The Lord of the Plains

by Sarah Chapman

Chapter 26

  It was over a year since graduation, Riley’s sixteenth birthday had passed and nothing too stressful had occurred during her time with the Astar Home Defence Patrol. She hadn’t seen much of Jillia, who’d been assigned to the Internal Defence Force. She still saw Razra every few weeks though.

  Once while on patrol, Jann, Geilar and Leili had run into a gemeng who’d gotten lost. They escorted it to the camp outside the testing centre without incident and spent the next few weeks talking about it as it was the most exciting thing to happen on patrol since they’d started.

  So when they received a new mission it was greeted with eager anticipation.

  ‘Garrondin!’ Jann said. ‘Real gemengs.’ he sounded nervous. ‘Hey, maybe they can give you some tips?’ he said to Geilar.

  Geilar didn’t rise to the bait. He had recovered much of his good humour since Maztar’s execution, but not all. He was more reserved, more careful than he’d been before.

  ‘I wonder why they’re not sending someone who’s been to Garrondin before.’ Leili mused, ‘I mean, if the gemengs there are upset about something it must be pretty serious.’

  ‘I heard from Lestar they don’t like talking to humans. Maybe because we have two gemengs in our unit.’ Jann said with a shrug.

  ‘Lestar said that?’ Leili asked with a frown.

  Jann just grinned. ‘It wasn’t firsthand knowledge, I can tell you that much!’

  For whatever reason, the units who patrolled near Garrondin had noticed the gemengs had become very uneasy about something. Whatever it was, those units hadn’t been able to get it out of them by talking. So U-16 was going to see if they could do any better.

  Garrondin was closer to Astar than the testing centre, though not by much. Even so, it didn’t take much walking to get there.

  As usual when on patrol, they were kitted out in full Reismal body armour and SIGPEWs loaded with high grade charge on the medium setting. Even in her full armour, Riley didn’t tie her black hair up. Most Astarian women wore their hair short, and if not, they tied it back. She’d received a few comments about it, but as it didn’t interfere with her work, and she was a gemeng, no one really cared.

  From what Riley knew, Astar provided the people of Garrondin with metals from which to make armour and weapons. In exchange they were expected to defend Astar from attack.

  Approaching Garrondin, Riley saw it was quite different to the gemeng village she had briefly lived in. The buildings were wooden and one story, and they were all nicely maintained, much like Astar. It was also at least three times as big as the village from long ago. The roads were all dirt.

  As they entered by the main road Riley saw people standing in doorways or peering at them from windows. Children were snatched from play and thrust firmly inside the safety of their homes.

  Jann looked around, confused. ‘What, are they afraid of us?’

  ‘You seem surprised.’ Riley noted.

  ‘They’re gemengs.’ he stated, as if that was answer enough.

  ‘And you have a SIGPEW.’ that seemed enough reason to Riley to be afraid. She’d be afraid if someone pointed a SIGPEW at her, or even an Order-1 (perhaps especially an Order-1).

  They spread out. Riley let her SIGPEW hang from the strap and took her helmet off. It was the least threatening she could look considering how she was dressed.

  Riley looked around. The gemengs peered at her, and did not approach.

  Raising her voice so it would carry she called, ‘I’d like to speak to whoever’s in charge here.’ She waited.

  She heard the sounds of children playing. Apparently not all of the children had been rescued by their parents. She turned to look.

  They were coming from a side street, little children chasing each other and shrieking, but not in the way they had cried in the gemeng village from her childhood. She smiled.

  The children did not see them, or if they did they didn’t pay attention.

  Leili turned to look at them, then went back to surveying the village.

  Riley did the same.

  Still no movement from the gemengs. Perhaps they’d do no better than anyone else.

  Suddenly from behind her came a feminine cry.

  Riley turned around. In the space it took to turn she saw Leili on the ground, a little gemeng child crying and Jann-

  Jann mistaking childish play for a threat!

  Without thinking she raised and shot before he could pull the trigger.

  There was a cry that made her stomach turn. She raced to him. She’d shot his hand with a SIGPEW set to medium.

  Human body armour was not designed to withstand their own weapons.

  There was little blood. The energy weapons seared the flesh. There was rarely any bleeding. But oh- that didn’t make it any better. She tore something, she didn’t know what, and covered his hand. He cried out.

  Keeping her feelings from her voice she said firmly, ‘I want you to go see my uncle.’ She told him where to find the clinic. ‘Ask for Arntar Meilis. Tell him Riley sent you.’ Batar approached and Riley was mainly speaking to him. ‘Go see Arntar. No one else, understand. Just Arntar.’

  She waited until Batar nodded, his usual calm demeanour shaken. ‘Tell me.’ she insisted.

  Batar repeated the address then, ‘we ask for Arntar.’ he hesitated. ‘If he’s not there?’

  ‘Wait. See no one but Arntar.’

  He nodded and led Jann away.

  Riley, trying to hide her guilt- Jann!- turned. Leili and Geilar’s eyes were fixed on her, their faces pale.

  ‘He’ll be fine.’ she said.

  Then she noticed.

  The gemengs were coming out of their houses.

  The gemengs formed a loose semicircle around them. The children who had knocked Leili down by accident had been whisked away. A woman, larger than any of the other gemengs, approached from the circle.

  ‘You wished to speak with me.’ she said. Her voice was gruff and calm, though it could easily turn into a roar that would shake the trees. Her eyes were as hard as Colonel Hamnar’s. Harder even, as she had to hide her fear.

  ‘We’ve heard something is upsetting you.’ Riley began.

  Leili, faced with their mission, got to her feet and stood behind Riley with Geilar.

  The woman nodded curtly. ‘There is a drakilis nearby. We cannot kill it.’

  ‘A drakilis?’ Riley asked carefully. ‘How do you know this?’

  ‘Can you not smell it? It reeks foully, day and night. It is a drakilis.’

  ‘H-how would one of those get here?’ Leili asked. They had been briefly mentioned during theory with Major Berdis. They were a stronger type of gemeng. Most were too weak to live on the Plains but some… some had been known to.

  ‘We sent a troupe to find its lair, for it stinks so abominably that we cannot pinpoint its exact location from that alone. They smelt its trail, it came from the north, over the mountains. A drakilis.’

  ‘Where is it?’ Riley asked, her curiosity getting the better of her guilt.

  ‘We can lead you to it. We cannot get rid of it.’ Then, that nervousness came through, ‘we can’t do it. We can’t kill it.’

  ‘We won’t ask you to try.’ Riley said firmly. The woman was afraid they’d be forced to fight it. Perhaps that was why they had not mentioned it previously. ‘Thank you for telling us. We’ll report back to Astar.’

  ‘Then what?’

  ‘It’s not my decision to make.’ she hesitated. She was curious. Would it fight her? Would it be stronger than her? ‘But I will tell you what the decision is.’ even if that was not a task given to her, it would not be difficult for her to sneak into Garrondin to tell these people.

  The woman nodded. ‘We cannot fight it.’ she added again.

  ‘I understand.’ Riley repeated soothingly.

  Riley turned and the three of them headed back to Astar to report.

  Aerlid spoke often of the gemeng languages, and Riley wondered what language the dra
kilis spoke.

  When they returned to the military base they found Batar waiting for them.

  ‘How is he?’ Riley asked, trying to control her raging guilt. He would have killed the child. She’d blown off his hand.

  Batar shrugged. ‘He’s fine. Not even a burn. I don’t know what got into him. It’s no worse than the injuries we got during training. The physician spent a long time with him, I guess because he was complaining so much he thought there was something wrong. He said not to come back unless he was actually hurt next time.’

  Riley let out a sigh of relief.

  ‘Oh I thought it was so much worse.’ Leili said, sounding happier than she had all day. ‘Why did you shoot him?’ Leili asked Riley curiously.

  Riley was taken aback for a moment. ‘You didn’t see?’ she asked.

  ‘Well, I was on the ground.’ she said. ‘I wasn’t looking at him. I felt bad because the poor little girl was crying.’

  ‘He was going to shoot the girl.’ Riley said.

  ‘What? Oh if he had-’ Leili shook her head. ‘He really needs to be more careful!’

  ‘He mistook her for a tree.’ Geilar said with a bleak smile.

  The group fell silent and grimly considered what might have happened. While they were contemplating that their commanding officer, Major Lentar Eris, entered, breaking up the tableau.

  He cast his eyes over the group then demanded, ‘Report!’

  Riley did the honours. She did not mention what had happened with Jann, only saying the gemengs of Garrondin had located a drakilis, though did not feel they could fight it.

  ‘And they are sure?’ Eris asked.

  ‘Yes. They believe it came from the north over the mountains.’

  ‘Very well. What makes them think they can’t fight it?’

  Instead of answering Riley said, ‘Sir, I would like to volunteer to fight it.’

  ‘Your unit?’ he raised an eyebrow.

  Riley hesitated. Her unit was shifting around her. ‘No, sir-’

  ‘Yes, our unit volunteers.’ Batar cut in.

  Riley turned her head to him, surprised.

  ‘Have you seen combat?’

  ‘No, sir, but we would like the experience. However if we prove unable…’ Batar said.

  ‘I’ll discuss it with my superiors. You’ll get your answer tomorrow. Dismissed.’

  ‘I didn’t mean to drag you into it.’ Riley said after Lentar Eris was gone.

  ‘You can’t say you want to go fight a drakilis alone. How will that look?’

  ‘That’s my problem.’

  He frowned at her darkly and Riley was surprised to see this from Batar.

  ‘We’re a unit. It will be a good experience for us. And next time, give us a heads up first.’

  When Riley returned home Aerlid was already there. He was lying on the bed, his eyes closed.

  ‘Riley.’ he said when she came in. ‘Next time you’re going to blow someone’s hand off, give me some warning first.’

  ‘Will he be ok?’

  ‘Oh yes, his hand is as good as new.’ his voice was soft and gentle. ‘But you must be more careful. What do you think would have happened if I hadn’t been able to fix it?’

  ‘He was going to shoot a child. I didn’t have time to do anything else.’

  Aerlid sighed, it was light sound.

  ‘Was it bad?’

  ‘His thumb and forefinger were gone, his middle finger was mostly there. The other two badly burned. I haven’t been so tired since I healed your shoulder.’

  ‘Can I get you anything?’

  ‘Sleep, just sleep.’