The Lord of the Plains (90 page)

‘I’m part valkar.’ Riley said softly.
‘Aerlid did something, so I look human to you.’

‘But I don’t remember,’ Vann said, ‘how come
I can’t remember what you look like?’ Adila’s magnificence had
shrunk into that of a tanned, beautiful, blonde haired woman. What
had Riley been before? What had that black hair looked like? What
had been within those green eyes?

‘I took the memory from you.’ Aerlid said.
‘Sometimes a memory alone is enough to unhinge a human.’

Vann glared at Aerlid but it faded quickly.
It was difficult to be mad at him when he had in fact saved him
from something close to madness. ‘How come you didn’t tell me?’ he
said to Riley.

‘I- I didn’t think of it.’ she said.

He gazed back towards the direction Adila
had taken. Aerlid was right, the memory was so tantalizing.

‘Adila has no interest in humans.’ Aerlid
snapped. ‘I suggest you stay away from her.’

Riley shot a glare at Aerlid. Then she took
Vann’s hand. ‘Come, I think you need a rest.’ He looked so confused
and crushed and angry at the same time.

He followed her wordlessly.

Riley took him away from the tribe, out into
the plains. The smells and sounds of the tribe faded behind. She
stopped by a small stream.

‘Sit down.’ Riley said gently. Vann obeyed,
sitting by the edge of the stream.

He sat and put his head in his hands.
‘What’s wrong with me?’ he mumbled. ‘I wasn’t myself with you.
Looking at her made me feel the same… I don’t… I don’t want to feel
as if…’

‘It’s alright, Vann. It’s going to be
ok.’

He looked up suddenly, his grey eyes wide.
‘I don’t want to lose myself like that, Riley. I don’t like it,
it’s scary. But at the same time I don’t
care.’

’Vann,’ she had never considered how he
would feel about the effect the valkar had on him. She was sorry
then, very sorry. ‘Vann, maybe now that you know, you can try and
resist it.’

He sighed and nodded. ‘Yeah. Yes. Everyone
thought I’d gone crazy over you. No, you’re right though. Now I
know they’re right… I just need to deal with it.’

‘You’re not likely to run into any other
valkar anyway, so maybe this won’t happen again.’

He breathed out heavily. ‘She’s so…
glorious
. Riley, what do you look like?’ he gazed at her
intently, a shadow of the way he had looked at her before.

‘I don’t know.’ she shrugged. ‘But you don’t
want to know.’

‘You’re right.’ He closed his eyes and shook
his head. ‘You’re right. I just have to deal with this.’ He looked
up then and around. ‘Where are we?’

‘In the plains. I like to come out here
sometimes, where no one else is around. There are cats out here.’
she smiled then. ‘Not as big as the mountain cats though.’

He stood and brushed off his pants. It was
peaceful, compared to the campsite. In a way, it reminded him of
the side beach. ‘I guess you know this place pretty well.’

She nodded. ‘I do. At first it all seemed
the same, I’d never been to a place like this before. But as I
spent more time here I’ve gotten to know it.’ she grinned, her eyes
twinkling. ‘I still prefer forests, but I like it here too.’

To Vann it
did
all look the same.
‘Well, if I’m going to be here long maybe you can point some things
out.’

‘Really? I can show you how to hunt!’ she
said suddenly. ‘And to climb- but there are no trees. I could take
you to the forest, climbing is a very important skill.’

Vann tried to say something but Riley kept
going. She was very excited, telling him all the things he needed
to know. ‘You’re very delicate, Vann.’ she was saying, ‘so I can’t
show you how to fight, but I really should show you how to hide, in
case you get in trouble. And to not be so loud.’

‘I’m not loud.’

‘You’re very loud. You leave a path as
obvious as a… as something obvious wherever you go. It would be
easy to track you.’

Her sudden pleasure relaxed Vann. So he let
her continue, let her take his mind off the valkar. He didn’t think
he would mind letting Riley teach him to be sneakier.

The next day was blessedly normal. Messenger
went with Aerlid to learn Plains speech and to get an idea of what
the tribe was like without Riley looking over his shoulder. Vann
went with Riley and learnt how she spent her days. She also took
some time out of her schedule to lead him into the plains. And he
got his first lesson in how to move properly through the
grasses.

He didn’t know how she did it, but Riley
could move through the grasses without leaving broken stems or
swaying grasses behind her. She left no sign she had passed.

Riley was not really the best teacher. An
awful lot of her advice was, ‘stop doing it that way and do it the
way I showed you.’

And Vann would reply, ‘I
am
doing it
the way you showed me!’

‘No.’ she would say with infuriating calm,
‘if you were, you wouldn’t have left such a big trail to
follow.’

He would be reduced to incoherent cries. And
Riley would, as if she wasn’t the most unreasonable teacher in the
entire universe, show him again how it was done.

At least after he got something wrong she
would explain more slowly what he was to do.

‘How on earth,’ he said once they were
heading back to the human camp, ‘did you manage to teach the
gemengs
anything
?!’

Riley glanced at him. ‘What do you
mean?’

‘Riley, you’re the worst teacher I’ve ever
had!’

Riley stopped. Vann suddenly had a bad
feeling he’d hurt her feelings.

She frowned at him. ‘No.’ she said finally.
‘You’re just not very good. Gemengs listen better than you do.’

His momentary concern over her feelings
vanished. ‘You can’t blame the student!’

‘But what if the student’s bad? It’s ok
Vann, I’m very patient.’ and she smiled. ‘I won’t give up!’

There was really no talking to this
woman!

When they reached the campsite they ran into
Messenger and Aerlid. Aerlid took one look at his face and asked,
‘what did she do?’

‘I was teaching him to move through the
grasses without leaving a trail!’ Riley said proudly.

Aerlid sighed and looked on Vann with pity.
‘Riley, remember that discussion we had about teaching
fighting?’

Riley nodded.

‘Well, everything else is the same. You
can’t just tell someone to stop doing it wrong and do it
properly.’

‘But I showed him how.’

‘Do you remember when we first got to the
grasses?’

‘Yes.’ she said, almost indignantly, ‘but I
figured it out myself. I’m
helping
Vann. It should be
easier.’

‘Yes, but not if he’s too busy wishing he
could strangle you.’

Riley was taken aback.

Vann said nothing. The thought had crossed
his mind.

‘And you remember when I taught you how to
hunt, and at first you couldn’t do it?’

‘No.’ she said flatly. ‘I don’t
remember.’

Aerlid, who was about to say something, shut
his mouth. Then he tried a different tactic. ‘Ok, you remember how
you taught the gemengs?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, do that. Pretend he’s very, very slow
and stupid and has no idea what you’re talking about and thinks
what you’re trying to teach him is pointless.’

Vann heard Riley mutter something under her
breath that sounded very much like ‘
that
won’t be hard.’

‘What was that?’ he said.

‘Nothing.’ Riley smiled at him.

‘You’re maddening!’

‘No, I’m not.’ Riley replied calmly and
smiled. ‘Come on, Messenger. Mr Briggs is waiting for you.’ She
started walking towards the campsite with Messenger.

‘You get used to it. Eventually.’ Aerlid
said as he watched them walk off.

‘You must have an amazing amount of
patience, Aerlid.’ Vann said, watching them.

‘It’s either that, or go crazy.’

Vann followed after them. Really, he didn’t
mind that much though. The back and forth without worrying about
rejection was nice in a way. He felt like they were actually
friends.

Aerlid spent the next morning with Vann and
Messenger while Riley spent the morning helping with the gemeng’s
training. Around midday he led them back towards her tent.

As he approached her tent he heard something
he hadn’t expected; an angry valkar voice. The tent came into view.
Rose was there, berating a disgruntled looking Riley. Berating was
perhaps too soft a word. He thought he had a good idea what Rose
was so upset about. It was likely a combination of him talking to
Adila and not her as well as an ‘I told you so’ about having the
valkar walk on the ground in a populated area. His gaze lingered on
Rose. She was truly lovely. No one who looked at her could deny it.
Who could honestly look at a rose and not acknowledge its beauty?
But her beauty was softer than Adila’s. Adila was a magnificent,
glorious blaze. She was the sun. Adila would never be described as
‘lovely’.

Aerlid then remembered Vann. He glanced at
his face- the man was already enraptured with Rose.

Riley looked over at them. She caught sight
of Vann. Then she turned to Rose. Whatever she said just enraged
the Judgement Master further.

Rose spun on her heel and began stalking
over to them. Riley chased after her, alarmed.

‘She’s lovely…’ Messenger said. Aerlid
glanced at him, worried. He saw admiration, but it wasn’t the same
as with Vann. Aerlid relaxed slightly.

‘Rose, stop!’ Riley was calling.

The Judgement Master ignored her. She
stormed right up to them. Then she declared, her eyes on Riley, ‘I
will
not
change myself for a human.’ Then she looked at
Vann. ‘Why is he looking at me like that?’ she demanded.

‘You’re beautiful.’ he said.

Surprised, Rose said nothing.

‘Rose.’ Aerlid began as he gave Riley a
warning look. ‘Vann here has an obsession with valkar women. He
says that to all of them.’

Riley moved around Rose and grabbed Vann’s
arm. ‘I need to take him away from her, Aerlid, if she won’t
change.’

‘Wait.’ Vann said, as Riley made a move to
start dragging him away. His eyes were on Rose.

‘Yes.’ Rose agreed. ‘I think I’d like to
talk to him.’

‘What? Rose, he does this with all the
valkar. It’s not… not
real
!’ she said, using Aerlid’s words.
‘I need to get him away.’

‘Wait,’ Vann said more forcefully. ‘Let me
talk with her, please, Riley.’

‘Vann, you remember what you said to me? How
you didn’t want to feel this way? If I’m your friend, I can’t leave
you here with her.’

‘She wants to talk to me.’ he said, in
awe.

‘Let me explain things to Rose.’ Aerlid
said. ‘Come,’ he said to the Judgement Master and began walking
some distance away. Rose gave him a cool look. She turned to Riley
and said, ‘I expect him to be here when I come back.’

Riley glared at her.

Rose ignored the look and turned and
followed Aerlid.

‘What’s going on?’ Messenger asked.

Riley had forgotten about him. ‘Oh.’ she
wasn’t sure what to say. But he had already heard enough that
anything other than the truth might not be believable.

‘Riley,’ Vann was saying. ‘It’s ok. I’m ok.
I have lots of… you’ve met all the women I’ve been with, this
wouldn’t be unusual for me.’

‘Vann, go sit over there. If you move, I
will be very upset. Alright?’ Riley commanded, pointing away from
Rose.

Vann hesitated. Then he obeyed.

Riley sighed and looked at Messenger.
‘Aerlid says some humans get obsessed with the valkar. Vann is one
of those.’

‘Oh.’ Messenger said, his eyebrows rising.
‘I see.’ he looked over to Vann.

‘Valkar can change how they look, make
themselves appear human. It’s helped him before but Rose…’

‘I understand. I don’t think they enjoy
changing their appearance. Hmm,’ he looked over at Rose. ‘She is
very lovely… honestly if she wanted to talk to me I wouldn’t say
no.’