The Lord of the Plains
Page 51
Chapter 49
Coastside fell behind. Forest was ahead.
She ran. Trees whipped past. There was no sound of her passage.
Her heart sang!
She ran as fast as she could. Faster. Dodging trees, branches. She laughed.
She circled around Astar. Came in the other side.
No one saw her. Not one patrol.
No one.
And then there was a city to sneak through.
It was dark.
And she snuck through it.
She’d moved through the city unseen before, avoided patrols before.
Her night time running was supposed to be secret, after all.
And as easily as she’d run from Coastside to Astar, she crept through Astar to her no-longer home.
Riley had not stopped to gather her things in Coastside. There was nothing there she needed.
And so she found herself outside her door without a key.
The door was locked.
The ease with which she forced the door open only added to her elation.
She stood in an old, bare living room. The bedroom door was closed.
She waited, rocking. She wondered if Aerlid had noticed.
When Aerlid opened the bedroom door and glared at her she was happy.
When his glare changed to one of surprised pleasure she beamed back.
‘Riley! I thought you were a robber. What are you doing here?’
‘We’re leaving.’ was her answer. ‘Right now.’
‘The bags are ready.’ he caught on quickly. ‘Is the plan the same?’
‘There’s a slight change.’ she grinned wickedly.
Two days passed before a search party was organized. The delay frustrated Aerlid to no end, but he supposed the Coastsiders hadn’t realized Riley’d actually left Coastside until the morning after.
He couldn’t help a twinge of regret as he stood outside the walls of Astar, listening to Captain Batar Krope give his orders. He wondered if Riley knew how much her old unit cared about her.
‘She hasn’t contacted Coastside or Astar.’ Batar said, ‘and it’s been two days. All we know is she left Coastside. We can only hope she was making for Astar. We’ve been given one week to find her, so we need to move quickly.’
‘There’s a lot of ground to cover, between here and Coastside.’ Geilar, the only gemeng in the group, murmured.
‘Yes… but you know, she defeated the drakilis on her own.’ Leili said, ‘I’m sure… I’m sure she can take care of herself.’
‘We don’t have time to wonder about that.’ Jann said firmly. Aerlid remembered him as the young man Riley had shot. ‘Come on, we gotta get going.’
‘Mr Meilis, are you sure you want to come with us?’ Batar said, his eyes fixed on Aerlid.
‘Yes. I spent many years outside of Astar, I can take care of myself. Besides, if she’s injured, I’ll be able to help.’
‘He took care of my hand pretty good.’ Jann said.
‘There was nothing wrong with your hand.’ Geilar muttered.
‘Alright, let’s move out. We’ll move quickly to the testing centre, and focus our search on the area between the testing centre and Coastside. Let’s move.’
Aerlid almost regretted what he’d have to do to them.
The next day, Aerlid met Riley at the border between the Astarian forest and the hills.
In two weeks, they stood atop a cliff looking down.
Below lay the Plains.