safer if the city stays away.’

‘So you admit then, that humans are violent
and untrustworthy?’

Riley sighed in annoyance. ‘I’m just being
careful, Aerlid. Take it that way if you like. But I need you to
behave politely around the Astarians.’

‘Do you have some complaint about my
behaviour?’ he asked stiffly.

‘No, Aerlid.’ she relented. ‘You have been
good. I’d like it if you would keep that up.’

‘Alright.’

He was offended, she could tell. She didn’t
know what to say to assuage him, and really she wasn’t in the mood.
So instead she just said goodnight and entered her tent.

The next morning while Aerlid was with the
humans Riley was with her gemengs and Karesh.

They were looking at her intently, waiting
for her command. They were being unusually cooperative.

‘Karesh, Gakra, you are going to lead two
groups towards the mountains and start preparing.’ She wasn’t sure
Gakra would respond well to the authority of anyone but her, so she
had given him command of his own group.

Gakra nodded curtly. ‘We will.’

Riley looked at him. No complaints? No
comments? ‘You’re being very helpful today, Gakra.’ she cast her
eyes over the assembled group. ‘You all are.’

Gakra bared his teeth in a grin. ‘Ah! I can
be
difficult
, as you put it, if you like!’

‘Oh no, I’m not complaining.’ she smiled.
‘Just curious.’

Gakra’s gaze went past her then, off in the
direction of the humans. ‘You are concerned with them. They are
strong. But you will keep us safe from them.’ he said seriously. He
smiled. ‘If we aren’t difficult.’

Riley opened her mouth and then quickly
smiled. They might have thought she was crazy, but they trusted her
when it came to fighting. Finally. That they had picked up on her
concern about the humans was not really that surprising. Gemengs
were good at reading the moods of their masters. ‘I’m glad you see
it that way, Gakra.’ she turned her attention back to the entire
group. ‘You all know what to do?’

When they agreed she dismissed them.
Messenger might be upset Karesh was gone, but she did have other
things to think about than the humans. She would stay with the
humans with a smaller group of gemengs while Gakra and Karesh
prepared and set up the caves.

Things would get much simpler when the
humans finally left.

‘Part of the tribe left this morning.’ Mr
Briggs was saying sternly.

‘Yes.’ Riley replied calmly. Once again she
and the three humans were sitting in camp chairs near the trucks.
‘It’s easier to hunt when the tribe isn’t all together. Rarely do I
keep them all in one place.’

‘I see.’

Riley could practically see the wheels in
his head turning. If they weren’t all here, how could they know how
many she had under her control? Riley smiled reassuringly. ‘It’s
nothing to concern yourself with, Commander. I need to feed my
people, that’s all.’

‘Of course.’

‘Soon I will have to move as well, the
hunting is not so good when you stay in one place too long. But you
are welcome to follow.’

‘We might just do that.’

‘I will give you warning then, before we go.
So you can prepare.’

‘Thank you.’

‘I admit, I’m at a loss as to what to show
you tomorrow. Do you have any suggestions?’

‘I’d like to continue learning Plains speech
with Aerlid.’ Messenger said. ‘I can learn a lot just by walking
around a place and listening.’

‘Certainly.’ Riley replied with a smile. It
was almost painful to turn to look at Vann. She turned and found
his grey eyes locked on her. Why was it he was good enough for her
but she wasn’t enough for him? She struggled to keep her thoughts
on business. Every moment near him was painful. ‘I don’t know what
else I can tell you about my intentions. What would you like to
do?’

‘I have some questions.’ he answered
calmly.

‘Alright. I’ll see you all tomorrow.’ and
with that she stood and let herself be escorted from the camp.

When Messenger went with a grim looking
Aerlid the next day, Vann went with Riley. They did not talk by her
tent as before. He walked with her around the tribe as she did
whatever it was she did. She spoke to the gemengs in Plains speech.
Vann didn’t know nearly enough yet to figure out what she was
saying.

‘Riley,’ he finally said, after they’d been
walking for hours. She answered his questions in a businesslike
way. The ease with which they had talked before was gone. He
stopped, forcing her to stop and look at him.

‘I’m sorry I hurt you, but please, can we be
friends?’

There was a flash of something in her
eyes.

She looked at him for what felt like a long
while.

‘Yes, of course. We can be friends.’

It wasn’t going to be that easy of course.
You couldn’t just ask to be someone’s friend and magically fix
everything that had gone before. But she had accepted. So it was a
start.

He started walking again, at a slower pace.
She followed and at least she matched her pace to his. ‘Can you
tell me what you’ve been doing this morning?’

‘Oh. Just making sure everything’s all
right.’

He looked at her.

‘It’s not very interesting, Vann. It’s got
nothing to do with you or Astar.’

His gaze didn’t waver.

‘Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you when
you get bored.’

Riley had set up a command structure, so
what she was in essence doing was making sure it was working and
smoothing out any problems that arose. He found it interesting
however. Why this way, and not another? What problems had she had?
In fact her success, the beginnings of making her vision a reality
fascinated him. She was surprised at his interest. Slowly she
started to relax. It wasn’t like before, but it was something.

Later that afternoon they were walking back
towards Riley’s tent. He spotted Aerlid there talking to a
woman.

Vann stopped.

Riley stopped too and looked at him
curiously. Vann wasn’t paying any attention to her.

That woman… she was like the sun. Glorious,
blazing… suddenly he turned to Riley.

‘It’s like you!’ he nearly shouted. ‘This is
how I felt about you!’ Vann’s eyes travelled over Riley’s face.
Human. She looked human. But this was
exactly
how he’d felt
when he saw her.

Aerlid and the woman were looking at them
now. Aerlid began approaching.

Vann glanced back. Startled, he shook his
head. The feeling was gone. The woman looked like any other woman
he had seen in Coastside. But he could
remember
what she was
before.

‘Why is Adila here?’ Riley was saying to
Aerlid.

‘I told her about the city.’ he fixed his
eyes on Vann.

‘What happened?’ Vann demanded. Adila, that
was her name, was walking away.

‘Adila is used to humans obsessing over her.
She knows how to handle it.’ Aerlid gave Riley a meaningful
look.

‘I don’t understand.’

‘She’s a valkar. You have an obsession with
valkar women. She’s changed herself now so she looks human.’

Vann looked from Riley to Aerlid and back
again.