The Broken Kingdom (23 page)

‘What did you do?’ he asked, his hand still
loosely on her shoulder.

She shook her head. ‘I promised him a
meeting with a real valkar princess. Oh… I have to call Adila and
tell her what I’ve done.’

‘She’s here.’

Riley looked up. ‘Why?’

‘Aerlid… escaped.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘They didn’t exactly imprison him.’ Vann
sighed. ‘But they promise they will next time.’

To Vann’s surprise Riley just closed her
eyes again. ‘Maybe that’s not so bad.’ she mumbled. ‘He may be
useful to me. If I can control him. If Adila can control him… keep
him from trying to kill me…’ she rubbed her eyes again. ‘Ah… I have
to put up with night again, don’t I?’

Vann gave her a quick hug. ‘Sorry.’

He let go after only a moment though. It was
different when it wasn’t night. She didn’t need it when it wasn’t
night.

‘Your nails look nice.’ he suddenly said,
catching sight of them.

Riley slowly raised her head. Fierce green
eyes locked onto his. ‘You think they look nice.’ her voice was low
and dangerous.

For a moment Vann was still. And then he
smiled calmly, ‘they always look nice,’ he said as if she didn’t
look as if she was about to tear him apart, ‘but this is different,
that’s all.’

‘My nails always look nice.’ she stated in
disbelief.

Vann shrugged. ‘Clean. Honestly, Riley,
right now I think anything clean looks lovely.’ and he gestured
over to the gemengs who weren’t exactly clean.

Riley relaxed, the tension drained from
her.

Disaster averted, Vann quickly turned the
conversation to something else as he made a mental note to never
mention her nails again. Ever.

When Riley went to speak to Adila that
afternoon Vann went with her. As they approached Adila, Riley gave
Vann one final look. Then she looked back to Adila, and it was as
if she had put a mask on. A mask that was cold and hard and
immovable.

‘Adila.’ Riley greeted. ‘As you see, I have
freed myself.’

‘I am glad.’ she replied. ‘How did you
manage it?’

‘I promised Andalla a meeting with Ladana
and Ralana.’

Adila blazed, in fury she screamed, ‘you did
what?!’

Riley withstood it unflinchingly. ‘I expect
you to arrange it. I will be present.’

‘I will not! Andalla will never come near
them!’

‘You have no choice in the matter,
Sunsinger. Andalla expects it. If you don’t arrange it, he will,
and I don’t need to say how that will turn out.’

‘Well unarrange it! He cannot have
them!’

‘But he can have me, Sunsinger?’

That deflated her as suddenly as a needle in
a balloon. ‘I- I am sorry. You cannot understand-’

‘I understand well enough.’ Riley
interrupted harshly. ‘I am only half valkar, you would prefer it if
I didn’t exist. I do not care for your apologies, Adila. You left
me to Aerlid, and you left me to Andalla.’

That crushed what little resistance Adila
had left.

‘Arrange the meeting. Or Andalla will.’

Adila bowed her head. ‘I will arrange it.’
she breathed, defeated.

More curious than anything, Vann approached
Riley after Adila had left. The mask was gone, now she just seemed
tired.

He touched her arm, she looked at him, ‘what
was that about?’ he asked.

Riley sighed, started to speak. Stopped. She
looked away, there was a painful look in her eyes. ‘I can’t tell
you. I wish I could,’ she said fervently, ‘tell someone. So I know
I’m not making a huge mistake. But Aerlid forced a promise on me,
so I can’t tell you… if I told you a bit you wouldn’t
understand.’

Vann nodded, willing to accept that. ‘I’m
here, Riley, whatever you need to talk about.’

‘Thank you.’ she sighed. ‘This could take a
while, they both have such different ideas of time.’

Then suddenly she said, ‘It’s so good to be
back, Vann. I hated those places. They were lifeless, Andalla’s
land and the ehlkrids’.’

‘I’m glad you’re back.’ He smiled, and then
changed the subject. ‘I’ve been practicing my tree climbing. I
think I’m even better than you now.’

Riley’s eyes fixed on him. ‘You’re not
serious!’

‘Would you like to find out?’

Riley took the bait. And at least for a
while, he took her mind off their problems.

Chapter 30

S
aris Valais listened
carefully to the dinner time conversation as he pushed cave mould
around his plate. Cavachi, and then Coastside, had ruined him for
the stuff. Right now, going hungry looked like a much better option
than forcing down the gelatinous goo.

‘Hey, Ser, still nothing for you to do,
huh?’

Saris forced a smile as another pilot sat
down opposite him. He’d long ago given up on trying to get people
to remember his name. At least outside of Astar people were happy
enough to call him Messenger, since that was what he
was
.

‘Yup. Pretty much.’

The other pilot shovelled cave mould into
his mouth, swallowing without chewing.
I used to be able to do
that
, Saris thought.

‘I woulda thought they’d put you on regular
rotation now, if we’re not visiting that other place anymore.
Cavachi.’

Saris nodded, ‘yes, Cavachi.’ He shrugged.
‘I don’t know, Martis, I guess there aren’t enough Predators for
the pilots.’

The good humour of the other man faded. ‘I
can’t remember the last time we lost a Predator.’ He said
quietly.

Saris shook his head. ‘No, neither can
I.’

Both fell silent as they tried not to think
of the fate of the pilot who’d crashed.

‘Not even far from Astar.’ Martis
murmured.

The pilot had been flying a regular route,
up to the mountains and back, just to check on things. The Predator
had suddenly been attacked by an ehlkrid, out of nowhere.
During
the daytime
.

‘And they said the Predators should be able
to take them out no problem!’

‘He wasn’t expecting it, Martis.’ Saris
sighed. ‘He was surprised. And we shouldn’t take these things
lightly…’

The Predator had gone down, the pilot with
it. They only knew because of a panicked radio transmission. Since
then patrols had been reduced to areas closer to Astar, and the
Predators went out in groups.

‘I can’t believe they’re still looking for
the Coastsider.’

Saris looked up, ‘I thought they’d given up
on him.’
Vann.

‘Nope, still looking, not so frequent
though. That’s the only time they go any distance from Astar.’

Saris considered that carefully.
I
wonder… perhaps they think… do they think Riley survived? Do they
worry he went to her?
Vann’s relationship with the gemeng
leader had been a source of much concern for Mr Briggs.

‘Well, you really ought to be getting out
there, Seris, otherwise how can you call yourself a pilot anymore,
hmm?’

Saris detected no bitterness in the other
man’s tone and for that he was relieved. He was aware many of the
other pilots thought he was shirking his duty, particularly now
that being a pilot had become so much more dangerous.

‘Trust me, I feel the same. I don’t know why
they aren’t giving me any shifts.’

Martis shrugged. He stood up, his empty
plate in his hands. ‘Well, just enjoy it for now, I guess. See ya
later, Seris!’

‘Yup, bye…’ he waved.

Saris looked down at his plate and with a
sigh pushed it away. No, he wasn’t hungry enough to eat any cave
mould. Yet.

He wondered about his recent abundance of
free time and sighed.
They still have me translate when they
speak to Cavachi, so I don’t think I’ve inadvertently offended
anyone.
It was really much more likely that they didn’t send
him out because of the risk that he’d get killed. No one else in
Astar spoke Ravki. That was a difficult concept for him to accept;
that his life might be valued more than that of his fellow pilots,
men and women he knew well.

Well, if that’s it, I’m sure not telling
anyone.
People seemed to like talking to him, and getting his
opinion on things, but he didn’t have many friends. Particularly
since he’d discovered Cavachi, people seemed to view him as
separate to them. It was definitely not a view he encouraged.

He stood up, carrying his plate over to the
kitchen staff. He smiled weakly and mumbled something about feeling
ill.

As he left the pilots’ cafeteria, he
couldn’t help thinking of the crashed Predator again.
An ehlkrid
attack. During the day. They’ve never bothered us here in Astar
before, never even tried to attack the planes or trucks
before.

He remembered hearing that ehlkrid preferred
eating gemengs to humans.
I think… I think that was relayed
through Coastside- perhaps Vann heard about it and passed it
along?
Feeling ill, it suddenly occurred to him that by
destroying the large group of gemengs that had lived with Riley in
the caves, they may have made themselves a target for the
ehlkrid.

Chapter 31

R
iley was right. Days
passed and nothing seemed to happen. But at least she was back.
Karesh and the gemengs seemed much happier.

So Vann, returning to the camp after hunting
with Shiressa and Telag, was surprised to find Riley and Karesh
having an argument.

They were speaking in such loud and fast
Plains speech that Vann could only pick out a few words. Then Riley
threw her hands up in the air and stalked off.

Vann quickly excused himself from the
gemengs and ran after her.

‘Riley, is something wrong?’ he asked once
he caught up with her. The trees put some distance between them and
the camp.

‘Karesh is pretending he’s an idiot!’ She
yelled angrily. ‘On purpose!’

‘What happened?’ Vann asked calmly.