The Broken Kingdom (54 page)

Vann nodded.

‘We need to improve our scouts. Do you think
they’ll attack?’

‘I was pretty clear this is their last
chance to talk. The planes don’t hold many people anyway, if they
had a group large enough to attack us they’d need a whole fleet, I
don’t know if Astar even has that many carriers.’

‘We need to get organized anyway, just in
case.’ she paused. ‘Are you ok with this?’

‘I am. Besides… I don’t know anyone else who
stands a chance against the King.’

‘I know. But they’d have an even better
chance if we helped.’

‘If Astar was willing to accept the help of
gemengs they wouldn’t have tried to kill you. No, I don’t see any
other realistic way of defeating the King. I don’t doubt you.’ He
replied firmly, his mouth set in a grim line.

Riley nodded, relieved. ‘Alright. You need
to have a bath. I need to go organize the warriors.’

‘I thought we agreed I made you smelly
too.’

Riley hesitated. ‘Come with me, we can get
everyone sorted together. The Mixed like those smells.’

‘They like a lot of things. I think they’d
like eating dirt with you too.’ Vann said, getting an indignant
look from Riley, who hadn’t eaten dirt since Vann had started
teaching her to cook.

While they were still bantering with each
other, Ellis came up to them.

They fell silent. Vann’s grey eyes
narrowed.

‘You never gave me a chance.’ Ellis said,
his eyes on Riley. ‘What have I done? I didn’t start that rumour. I
didn’t spread it. I’ve done nothing but what you’ve asked.’

Riley stared at him. ‘You encouraged the
rumour, you visit Aerlid behind my back, and you took Vann out
hunting.’

‘What?’ he stared. ‘What’s wrong with going
hunting? Everyone goes hunting, he does everything
else
the
gemengs do, why not that? I was trying to
help
you.’ he
glared at her. ‘And I wasn’t aware I had to tell you everyone I
talk to-’

‘Why were you asking him about castles?’
Riley demanded.

‘So you could have one! What kind of leader
of anything doesn’t have a castle! Where I’m from, if you don’t
have a castle you’re nothing!’

‘You know,’ Ellis said after a pause.
‘Forget it. I’ve tried to be your friend, but whatever I do you
don’t trust me. Just forget it.’ and he turned and walked away.

Vann saw surprise and doubt flash across
Riley’s face. He may not like it, but it was enough to know
she
wanted it.

‘Wait!’ Vann called and walked after him.
Ellis turned around. ‘You can’t blame us for being suspicious.’
Vann said. ‘You came here trying to take over.’

‘I guess.’ Ellis’s eyes drifted to
Riley.

‘I can’t-’ Riley said, ‘I don’t think I can
trust you. I just don’t have it in me.’

Ellis sighed. He rubbed his eyes. ‘Listen,
I’ll give you some space… maybe once all this nonsense dies down we
can try again. And maybe you can give me a real chance this
time.’

Riley smiled half-heartedly. ‘Maybe.’

Ellis walked away. Once he was gone Riley’s
eyes turned to Vann.

‘Thank you.’ she said, her eyes on his.

He smiled, his arms going around her. ‘Maybe
it’s partly my fault too.’ he murmured.

Riley shook her head. ‘No, I couldn’t bear
it if anything happened to you. He’s not worth the risk.’ and she
leant against him.
You’re all I have left.
‘Maybe we can try
again later.’

The humans arrived the next morning.

As soon as movement was spotted in the
surrounding forest Riley and Vann were summoned. By the time the
humans arrived, Riley and Vann were already in place to greet them.
They met them out past the shield, at the edge of the campsite,
surrounded by the largest, most beastly looking gemengs in the
tribe.

There were five humans in the group. Riley
recognized Lillia and Azra but the other three she didn’t know.
They looked Astarian. Two were male, one was female. They were all
armed with SIGPEWs and Reismal body armour. Lillia and Azra didn’t
wear their helmets. Lillia’s blonde hair was tied up in a loose
bun. It was strange seeing her in armour.

‘Hello.’ Riley greeted them.

They were all looking at her as if they
didn’t quite believe it. Riley smiled. It was not a friendly smile.
‘Put your weapons down.’

They didn’t move.

‘Do it.’ Vann said quietly, his gaze intent
on Lillia. She lowered her SIGPEW first. She did not look as
comfortable with it as the others, though she didn’t look
entirely
unfamiliar with it. The others slowly followed
suit, but they didn’t lower them by much.

Riley sighed. ‘Ok. Let me be clear. You can
drop your weapons, submit to being restrained within my camp while
we chat and then be released. Or I can have you killed now and your
bodies sent back to Astar.’ she smiled again.

‘If you cooperate you won’t be hurt.’ Vann
replied. ‘And we’ll let you go.’ his voice became hard. ‘But we
have reason not to trust you.’

Azra, her mouth grim, placed her SIGPEW
carefully on the ground first. The others followed suit quickly
enough that it was likely she was in charge of the operation. She
put her hands up afterwards.

Riley nodded and some of the gemengs broke
away from the group. They tied the humans up and led them to some
empty tents by Aerlid’s tent. They were very gentle with them.
Riley and Vann followed. They remained standing while the humans
were made to sit.

‘Do you have any others out there?’ Riley
asked.

‘No.’ Lillia replied. ‘I already told Vann.
We walked.’

‘From Coastside with ehlkrid everywhere? I
don’t think so. No matter, as long as they stay where they
are.’

‘I’ll have to contact them.’ Azra
replied.

‘I will contact them. Vann’s going to help
you out of your gear. You will be given new clothes, you will keep
nothing with you. Do you understand?’

Azra’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t
object.

‘I’ll untie you one at a time. You’ll go in
the tent, get changed and come out. I’ll tie you back up. Don’t try
to escape.’ Vann said.

He looked each one in the eye. Then he
untied one of the Astarian men and handed him some clothes. After
he’d returned from the tent Vann inspected him rather thoroughly.
Then he was tied up. The tent was inspected. The next one went. All
the while Riley watched them coldly. When it was Azra’s turn Riley
asked, ‘would you prefer a female?’

‘I’ll be fine thank you.’ Azra replied
coolly.

Lillia was asked the same question. When she
replied calmly, ‘no, it’s not like he’s never-’

Riley couldn’t help the dark look that came
to her face. Lillia faltered and fell silent, a blush staining her
cheeks.

Vann started to say something but Riley cut
him off. She was
not
jealous.

It was finally done. A pile of armour,
weapons, radios and various pieces of equipment lay in front of
Riley. She picked up a radio. She tuned it, waited til she heard a
voice.

‘Hello.’ Riley spoke into the radio. ‘My
name is Riley, I lead the Mixed. I have five humans here. They will
not be harmed, as long as my tribe is not attacked. They will be
released once I’m finished talking with them. Do you
understand?’

‘I demand to speak to the captain!’

Riley held the radio out to Azra, who said.
‘We’re all here, Marna. We haven’t been hurt.’

Riley pulled the radio back before any more
could be said. ‘Do we have an understanding?’

Silence.

‘I rather enjoy the sight of a crashed
Predator. Are you going to give me another opportunity to make that
happen?’

‘We demand contact every hour. And we want
to know when you’re going to release them. As long as they are
unharmed, we’ll cooperate.’

‘I’ll release them when I feel like it. This
isn’t a negotiation, I’m telling you how it’s going to work. You
can talk once a day. Goodbye.’ Riley switched off the radio and
dropped it back in the pile.

Some of the Mixed came over. They gathered
up the pile of equipment and took it away.

‘You’ll get your stuff back when you leave.’
Riley said. And then she walked off, leaving the humans with
Vann.

‘She really is alive.’ Azra cursed. ‘Vann,
how did this happen? We’ve seen the pictures, the mountain came
down.’

‘And she was inside when it did. After she
realized what had happened, it took her a while to get out, but as
you can see, she and her tribe weren’t hurt.’

‘This is all the same tribe?’ She demanded.
‘It can’t be! They must be different gemengs.’

‘Believe what you want, Azra, but I’m
telling you they are the same. Some of the Mixed were killed,’ and
his expression darkened. ‘But not all.’

‘What, what mixed? What are you talking
about?’

‘The gemengs are part human. They are
Mixed.’

‘They’re not human.’ one of the Astarians
scoffed.

‘They are. They’re part human, part
ehlkrid.’ Vann gazed at him coolly. ‘But I see there’s not much
point explaining that to someone like you.’

‘Vann,’ Lillia said gently, ‘we came here to
rescue you.’

‘I don’t need rescuing, Lillia. I am exactly
where I want to be.’

‘So you’ve betrayed Coastside then.’ Azra
stated coldly.

‘As I said, believe what you want. I’ll get
you guys what you need, but don’t try anything. Hopefully, you
won’t stay here long.’

‘Why are we here anyway?’ Lillia asked.

‘We have something we need to tell you, when
we think you’ll listen. We’ll untie you later, but only if you
understand you are not to move from this tent.’

Later, Vann and Lillia walked a short
distance from the human tents to talk in semi privacy.

Lillia gave Vann a sudden hug. ‘I was so
worried about you.’

Surprised, Vann hugged her back for a moment
before stepping away. ‘Lillia, why did you come here? You could
have been hurt. And why is Azra here?’

‘Commander Reista thought I might be able to
convince you to come back. He didn’t want it to be an entirely
Astar mission, so Azra’s here as a… representative of the Coastside
submariners, I guess. After you left everyone was looking for you,
Vann. What happened?’

‘I don’t really want to talk about it. But
I’m here, I’m safe. And I’m happy, Lillia. This is where I want to
be.’

An all too familiar look came into her
eyes.

Anger flaring, Vann said, ‘I’m not going to
explain it to you anymore, Lillia. You just won’t listen.’

‘I’m sorry, Vann.’ she smiled and reached
out to touch his arm. ‘Tell me, what have you been up to?’

‘Nothing much. What’s happened in Coastside
since I’ve been gone?’

She sighed. ‘The shields are up all the
time. The ehlkrid never attack anything with a shield, but people
outside… mines, transports… submarines… anything that doesn’t have
a shield they attack.’

Vann was silent for a moment. ‘The
Bad
Luck
?’ he asked quietly.

‘Still operational, Garis is still her
captain.’

Vann nodded, feeling tense as he thought of
his old submates. Now that he knew Riley was alive, he realized
much of his anger at the people of Coastside had faded.
We’ll
finish this soon,
he thought,
before anything can happen to
the
Bad Luck
and her crew
. He couldn’t help feeling a
little uneasy at that though. Would they really be successful? And
even if they were, they weren’t ready yet… there was still time for
more of the people he knew to be hurt or killed.

‘We’ve been fighting them too.’ He said
quietly, unpleasant thoughts churning in his head.

‘Oh, and the fish people returned.’

‘What?! I told them to stay away from
Coastside!’

‘Mmm, well they’ve come back. I think they
had to Vann, I think the ehlkrid are too tough for them. I’m not
sure there are many left.’