The Lord of the Plains (96 page)

Once a week he made these calls. They lasted
less than ten minutes, and all that time he was watched by this
pursed-mouth woman.

‘Yes.’ there was a pause. ‘The valkar
visited. They’re gone now… the ehlkrid are coming. Soon.’

His heart started beating faster. ‘How
soon?’

‘A few days. Less than a week.’

Chapter 80

When the ehlkrid arrived in their world from
wherever they’d been there was no sign. The sky did not darken, the
earth did not shake. Each day was as lazily pleasant as the last,
with bright, clear skies and the warm sun shining down from above.
But in the caves, the air crackled with tension. Everyone was
inside now. Food was stored, caves blocked off, guards set, and
cave mould encouraged to grow in more of the tunnels with the help
of the valkar. Riley stayed with her own tribe. Even after reaching
the caves, she’d made quick trips to the surrounding tribes to warn
them, until she’d seen the valkar city drifting above the
mountains. Then, she’d returned to the caves and stayed; she had to
focus on her own people now.

Riley stood in the mouth of a tunnel, her
hands on her hips. Her gaze travelled across the land below, across
the rolling plains and the dark line that marked the start of the
forest.

A dark shape swooped down from above. It
glided down the slope, then rose and circled back.

Karesh landed in front of Riley, a wide grin
on his pale face.

‘You’re getting very good, Karesh.’ she
replied, smiling in return.

‘Yes. But I need more control if I’m to do
this in a fight.’

‘Well, you can hold your own without flying
until then.’ She said before returning her attention to the land
stretching out before her. Then she turned and entered the caves.
Some hours later, Aerlid found her doing her rounds.

‘You should get some rest.’ he said. ‘When
they come it will likely be at night. They’ll need time to get used
to daylight.’

Riley nodded. She knew this, the tribe knew
this. Aerlid had been over it before. The place the ehlkrid lived
was dark all the time. There was no need for it to be so, Aerlid
said. The Ehlkrid King had created that place, he could have made
it a paradise if he wished. Instead he had made it dark and
barren.

Riley followed Aerlid’s advice and made her
way to her own personal little cave. A large pile of furs and
animal skins on the floor constituted her bed. Her few belongings
were carefully organized around the room. As on the plains, she had
little furniture. It was difficult, but she rested. There were
guards on duty at all times. If something happened, she would be
warned.

Riley slept fitfully. When she awoke she did
not know the time, it was always dark down in the caves after all.
She prepared herself and quickly made her way to the surface.

When she reached the outside she sighed. The
sun was setting, only a tiny half circle of liquid gold visible
above the horizon. Streamers of fading light highlighted the waving
grasses of the plains. The sky above was a dark blue. A few stars
were starting to appear.

Riley found a piece of rock that was not too
uncomfortable and sat down. She watched as the sun completely
disappeared. Stars popped into the night sky above. The air
cooled.

And she waited, as she had every night for
the last two weeks.

The ehlkrid were in the world now, Aerlid
had told her. They just weren’t
here
yet.

When the moon was high above Aerlid came out
and joined her.

They waited silently, together.

Riley’s eyes dropped from the dark horizon
to the even darker plains. Even with the moon, she could make out
nothing. Looking at the plains in the dark was an odd experience.
The grass moved with the wind, so sometimes you could see waves of
darker patches of darkness moving against the backdrop of night. Or
perhaps it was an illusion, her eyes playing tricks on her.

Riley frowned. The movement of the grasses
was more obvious tonight. The wind was mild.

Riley stared, her heart beating faster. She
stood.

Aerlid glanced at her in surprise and also
stood, his gaze focussed on the plains. ‘What is it?’

‘I don’t know.’

It was slow. They stood watching the plains
for a long time. And then the darker wave reached the base of the
mountains. And it kept coming, climbing up the slopes.

Aerlid quickly ducked inside the tunnel
entrance. Riley knew he was sounding the alert.

Riley drew her sword.

The soft whisper of metal sounded loud in
the night.

The wave of darkness paused, as if it had
noticed.

Aerlid was beside her again. He whispered a
soft song under his breath.

The moon flared with light, revealing a
reptilian shape. The soft white light was not enough to blind
Riley, but it startled the creature. It hissed, recoiled.

Riley leapt at the dark, flat, lizard shaped
thing.

It recovered quickly and moved out of her
way, faster than any gemeng she had ever seen.

It lunged, Riley barely dodged. She was
surprised and elated at the same time.

Something else shot from the grasses. It was
somewhere above her, she heard the sounds of fighting. She noted it
somewhere in the back of her mind, but could not respond. The
creature in front of her demanded all her attention.

She wove and dodged, striking out at it. It
moved around her with far more speed and grace than any gemeng. It
was a terrible, violent grace that bespoke great strength. Yet it
could not touch her. Her sword connected with its neck. A diamond
shaped head went flying. The body fell limp to the ground and slid
down the slope.

Her heart beating fast, hyper aware of
everything around her, Riley turned and looked. She took in the
shadowy shapes of more people fighting. Easily she could tell which
were gemeng and which ehlkrid.

She moved quickly. She snuck up on ehlkrid
engaged in other battles, ending them in one unseen stab.

And then another engaged her, she could not
catch it unawares.

And she fought.

When daybreak came Riley was surprised. The
sky had been lightening for hours, though she had only been vaguely
aware of it. The ehlkrid creatures suddenly broke off the fighting.
They scattered, some trying to get into the caves. Riley and the
other warriors quickly dealt with them. The rest disappeared
somewhere unseen.

Her heart racing, Riley finally took a good
look at the battlefield. She was not tired, she was too excited.
She had not been challenged like that in so long. She realized
there were many gemengs on the slopes around her. The ones standing
were all wounded, and she was not yet ready to count the dead that
littered the slopes. Riley’s body ached terribly in some places,
though she knew now that that pain signified nothing more than
scrapes and bruises.

The twisted creatures scattered across the
mountain slopes made the gemengs look beautiful. They bore not even
a passing resemblance to humans. There were large, lizard like
creatures. Giant birds, things that looked more like cats, big
blobs with too many legs and mouths with far, far too many
teeth.

Quickly Riley shook off thoughts of the
battle. The wounded needed to be treated. The bodies of the ehlkrid
needed to be burnt. She needed a report from the battle, how many
had been killed? How well had their tactics worked? The caves
needed to be checked to make sure no ehlkrid had gotten in and on
and on and on.

Chapter 81

‘This is all I could get, Riley, and I will
ask for no more. Really, you need no more than this.’ Aerlid said.
Before him were three items. The first was a stylized sun that
looked like it was made from beaten gold. It looked like it could
be hung on a hook. The other two items were similar to each other,
they looked like small spheres, or perhaps small sculptures of the
moon.

Riley gazed at them. ‘They will stop the
ehlkrid but not us?’ she asked.

His mouth formed a thin line. ‘These are
just shields. They’ll stop everything. Making them to stop some but
not all is much more complicated, I would not be able to do it
myself. But it’s also unnecessary. This,’ he pointed to the sun,
‘can keep the ehlkrid away from the mountain even during the night.
This draws on the power of the sun, not sunlight. Even if the sun
is not visible, it is still there. These,’ he pointed to the orbs,
‘will be able to block off some tunnels, but they won’t be able to
protect the entire area.’

‘And you can’t turn the shields on and off?’
So far it was still safe to venture outside the caves during the
day. Of course, only warriors were allowed out at this point, and
even they only in groups.

‘It did not take the Queen’s daughter so
long to get one piece of fruit from a tree because she’s
incompetent, Riley. It does not work like that. For myself to even
get the sun shield working will be very difficult. I certainly
can’t turn it on and off at your command. The moon toys… will be
easier.’

‘Toys?’ She frowned slightly.

‘They weren’t made to be shields. But
they’ll function that way once I get them working, though they
can’t block off anything more than a tunnel.’

‘Riley,’ he began again with a sigh after
looking at her face, ‘what you want is a door. The humans were
never given things like that last time the ehlkrid came. They were
given walls. Shields. They could no more pass through them than the
ehlkrid. But they had a choice whether or not to use them. There
aren’t any doors lying around the city. Only walls. Nor are there
any shields like what we gave the humans. Those weren’t like
these,’ he gestured to the items, ‘we made them specifically so the
humans could use them. But I don’t have the knowledge to make
shields like that myself.’

Riley frowned darkly. Then she nodded.
Perhaps she could force him to find something better, make
something better, but that wasn’t really what she wanted to do. And
it wasn’t really fair, considering what he had brought her would
protect them from the ehlkrid. But staying locked inside the
mountain wasn’t something she wanted to do either. She could fight
the ehlkrid. She could survive out there in that changed world.
Perhaps even thrive.

But she also couldn’t think just of
herself.

Riley nodded curtly. ‘Alright. The gemengs
will choose for themselves whether they want to use those shields
or not.’

Surprised murmuring filled the cavern.
Surprise at the artefacts they were shown. Surprise that they were
all asked to make a choice. Surprise at what the choice was.

The cavern was filled with most of the
gemengs of Riley’s tribe. All of the warriors were there, and some
of the older children that were not yet warriors.