The Lord of the Plains

by Sarah Chapman

Chapter 32

  With the pleasantries out of the way it was time for the real reason for coming here. At least, that was how Mr Briggs thought of it.

  They were led to a part of the city deep in the mountain, heavily guarded and far from any of the places they had visited previously.

  Mr Briggs had renewed energy in his step as a thick metal door slid open and they were led into an undecorated room.

  The group who walked with them was different now. The Speaker for the Master of the House of Corchanus was still the lead, with Recha, as well as one of the speaker’s attendants, but the rest of the group had changed.

  Along the opposite wall of the box was a rack of metal poles.

  Recha translated for the Speaker, ‘These are the Devlars, a highly effective shield. Do you have any of your weapons with you?’

  Messenger translated for Mr Briggs, they had been asked to bring some of their own weapons.

  A man dressed in loose trousers and a vest stepped forward. He picked up one of the Devlars and turned back to face them, taking a wide stance, the pole held in both hands.

  ‘Will you fire at him?’ Recha translated. ‘You may shoot to kill.’

  Mr Briggs stared at Messenger, then at Recha.

  Messenger quickly asked if he had translated correctly.

  ‘You may shoot just to wound if it makes you feel better.’ Recha said to them in Astarian, ‘though it is not necessary. The Devlars have never failed.’

  ‘Very well.’ replied Mr Briggs, ‘Messenger, set your SIGPEW to low grade.’

  Messenger stepped forward. As a pilot he didn’t actually use the PEWs anymore, though he was still expected to train with them regularly.

  As he raised the SIGPEW the man began spinning the Devlar around himself in a complicated dance.

  Messenger watched for a bit, perplexed. Then he fired. For a moment it looked as though a stream of liquid gold was suspended in the air.

  What happened next was so quick Messenger almost didn’t see it.

  A blade sprung from the Devlar. The energy from the SIGPEW hit it and then… then there were gold sparkles for a moment. Then they were gone too.

  ‘You may fire again.’ Recha told him.

  This time Messenger waited. There were holes in the dance. It was fast, but not too fast, surely the muscular man could have gone faster. So there were gaps. Messenger waited, waited. When the pole was to the man’s right, Messenger fired at his left.

  A blade sprung out again. Sparkles. Nothing.

  The man smiled and turned his back to them, the Devlar going round and round.

  He fired again, this time at his back. The same thing happened.

  Again. Fire, deflect, sparkle.

  Fire, deflect, sparkle.

  ‘Raise the setting.’ Mr Briggs said, his eyes not leaving the spinning warrior. ‘Don’t fire at his body. We don’t want to hurt the man.’

  Messenger quickly changed the setting as fast as he would in battle. Then he fired slightly to the side of the man’s leg.

  Gold sparkles glimmered for a moment before dissipating.

  Messenger lowered his SIGPEW, stunned.

  ‘We didn’t bring any of the heavier arms, sir, the SIGPEW is all we have.’

  ‘May I see the Devlar for a moment?’ Mr Briggs asked the Speaker.

  The Speaker replied, Recha translated: ‘certainly.’

  The warrior slowed his dance and stopped. His face was dark and impassive. He held the Devlar out towards them on flat palms.

  Messenger followed as Mr Briggs approached the strange contraption.

  When he got closer Messenger saw the Devlar was not smooth. There were many grooves and lines in it, all over it, crisscrossing the entire surface in an uneven pattern.

  Mr Briggs picked it up and turned it around. It did not appear to be damaged, but they could not see the blades.

  ‘How do you make the blades come out?’ Messenger asked Recha.

  ‘They only come out in response to an attack.’ he responded, having approached them as well.

  ‘How do you clean it? How do you check it for damage?’

  ‘It doesn’t get damaged. They don’t require any maintenance.’

  Messenger stared at him, then back at the Devlar in Mr Briggs hands.

  ‘Does it work on physical attacks, such as a punch?’ Mr Briggs asked as he turned the Devlar slowly around in his hands, examining it closely.

  ‘It works on any type of attack.’ Recha said.

  ‘What powers it?’ Mr Briggs asked.

  ‘It does not require any power. It just is.’

  ‘And does it have any offensive capabilities?’

  Recha hesitated. ‘The Devlar? No. No it doesn’t.’

  A thought sprang quickly into Messenger’s mind, but he said nothing, and instead just wondered what other gifts the valkar had given the Vachi.

  ‘Hmm. How would one attack an enemy if a Devlar was nearby then? It blocks attacks from all sides, even those not directly aimed at the wieldier.’

  ‘We have methods of fighting that work around that.’

  ‘I see. And how is it operated?’

  ‘It responds to an attack. The wielder does not control that aspect of it, though a trained warrior can defend more effectively than one who has never used it before.’

  Mr Briggs handed the Devlar back to the warrior and turned to face them. He turned to the Speaker. ‘Are you willing to trade these?’

  The Speaker spoke and Recha translated.

  ‘I am afraid the material we use to make them is no longer available to us. Because of this, we cannot trade the Devlars.’

  Mr Briggs nodded curtly, he did not seem surprised or offended by this. ‘I hope you find the weapons of Astar as interesting as I have found the Devlar.’

  And then their time in the military section of Cavachi was over. It was, after all, the first time an official from Astar had come to visit. It would not do to share all their secrets so soon.

  The next day Messenger and Mr Briggs flew home to Astar.

  ‘What will you tell the council, sir?’ Messenger asked Mr Briggs as Cavachi grew smaller behind them. The area around Cavachi may have been free of gemengs, but that was not true of the rest of the route. He would have to concentrate after this and would not be able to talk so easily.

  ‘It was a fruitful meeting.’ Mr Briggs said in his stern way.

  ‘Will you speak in favour of an alliance, sir?’

  ‘Hmph, well if I don’t I’m sure you will.’ Messenger thought he heard a smile in Mr Brigg’s voice.

  ‘Of course, but what about you?’ Messenger asked, dropping the sir in his need to know.

  ‘I believe an alliance will be of benefit to Astar, Messenger, now concentrate on flying if you don’t mind.’

  ‘Yes, sir, sorry, sir.’ Messenger said, a wide grin spreading across his face.

  ‘The Vachi are a wasteful and foolish people, but I believe an alliance would be of benefit to Astar.’ Mr Briggs finished.

  He stood at the head of the conference table before his peers, the Council of Astar. They were chosen solely due to their ability and skill in their field. The table was unadorned and practical and covered in notes both old and just written. He dreaded to think what the council chamber of Cavachi looked like. He suppressed a shudder.

  The chamber was lit mainly by natural light from heavy, reinforced windows. There were also artificial lights, which at the moment were not in use, though soon they would be. They had arrived in Astar near the end of the day. Outside the window the sun was setting. The blue sky was turning pink. The clouds lit from below in golds and reds and oranges. They were on the second-highest floor of the building neighbouring the shield tower. The shield tower itself was filled with nothing but Internal Defence Force guards.

  A thin man with receding brown hair and glasses leaned forward, an elbow on the table. ‘I’m sorry, you think we should ally with gemengs?’

  Mr Briggs silently fixed his st
eely eyes on the brown haired man, Metis Teilins. He knew this man. He was highly competent, and the Head of Governmental Affairs, otherwise known as the lumbering bureaucracy of Astar. He performed an important though often ignored function. Mr Briggs did not like him. He would not waste his words dealing with such nonsense, because from this man it was, and one look said that.

  ‘Hmm, they don’t sound like us, what makes you so sure they’re human?’ A woman leant forward, Ella Lesai, a scientist and the Head of Research and Development. Brilliant and absent minded. From her, the question was different.

  Mr Briggs clasped his hands behind his back. ‘They received us with hospitality, they shared their food with us and took care of the pilot who first made contact with them when he was injured. That is why.’

  ‘I wonder what the tests would say, if they have been isolated from us for so long.’ she mused, more to herself than them. ‘It might tell us something interesting about the difference between us and the gemengs, would they agree to a test?’ she said as she scribbled on her notepad.

  ‘I think the difference is obvious.’ said Metis Teilins.

  ‘Oh no, some gemengs have no obvious abilities above those of humans, and can hardly be told apart by appearance, yet they are not human.’ Ella Lesai replied, ‘it’s really very interesting. Are they coming here next time or should I go there?’

  ‘Next time, we still haven’t dealt with the issue of their humanity! Next time?!’ Metis said in a scolding, insulting tone, though Ella didn’t notice.

  ‘Well if Mr Briggs is sure they’re human, I’m willing to trust him.’ The youngest member of the council leant forward, Garna Ulis, his bright eyes on Mr Briggs. He was the Head of the Agricultural Division. He bordered on skinny and always had a gleam to his eyes. The man was practically electric with energy.

  Metis shot him a withering glare, which Garna ignored and said, ‘should we vote? A raised hand for accepting the Vachi as human.’ he put his hand up and smiled.

  Ella Lesai’s hand shot up, her eyes firmly on her notepad and not on the vote going on around her.

  In fact, everyone in the council put their hand up except the bureaucrat. It was not surprising. Mr Briggs was the head of the military. Of them all, he had had the most contact with gemengs, aside from perhaps the Coastside representative.

  Metis, a sour look on his face said, ‘very well, I’ll accept the outcome, though it seems rash. I suppose the idea of an alliance is straightforward from here. We may as well vote.’

  Everyone voted in favour, even Metis. Garna looked at him curiously.

  ‘Well if I accept the proposition that they’re human, then an alliance is the obvious next step.’

  ‘Oh, certainly,’ Garna agreed. ‘Now to proceed, Briggs, do you think they’ll be insulted if we ask to give them a human test?’

  Mr Briggs nodded. ‘I believe so.’ he glanced at the scientist, who was no longer paying attention, just scribbling pages and pages of notes.

  Garna gently touched her shoulder. ‘Did you hear, Miss Lesai?’

  She looked up suddenly, ‘hmm? Did you say something?’

  Everyone was looking at her. Explaining to Ella Lesai that she wouldn’t be able to do her experiments could, Mr Briggs thought, be the toughest part of this alliance.