The Lord of the Plains

by Sarah Chapman

Chapter 84

  The night was overcast. There were no stars or moon to lighten the blackness. Riley was accustomed to the darkness, and it did not bother her.

  The night proceeded as usual. Despite the threat the ehlkrid posed to the humans and gemengs, despite the wounds and deaths done to her people, a part of Riley enjoyed these nights. A big part.

  Where the creature came from, and how it hid its light, Riley didn’t know. One moment the night was dark and then something that emitted an eerie blue light was floating up the mountainside.

  Riley observed it intently, an uneasy feeling growing. All the other ehlkrid were darkly coloured, camouflaged for fighting in the night.

  If this thing wasn’t…

  It looked very much like a jellyfish. A jellyfish with a body as wide across as Riley was tall. Tentacles hung down from the edge of the body, on the ends were dangerous looking hooks. They moved around in a wild, savage dance. It jiggled and wobbled as it floated up the mountain, the end of its tentacles perhaps a hands width above the ground. The light seemed to come from inside the body, as if a candle was inside, lighting the creature from within.

  The other ehlkrid avoided it. She had not seen them behave that way before. It merely confirmed what its glow had already told her.

  It was extremely dangerous.

  Riley called out to her gemengs in a voice that carried across the cool mountain slope, ‘stay away from the glowing ehlkrid! I will deal with it!’

  For a time Riley just watched it move. She watched the way it killed and began eating an ehlkrid that didn’t get out of the way fast enough. The body was likely too high for her to reach easily, especially with those tentacles. But from inside?

  Riley watched. It kept moving as it ate. The pieces of the other ehlkrid floated in the body and began dissolving.

  Riley moved. She had seen enough. The creature was distracted. What better time would there be?

  She moved fast, faster than she ever had before. She sliced the tentacles, moving and dodging between them.

  The gooey appendages dropped to the ground. Quickly, new ones began growing. But she was already within the curtain of tentacles.

  Above was the now unprotected centre. She stabbed and dragged her sword raggedly through the creature.

  Goo poured from the wound. Riley was already moving away. The tentacles flailed wildly.

  Karesh saw the jellyfish monster the same time everyone else did. It filled him with a sense of unease none of the other ehlkrid ever had. Inside something whispered, run as another part said, you cannot run fast enough.

  When he heard Riley say to stay away from it, when he saw her sizing it up, he was sickly relieved.

  The other ehlkrid were not fighting as much now, they were trying to get away. The gemengs did not really try and stop them, unless they headed for the caves. And so it was not so hard for Karesh to watch. He did not want to leave the jellyfish monster at his back.

  With astonishing ease Riley was past the tentacles. In rising awe he saw her stab the creature. It began shaking and jiggling wildly. The pattern of the tentacles changed. The pattern was gone, the creature was dying, the tentacles flailed madly.

  As Riley was making her escape one of those jagged hooks caught her. She was outside the curtain of tentacles, on the opposite side of the creature to him. Karesh stared in rising horror and disbelief as she crumpled face first to the ground, the creature behind her.

  It was dying, yet not dead. He could almost feel its intent.

  He did not remember making the decision. He flew, over the monstrous creature. It was not high. She was below. He landed, made to pick her up.

  Pain so intense that everything went white smashed into him. Somewhere, someone was screaming.

  Aerlid looked up as another two people were rushed into his cave which functioned as a hospital.

  He saw Riley first, unconscious and carried by three gemengs. She was bleeding heavily, a ragged rip in the clothes of her stomach.

  ‘Aerlid,’ the gemengs were saying, ‘quickly!’

  But his eyes were not on her. He pushed past the gemengs roughly. Karesh was supported by three gemengs. His back…

  ‘No.’ Aerlid shouted brusquely. ‘No, take her to the back. The others can deal with her. Bring Karesh to me. Now.’

  The sight of Karesh’s back was enough to make him sick, but he had no time to think about that. Precious seconds were being wasted as the acid ate away at his skin, muscle and bone.

  Riley stirred. She opened her eyes to Aerlid’s haggard face above her.

  Her body felt thick and numb. The memory of pain was almost too much for her. She wanted to vomit.

  ‘You’re alright.’ Aerlid sighed. ‘It was an uncomplicated wound, though in a bad area. My apprentices did a decent job.’

  Riley did not feel alright. She felt like she ought to be dead. But she wasn’t, so she forced herself to sit up. Her head cleared as she looked around. As she looked down at her stomach she was surprised to find it was still there, and that she had stitches.

  ‘I had to fix it a bit of course, but they were able to keep you with us while I dealt with Karesh.’

  ‘Karesh?’

  Aerlid nodded. ‘Yes.’ He sighed and rubbed his eyes. ‘Yes. He’s alive. I don’t know if he’ll ever fly again… I’m too tired to do more than I have. But he’ll live.’

  Riley was about to ask what happened and then she stopped. ‘Aerlid, go get some sleep.’

  For once, he did not argue. Instead he just nodded and stood. Riley watched him shuffle away. Seeing his bent form, Riley, not for the first time, wondered how long he could keep it up. It was an unpleasant thought, without Aerlid, so many more of the injured would die, and the ones that survived would have to spend more time too hurt to fight, recovering naturally from their wounds. Even with his apprentices’ help, he was tiring. It occurred to her she would need to have him use his power less; focusing mostly on keeping people from death, and let nature do the rest of the work. She wondered if they could survive allowing the gemengs time to heal naturally from their wounds. It was not, she concluded, something she could decide on her own. She would have to discuss the issue with Aerlid.

  She looked down at her stomach again. She could not really remember what happened. The pain had been too much, everything had gone blank when it hit her. She shuddered then at the thought of what could do this to her. For a moment that thought hung in her mind. Never before had she suffered more than a superficial cut.

  But she seemed alright now, so she shook those thoughts from her mind and stood. She found she could stand without much difficulty. The tiredness and feeling of heaviness was still there. Her stomach ached a bit, that was all. She’d never had actual stitches before, though the wound looked old and mostly healed now, and the stitches mostly superficial at this point.

  She walked over to where she saw Karesh. He was asleep on his stomach. His back was heavily bandaged.

  The people in the medicine cave were all very busy. She let them be and walked the few steps to the surface.

  She spotted a guard and walked over. ‘What happened last night?’ she asked.

  When he saw her he looked relieved. She was a bit surprised at that. ‘You killed the monster.’ He stated, his eyes wide. ‘But it got you as it was dying. Karesh came and saved you and… I didn’t see. But I was told he was disappearing.’

  ‘Disappearing?’ she frowned.

  The man nodded. Then he pointed. Gemengs dotted the slopes, cleaning up after last night. Riley spotted Gakra and walked down to him.

  ‘Gakra.’ She called.

  He looked up at her and pointed at something on the ground. Riley walked over and looked. The rock was porous, like a sponge. Gakra jabbed at it with a rock and Riley saw it crumple away. It left a sharp-edged hole in the ground. That would be very dangerous- it would be easy to break an ankle in a hole like that. The holes would have to be filled in with dirt or small pebbles.

  ‘The monster
did this.’ He growled. ‘Where it fell, the ground gives way. Its body disappeared quickly. There was nothing to burn. Just all this…’ he spat, ‘mess. It has stopped now, but it was eating away at the rock all morning.’

  Riley remembered avoiding the tentacles, avoiding the goo that rushed from the creature when she stabbed it. Whatever had done that to the rock had been on Karesh’s back. She looked up at the cave entrance.

  Lucky to be alive didn’t cover the half of it.

  There was still something else she needed to know. ‘Gakra, if I was unconscious and injured, would you finish me off or help me?’

  Gakra’s truculent face stilled, became thoughtful. ‘I don’t know.’ he said in his growly voice. ‘But whatever I did, I would expect the warriors I command to follow my lead.’

  Riley nodded, expecting as much. It seemed Karesh had been an excellent choice of second in command for more than one reason.