The Broken Kingdom

by Sarah Chapman

Keili shot him a frigid stare, as if to say be quiet!

  Razra decided to turn his attention to the other people huddled in the shelter with them. The shelter was at full capacity. People sat quietly on the floor. The elderly woman in charge of the shelter, a doctor, had a radio and was answering the questions of a young family. At the back of the shelter were cupboards full of blankets, food and water.

  Razra hoped they wouldn’t be down here long enough to need any of that. The last time he’d been in a shelter was when Garrondin was attacked. He tried not to think about that.

  ‘So, what do you have planned for next Restday?’ he asked Keili.

  Keili shot him another glare.

  ‘I don’t have any plans.’ Razra sighed. ‘Maybe I’ll head to the CTA.’

  ‘Shhh!’

  ‘I’m allowed to talk!’ he replied, offended. He didn’t see how sitting in tense silence was any better!

  ‘Razra!’

  ‘Fine, I won’t talk to you!’ he said huffily. He immediately regretted it as he didn’t know what else to do. It was dreadfully boring down here, and there was nothing to do but worry. Surely talking was better than that? It’s not as if he was the only person talking either!

  Everyone suddenly fell silent as the room shook, and dust fell from the ceiling.

  ‘R-razra…?’ Keili squeaked, reaching for him. ‘What was that?’

  ‘I-I’m not sure…’ he trailed off, taking her hand.

  The room shook again.

  It was nice to have a SIGPEW in her hands again.

  Jillia resolutely ignored the other members of her unit, her eyes fixed on the lone ehlkrid above the city. She wasn’t worried as the dark speck flew over the shield. Ehlkrid came and sniffed around the city all the time, she wasn’t worried about just one of them.

  The rest of her unit apparently agreed, as they talked amongst themselves about inconsequential things, paying little attention to the creature above.

  Jillia’s eyes went to the wall, and the forest peeking over the top. She was glad she’d been stationed here. The last month had been unbearable. She’d been forced to keep her excitement concealed when she heard the news. She’s alive! Her friends and family guessed her feelings though, and whenever they looked at her she could see pleading in their eyes, don’t do anything stupid.

  And she didn’t do anything stupid. She didn’t complain when soldiers followed her around, when she wasn’t allowed a weapon during training, or when she found out her SIGPEW was only loaded with a low grade charge when she was on duty with the Internal Defence Force. Low grade. I still only get a low grade charge. It didn’t really matter, she never actually fought anyone, but it stung. If she was attacked, the best she could do was maybe stun someone. She was surprised they didn’t lock her up or throw her out of the military.

  Jillia could barely contain herself. Just over that wall, gemengs from the Plains were fighting. She was sure Astar had a plan to deal with them after the ehlkrid were defeated, and desperately hoped her old friend had a plan too. A plan that included getting Jillia out of Astar.

  I wonder if she even remembers me.

  ‘Hey, what’s it doing?’ Captain Telis exclaimed.

  Jillia looked up, startled by the tone of alarm in his voice.

  Jillia’s mouth opened in surprise as she saw the dark speck hover above the shield and then… bright light arced across the shield, and then… then it shattered!

  Jillia heard a scream of fear and panicked cries. She heard Captain Telis on his radio trying to figure out how… how could that happen?! Suddenly light flashed in the air again as smaller shields sprung up all around the city. Jillia barely registered that. The shield… it broke the shield…

  The sound of distant fighting reached her ears as Predators and Cavachi Worms unleashed an assault on the ehlkrid.

  It broke the shield!

  ‘Jillia?’

  Jillia looked down at the plaintive voice, and saw an older man standing in the doorway of one of the dormitories.

  ‘What’s happening?’ the man asked, his voice weak. Jillia knew he was ill, too ill to fight. Gemeng children too young to join the military were allowed in the shelters, but every other gemeng was expected to fight.

  ‘Stay inside!’ Jillia snapped, trying to keep her panic from her voice. She wasn’t excited anymore. ‘Stay inside, don’t come out until someone comes and gets you.’

  The man disappeared from the doorway and the door banged shut.

  ‘What’s our task?’ she demanded of her captain, who’d finished speaking on the radio.

  He was pale, his eyes wide with fear. ‘We’re to move further into the city we-’

  He was cut off as the sky exploded with light and a thunderous boom rolled through the air. Jillia pressed her hands over her ears and closed her eyes tightly. When she opened her eyes again she looked up and saw an altered skyline.

  ‘N-no… what…’

  ‘Did that… where are? What happened to the Shield Tower!’

  Jillia looked towards the Shield Tower, and saw the top third of it simply wasn’t there anymore.

  She felt sick with fear, her legs were weak. How are we supposed to fight that?!

  ‘Everyone!’ Captain Telis yelled, ‘We’re to move into the centre, and assist in the fight against the ehlkrid! Move!’

  Jillia followed the rest of her unit mindlessly. Horrible explosions ripped through the city, shaking the earth. She heard screams of fear and pain, and sudden flashes of fire. Her mind erratically jumped from her friends and family in the military, to the children in the shelters.

  They saw a team of soldiers handling a MEW.

  ‘We’re to protect the MEW!’ Captain Teilis roared above the sounds of fighting.

  ‘What is that?!’

  ‘What?’

  She looked up as she heard screaming, and saw a dark shape swooping down.

  Captain Telis skidded to a halt. ‘FIRE!’ he ordered, and a stream of golden light burst from his SIGPEW at the winged man in front of them.

  There was a brilliant flash, and a deep thrumming noise as the MEW let out a burst of light. The flash of the SIGPEW paled in comparison.

  The man laughed as the light hit him and faded.

  His horrible laugh bounced off the buildings, echoing through the city.

  Jillia didn’t know why she did it, whether it was because her SIGPEW only had low grade, or because she sensed something, or maybe just because she was a coward. But she threw herself into a doorway, her heart hammering painfully against her chest.

  Just as she got the door closed, the street erupted in light. She couldn’t stop herself from screaming. The light faded. She sat perfectly still, tears rolling down her face.

  She didn’t hear anything for a few moments.

  She slowly eased the door open and looked out. She saw the sides of the buildings were scorched and cracking. She briefly noticed her hand was red, as if it had been burnt. She didn’t see anything else in the street.

  She looked around. Where was her unit? Where was the MEW? Where was the creature? There was nothing here.

  She bit back a sob. She heard a crack and looked up at the damaged buildings above. Without another thought she fled from the street. She didn’t know where she was going or what to do. She just ran.

  Chapter 76

  ‘He’s been down there a long time.’ Riley said.

  why do you not fight with the people of the city? the Dragon asked.

  ‘Because I need them to fear me. I’m aiming for something more than just the death of the King. But I will fight, if Astar falls I will fight. But even more than that… they are the only people with any chance of killing him, Dragon. I wouldn’t even be able to get near him. Neither would any of my warriors.’

  They waited in a heavy silence. They heard the dull booms, saw flashes of light. But they couldn’t tell what was happening.

  Minutes ticked by.

  And then a tower, its top broken, just toppled slo
wly down into the city. A few seconds later they heard a terrible crash.

  Riley bent over low with a moan. Vann quickly grabbed her. Her hands were on her knees, her skin sweaty and pale.

  After a moment she stood up straight again. Vann didn’t say anything, but he held her tightly.

  And then they saw the King rise above the city. He perched on the side of a shattered building as he sent blasts of power down into the streets below.

  he is tired!

  And the dragon suddenly lifted off into the air.

  He roared at the ehlkrid.

  And Riley heard him.

  I DEMAND YOU COME. THE SLAUGHTERER OF ANDALLA DEMANDS IT. THE KING IS WEAK, WEAKER THAN US. LET US FINISH HIM. LET ONE OF US CLAIM HIS CROWN! COME! And the Dragon flew off towards the city.

  Riley’s head was pounding so hard she almost didn’t see those of the ehlkrid that could fly take off after the Dragon.

  Soon the skies above Astar were filled with an assortment of flying monsters. Some of the ground troops fired on the ehlkrid, but they soon realised they were attacking the King, and stopped.

  The King turned his attention to his subjects, blasting them out of the sky one by one while others came in and attacked him. Suddenly the Dragon was flying straight up. And the sky exploded in light again. Somehow, it didn’t seem as strong as before. The Dragon avoided it. The sky was empty of the other ehlkrid. The Dragon flew down, fire exploding from his mouth.

  And Riley heard it, like a scream from far away.

  …why are you doing this… the King demanded.

  …you are a bad King… The Dragon shot back in fury.

  If they spoke more, Riley didn’t hear it. But they fought.

  Whether it was intentional Riley didn’t know, but they were heading away from the city, towards them.

  The Dragon grabbed the King in his claws and flew straight towards them. Riley drew her sword.

  Suddenly the King was dropped right in front of her. Fire exploded from above, nearly roasting Riley. The King was dazed, and covered in soot and dust. His wings were ripped. Yet he did not bleed, and Riley could see no bruises on him.

  Without waiting another moment Riley slashed at him with her sword. He took the blow full on. That got his attention. Riley pushed the attack as he defended himself. Riley felt her movements slowing down somehow. They were harder than they should have been.

  And then the King screamed in rage, ‘valkar! Have you been so ruined that you can kill? What would Seta think?’

  But the feeling got no worse. And she attacked. Some of her warriors joined the fight. The Dragon had to stay back, there were too many around the King now.

  The King could not focus on the warriors, Riley was by far the greater danger.

  Her sword smashed into the King’s claws with a clang. She was vaguely aware that her sword was cracking. But she didn’t stop. How he could keep going, she didn’t know. She fought and fought, slowly tiring.

  And then her sword snapped. She dropped it and went after him with her bare hands.

  She was hurting all over. She ignored it. She saw the Dragon, waiting, unable to attack.

  And so she grabbed the King and shoved him outside the group of warriors. He was surprised at the sudden turn.

  A huge talon came down from above. The King grabbed it, tried to resist. Riley picked up the part of her sword attached to the hilt. And with it she slashed at him while he could not counter.

  Suddenly the Dragon stopped trying to squash him. The King was off guard. The Dragon swiped at him, sending him flying. Fire burned, consuming the King. A talon came down, rending and slicing.

  And it took what seemed a long time to realise the King was no longer moving.

  The Dragon’s flames flickered out.

  Riley leaned on someone, gasping. ‘I-i-is he dead?’ she trembled.

  A silver haired man, Aerlid, walked past her to the body.

  ‘Yes.’ he finally said. ‘You should burn him. Or Adila will do it.’

  The Dragon did not have to be asked twice. Flames shot from his mouth. But his fire was not as hot as Adila’s. It took a long time.

  Riley slowly came back to herself. She was hurting in a thousand different places, she was covered in her own blood. She was having difficulty seeing. She touched her eye and realized blood from a cut in her forehead had gotten in her eye.

  She looked around. Most of her warriors were in one piece, the King had focussed most of his attention on her. And Vann was there. She was leaning on Vann.

  ‘Why are you so close?’ she panted.

  ‘I think you should sit down.’ he said worriedly.

  Riley shook her head. ‘N-no. We have to go speak to the humans, right now. Aerlid, come with me. Send the signal to the others. Dragon, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll need you for a bit.’

  my throat is raw. but the King is ash. i will come. and the ehlkrid will not attack you, not now. And for once, his voice did not boom, but was a quiet whisper inside her pounding skull.

  Riley nodded. ‘Wait, I need them too. They have to follow me and look beaten, and they better not attack anyone.’

  how long do you require our service?

  ‘Not very long, you’ll be free, Dragon. I just need your help convincing some people of something.’

  very well.

  They started walking towards the city.

  ‘Aerlid,’ Vann was asking. ‘Is she going to collapse?’

  ‘Eventually. Not right now. I’ll look after her.’

  They entered the ruins of the city. Every building they saw was horribly damaged in some way. An awful lot of them were just rubble.

  Eventually, they came upon a human, who raised his SIGPEW at them.

  ‘Put that down,’ Riley said, somehow managing to sound not exhausted. ‘We’re friends. We came to see the damage. What happened? Where are your leaders?’

  ‘I… I don’t know. What happened? We weren’t supposed to be attacked.’

  ‘I know. I’m afraid I was busy defeating the Ehlkrid King and his army.’ And Riley gestured to the dragon. ‘One of the ehlkrid got by us. Honestly, I thought Astar could handle one ehlkrid.’

  ‘You mean… that wasn’t the strongest?’

  ‘No.’ Riley shook her head. ‘It’s dead now. Take me to your team, or whoever’s left.’

  The man nodded and started heading back into the city. He didn’t seem very aware of what was going on around him. Despite the destruction, Riley recognized this place all too well; it was a street she used to take to school.

  They came upon a group of soldiers who were trying to prepare barricades incase of another attack. Riley told them the same story. They looked at the dragon and Riley’s blood splattered visage, aghast.

  But Riley smiled, she said, ‘you’ll need help rebuilding. How are you going to take care of the wounded and feed the survivors?’

  They slumped, not able to take any more.

  ‘We’ll help you. We’ll have to destroy what’s left, none of these buildings can be salvaged.’ and as she said that a badly damaged building collapsed to the ground. Whether that was luck or Aerlid, Riley didn’t care. ‘While we’re rebuilding you’ll have to stay with my tribe. I can’t keep you here, it’s not safe. But we will look after you, and one day you can come back home.’

  Riley turned to one of her warriors. Quickly some of the Mixed Aerlid had trained were brought to the front with some pre-prepared supplies of food and bandages. The humans didn’t object as the Mixed took over. In fact, with someone taking charge and looking after them, they quickly collapsed, unable to fight any more.

  She called on one of the humans and asked him to go with some of the Mixed to locate the survivors. She found out where the members of the Council of Astar were supposed to be. And while Vann was organizing everything else, Riley set off to find the leaders of Astar, Aerlid in tow.

  The silence stretched out. With each passing second Razra thought, there’s going to be another boom,
and, is it over? Can it really be over?

  Every few minutes the radio would buzz, and the lady in charge would try and reach someone, anyone, to find out what was happening.

  Ten minutes after the last horrendous crash, a human voice finally came over the radio.

  ‘It’s over. It’s over…’ the man on the other end of the radio sounded like he was sobbing.

  Feeling ill at ease, Razra stood. Keili, who was still grabbing onto him stood also.

  ‘W-what now?’ she mumbled, her face white and her eyes wide with fear.

  ‘You heard him,’ Razra replied, his voice weak. ‘It…’ whatever it was, ‘it’s over.’ He looked towards the stairs, which led to the surface. ‘It’s over.’

  Razra led the way, and so he was the first to see what had become of Astar. He let out a cry of disbelief. Behind him he heard people shrieking and crying.

  ‘This can’t, this can’t be!’ Keili gasped. ‘This can’t be!’

  Razra felt like he must be in some horrible nightmare. He’d gone down into the shelter, and emerged to a world destroyed. The skyline was terribly altered, with buildings ending in jagged tears. Smoke and ash stained the air, and fires raged. Rubble was littered across the street, and in the distance he could hear people screaming.

  Razra stepped out into the street, numb with shock. He couldn’t believe this.

  ‘How could this be?!’ Keili demanded, her voice rising. ‘How could this happen?!’

  ‘I…’ Could this ruin of a city really be his home?

  ‘What happened?’ she demanded. ‘What happened?’

  ‘I don’t know…’ he said weakly. ‘I… don’t understand…’He’d known what was supposed to happen. Riley was going to fight the ehlkrid. They were going to do it away from the city. And then… he’d suspected Astar had had a plan but… he felt suddenly ill as he wondered if his friend had done this to his home. No, he told himself, no, never! Something else happened! We need to find out what happened!

  ‘Come on!’ He said to Keili, ‘Let’s go find a soldier and ask!’

  ‘Yes, yes that’s a good idea.’ She said, calming down now that she had a task to focus on.