The Broken Kingdom (47 page)

They left Aerlid soon after and returned to
their own tent.

Chapter 59

R
azra 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!’