The Lord of the Plains (22 page)

‘Not many people.’ Riley answered after a
moment.

‘Did you live in a village with other
gemengs?’ she asked.

Riley watched her, her mind working. She
suspected that wasn’t what Jillia was really asking. She had lived
in a gemeng village, once, and Jillia’s mother’s description wasn’t
too far off.

‘Once. Most of the time we didn’t.’ Riley
stressed the last part, not wanting Jillia to get the wrong
idea.

‘How did they live?’ she asked, and there
was something in her voice…

Riley thought of that rundown village full
of afraid and violent people. She thought of the yearning in
Jillia’s voice. Then she thought of Aerlid.

And so she lied. Not much, because she was
uncertain of herself, and she wasn’t a good liar (she lacked the
imagination). She had noted that Aerlid lied, though she didn’t
know the rules of lying herself. She didn’t know when or how or
what might come. If Aerlid had been here she would have asked him
and gone with his judgement, but he wasn’t. So in the spur of the
moment, with Jillia wanting something other than ‘it was horrible,
I wanted to leave.’ Riley lied.

So she told her of a place where the gemengs
ruled themselves and lived in houses if they wished. And that was
it. Riley was known for her strangeness so when she stopped there
and looked at Jillia with a hopeless look Jillia accepted it.

Jillia sighed, her eyes faraway. Then she
shrugged and smiled at Riley. ‘You better finish eating, it will be
time to go in soon.’ and the conversation was turned to safer
waters.

After that Riley remembered what Jillia had
asked, and so she asked Aerlid after lessons one day.

Aerlid had taken one of the chairs out onto
the balcony. The shutter doors were tied open, the cool night
breeze circling through their small apartment. He was looking out
at the night sky and the skyline of Astar. It was a dark outline.
Such a change from what he knew.

‘Am I part human?’ Riley asked, interrupting
his reverie.

Aerlid started, then turned to look at her
in surprise. ‘Why do you ask?’ he asked, bewildered, though not
unpleasantly so.

‘Jillia,’ Aerlid had heard of her and
remembered her name, ‘asked if I was part human. I told her I had a
human uncle.’ Riley paused then added, ‘she thought that was why we
lived here.’

‘Jillia…’ Aerlid mused, ‘she’s a gemeng,
yes?’

Riley nodded.

‘And she thinks you might be part human
because you don’t live with the gemengs?’ A slow smile was forming
on his face.

Riley nodded again.

Aerlid turned back around in the chair to
look back out at the sky.

Riley heard strange noises coming from him
and grew suspicious. She stood and walked around to face him.

Aerlid was struggling to hide laughter.
Riley was rather used to this response to some of her questions so
she just waited.

‘Well?’ She asked after not waiting very
long. She felt Aerlid could laugh
after
he’d answered her
question.

‘You have as much human in you as any
gemeng.’ he replied. He beamed at her.

Riley was about to leave but then asked, ‘is
that what I tell her?’

‘Ah, well…’ he was silent for a moment.
‘They didn’t ask at the testing centre, so I think it’s best to say
you’re a gemeng. You can tell her what I said.’

With an answer Riley was satisfied to leave
Aerlid to his laughter and to get on with other things, like
practicing her movements.

‘Aren’t you going to ask how much human is
in a gemeng?’ Aerlid asked, looking at her over the back of the
chair, his eyes twinkling.

‘How much?’ she asked, her voice devoid of
interest now that she had her answer.

‘Oh if you’re going to be like that I won’t
tell you!’

Aerlid watched her go fetch her sword.
‘You’re the most incurious creature I’ve ever met!’ he called, his
voice as bright as his laugh and the twinkle in his eye.

Riley, again used to such responses,
pleasantly ignored him.

How they found out, Riley didn’t know. It
had been about a year since Riley had shown Jillia her home. All
that time, they hadn’t known, or perhaps hadn’t cared, yet suddenly
in her last year of primary school, that all changed.

Riley had been hearing whispers for days.
Even so, she continued on as always. She heard Razra claim he
didn’t have a signature, that he was a poor writer, whenever he was
approached by human children.

Then when she was walking past one of the
whisper conventions, Lasann, a tall, accomplished human boy called
her over.

She approached, her manner slightly
wary.

‘What do you think, Riley,’ he said, ‘we’re
planning on sending a letter to the government about your situation
but Mitar here seems to think you’ll do the right thing by
yourself.’ he raised his eyebrows archly.

Riley just waited, for they had explained
nothing and how was she to answer?

Lasann did not know her well and sighed,
perhaps taking it as a sign of slow wit, ‘You live in what should
be human accommodation. You should live with the gemengs. You are a
gemeng, aren’t you?’

Feeling better now she had something to
answer she said, ‘yes. Is there a human who needs my apartment?’
she asked curiously. Visions of humans forced to live in the
dormitories because she lived in her apartment paraded through her
mind. They didn’t trouble her overly much.

Lasann’s face coloured, Riley couldn’t see a
reason for this, ‘it’s the principle.’ he said.

‘The principle?’

‘You’re a gemeng. The apartments are for
humans.’

‘So Arntar would stay there?’ she asked.

‘Is he a human?’ he asked in
exasperation.

‘Yes.’ pause. ‘Then why should I move? He’ll
be there anyway, so why can’t I stay there too?’

‘That’s not the point!’

‘She’s a gemeng,’ a voice said, ‘you can’t
expect her to understand!’

There was a chorus of agreement.

‘It’s not right for you to live there!’
Lasann said, ‘do you think you should?’

Riley paused, her eyes sliding over the
group, noting. ‘If it’s wrong for me to live there, if gemengs may
only live in the dormitories, then that’s where I’ll live.’ she
said. Her voice was calm, but not casual.

‘So you’ll move?’ Lasann relaxed.

‘If the government feels I should.’

Lasann stiffened, searching for an insult.
Her green eyes met his calmly.

‘You should get your things ready.’ Lasann
sniffed. ‘We’ll send the letter today.’

When Riley told Aerlid what had happened he
was furious.

He raged through their tiny apartment. ‘They
want us to move?! Those ignorant, hateful little brats!’

Riley stood carefully out of the way as he
stormed around, yelling all the while.

He stopped suddenly, his attention back on
Riley, ‘what’s wrong with you?’ he demanded. ‘Why don’t you
care?’

‘I should be treated no differently than the
other gemengs.’

‘And you think the gemengs should have to
live on the edge of the city in giant shoeboxes?!’

‘No.’ she sniffed. ‘But I don’t think I
should be treated differently.’

Aerlid eyed her carefully. ‘I see. Well. And
how was Razra about this?’

Razra had been upset.

He’d made all sorts of promises to come
visit her and make sure she was ok. He’d told her he hadn’t signed
the petition.

When she’d asked what petition, she’d
thought it had just been a letter, Razra told her Lasann had been
collecting signatures from the rest of the school for the past
week.

All the humans in their class had
signed.

‘He was upset.’ Riley replied.

‘Well,’ Aerlid said in a calmer tone. ‘We’ll
see what the response to that letter is, if they even get one.’ he
said, stressing the last part, telling Riley it was a false show of
bravado, ‘we’ll fight it if they try to move us.’

Riley looked at him calmly. It was her, not
us. But she wouldn’t say that because that wasn’t a distinction
Aerlid would make. It wasn’t really one she made.

Riley was perhaps the calmest during the
time spent waiting for a response. That wasn’t to say she was
completely untroubled, a sliver of unease had worked its way into
her heart.

Aerlid kept up a simmering rage and
frequently flew into tirades. He had tried to explain to her that
living in a dormitory would be harder for her than she thought.
They had lived in the forest, where it was just the two of them and
the wild, and afterwards they’d had their own apartment. How would
she deal with the lack of privacy, the crowding? This was where her
unease came from.

Razra was even more concerned on her behalf.
Surprisingly, the gemeng children also expressed their desire to
see her stay where she was. Previously she had been aware that some
among them thought it unfair that she didn’t live in the
dormitories. It seemed this attack from the human children however
had fortified them. They wanted
someone
at least to have a
little more than what the humans were willing to give.

Riley avoided the other human children
during this time. She had tried and failed to make friends. They
thought the dormitories a terrible place to live, and they wanted
to send her there? A different kind of harm than that in the gemeng
village, but they tried to harm her anyway. So she was careful
around them.

‘Do you know where you’re going?’ Razra
asked her one lunch hour.

Riley just looked at Razra, wondering if
this was a question about her possible eviction.

‘I mean which field,’ he amended.

Riley hadn’t thought about it. ‘No.’

‘No?’ He replied, surprised, ‘but they’ve
been telling us about the different options all term! You haven’t
chosen?’

Riley hadn’t missed any classes. How could
she have missed this? She said, ‘I hadn’t heard that.’