Chapter 57
That afternoon Riley and Aerlid made their way to the gemeng’s campsite. Riley strode purposefully over to Gakra, who was holding court in the cleared, central area. She stood behind, looming over him. He ignored her and continued talking with the group of gemengs sitting around him. Riley waited for perhaps half a minute. And then she yanked him to his feet. The look of surprise on his face was priceless.
‘Gather your tribe.’ Riley ordered. ‘Or is even that beyond you?’
Gakra glared at her. He didn’t try and free himself from her grip though. Perhaps he knew he couldn’t, and it would just make him look more foolish. ‘Why?’ he growled.
‘Because I say so.’
‘Gather them yourself!’
Riley lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘Are those trophies important to you?’
‘What?’ he didn’t whisper.
Riley tapped the string of claws and teeth wrapped around his body. ‘Is this important to you?’
‘Why?!’
‘I let you pretend to be a warrior because it amuses me. Letting you disobey me, however, is something else.’
Gakra was silent.
‘Do what I say or I will no longer let you pretend. And I’ll take those trophies from you.’
Gakra glanced down at his trophies. Then he glanced up at her. He pulled himself roughly from her grip and she let him.
‘Agra, Duka, go gather the tribe! The slave wants to talk!’ he yelled at the gemengs, who were still sitting at his feet.
Riley slapped him. ‘Don’t call me slave, foolish one.’
It took some time to gather the tribe. Some were out hunting or foraging and had to be found. It was late afternoon by the time the tribe was gathered before her.
Riley gazed over the dirty, ugly, brutish faces and felt a moment of trepidation. How was she to do this? She pushed those thoughts away and focussed on what had to be done. There was only one thing these creatures respected, and she needed respect or fear or something from them before she could change them. She arranged her features in a look she hoped was equal parts annoyance and superiority. Anyway, it was a look Aerlid often wore.
‘This can’t continue.’ she said, contempt creeping into her voice. ‘You have embarrassed me enough.’
The anger that always hung heavily over these people suddenly sharpened. It was hard to believe silence could be so full.
‘You are a disgrace! How can an entire tribe not have a single warrior in it? I come looking for a tribe and find myself saddled with a pack of children!’ she waited a moment for that to sink in. Then she continued: ‘well, no more! It seems I have to train you myself.’
‘We won’t fight like you!’ came an angry shout from the crowd.
‘You can’t even fight yourself! You use those tools!’ someone else called.
Riley raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. She hadn’t expected that. They had seen her defeat Daklis with her bare hands.
Well, so be it.
She drew her sword from her scabbard and held it out towards the crowd. ‘Fine. Come use it then. See if it’s as easy to use as you think. Come on! Or are you cowards as well as incompetent?’
A gemeng strode forward from the crowd and grabbed her sword. ‘The knife too.’ he demanded.
Without a word Riley handed over her parrying dagger.
The man looked from one weapon to the other. Then he lunged at her, swinging the sword and dagger around wildly.
To Riley, who was reasonably skilled with those weapons, it was an appallingly stupid sight. He had no idea what a fool he looked. But the rest of the tribe was egging him on. Watching, Riley thought he might manage to be dangerous, though only because he had no idea what he was doing. She figured it was a chance she could take.
With ease she slipped inside the reach of her sword. But the man didn’t seem aware of that and kept trying to hit her with the sword. The dagger was unmoving in his other hand. He didn’t seem able to focus on two weapons at once.
She slapped him lightly across the face. Then she leisurely disarmed him and rescued her weapons. ‘Perhaps you’d like to try against one of the other children.’ she said dryly. ‘You can’t do much worse.’
The man was stunned. Riley wondered that she had made sword fighting look so easy he’d thought he could just pick up some weapons and be an instant expert. She handed the weapons back.
‘Go on. Who wants to fight him?’ She had barely got the words out of her mouth when another gemeng came forward to try his luck.
Before the day was done she intended them all to fight using her weapons. At least that should help remove one problem they had with her.
While the two gemengs were fighting another one called out to her.
‘I want to fight you unarmed. Let’s see how good you are without your precious little toys! You have no fangs no claws, nothing!’
Riley calmly invited the new heckler to come forward.
Well, perhaps she’d have to fight the entire tribe again too.
It was going to be a long night.
When the next day dawned Riley was exhausted. Today was going to be much like yesterday. She wasn’t looking forward to it, but what had that to do with anything?
Aerlid and Riley spent the morning at the river camp. They had chores to do- cooking, cleaning, foraging and so on, and so did the tribe. It wasn’t until the afternoon that they strolled into the gemeng camp, much like they had yesterday. This time however she didn’t need to threaten Gakra to gather the tribe. Looking around at the grim, glowering faces, it almost seemed like they had been waiting for her.
‘Are you just going to stand there?’ she said curiously, letting her voice carry over the crowd. ‘You think you’ll get less useless if you wait long enough? Go on, show me how you fight each other!’
The crowd shifted and grumbled. Then someone called, ‘get outta here slave! Stop wasting our time!’
And the mood shifted. The crowd began yelling, ‘slave, slave, you’re soft and weak!’
‘Go back to slave land, slave!’
‘Go away!’
Riley was momentarily surprised. They had never asked her to leave before. She noticed Aerlid was watching her. She shook her head, ‘not yet. We’re not leaving yet.’
He sighed.
And then they began.
‘Aerlid,’ Riley said conversationally, ‘What do you think would be an appropriate recompense for our wasted time?’
‘They have nothing worth taking.’ Aerlid said in disgust. ‘I suppose we could take some of the children, perhaps they could be taught to do something useful.’
‘Very well, we’ll take five of them. Hopefully at least one of them will be worth keeping alive. Go choose some, I’d like to leave within the hour.’
And with that Riley turned and began striding away from the gemengs, back towards the river camp. She’d barely taken two steps before the gemengs started screaming angrily.
Gakra was the only one to actually follow her though. Was that an improvement? ‘What do you think you’re doing?!’ he roared.
Riley raised an eyebrow at him. Despite the fact that he was taller than her, she managed to give the distinct impression she was looking down at him. (That was another look borrowed from Aerlid, though he was taller than most people so he didn’t often have to use it). ‘Leaving, as requested. You’re tribe has wasted my time and I’m taking something to compensate. I hope your children prove more capable than their parents.’
Gakra’s eyebrows twitched, as if he couldn’t decide what expression to use- anger or disbelief. ‘You can’t take our children.’
Riley had counted on that. The only time she had seen anything other than violence in their eyes had been when they were with their children. At least, before the children took the Warrior’s Trial. Her mood darkened. ‘And how are you going to stop me?’ she asked, giving him a dark frown. ‘What are you going to do, foolish one? Your entire tribe cannot defeat me. Now stop wasting my time.’
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She didn’t wait for him to respond and resumed her walk towards the river.
In less than an hour Riley and Aerlid and five children were standing at the edge of the gemeng’s camp. The children were sniffling quietly, but that was all. How Aerlid had gotten all five of them to behave Riley didn’t know.
The gemengs were watching them. Well, watching wasn’t quite the right word. It looked like they were trying to set them on fire with their eyes. Worry had started to worm its way into her heart. Would they really let them just walk away with the children?
Not quite believing what was happening, Riley turned. She began walking. Aerlid followed her lead, the children following him.
One step. Two steps. Grass enveloping them. Three steps.
A furious roar shattered the silence. Riley sighed in relief. She turned to see a raging beast charging at her.
One of the children cried, ‘daddy!’
Riley let the beast approach. When he got close enough she hit him hard. Had to. The man went sprawling. He didn’t get up. She hadn’t wanted him to.
‘You weren’t given permission to talk.’ Aerlid said coldly.
The child’s eyes went wide. It started crying silently. It clamped its hands over its mouth. Seeing the child’s tears, Riley had to remind herself why they were doing this. Was it worth it? Before she could come up with an answer there was another roar. It was so loud the world seemed to shake. It made the previous cry seem like a squeak. She looked- the entire tribe was coming at them! Inside, some part of her smiled. That could be challenging. Especially if she did it with no weapons. Aerlid calmly turned away from the spectacle and began walking into the grass. ‘Come along.’ he told the children. ‘She won’t take long.’ In seconds he and the children had disappeared into the grasslands. Riley wasn’t paying attention to them. Her eyes were on the tribe. Noting. Planning. Seconds had passed, yet it felt like much longer. The gemengs came straight at her, they didn’t try to pursue Aerlid. Why… well, that didn’t matter now. The gemengs launched themselves at her. They came from all sides with a raw ferocity unseen before. But some of them were still injured. And she was Riley. The gaps in the melee were clear to her. Moving into them and away from attacks was even easier. Mostly, she just moved and enjoyed the sheer pleasure of it. And when they came into her reach as she dodged and wove she hit them. Sharp, fast, she hit exactly where she wanted to. She intended to incapacitate with one hit and that is exactly what she did. But not kill. It was a shock when she realised only one was left. She looked around. Forms littered the ground. This time, children weren’t running forward. She stared at the last one. Her breathing was slightly fast. But not much. The creature returned her gaze. It was Gakra. She had avoided him. It had been purposely done, and yet she had forgotten while she was moving. And yet some part of her had remembered.
‘The children, please bring them back.’ It was strange, hearing such a soft plea from Gakra, his face haggard and drained.
‘I’m afraid I need some recompense for wasting my time with you.’ she said coldly. So close. They were so close to ending it.
His eyelids fluttered in confusion. ‘Perhaps there is something we can do.’ he said hesitantly.
‘I’m afraid you aren’t much good to me as a tribe, as you can see.’
He hesitated.
Internally Riley was begging him, he was so close. If she had too she could point it out but it would work so much better if he suggested it.
‘We can be more useful. If you bring the children back.’
Chapter 58
Walking through the camp made Riley feel ill. The feeling towards her had changed.
Now she was the one creating fear.
The name of the tribe had changed.
And this was the first step to eradicating that fear.
She wished she’d known another way.
The Lord of the Plains Page 60