The Lord of the Plains

by Sarah Chapman

Chapter 27

  Jann’s hand may have been healed, but he was very tired. He was unable to get out of bed the next day.

  As they had all seen how perfectly fine his hand was, the rest of the unit assumed he had just come down with an unrelated illness.

  Even though his hand was fine, Riley still felt bad about what had happened. She would have to talk to him when he was better. He needed to learn how to tell who was an enemy and who wasn’t. Next time they might not be so lucky.

  ‘You’ve been given the task of dealing with the drakilis.’ Major Eris was saying to them. ‘If at any time you feel your lives are in danger you are to abort and we’ll send someone else.’

  ‘Thank you, sir. I would request that we not start today.’ Riley said, ‘as one of our unit is ill. May we postpone to tomorrow?’ It really had nothing to do with that. Riley had something to ask Aerlid before she wanted to get anywhere near the drakilis.

  Eris gave them a hard look. ‘Did you feel this was an urgent problem?’ he asked finally.

  ‘No, sir. The gemengs were reluctant to tell us. If it had been urgent, they would have told the first patrol to come by.’

  ‘Very well. If you don’t deal with it tomorrow however we will send someone else.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘Then it’s patrol as usual for today. Dismissed.’

  Once outside Leili asked if she thought Jann would be better tomorrow.

  Riley shrugged. ‘Perhaps, if not we leave him here.’

  ‘What’s the plan?’ Geilar asked. ‘Fighting a drakilis. Do we know what its lair is like?’

  Riley thought about this for a moment. ‘We’ll go by Garrondin after our patrol and ask.’

  That night Aerlid was feeling better. He sat up in bed and allowed Riley to prepare some food.

  Riley thought if he was well enough to examine his dinner that closely he was well enough to answer her questions.

  ‘What language do drakilis’ speak?’ she asked.

  He glanced up sharply. ‘Why do you ask?’

  With only a slight hesitation Riley told him what was going to happen tomorrow.

  ‘Hmm.’ he said curiously, which was a better reaction than Riley had hoped for. He’d been so unreasonable about the giant cats. ‘I can’t say.’ he said finally. ‘If it came from the north there’s a good chance it would speak a version of Bedon, but you don’t know that. I can’t say if it would know anything else. Do you intend to talk to it?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘To avoid a fight.’ If they could come to some agreement perhaps the drakilis would not have to be harmed.

  ‘Well, unfortunately you don’t know Bedon.’

  ‘Could you teach me?’

  ‘Could I teach you?’ he spluttered. ‘In one night?’

  At her unrelenting gaze, he muttered under his breath. ‘Oh I could force the words into your head.’ he said grimly. ‘But you wouldn’t be able to do much else while you held on to them. You’d forget them very quickly.’

  ‘I just need to talk to it.’

  ‘If it attacks you’ll have to let the words go to fight.’

  ‘Then I’ll let them go.’

  Aerlid glared at her. ‘Very well. Let’s see what we can do.’

  First Aerlid taught her a few simple words in ancient Bedon. It was a guttural language, but he had taught her a gemeng language with those sorts of sounds before so she could make them without too much difficulty.

  The word he taught her was, ‘yield.’

  After that he put his hands on her brow. Whatever it was he did it made her eyes water and her head throb. But when he talked she could understand, though it was like listening through water. And then it just trickled away.

  ‘You’ll have to hold it. It’ll be very difficult, but you should be able to hold it for a day. Once you let go though, it’s gone.’

  So she practiced. Once she learnt to grab hold of the words with her mind the difficulty changed. It was like gripping something that was constantly pushing her hands apart. He was right. She couldn’t fight while holding on to it; it would be difficult enough for her to walk to the lair.

  They practiced for only a few hours.

  He told her she needed to sleep. If she intended to hold the words for any length of time, she had to be in top form.

  When Riley approached her unit, minus Jann, she was not dressed in her military uniform.

  They looked her over, wondering what this meant.

  She wore her black clothes, gifts from Aerlid’s people. She had outgrown them some years ago so the beautiful black fabric had been mended with dark blue Astarian cloth. It was a patch work of an outfit, but she had always intended to try and fight the drakilis as a gemeng, not an Astarian. And that required proper clothes. With her clothes and black hair, so different in colour and length than the Astarian’s, she looked completely foreign.

  In her arms, wrapped in furs and cloth, were her dagger and Aerlid’s sword. The sword she’d had in childhood was too small for her now. Aerlid had gotten her a proper sized one from Garrondin some time ago, but he said if she was to fight a drakilis she needed a real weapon. This presented a different challenge, as she was not used to the balance and weight of his weapon. Despite knowing this, Aerlid had insisted that the switch was worth it.

  ‘Why are you dressed like that?’ Geilar asked.

  It was a real struggle to answer. She almost lost her hold. She felt some words trickle away and hoped they weren’t important. ‘I intend to fight it as a gemeng. Alone. Please, lead me to the lair. I must remain silent to prepare.’

  That was all she could say as she was losing her hold on the words fast.

  Seeing the intent look on her face, and being aware this had likely been her intention all along, her unit did as she bid.

  Riley remembered little of the trek to the lair. She didn’t know where her unit waited, all she knew was that she was alone and that was good.

  ‘Hello?’ she said in Bedon, and hoped Aerlid had guessed right about the drakilis’ language.

  She could not become aware of her surroundings in this state. She was very vulnerable.

  ‘What enters my lair uninvited?’ the words came slowly to her, but she understood them.

  ‘I wish to talk.’

  ‘I’d rather not.’

  ‘The people who live near here are frightened of you.’

  ‘As they should be.’

  She let more words trickle away as something tickled her senses. The world came into focus. The creature was silently approaching. Riley let the furs fall away from her weapons.

  ‘They have sent me to fight you.’ the words were coming slower now, ‘but if they are not….’ blank. Her mind went blank and she froze. She rifled through the words, trying to find one to fit. Anything. Something creeping closer.

  She took a few swings with Aerlid’s sword.

  ‘We can come to an understanding. We don’t need to fight.’

  The sound of claws on stone.

  The sound of rushing air.

  The words dropped away, gone forever.

  She rolled to the side as the drakilis lunged for her, barely missing.

  The words were gone, her head ached and throbbed, but she could fight.

  The cave was dark and musty. She glanced towards the entrance and was surprised to see night had fallen. Her eyes had adjusted while she had been holding on to the words, and she could make out the shape of the drakilis. Longer than her, and slender. It was crouched over in the cave and had two legs and two arms with a human shaped head above.

  She stuck her dagger into her belt and again made a few practice swings with Aerlid’s sword.

  The creature crept around her. Riley followed it, turning so it could not get behind her.

  Riley was not too disappointed her talk had failed, not really. She wanted to know how strong she was. She had passed the tests twice, but she didn’t feel weak. She didn’t feel like she was only a
little stronger than a human. She would defeat it, and then they would talk again. She only knew one word now, it would have to be enough.

  The drakilis darted forward, jaws snapping. Human shaped head, but not a human shaped mouth. Riley was forced to back away. The cave wall hit her back. She slashed with her sword and felt resistance as flesh was met. But not enough, the drakilis came on. She slashed again, ducked, stabbed with a dagger that was suddenly in her hand. Spun, she was free. She stood.

  She was back in the centre of the cave. The drakilis was making sounds of pain. It turned slowly. They circled each other warily.

  This time she went on the attack first. She feinted with her sword and while the drakilis was focussed on that she attacked with her dagger.

  She struck home. It squealed and thrashed. A claw caught her side as she moved away.

  Before she could recover the drakilis lunged at her. It spread out, taking up the entire space.

  With no room to manoeuvre Riley was forced to attack.

  She parried one claw with her dagger. In the same movement she thrust forward with the sword. It staggered. She slashed again and it retreated.

  ‘Yield!’ she called. Her hip was burning and her right arm was stinging from the un-parried claw.

  The squeals turned into growls, growls that perhaps meant something, but not anymore.

  Riley went into guard position as she called again, ‘yield!’

  It tried to rise, failed. Then with astonishing speed it lunged at her.

  Riley was ready. She dodged and slashed, and found herself on the other side of the cave.

  ‘Yield!’

  On the opposite side of the cave the drakilis was still.

  Cautiously, she said again, ‘yield.’

  ‘Yield.’ it growled grudgingly.

  Riley carefully began approaching, still keeping her weapons up. It was injured. If it had truly yielded, she could do something for its wounds before leaving.

  In a fluid movement she stuck her dagger back into her belt and stretched out her hand to touch the drakilis.

  Suddenly the drakilis lunged again, teeth gleaming. Riley sprung back. It came on, its claws scraping, caught flesh. She fell and slashed with Aerlid’s sword.

  A scream.

  Riley breathing heavily, shuffled away, still on the ground. Her eyes remained on the drakilis.

  It thrashed, claws sharper than knives and teeth even worse gnashing and scraping. Then it fell still.

  Dead.

  She stood and looked down at the creature. It was then that she felt regret. She had not come here intending to kill it.

  The regret faded. She had fought. It had fought. She had won.

  She left the cave to bring the news to her unit and the villagers of Garrondin.

  And some far more important news to Aerlid.

  As she walked down the trail that she didn’t remember, the vision of the Plains from the cliff played through her mind. She wanted to know. The drakilis had not really tested her. She wanted to be tested. She wanted to know.

  The Plains would tell her.