The Lord of the Plains (94 page)

Aerlid was right. She did not understand.
The words made sense but… she did not understand. And the screaming
contradiction that was Aerlid did not help.

‘Riley, a valkar can no more kill than you
can breathe water or fly. It’s not a choice. To even have the
choice makes humans, even those who don’t kill, very violent to the
valkar.’

‘And other animals?’ she asked slowly.

‘Other animals?’

‘Wild animals kill each other for food, does
that bother the valkar?’

‘Ah… yes, but not nearly so much as humans.
Animals do not have the same ability to make choices as humans, and
even if a valkar were to go give a salad to a mountain lion, it
could not eat it. Further, the whole world is so connected, if the
valkar were to stop one animal from eating and keep it alive, what
it would have killed may go on to kill something else. So it
bothers them, but not nearly so much as with humans. Mostly, they
do not try to unravel the web of connections, they accept it and
ignore it.’

Riley nodded. There was silence. Then,
‘Aerlid,’ she began, ‘I have seen you hunt.’

He said nothing.

‘If you tell me this isn’t important, I will
accept that. But what you say does not seem true for you.’

‘It is not important.’ his voice was a
whispered sigh, hard to catch.

‘Alright.’

Riley fell silent, her mind turning.

After long minutes she said, ‘is that why
the valkar helped the humans who had attacked them?’

He nodded. Sadly he said, ‘to be aware of
someone else killing is nearly as bad as doing it themselves, for a
valkar.’

‘So they can-’

‘No. But valkar will go to great lengths-
ridiculous lengths to stop killing once they learn of it. Lengths a
human couldn’t understand. That’s why being apart from humans is so
important. If death happens and they don’t know, it can’t hurt
them.’

Riley thought about this for a moment before
saying, ‘that’s how humans defeated the valkar, isn’t it?’

Aerlid nodded. ‘Yes.’ he said bitterly. ‘The
valkar did what the humans demanded in order to prevent them from
killing. The humans never quite believed it was actually working
until they had the valkar in chains. Riley, if you ever hope for
the valkar to live anywhere
near
humans again, you’ll have
to make it so they
can’t
give the humans
anything
.’
The tone he used said it was impossible. Once humans realised the
valkar’s weakness, they could force them to do anything they
wanted.

‘Those must have been strong chains.’ Riley
mused. Everything he’d said was going round and round in her
mind.

‘They captured a young Sunsinger first and
forced her to make them.’ he sighed bitterly, his eyes closed. ‘And
then they forced the other valkar to put them on themselves.’

‘But they are free now.’

Aerlid nodded. ‘Yes. They are free now.’ He
did not elaborate, and she did not ask for details.

She reached out and touched his arm. It
seemed a poor comfort. She did not know what to say; there wasn’t
anything to say.

Chapter 78

The mountains were bare, rocky brown peaks.
They were not very high, Riley had never seen snow on their
heights.

At the base of the mountains was a large
camp. Gakra and Karesh approached her from the camp.

Riley waited.

‘You’re back.’ Karesh stated once he reached
her. ‘We’ve begun exploring and preparing the caves. The tribes
within the area have been dealt with, they’ve joined you.’

Gakra grinned, baring his teeth. ‘I
organized the attack. It went well. There are some people I think
are worthy of being named warriors. The new members haven’t caused
many problems.’

‘Good.’ Riley said, barely controlling a
wide smile. The tension she’d been holding all this time eased from
her. For the tribe to stay together in her absence was all she had
hoped for. This, well, this was excellent! ‘I’ll deal with your
potential warriors, today, Gakra, but right now I want to see the
caves.’

Karesh gave Riley and Aerlid a tour of the
caves. Or, part of the caves. The network was extensive and could
not nearly all be seen in one afternoon.

‘Aerlid, can you tell if the caves are
safe?’

‘I believe they are structurally sound.’ his
voice echoed around the dark caverns. ‘I may get someone else to
come check.’

That meant a valkar. Riley did not press
it.

They came to a section of the caves with
cave mould. The cave mould glowed softly, making it much easier to
see.

‘Can we get the mould to grow in the other
sections?’ she asked. ’We need to do something about
visibility.

‘I’ll see.’

‘Karesh, I’d like to move some people in
here now. We won’t know all the problems we’ll have here until
we’ve actually lived here.’

‘How many?’ he asked.

After that was discussed Riley quickly moved
on to something else, ‘we’ll need to be able to secure the caves to
make sure no ehlkrid get in. We’ll need to know all the entrances
and maybe even block some tunnels off. At the very least, we’ll
need guards placed throughout the caves.’

As they talked their voices bounced around
the cold, empty darkness.

After they’d made some decisions Riley asked
how exploration of the surrounding land was going. Supplies were to
be stored at carefully chosen locations outside of the caves. If
something happened that forced them to leave the caves, or if
someone was stuck outside, Riley wanted to be prepared.

‘I think you’re going to have another
problem.’ Aerlid said to Riley once they were outside the caves.
Karesh was heading back down to the campsite. They were alone.

‘What’s that?’

‘You’re not allowing fighting. The gemengs
are going to get… edgy. Being cooped up in the caves will just make
it worse.’

‘Do you have any suggestions?’

He nodded. ‘In other places, people used to
have mock battles, or horse races in place of actually beating each
other up.’

‘Horse races?’

‘But we don’t have any horses. And you don’t
know how to ride. I know a few games though, that used to be
popular. I could teach them to some of the children. It might
help.’

‘Is there space in the caves where these
games could be played?’

Aerlid nodded. ‘There are some large caverns
that would be more than big enough.’

‘Alright.’ they started walking down the
steep, bare rock. ‘What sort of games?’

‘Mostly they’re played in teams. I’ll have
to make a ball. Hmm, it’ll be better just to show you.’

‘You are still teaching the children
medicine, aren’t you?’

Aerlid sighed. ‘Yes, Riley, I’m still
wasting my time with that.’

Aerlid heard her mutter something under her
breath.

‘What was that?’ he demanded.

‘Well, maybe you’re not a good teacher
either.’ she replied with a slow smile.

‘Excuse me?’

‘Well-’

‘I taught
you
!’

‘I’m a very good student.’

‘Hah! Hah hah!’ Aerlid started laughing.

‘Vann said you’re not allowed to blame the
student if they’re learning slowly.’

‘You certainly
are
!’

‘Go tell Vann that next time he accuses me
of being a bad teacher.’ Riley said with a smile.

A few days later, a valkar came to inspect
the caves for Aerlid.

‘So you’re thinking of moving into the
mountain?’ Maelid asked, a big smile on his face. There was little
difference between this man and the caves they were now exploring.
How could a man look like a cave? The same way a man could look
like the moon. ‘I’m so proud of you, Moonsinger!’

‘Yes, well you know, mountains are… are very
nice.’

‘Oh, I can’t think of anything nicer than a
mountain.’

‘Neither can I.’ Aerlid sighed. He had not
mentioned anything about ehlkrid or wars. The valkar would have
come, but it would have been forced and cruel, making him feel if
he didn’t any deaths would be solely on his hands. By phrasing it
in this other way Maelid had jumped at the occasion, and he was
happy.
And he’d had a choice. That was the most important
thing. ‘But I’m concerned about safety. I don’t want the mountain
to fall on my head.’

‘No, you wouldn’t want that. Mountains are
very heavy.’

‘Y-yes… so, what can you tell me?’

Aerlid and Maelid walked through the caves
as they talked. Maelid had no trouble making his way among the
tunnels and quickly outpaced Aerlid, his footsteps echoing back
from somewhere ahead. ‘The rock is strong.’ he called back to
Aerlid.

‘Are there any places that are unsafe?’

‘Oh, don’t worry, Moonsinger. I’ll make the
tunnels safe for you and your friends.’

Aerlid slowed and stopped. Maelid was far in
front, heading somewhere Aerlid wasn’t familiar with. ‘Alright!’
Aerlid yelled. ‘Come and see me before you go then!’

‘I will!’ the other’s voice echoed back from
far away.

Aerlid sighed and began walking back towards
the surface. Now he had lighting to think about. Adila could easily
make sunlight come into the tunnels, as if the mountain wasn’t
there, but that would kill the cave mould. No, Riley was right. It
would be better if they could get the cave mould to grow in more
areas. If Maelid ever came back, he might be able to give him some
more ideas as well.