The Lord of the Plains (77 page)

‘So do you think you’ll be able to work
now?’

‘Work?’ his smile faltered.

‘There are some things I’d like you to do,
if you have the time.’

‘O-of course.’ he went still.

Riley frowned. She had worked hard to make
the gemengs fear her, she could hardly complain about it when faced
with her success. ‘You would still have time to practice flying- or
gliding.’ Riley added, hoping that would ease him.

Karesh still did not reply.

‘Karesh, if you don’t want the job you can
say no.’ she said briskly.

In that cautious way he had he said, ‘what
job do you want me to do?’

‘I need a second in command.’

His eyes wide he said, startled, ‘you want
me to find one?’ then he added, ‘I thought Gakra was your
second.’

‘Perhaps I should change his title,’ Riley
muttered. A more fitting title would be ‘champion’, but she didn’t
know if the gemengs would take that to mean she couldn’t fight for
herself. ‘No, he’s not in command of anything. He just fights
people who challenge me so
I
can get work done. And no, I
don’t want you to find one. I want
you
to be my second in
command. You’re the only half reasonable gemeng I’ve met here.’

‘Everyone else has challenged me to a fight,
at least once.’ She’d had some difficulty explaining to the
newcomers that they had to go through Gakra if they wanted to fight
her. ‘Most have challenged me more than once. They won’t work with
me. I can’t trust them, or even talk to them.’

‘You trust me?’ he replied, surprised, as if
he was having trouble with the concept.

‘I don’t know if I do. I hope I can.’ she
corrected. ‘I can’t do this without trusting someone.’

Karesh stared at her, his face slack.

‘Will you take the job?’

He frowned, ‘what do you expect me to
do?’

Riley beamed. ‘Oh, come with me, I’ll show
you!’

Karesh spent about an hour each morning with
Aerlid (and often, Adila) trying to fly. Then Riley gleefully
(unfortunately, that was the most apt description…) assigned him a
whole lot of things to do before rushing off to see to a whole lot
of other things.

He was aware he was under close scrutiny,
but he didn’t really mind. Mostly, he didn’t know what to make of
his new position and just did as she bid him. He figured she’d grow
tired of it soon and fire him.

The work ranged between boring and simple to
challenging and death defying. Riley mostly spent her time training
the gemengs to fight in groups and to respect the authority of
their team leader- whether he or she was physically stronger than
the rest of the team or not. Her work in that regard meant the
gemengs mostly, if grudgingly, accepted his authority. And it
wasn’t as if he was the only person Riley had assigned authority to
either. Still, the word was
mostly
, not
always
. Too
many of the new gemengs had seen her fight but never kill. They
were held in line by the thin thread of she couldn’t be lord of
this many gemengs unless she was incredibly ferocious and
dangerous. She was working on it, but…

Right now, that was hard to tell as a fiery,
young, arrogant gemeng male was trying to stare him down.

‘You expect me to take orders from you?’ he
drawled lazily.

Karesh eyed him cautiously, in that way he
had. ‘No, your master expects you to take orders from me.’

‘Hah.’ he scoffed, though some of his
bravado had leached away. Was it enough?

It turned out, it wasn’t.

When Riley stalked onto what had quickly
become a battlefield, Karesh felt more than a quiver of unease. She
had been very,
very
specific about fighting.

He glanced down at the moaning and bleeding
gemeng.

At least he’d had enough thought to stab him
in the guts, not the neck. He wasn’t used to trying
not
to
kill people.

Riley’s green eyes were narrowed
dangerously. She quickly scanned the scene and the quietly
observing crowd.

It had not been a difficult fight for
Karesh. He didn’t even have a scratch on him. The man had charged
at him, Karesh had quickly snapped his wings open. The man was
distracted for one precious second. And then a spear of stone was
stabbed into his stomach.

‘You there!’ she called to a random gemeng
in the crowd. ‘Go fetch Aerlid for me.’ she turned from the gemeng,
not waiting to see if she was obeyed. ‘What happened?’ she asked
Karesh, her tone softer.

‘He attacked me.’ Karesh shrugged
cautiously.

Riley didn’t say anything to that. Instead
she looked down at the wounded gemeng. In one smooth movement she
reached down and snatched his trophies from him.

She threw the trophies on the ground.
‘Worthless!’ she cried, loud enough for everyone to hear. ‘I am
told only warriors wear these, and yet foolish children parade
about in them! I will see no more of them!’ She raked the crowd
with a blistering gaze. The gemengs, uncertain, began removing
their trophies.

She looked at Karesh. Her voice was cold. It
carried above the crowd. ‘Challenges do not go through you, they go
through Gakra. If anyone attacks you it is not a challenge, it is a
cowardly attempt at murder. I expect you to kill the next person
who does.’ Then she paused. ‘Better yet, bring them to me, and I
will kill them.’

The next day the trophies were gone from
Riley’s tribe and a ceremony was held.

She personally handed out knotted arm bands
to those she considered warriors. Nothing else would signify being
a warrior. Once again, the definition of ‘warrior’ was changing. It
was just another small step towards changing how the gemengs viewed
the world.

Karesh looked over at Riley cautiously. He
was eating with her and Aerlid. They did not try and stay outside
the tribe anymore. Riley had a separate tent- larger than all the
others, in the middle of the camp. Aerlid had a smaller one next to
it.

Riley was gazing moodily at the fire. In her
hands she was quickly making another band. As he watched she added
it to the growing pile and began work on another. She was not the
only one making the bands. Aerlid’s students, Aerlid and Karesh
helped, and Adila had also participated. They were simple bands of
woven grass, which were wrapped around the upper arms of those
lucky enough to receive one. Some of the bands were dyed different
colours to signify rank. Gakra had two- which he was very proud of-
one to show he was a warrior, another to show he was Riley’s
second. There had not been enough bands to give to all who had been
warriors. That had been dealt with by Riley simply declaring they
would have to prove their worth to her. She handed the bands out
personally- all authority, respect, power, came only from her.

‘Why the change?’ Aerlid asked, breaking the
quiet.

‘Hmm?’ Riley responded.

‘Why have you suddenly decided to start
executing people?’

‘It’s getting too big to manage.’ she
murmured. ‘The new ones don’t fear me. I need to be able to control
them. I can no longer be so lenient, not if I want the tribe to
stay together.’

‘May I ask,’ Karesh began timidly, ‘what
actions would lead to execution?’ it was strange, the effect her
pronouncement had had on him. He hadn’t realised it before, but
despite his wariness of her, he had felt oddly safe. In a way, he
had trusted her not to kill him. He had feared her, yet not feared
she would kill him.

‘Trying to kill, or killing someone else.
There’s a difference between a challenge and murder. Well, there
should be…’ she looked up in surprise. ‘Why?’ she asked, ‘are you
worried?’

‘N-no!’

She sighed and looked down at the band. ‘I
would prefer not to kill anyone, Karesh. I don’t know, I don’t like
killing things, not if my survival isn’t at stake. You can question
me and disagree with me, you can
refuse
to carry out an
order if you think it’s wrong, you can even leave. I won’t harm you
for that. But I need to be able to assign people duties and have
them be able to carry them out without every gemeng in earshot
trying to start a fight about it. I need… more authority. And I
need to make this place safe…’ She looked up at him, the fire
reflected in her eyes. ‘I want to change this place, Karesh. I want
to make a world where people don’t have to be afraid all the time,
afraid of someone hurting you or killing you just because they’re
stronger than you.’ She dropped her gaze. ‘But I don’t know if this
is the right way.’ she mumbled. ‘I don’t know any other way.’ she
sighed again. Then she stood, as if shaking off her doubts.

She glanced at them, said her goodbyes, and
walked briskly off to patrol her tribe, every step declaring her
confidence in her own power.

‘Soon?’ Aerlid asked, pleased.

‘Yes.’ Adila confirmed.