The Lord of the Plains (45 page)

Vann had crept out the back way and fled as
fast as he could without looking a fool down the street out to the
side beach.

When he arrived he slowed and glanced back.
No one was coming. It was darker out here and the lights of the
city felt far away.

He could hear the crash of unseen waves.
White foam caught the light and allowed him to imagine their
shape.

But it was dark and no one knew he was here
(hopefully). So he headed back into the city and down to the bay
instead.

He walked past the public beaches, the
eateries and throngs of people. Once the area near the bay had been
filled only with temporary buildings, the area was destroyed by
gemengs so often. Now people swam in the bay waters and ate dinner
on the shore in lovely, well- constructed eateries.

Vann kept going til he came to the piers. It
was quieter here. During the day it would be busy, full of fisher
folk and submariners and the ships they guarded. At this time of
night there were few people about. Further along were the Blocks.
On the other side of the Blocks, up at the other end of the bay was
Dr Ralis, his private villa and privately hired submariners.

Vann found a likely pier and wandered along
it to the end, where he sat.

He could see the shapes of ships, big and
small. There was the sound of water lapping against the pier and
the sides of the boats, the creaking of the sails and ropes of the
fishing boats. Further away, a hushed murmur was all that was left
of the sounds of the people of Coastside. There was the smell of
salt water.

Vann let the sounds and smells take him
away. Here, he wasn’t worried about anything.

He wondered about this city. And Astar. Over
four hundred years ago, they’d come out of the caves and Astar, and
later Coastside, had been born. Idly he wondered why that was.
Surely it would have been easier to stay in the caves rather than
venture out into gemeng infested forests to build a city. What had
led those people to abandon the safety of the caves?

It wasn’t the first time he’d thought this,
and it wasn’t a thought he found troubling. He just thought about
things. This wasn’t something he’d ever be able to find an answer
to anyway.

But he wondered. Was it the same feeling he
got after spending weeks under water in a metal tub that they
called a submarine? Had they wanted to see the sun? See the sky
above them and count the stars at night? Feel the breeze in their
hair and breathe fresh air?

But then, how could you want these things if
you’d never known them? Surely if you and everyone before you had
spent all their lives in a cave you wouldn’t want anything else,
because how would you know there were such things as a sky and a
sun? Perhaps if you had been out there, lived out there, and been
forced into the caves…

Privately, Vann had always wondered if there
had been a time before the caves. And then for who knew how long
his ancestors had spent in the caves they’d been yearning for the
wide open world.

But if there
had
been a time before
the caves, why had they gone into the caves in the first place? Was
there a time when they weren’t fighting the gemengs? Or perhaps
there had been
no
gemengs?

As he looked out on the waters of the bay he
wondered these things.

But he didn’t let them bother him, he just
pondered them, because these were questions he would never find
answers to. He just thought about them, from time to time, when he
was alone.

Chapter 34

Vann checked the clock tower that rose above
the Blocks again. He glanced back at the boat-filled bay and
started heading towards the dorms.

He’d only waited five minutes past the hour,
but submariners were
not
late for patrol. As he walked
through the mess of buildings he was mostly alone. Everyone who was
on duty today was already gone. Everyone who was off wasn’t going
to be spending their free time in the Blocks, that was for
sure.

He came to Adeis’ dorm and opened the door,
stepping inside. It was exactly the same as every other dorm,
except for one thing. The room was filled with rows of neatly made
beds, lockers at the foot of the bed and a table at the side. There
were a few personal touches here and there. Some of the men who
lived here had been here their whole lives, for others this place
was new.

Vann wasn’t the only orphaned
submariner.

What was different about this room was that
it wasn’t empty.

On a bed halfway down the left hand row a
half dressed person snored loudly.

Vann strode down the middle of the hall to
his soundly sleeping partner. ‘Adeis!’ he called loudly, ‘wake
up!’

He didn’t. Vann grabbed him and pulled him
into a sitting position, ‘wake up!’

Adeis just kept on snoring.

Vann slapped him, hard. ‘WAKE UP!’

Nothing.

Vann stood, looking down at the sleeping
submariner.

Vann had walked back to the Blocks with him
last night. He’d made sure Adeis hadn’t been drinking. He’d
reminded him of the patrol. How and when had he managed to get into
this state?

Even if he woke him up he wasn’t likely to
be much help. But that wasn’t the point.

Vann strode to the bathroom at the end of
the hall. He picked up a mug from someone’s side table on the
way.

No one else was willing to go on patrol with
Adeis anymore, and for good reason.

The mug filled with cold water, Vann strode
back to the blissfully unaware Adeis.

Vann poured the cold water on the sleeping
man’s face.

Adeis made some spluttering noises but that
was it.

Vann set the mug down. He rolled Adeis onto
his side and left.

They were supposed to take a boat out to
Arling Island and back. The fact that his partner was sleeping like
the dead didn’t stop Vann.

Coastside grew smaller behind him. Wind
played with his hair. The only sounds were ocean sounds, and the
sound of the motor.

This wasn’t exactly his first time coming
out on patrol alone, though he was well aware it wasn’t
allowed.

Personally, he didn’t think it would be any
more dangerous than coming out with Adeis.

But he didn’t think about that now. He was
out on the ocean alone, the wind in his hair and a boat that could
take him wherever he chose.

The trip out to Arling Island was a good two
hours. It was mostly uneventful. He spotted some ships moving up
and down the coast. He knew beneath the water would be submarines,
making sure the ships got wherever they were going safely. A few
sea birds were out flying. They were always very wary near the
water.

Watching them, he supposed the skies must be
safer than the water. Perhaps gemengs didn’t fly, or at least not
very well. Or perhaps fewer flew than swum.

As he approached Arling Island he narrowed
his eyes. The waters looked rough today. Coming closer he was
stunned to see it wasn’t waves making the waters so foamy, but a
gathering of fish people just off the island.

The fish people were common around
Coastside, however the submariners usually ignored them. The ocean
was full of enough gemengs that needed killing, no need to bother
with the one type that
didn’t
want to kill you. Yet Vann had
never seen so many fish people in one place before.

Vann, avoiding them carefully, landed on the
island and hopped out. Arling Island only had one beach, the rest
of the shoreline was cliffs. Vann pulled the boat up onto the
beach, away from the water. Then he looked out at the swirling mass
of fish people.

He pulled his radio from his jacket and
contacted Coastside. This was strange enough he felt he should
report it
now
and not when he got back late in the
afternoon. He wondered what the fish people were doing.

That done, he put the radio away.

He watched the fish people a little while
longer before deciding to pull the boat further up the beach. The
fish people never came on land, how could they? They had long,
powerful fish tails and the upper body of a human. A slimy,
mottled, greyish green human. They had rubbery lips and mouths
filled with pointy teeth, their hands were webbed. Mostly they were
bald, but some had what looked like seaweed for hair.

Still, while he knew they wouldn’t come up
the beach he felt it prudent to move the boat further out of their
reach. He’d be gone from the beach for some time while he patrolled
the island.

As he was pulling the boat up to the trees
the fish people began approaching the shore.

Then they started climbing out of the waves
and onto the wet sand.

Stunned, Vann watched for a few seconds
before he pulled his radio out again.

More and more were coming ashore. They were
pulling themselves up the beach with their arms, their long tails
flip flopping on the sand.

Soon the water was empty of them. They were
all on the island and moving further away from the water.

Vann put the radio away for a second time
that day. His lightning rod was in his hand.

The beach was covered in fish people.

As he looked around he noticed they were all
looking at the water.

‘Molk, molk, molk!’

Vann, startled, looked to the fish person
who was making that noise and pointing at the water. ‘Molk!’

It was looking at him.

Then it dropped its arm, looked at the water
once, and began crawling towards him.

Vann stood his ground. From the outside, he
looked very calm. Inside he was thinking if he attacked this fish
person the others would probably all come after him. His beliefs
about the fish people had already been shown to be wrong today. He
didn’t want to test if they could climb trees too.

But he certainly wasn’t going to become
gemeng food either.

The fish person, who had green seaweed
strips for hair stopped perhaps a meter away. It pointed at the
ocean again. ‘Molk.’

Vann glanced at the water. It was very calm
now that it wasn’t full of writhing fish people. He looked back at
the fish person. ‘Molk?’

The fish person nodded in a way that could
only be described as excited. Its thick, rubbery lips spread in a
smile. ‘Molk. Eat us. Stay away. You fight.’ it pointed at the
water again. ‘Molk.’

‘You want me to fight… Molk?’ Vann asked,
confused.

It nodded. ‘You friends. You fight things
that eat us. Molk eat.’

‘You think we’re friends?’ Vann asked in
astonishment, his mind tumbling around as he tried to make sense of
this.

It nodded again. ‘Kill bad things. Zap zap,
dead. Friends.’

Vann looked out at the still ocean. ‘What is
this… Molk?’

The fish person spread its arms out. ‘Very
big. Ocean lord. Goes round and round Molk’s land. Was here long
ago. Here now.’

‘Do you know where it is now?’

The fish person pointed. ‘Close.’

Vann looked again. The water was calm.

Still… he raised the radio. Before he could
talk something suddenly erupted from the water. It was long, like a
pillar, and shiny. Then it crashed down, down.

It took a second for Vann to realize it was
crashing down onto the
beach.
Sand exploded. His vision was
obscured but through the cloud of sand he could see fish people
scattering. But they moved so slowly!

Then the terrifyingly, impossibly large
shape within the cloud got bigger and bigger. Like a giant worm it
was wriggling
up
the beach
.

And up and up and it was still
coming out
of the water!
He couldn’t see the end.

It raised itself again, above the cloud. And
down! Sand and fish people went everywhere.

He realised it was far too big for him to
deal with alone.