Riley’s eyes instantly narrowed. ‘Because he is my partner.’
‘No need to be like that. I just want to know how this place works. Where I come from my kind don’t usually mix with the humans.’
‘And why is that?’ Riley asked, her expression darkening imperceptibly.
‘Our differences have caused some conflict in the past, some just find it easier. I’m very sorry if I offended you.’ he said, sounding contrite. He smiled a smile both charming and repentant.
‘Oh- alright.’ Riley seemed a bit taken aback. ‘You may stay. Do you have anything else with you, like a tent?’
‘Do you want to steal that too?’ he asked, and then he smiled brightly. His attitude completely changed, it was revealed he had a tent. A space was found outside the shield to set it up. He said he had some food with him.
Claiming tiredness, he was allowed to rest for the evening.
While he was resting, Riley and Vann sat with Aerlid to get his opinion on the newcomer.
‘So you think he really heard I killed Andalla?’ Riley asked.
‘News like that gets around. Well… among those who knew Andalla. But the valkar in his homeland would certainly have noticed. It’s interesting, I wonder what his homeland is like… I wonder if these half-human half valkar have not become petty tyrants. It’s certainly the path Andalla and the King’s children usually followed, or tried to at any rate.’
‘How long ago did the valkar leave?’ Vann asked.
‘A long, long time ago. Before the Sunsingers reached the sun. I think it must have been during the original, or one of the very first, ehlkrid attacks.’
‘What happened? Why did they leave?’
‘Kalkaluna committed a great crime. She locked herself in a desert with her victims, ehlkrid, I believe, and died with them. It was… extremely upsetting for the valkar. One of their kind killing always is.’
Riley and Vann waited, more aware than ever of the different world Aerlid seemed to live in.
‘But those closest to Kalkaluna, her friends, family, they left the valkar. I of course don’t know their exact reasons. I imagine they must have been even more distraught that someone they loved had done something like that. Perhaps it was a self-imposed punishment for not seeing it or stopping her. They weren’t forced to leave. Curious, I haven’t examined him closely enough, but he does seem to have an awful lot of valkar in him, considering how long it’s been. It’s thought around five left, and no more than ten. I wonder how large the community is… I’m very eager to find out how the valkar managed this. Ellis even seems to have our ability with languages. I wonder if he can speak valkar.’
They left Aerlid soon after and returned to their own tent.
Chapter 59
Razra couldn’t help stopping and looking up as a shadow passed overhead. He sighed in relief as he saw it was just a cloud.
He hurried on, and relaxed as soon as he entered the Distribution Management Office. Again, the walk from home to work had sent his heart pounding.
There’s nothing to be afraid of. He told himself firmly. They can’t get through the shield-, but even as he thought that he wondered. They hadn’t attacked the shield, but every day the monstrous shapes of the ehlkrid flew overhead. Sometimes they stopped. He had no idea what they were doing when they paused by the shield, they were too far away to glimpse any details, but they terrified him.
Everyone knew what had happened to Garrondin. Eaten. Everyone knew what had happened to the Predator, attacked so close to the city. Not everyone knew what was happening to their supply lines, but he knew.
‘Razra.’
He looked up as his name was called by a tired looking woman with dark shadows under her eyes.
‘Keili, how’s it going?’ he smiled. ‘Sorry I’m late.’
‘You’re always late.’ And she shrugged. ‘You just have no passion for the work.’
Razra wasn’t sure how anyone could have passion for this job. The Distribution Management Office, as its name suggested, managed the distribution of food from the farms outside Astar to the shops within the city. Usually, it was a boring and predictable job. He missed those days.
‘So, what do we have?’ he asked as he made his way to his desk across from Keili’s.
Keili sighed and rubbed her eyes. ‘The unit that tried to repair the road was attacked, so we still can’t get anything from the eastern supply points. The northern route through the mountains is still safe, though there have been issues on the exposed sections of the road, that don’t go through the mountain. The stocks we have in the city… the situation hasn’t changed.’
Razra nodded, ‘uhuh, ok, sure. And the supply points?’
‘Still no attacks.’
‘So still just the roads.’ And the Predators…
‘Yep.’
‘And the fuel-‘
‘Not our division, Razra.’ Keili almost snapped. ‘But the mountain route is still safe, they don’t seem to enter the caves, so the fuel should still be fine…’
‘Yeah, yeah, of course.’ Razra replied. ‘And then there are the sun-catchers-’
‘Yes, exactly, so I don’t think we need to worry about the shields. It’s not our division anyway.’
‘Right, ok, I’ll get started then.’
‘You do that.’
Razra turned his attention to the pile of papers on his desk. He liked Keili. She had a habit of getting nervous and snappy when things weren’t going smoothly, but he didn’t mind, and he didn’t take it personally. She didn’t take it personally when he talked all the time either, so he secretly thought they’d be quite compatible. Not that he’d mentioned anything to her, or had any plans to. He wasn’t quite sure how to go about it, and he had to choose his moment carefully, when she wasn’t stressed out and frazzled. Since the appearance of the ehlkrid, he’d had no opportunities, and it didn’t look like she was going to calm down any time soon.
Razra sighed as he looked at his papers, the familiar unease coming back as he looked at all the numbers and requests for food. The farms hadn’t been attacked, but it had become increasingly difficult to get food into the city. The ehlkrid kept attacking the transports. Razra knew what had happened in Garrondin, everyone did, so he had a pretty good idea what the ehlkrid did to the men and women driving the transport trucks. Sometimes he couldn’t sleep, and he had nightmares of the ehlkrid finally breaking through the shield and… doing to the people of Astar what they had done to the gemengs of Garrondin. Sometimes his nightmares were different though. Sometimes he dreamt the supplies of food in the city finally ran out, and the supply trucks stopped coming in, and then…
Razra pushed his hair back out of his eyes and tried to concentrate. We have food for several months, he reminded himself, even if the supply trucks stop coming, we can last for almost a year. Maybe the Agricultural Division will figure out how to make cave mould grow faster. While the mountain supply routes were still usable, cave mould took time to grow, which was why it was only eaten in Astar in winter. With the other routes cut off, the Astarians had turned to their stores, half of which had already been eaten. The ehlkrid had been in the world for about a year already, and the attacks on the supply routes had started early. He tried not to think about what would happen when the stores ran out. He tried not to think about how the Astar military had made no offensive against the ehlkrid, all they did was hide behind the shields and try and defend some of the supply routes. Not with the big weapons though, they’re too afraid to lose them, they just send infantry out, and sometimes Predators. And mostly, the infantry aren’t enough. And then when the Predators chase off the ehlkrid, and don’t get crashed themselves, they screw up the road and that doesn’t help either! The way things were going, the ehlkrid would still be here in a years’ time, and ten years’ time, and forever… and they couldn’t last that long.
Razra was interrupted from his dark musings by the sound of the door banging open. He looked up briefly, his curiosity turning
to surprise.
‘Razra Lesian?’ a man clad in a military uniform asked brusquely.
Razra nodded. ‘Yes?’
‘You are to come with me.’
‘What? Where, why?’
‘Mr Briggs of the Council of Astar has some questions for you, now come with me.’
Razra followed the man out of the Distribution Management Office. He looked back once, and saw Keili’s pale face as she watched him go.
Razra’s lips thinned as he stood in front of the desk of Neiteis Briggs, the Commander of the Astar Military, and a member of the Council of Astar. He’d done this before, though he couldn’t think of any reason he’d be here now. Riley was dead.
‘Mr Lesian, you may sit down.’
Razra obeyed. He knew how important this man was to the defence of Astar, especially now, but he still didn’t like him. He remembered how happy he had been the first time he was brought here, hearing his friend was alive. He was annoyed too, why hadn’t she included him in the deceit? They were friends! Mostly, though, he’d been happy. His happiness hadn’t faded after being told of Riley’s activities in the Plains. They were friends; they watched Jeitar and Molozor together, she was always nice to him, even when he was pushy and wouldn’t shut up. He couldn’t believe she’d been planning an invasion of Astar. He hadn’t believed it then, and he hadn’t believed it after she’d been killed (properly, this time).
‘It seems gemengs are a lot harder to kill than we thought.’
Razra’s eyes widened, ‘you don’t mean-’
‘Yes. Riley Meilis, somehow, is very much alive.’
Razra stared, dumbfounded. Quickly though he stifled his burgeoning smile. He wasn’t supposed to be happy about that. That was really disloyal.
‘I see you smiling, boy, I’m not blind.’
‘I’m not-‘
‘There’s no use pretending.’ He eyed Razra silently for a few moments. ‘I understand how hard it is to believe something bad about a friend. I won’t blame you for your loyalty, though I hope you understand I cannot share your optimism. The safety of Astar is my primary concern.’
‘Y-yes, sir.’ Razra replied, chastened. Mr Briggs was being very reasonable, he almost felt bad for thinking ill of him. Almost. ‘Sir, why am I here? I already told you everything I know about her last time.’
Mr Briggs nodded. ‘Yes. We’re conducting follow-up interviews, incase we missed anything. Apparently, she wants to talk to us about something and has requested a team be sent to her location. What do you think she has to say?’
‘I-I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to her since she left Astar years ago.’
‘She crashed a Predator, Mr Lesian, do you still hold that she is an ally of Astar?’
‘What, really? Wow!’
Mr Briggs narrowed his eyes.
‘I mean, how could she even do that? I thought she was just a normal gemeng, I mean, she got into the city and all.’
‘Yes… and even after re-testing she was approved. All we can say is that she must have matured late, or… found a way around the tests.’
‘What?’
‘That is a rather far-fetched scenario, however.’
‘Yeah, I’ll say. I mean, that would mean she’d been planning something since she was really young.’
‘Unless she wasn’t really young, and just looked that way.’
Razra frowned.
‘As I said, if we go down that route we run into some very odd theories. It is more likely she just matured late. That isn’t what I brought you here to talk about though.’
And once again, Razra rehashed every interaction he’d ever had with Riley. As before, he was surprised Mr Briggs was conducting these interviews himself. He supposed though it was too important to be trusted to an underling. Hours later, when he was finally done and was about to leave he asked, ‘sir, what about the fuel? Are we able to bring the fuel for the weapons down from the mountains?’
‘Yes.’ Mr Briggs replied flatly. ‘So far, the supply routes through the caves are still intact. The ehlkrid cannot get through the shields, and even if they could, the military is fully capable of protecting Astar from any gemeng, or ehlkrid, incursion, Mr Lesian.’
‘Yes, of course.’ Razra nodded. As he left, he spotted a young man in military uniform waiting in the hallway outside Mr Briggs’ office. The man looked familiar, though it took Razra a moment to realize where he recognized him from.
‘Hey,’ he said, ‘we’ve met before, right?’
The young man looked up. ‘Oh…yeah, you’re one of Riley’s friends, right?’
Razra nodded. ‘You used to be in her unit…um…’ he hadn’t met many of Riley’s military friends, and the last time he’d seen this man was when he’d been questioned by Mr Briggs about Riley’s actions in the Plains. ‘Jann…?’
‘Yeah, Jann Geggis. So, I guess they brought you in too?’
Razra nodded. ‘Yup.’
‘She sure is tough to kill.’ He sighed.
‘Oh, you already heard?’
He nodded. ‘What else could it be? I guess the rest of my old unit is being questioned again too, but I haven’t seen them yet. I guess if you’re finished it’s almost my turn.’ He sighed, ‘why does it have to be Mr Briggs, surely an underling could question us…’
Razra knew Riley’s old unit had been broken up after she started uniting the gemengs of the Plains. ‘Yeah, I would have thought he’d be too busy.’ And he smiled. ‘I’m glad she’s still alive though. Do you think she’ll ever come back and visit?’
‘What, are you crazy? No way! If she came anywhere near Astar…’
Razra’s smile faded and he said, ‘but I don’t think she’s trying to do anything bad.’
Jann shrugged. ‘We used to be teammates. I thought we were friends, but when I look back I’m not sure she felt that way. I’m not sure I ever understood her. I don’t know what she’s planning. All I know is she faked her own death, didn’t bother to let us know, and started gathering an army of gemengs. That’s all I know.’
‘Yeah, but-‘
‘Everything she’s done says she never cared about us. She didn’t think about us when she left. How we would feel, what would happen to us once she started gathering gemengs. Our team was broken up, and none of us have gone anywhere, I don’t think there’s ever any chance of getting a promotion. Batar lost his position as captain, Leili just gave up and quit the military, I don’t even know what happened to Geilar! Just because we knew her, we’re not really trusted anymore!’
Razra hadn’t thought of that. He wasn’t very ambitious, and had no great passion for his job, so the fact that he hadn’t moved very far up the ladder since Riley’s first re-appearance had never bothered him.
‘She was my friend.’ Razra insisted.
‘Well, I’m not so sure she was mine.’ Jann said. He looked up as Mr Brigg’s secretary poked her head out into the hallway. ‘Jann Geggis? You may enter now.’
‘Well, I guess I’ll see you next time Riley does something… weird.’ Jann finally said. ‘See ya.’ And he entered the office, leaving Razra alone in the hallway.
Concerned, and for once his thoughts not on Astar’s food supply, Razra headed to the stairs and made his way home.
Chapter 60
Riley sat with the council, as she did most days. She tried to take a back seat while they discussed things, but they weren’t quite ready for that yet.
Currently they were discussing the appropriate punishment for a fight that had broken out among some of the Mixed.
‘No one was killed, but some of the warriors will be off duty for at least a week.’
‘The reasons are irrelevant.’ Riley said. ‘We don’t settle our differences by trying to kill each other. No, everyone should be punished.’ One day perhaps more leniency or understanding could be given, but right now Riley was still trying to teach the Mixed not to kill each other over every little thing. They were more cooperative than the people of the Pla
ins, but their first instincts were still towards violence. She tried not to think of her lost people, but that just made her think of the ten who had survived. She saw them frequently of course, and every time she did she thought of all those they had lost because of her failure.
The council quickly agreed.
‘That seems a bit over the top. Should the man who merely defends himself suffer the same as the aggressor? Excuse me.’
Riley looked up in surprise as Ellis made a spot for himself and sat down next to her.
Pushing aside her irritation at this intrusion, Riley replied, ‘there was no merely defending, Ellis. It was a brawl. What are you doing here?’
‘Taking part in governance.’ he said with a pleasant smile as he looked around. ‘Hello, I am Ellis. I’m much like your Master.’
‘In the same way everyone here is like me.’ Riley responded. She was about to say more when Ellis interrupted again, ‘I was under the impression these gatherings were open to everyone. Don’t you want every member of your tribe to understand and take part in their rule? Or are you just dressing up tyranny?’ his gaze held hers intently.
Off balance, Riley struggled to respond in a way that didn’t depend entirely on irritation. ‘Ellis, you arrived here yesterday, after trying to take over. What applies to the rest of the tribe does not yet apply to you.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry.’ he said, and then he smiled that surprisingly sudden smile. It was charmingly embarrassed. ‘May I just sit and observe then? Surely there’s no harm in that.’
‘You may observe. Over there.’ Riley pointed.
‘What’s wrong with here?’
‘You’re nearly sitting in my lap. Do you often do that in your homeland?’
‘Oh, I’m sorry.’ Ellis did not go anywhere, but he wriggled a little away from Riley, forcing the rest of the council to move to make more room. ‘Is this better?’
‘That’s not what I said.’ Riley said stonily.
‘You mean there’s another reason you don’t want me here asides from proximity?’
‘I am not accustomed to repeating myself. I have done it three times now. Over there.’
The Broken Kingdom Page 27
