The Broken Kingdom

by Sarah Chapman

Vann smiled. ‘Maybe. It depends how the rest of the group behaves. You understand Riley has to be cautious.’

  Lillia nodded. ‘Yes… I see that. So she knows what… what happened?’

  Vann nodded. ‘She does. Lillia, I need you to explain this to the rest of your group.’

  ‘I’ll try.’

  ‘And they have to take it back to the government. Riley hasn’t told the Mixed what happened. She’s letting them believe it was a natural disaster. If they knew… they would demand justice. Whether you or Astar like it or not, we have to live together. Astar and Coastside… they need to stop taking credit for the collapse of the mountain.’

  Lillia looked at him with big blue eyes. She was silent for some time as she tried to digest that. ‘Ok, Vann. I’ll try and explain it.’ she hesitated. ‘What does living together mean, exactly?’

  Vann shrugged. ‘We can try to destroy each other, or we can live together. That’s what it means.’

  She hesitated. ‘Ok, Vann.’

  Later that night, when he and Riley were back in their tent together, he was surprised to find her a little reserved.

  ‘What’s up?’ he asked sleepily. They’d had a busy day and for once hadn’t seen each other much throughout.

  ‘It must be nice to have Lillia here.’ she said, her voice a bit odd.

  ‘It’s nice to see her.’ he agreed. ‘When I left I was very angry at her.’ and he hugged her tightly then. ‘It’s nice to not feel that way anymore.’

  She was silent for a moment.

  ‘Is something wrong?’ he asked, confused.

  ‘No.’ she replied defensively. ‘She’s your friend.’

  ‘I know.’ he replied.

  ‘I’m not jealous.’ she said heatedly. ‘I’m fine.’

  ‘I didn’t say you were jealous.’

  Riley was silent.

  ‘We broke up long before I met you.’ he said into the quiet, keeping the amusement from his voice. ‘We’re just friends now.’

  ‘But you’re not in the submariners anymore.’

  ‘No, I’m with you now.’ he was quiet a moment. ‘Lilia asked me to leave the submariners once. I could have. Maybe we would have stayed together… until I met you.’

  ‘I’m not jealous.’ Riley repeated, sounding a little guilty now.

  ‘It’s ok if you are.’ he said with a smile. ‘I mean, I guess we were pretty close.’

  ‘Hey!’

  ‘And there’s all those other women back in Coastside just pining away for me.’

  She made an annoyed sound. Suddenly, Vann began tickling her, careful to stay away from her suddenly flying elbows.

  ‘And don’t forget Azra, she was always chasing me.’ he went on.

  ‘Stop, stop!’

  ‘Are you jealous?’ he asked. ‘I wonder what everyone outside thinks of all these noises.’

  ‘No- I’m not jealous! Please stop!’

  ‘Promise?’

  ‘I-hah hah! I promise!’

  Chapter 66

  ‘That doesn’t look right. Is that a tail?’ the valkar man said in Valkar.

  ‘It’s not a tail… why would I be thinking about tails?’

  ‘You’re thinking of growing one.’

  ‘I’m not- it’s just disorganized, that’s all. We’ll try again.’

  ‘On a new one?’

  ‘Can’t you get rid of the ink on this one?’

  ‘I thought you’d like to keep it.’

  ‘Why would I want to keep it, Saerlid?’

  Just then Riley interrupted. ‘What are you doing?’

  The two valkar looked up, frozen as if caught in the act of stealing mud pies.

  Aerlid sat in his circle. Spread out in front of him was huge sheet of what looked like paper, it was covered in tightly spaced black ink. Or something like that. If it was from the valkar, it could be anything.

  Aerlid recovered first. ‘Saerlid is helping me try and finish the book quicker. We’re trying to just take what’s in my mind and put it on this sheet.’

  ‘And how is it going?’

  ‘We’re still working the kinks out. Once we figure it out it should proceed quickly. We’ll need a few more sheets though. I’ll likely have to… annotate them as well. They may be somewhat disorganized compared to the book.’

  ‘Do you want a tail?’ Saerlid asked, still speaking Valkar.

  ‘What sort of tail?’ Riley replied.

  ‘What sort do you want?’

  ‘A spiky one would be useful, it could be a weapon. My balance is already very good, but maybe it could improve.’ she paused. ‘Vann might object. He has funny ideas about some things.’

  ‘Can we grow her a tail?’ Saerlid asked Aerlid.

  ‘No, Riley, go away.’

  ‘Thank you for your help.’ She said to Saerlid before leaving.

  She did not go far though, and headed over to Adila. As always, Adila and the other valkar avoided the new human arrivals and mainly kept to themselves. The humans had noticed them, however, and the valkar were the subject of some talk amongst them.

  After some small talk Riley asked, ‘do you know where the human planes are?’

  Adila nodded and described the location. Riley thanked her before heading towards the Astar-Coastside human tents. She had not gotten very far when she noticed a procession of the other humans marching on her, led by Catariah. Riley stopped and waited, wearing a mildly curious expression.

  Vann slowly fell quiet as he and the Coastside team noticed what was happening. He quickly stood and strode over to stand by Riley as Cata started yelling.

  ‘Why do you have humans imprisoned here?’ she demanded, in good Astarian.

  ‘Because I doubt their intentions. What is it to you, Catariah? Why does it matter whether I imprison a human, not a Mixed?’

  ‘What have they done?’

  ‘They snuck up on the campsite bearing weapons and have already admitted to wanting to ‘rescue’ my partner. They will not be harmed while they are here, but they will not wander around freely or with weapons.’

  ‘So Vann’s not free.’ she stated, almost with satisfaction.

  ‘I am free to go where I wish.’ Vann replied. ‘Some people don’t understand I want to stay here. Catariah, what are you doing?’

  Catariah turned her cold gaze back to Riley. ‘You’ve said we are free. Prove it. Free us, and the other humans, and Vann.’

  ‘Catariah, I am free.’

  ‘Alright.’ Riley said coolly. ‘You can leave.’

  She almost looked taken aback, ‘w-we can go back to our home?’

  ‘You want to go back to the sea shelf?’ Riley asked, her brows lowering. ‘But why?’

  ‘We had a way of life. You ruined that when you came, without asking, and took us away.’

  ‘You didn’t have to leave.’

  ‘By coming you shattered our way of life. We were no longer safe. But we want to go back, rebuild it.’

  ‘I’m not going to apologise for showing up, Catariah. But if you want to go back, very well. I will have my warriors escort you and Karesh will take you back to the shelf.’ She hesitated. ‘You do realise, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for you to leave that place without my help?’

  ‘We never wanted to leave!’

  Riley looked over at the people behind you. ‘Who wants to go with you?’

  ‘All of us who are not traitors.’

  ‘Yes, fine.’ she sighed. ‘Very well. Those who want to go will be escorted to your home tomorrow morning.’

  ‘May I interject?’ Azra yelled from where she was by her tent.

  Riley looked over and then gestured for her to approach. ‘What do you want?’ she asked.

  ‘First, I want to know what humans are doing in a gemeng camp. Second, I want some of my team to go with them to ensure they get to their home safely.’

  ‘They’re here because we found them. And we are the Mixed, Azra. As for your request, fine, you can go yourself. You will
not have any weapons with you though.’

  ‘You fear a single human?’ Catariah sneered.

  ‘I don’t trust this particular human, nor will I underestimate her cunning. Anything else?’

  Catariah turned to Vann, ‘come with me,’ she asked, some of her fury leaching away. ‘You don’t have to stay with this monster.’

  Vann just looked at her in something close to disgust. Then he walked away.

  ‘Azra, back to the tent. Catariah, I will come with you to count who will stay and who will go.’ Riley said.

  ‘Fine! Are you going to try and bully and threaten us into staying?’

  Riley didn’t bother responding.

  The Coastside team had questions. Vann knew they would. So after letting off some steam, he headed back to their tents.

  They wanted to know where the humans had come from, and why. Where were they going? How had they been treated?

  Vann answered as best he could.

  ‘And why,’ Azra asked, ‘do they speak our language?’

  Lillia looked at Azra in surprise, ‘I never thought of that!’

  ‘Yes, it took me some time too. They’re human, so I expected to understand them. But they aren’t from Astar.’ She narrowed her eyes at Vann.

  The Mixed had been told not to speak Astarian while the Coastside team was here. They had not let their Master down.

  ‘Because I taught it to them.’ Vann replied impatiently.

  ‘That must have been hard.’

  ‘It was actually.’

  ‘Is there anything else?’

  Lillia reached out a hand to try and calm him, but Vann avoided it. ‘Azra, you’ll leave tomorrow morning. I don’t know how long it will take. Goodnight.’

  Vann did go out to see the party off, not that he wanted to. He knew if he didn’t Catariah would take it as a sign Riley was keeping him prisoner. Not that reality seemed to matter much to her. The group was led by Karesh this time, as Riley felt his experience might be necessary dealing with Catariah and the other humans. A large number of Mixed warriors were also going to help protect the humans. Vann spotted Kalgen among the group and nodded a greeting to him, which the other man returned. Vann was relieved the other man was taking his sudden ‘demotion’ well.

  ‘How could they choose that place over anything?’ Vann asked Riley.

  ‘I don’t know. But not all are leaving, Vann. Only about a quarter are going.’

  Which happened to be a source of an ongoing argument. Most of the children had opted to stay, despite their parents’ wishes. Only two children were going back home.

  ‘You can’t keep the children.’ Azra said, getting Riley’s attention back.

  ‘Their parents are taking them somewhere they can never escape, Azra. A place, which, by all accounts, is quite terrible. The children who want to stay will stay. Here they have an option of something more, and they can choose to go to their parent’s home later if they like. But I will not be checking on those who leave to see if they change their mind, and so once they go they will be stuck.’

  ‘You threaten our community’s chance of survival.’ an older man who was leaving said.

  ‘Your life is your own. You can do what you want with it. But I will not let you condemn your children to inescapable misery. If you want to save your community so much, stay here.’ she hesitated. ‘You can leave here, but that doesn’t mean you have to go back where you came from.’

  ‘We were safe there.’ Catariah said. ‘And we will have more children.’

  ‘Fine.’

  ‘Can we go now?’

  Just as she was saying that a Mixed ran up to Riley with a huge pile of ropes.

  Riley turned to Catariah. ‘Take these. The ropes give you options. They won’t last forever, and it won’t be easy to climb up a sheer cliff face with them, but they give you a chance.’

  Catariah shook her head snidely.

  Irritated, Riley looked at the others who were leaving. ‘How does it harm you to take them?’

  ‘I’ll take them.’ Azra said.

  Riley handed them to her, mildly suspicious.

  ‘Believe it or not,’ Riley said, ‘I do wish you all luck. Goodbye.’

  Catariah looked at Riley for a moment. Then she looked at Vann. Her expression softened, ‘I don’t understand you. How can you truly be free and choose to stay here?’

  ‘I don’t understand you either, Catariah. And I’m not sure I want to.’

  ‘Cata, I’m your Cata.’

  ‘Goodbye, Catariah.’

  Her gaze lingered, longing, hoping. When the group began moving off she went with them. She looked back over her shoulder, but he had already walked away.

  Chapter 67

  Riley returned to the tent and sat down in a huff. Catariah and the humans had departed two days ago. Vann had moved on from worrying about them, those that were here wanted to be here. The others had made their choice.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.

  ‘I’ve been thinking of names, I asked Karesh before he left what he thought of Riley the Extremely Fierce.’

  Vann couldn’t help a smile at that, though he tried to hide it.

  ‘He and Aerlid discussed it,’ and she frowned a bit, ‘but I talked to Aerlid today and they think translating it into another language would be better. But what’s the point of that, Vann? Then no one will know what it means!’

  ‘I-I don’t know.’ he managed, struggling to contain his laughter.

  ‘Do you think Riley the Very Scary would be better?’

  Vann couldn’t respond.

  ‘No one likes my suggestions, Vann.’ she declared, her brows down. ‘Why? What’s wrong with them?’

  At the sound of suppressed laughter Riley turned and glared at him. ‘Hey! Why don’t you come up with a name then!’

  Vann fell silent at that. ‘Well,’ he began, ‘there’s always my name.’

  ‘Hilyard?’ she asked, looking thoughtful.

  ‘It’s just a thought.’ he shrugged, his heart going very fast, he suddenly felt very warm.

  ‘Hmm, Riley Hilyard. It’s not very scary.’ she was silent a moment as she thought about it. ‘If Karesh agrees we can go with that. We’ll ask him when he gets back. I’m sick of thinking about names!’

  Vann said a very rude word about Karesh. Riley’s eyebrows shot up into her hair.

  Then Vann’s smile faded somewhat and he wondered if the custom was different in Astar. ‘You do know what that means, right?’

  ‘I haven’t heard that one before.’

  ‘No, I mean, you and I… do you want to marry me?’

  Riley looked surprised for a moment.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.

  ‘Oh, uh.’ she was starting to go red. ‘Well, you already said you wanted to spend your life with me, and I um… well, I thought that was what… it was…’ she trailed off.

  Vann stared at her a moment. And then he burst out laughing.

  Riley watched him silently, her eyes wide and her cheeks pink.

  Vann seemed to take a long time to regain control of himself. When he saw her face he instantly started apologizing, taking her into his arms. ‘I’m sorry- I guess I forget how different Astar and Coastside are. But no, I guess you’re right. Now it would just be… official.’

  ‘Ok.’ she said in a small voice. ‘It’s not humans from Astar… it’s just I don’t think gemengs get married in Astar, at least, I never saw… so… I don’t know how it works…maybe… maybe they do have… more official marriage ceremonies and just never invited me…’

  ‘Don’t worry about it.’ Privately, Vann thought the humans in Astar probably didn’t get married quite the same way they did in Coastside either.

  ‘Ok.’ she mumbled.

  ‘I love you.’

  ‘Mmhmm…I love you too…’ she murmured, clearly still embarrassed.

  He moved a little away so he could see her. ‘I have something for you.’

  ‘Oh?’ H
er eyes brightened a little with curiosity.

  Vann pulled the green-jewelled necklace out of his pocket. Her eyes lit up.

  ‘Thank you!’

  Vann smiled. He took her hands in his and gazed at her intently. Stillness settled over them.

  Then Vann said, ‘Riley, will you be my wife?’

  She smiled then, her hands holding his tightly. ‘I will. W-will you be my husband?’

  ‘I will.’

  They kissed then. When they broke apart Vann put the necklace around her neck.

  ‘Can we go tell everyone?’ Vann asked.

  ‘Yes, I don’t think they’ll quite understand though.’ and she blushed a bit at that.

  ‘And you’re ok to take my name?’ he asked again.

  ‘If Karesh-‘

  ‘No, I don’t care if it’s not scary enough. I mean, in Coastside, if we got married, you would take my name.’

  ‘Oh, yes, I guess that’s the same in Astar.’ Though she didn’t sound too sure as she said it.

  ‘So… you don’t mind? If you prefer I could take your name…’ he trailed off, feeling like he was rambling. He didn’t really care who took who’s name, as long as there was something to indicate their union.

  Riley frowned. ‘What name? I don’t have a last name.’ She sighed. ‘Karesh is probably going to try and name me Riley Hilyard the Very Scary.’

  Vann laughed at that. ‘Alright, I can live with that. Let’s go tell everyone.’

  They climbed out of the tent together and walked to the centre of the campsite, holding hands. Riley periodically touched the jewel on her necklace.

  When they were there Riley called out in Plains speech for everyone’s attention.

  ‘Vann and I would like you all to know we are now married.’

  There was silence from the Mixed. As Riley had suspected, they weren’t familiar with that term. But it didn’t matter.

  ‘There’s something else I want to do.’ Vann said, once the gemengs had gone back to what they were doing.

  ‘Yeah?’

  Vann smiled at her and pulled her towards Aerlid’s tent. They found Aerlid outside his tent, closely examining a large sheet covered in writing.

  He looked up when he saw them. ‘That’s the most unimpressive wedding I’ve ever seen. Even starving peasants do better. Surely you could have a banquet or something.’