Razra set off down the street, heading away from the centre of the city as that was where most of the damage appeared to be. As they walked his despair grew. Every street they came across was horribly damaged.
‘Look, over there!’ Keili pointed, ‘a soldier!’
Razra looked where she was pointing and saw a soldier sitting by the twisted wreckage of a MEW. Razra and Keili quickly ran over to him. Razra stopped as he saw what lay around the man.
Keili let out a little gasp and halted too.
‘They…are they…’ Razra mumbled, and stopped, suddenly recognizing someone he knew. ‘Jann!’ he cried, and ran over to the young man slumped against the side of the street.
Razra fell to his knees by the man he had met only a handful of times. ‘Jann?’
‘Razra, come away.’ Keili sobbed. ‘He’s dead.’
‘They’re all dead.’ The man sitting by the MEW suddenly said. ‘All dead.’
‘I… I knew him.’
‘Razra, please.’
‘I… I should tell someone. I don’t know who his family is… I… I…’
‘Razra, come away!’ Keili said and pulled on his arm.
Razra let her pull him.
‘What happened here?’ Razra said, turning to the man by the MEW.
He shook his head, tears cutting streaks through the grime on his face. ‘One man. One ehlkrid. Just one.’
‘That can’t be.’ Razra insisted. ‘Ehlkrid come by all the time.’
‘It broke the shield, and did this… all of this…’
Razra didn’t respond.
‘What… what are we going to do now?’ Keili asked tentatively. ‘There has to be someone left who knows what’s going on.’
Razra wasn’t sure. He couldn’t stop thinking about Jann, the last time they’d met outside Mr Briggs office. Was Mr Briggs ok?
‘Do you want to come with us?’ Keili asked the soldier.
The soldier shook his head, ‘what’s the point? It’s all gone…all gone…’
Razra slowly sank to the ground.
‘Razra?’
Razra shook his head, and Keili sat down next to him. They stayed that way for what seemed an age. Then they heard the sound of movement.
Keili let out a scream and pointed. Razra turned to look and scrambled to his feet. Through the gaps in the buildings he saw a huge, black creature with wings.
‘We gotta go!’ He said, his voice shaking, as he grabbed Keili. ‘We gotta go!’
Then from between the buildings he saw soldiers, and tall, hulking creatures, coming towards them.
Seeing the soldiers, dirty and ashen-faced, but alive and doing something was enough to give Razra pause.
The soldiers and the other creatures reached them.
‘You there, are you alright?’ one of the soldiers asked.
‘Yes, we’re… we’re alright.’ Razra answered, looking from the soldier to the tall creature beside him.
‘What’s going on?’ Keili asked, her eyes also on the creatures.
‘Our lord has come to help.’ The creature grumbled, ‘she has defeated the King of the Ehlkrid, and sends us to help. We will take you to our camp, and look after you while she rebuilds your city.’
‘What?’ Razra asked weakly. ‘What King? What lord?’
The creature pointed to the black, winged monstrosity, still visible through the buildings. ‘The King. Our lord has defeated the ehlkrid, now they serve her.’
Razra turned to the soldier, who just looked exhausted. The soldier nodded. ‘The gemengs are helping…’ he said tiredly, ‘I don’t know… I don’t know where anyone is, but they… they’re taking care of things…’
Razra wasn’t looking. Following after the dragon, he saw a woman with black hair that shone with the life of springtime. A woman he was quite sure he recognized.
‘Mixed.’ The creature growled. ‘We are the Mixed.’
Riley found more survivors, gemengs and humans, and sent them back to the main group. The soldiers were easier to deal with than the survivors, they had seen the carnage one man had wrought.
But as soon as the civilian survivors saw their city, when they saw their soldiers cooperating, their resistance evaporated.
Above the noise of creaking buildings, shuffling feet, and barked orders, Riley thought she heard someone call her name.
She turned, surprised. She spotted a blonde woman in the uniform of the Astar Internal Defence Force coming towards her.
‘Riley?’ the woman repeated.
Riley frowned, trying to place her. ‘Jillia?’ she said with a sudden smile.
The woman relaxed in a smile too. ‘You do remember me?’
‘Yes. Are you hurt?’
‘I don’t think so, not badly anyway.’
‘Good, good.’ Riley answered, her mind already thinking of other things. Time was of the essence, and though she was relieved to see her alive, she had no time to talk. ‘My people will take care of you.’
‘What… what’s happening?’
‘We defeated the ehlkrid army. My people will take care of you, Jillia, we’ll speak later.’
Jillia nodded vaguely, something close to disappointment crossing her face. Riley directed her people to take care of her, and watched that they did, before moving on. She had a task to focus on. She couldn’t think of her friends in the military, more than likely dead, or Razra, who hopefully had been safe in a shelter. The underground shelters didn’t take much damage, so he should be safe…
She walked away, continuing deeper into the city, and her focus back on the task at hand. When she reached the centre of the city, near the destroyed Shield Tower, she looked around for a familiar face. She spotted a human soldier and approached him.
‘I was told Mr Briggs was here.’ she asked.
‘Dead.’ the man said flatly. ‘Fighting against that monster, he was out here with us, helping. Now he’s dead.’
‘Ah. Where are your other leaders?’
‘Don’t know. Mostly dead. Everyone’s mostly dead.’
‘What about the Mixed,’ Riley asked hesitantly. ‘How many survived?’
‘The what?’
‘The people you call gemengs. They are part human, part something else. They are the Mixed.’
And he did not argue, just nodded dully. ‘Don’t know.’
‘Alright. My people are here, they’ll look after you.’ and Riley gave the man directions.
Eventually, Riley came to what had been the Shield Tower. A man was sitting in front, his head in his hands.
‘Do you know where the government is?’
The man looked up. He was young, but looked very tired. ‘You’re looking at it.’
‘Are you all that’s left? Who are you?’
The man shrugged. ‘Garna Ulis…’ he said tiredly, ‘agriculture…’
‘And tell me,’ Riley’s voice became distant, ‘did you agree to the destruction of the Gemeng Mountain?’
The man nodded. ‘Not that it helped much.’
‘I see.’ Riley walked away, and as she did she nodded to Aerlid. He followed her. The man continued talking to himself in a broken whisper, ‘to think, we were planning on fighting the ehlkrid if the gemengs failed, or the gemengs if they won, even with the Vachi just watching… to think we were so blind… how could one man, just one man…’
They had not gone far when a crash came from behind. They turned to see part of the building had collapsed, crushing the man.
‘Let’s find the others.’ Riley said.
‘Are you going to kill all of them?’ Aerlid asked, though really he had killed the man. It had been hard for Riley to ask, and still she doubted herself, but if anyone ever suspected she was responsible…
‘They killed hundreds of my people, Aerlid. They deserve justice. Maybe all of Astar is responsible for that, not just the Council. But I can’t kill everyone, and I don’t want to…I want justice, not revenge.’ she looked around at the ruined city then. She
paused for a moment. Maybe she already had killed everyone. Maybe she was just deluding herself when she said she didn’t want revenge. ‘Well, anyway, let’s finish this. I’m feeling a bit faint.’
Chapter 77
Heavily bandaged, Riley stood outside her tent, which was situated outside what was left of Astar. The rest of her tribe had arrived. The Andallites had briefly appeared out of nowhere, and then disappeared again, taking the ehlkrid with them, except the Dragon, he had promised to stay and help Riley a little longer.
The humans and Mixed of Astar had been split up among the tribe. The objections had been few. Shock still gripped them tightly.
This was just the beginning. The Mixed of Astar were with the Mixed from outside, Mixed who were proud of who they were. And when the Mixed from Astar learnt that, and stopped believing everything the Astarians did, they would be able to live among humans again.
And the humans were with the Mixed too. They didn’t realize it, but these Mixed wouldn’t be treated as anything other than equals. And the Astarians would be forced to see them differently.
Astar had to be razed and rebuilt, and Riley was going to visit Coastside tomorrow morning with the Dragon. With Astar utterly destroyed, Coastside would not resist. And they would be forced to change too. And of course, Cavachi could not be forgotten.
And what Riley had been building among the Mixed would encompass the humans too. She had a year to strengthen her new tribe. And then she would keep her promise to Vann.
But that was for tomorrow. Now Adila, Rose and Aerlid stood before her. Some of them would return later, Riley still had business with the valkar.
‘The book is finished?’ Riley asked.
‘Yes, Karesh has it.’ Aerlid replied.
Riley nodded. ‘Then I have everything I need from you, Aerlid.’
‘That’s all?’ he asked. ‘That doesn’t seem like much.’
‘I don’t want anything else from you, Aerlid. There’s nothing else you can give me.’
He nodded slowly. He glanced over his shoulder. Rose would take him to his prison. And it really would be a prison this time.
‘Perhaps this doesn’t mean anything then, Riley, but I wish to share it with you. You have been but a tiny part of my life, but you were the brightest part.’
Her eyes widened. She reached out a hand, but then she drew it back.
He smiled softly. ‘It’s ok. Goodbye, Riley. I will never see you again. I wish you all the happiness in the world.’
Aerlid turned and walked over to Rose and Adila.
They did not go far before they disappeared.
The Broken Kingdom Page 37