The Lord of the Plains (72 page)

‘What are you doing?!’ she demanded. ‘I told
you no fighting!’

The gemeng looked at her as if she was crazy
again. ‘I was finding my place in the hierarchy.’ he said as if she
was slow. Riley had a sudden feeling he was used to being the
toughest gemeng in the tribe. ‘How else am I supposed to know where
to sleep? You
gave
me your permission.’

Riley gaped at him. How was she to know
asking if he could find somewhere to sleep was the same as asking
if he could get in a fight with every member of her tribe?

‘Figure it out without fighting.’ she said
ominously.

And so her tribe grew by one.

And then another showed up. Riley was more
careful explaining things. There were, of course, some problems.
But the second newcomer settled in, as had the first.

And then another showed up.

And another.

The trickle turned into a flood. Every day
gemengs, alone or in small groups, demanded to challenge her for
control of the tribe.

‘What’s going on?!’ Riley demanded of
Aerlid, a panicked look on her face. ‘Where are all these people
coming from? Why are they attacking us? The tribe is already big
enough! I don’t want it to get any bigger!’

Aerlid gazed at her calmly. They were at
their own camp some distance from the tribe, which gave them at
least a little privacy.

‘Well,’ Aerlid said, ‘my best guess would be
you destroyed the structure of the tribes we ran into by
humiliating their warriors. If the leader of the tribe was among
those you stripped and tied up, they wouldn’t have been able to get
the rest of the tribe to obey them anymore. Daklis’ tribe is
probably out there somewhere too.’

‘So you’re saying by defending the tribe
I’ve destroyed all the other tribes, which are now joining me.’

‘Not joining you. They’ve found a cohesive,
functional tribe and want to take it over. I don’t imagine they
demand to fight you thinking they’re going to
lose
.’

‘B-but… how am I going to get the other
gemengs to leave us alone? If I defeat their leader, they join me.
If I humiliate them, they join me. And then we’ll just get bigger
and run into more tribes and we’ll have to defeat them and they’ll
join me too and… I don’t
want
them to join me! Gakra’s tribe
is
enough
trouble!’

‘Well, you could kill them.’

Riley’s expression spoke volumes.

‘I think the best bet would be to avoid the
other tribes. Large groups will be easier to avoid than these
remnants. And you know, they won’t
all
come and challenge
you. I’m sure the other tribes in the area are getting challenges
as well.’ he paused. ‘If there are any left.’

Riley looked at him helplessly, as if
begging him to offer her a solution.

Aerlid merely shrugged. ‘Well, now you know
actions have consequences.’

‘I already knew that.’ she said in a small
voice.

‘Did you think through the effect on the
social structure of the other tribes of humiliating their
leaders?’

Riley didn’t say anything.

‘Well, there you go.’

Riley looked like she was about to cry.

‘Well Riley,’ Aerlid said sternly, ‘perhaps
you’ll be more careful in future. Right now though, you have new
recruits to integrate and,’ he cocked his head as if listening to
something.

Riley heard it too and paled.

‘And a new challenger to deal with.’

‘Go away.’ Riley said flatly.

The gemeng hesitated. He was small for a
gemeng from the Plains. He was slightly shorter than Riley and had
a certain bird like delicacy to him. His face was very pale and his
dark eyes big. Dark, feathery hair was swept back from his face.
His clothes were loose and disguised his size, as if he didn’t want
anyone to know exactly how small he was. He wore a heavy cloak over
his back. There was a curious roundness to it, as if he were
hunchbacked.

Riley glared at him, her green eyes
narrowed. ‘We’re not accepting any new members to the tribe. I’m
sorry, you’ll have to leave.’

‘May I ask why?’ he asked politely, but with
a certain cautiousness, as if he were wary of her.

‘It’s too big.’

‘Too big.’

‘Much too big. Two weeks ago it was the
right size. Now it’s far too big.’

His eyes drifted to the side, as if he were
thinking. Then he asked, ‘why is it too big?’

Riley, startled, looked at him as if just
noticing him. ‘Why? Gemengs are difficult to handle. That’s why.
And I’m sick of being challenged every two minutes. I’m not going
to fight you. You’re going to turn around and leave me alone.’

‘I wasn’t going to challenge you.’ he said,
in that same cautious but brave tone.

Once again, surprise flashed across her
face.

His eyes drifted back to her. He held her
eyes. ‘I don’t want to challenge you. I accept your
leadership.’

‘That’s… that’s a very odd thing to say.’
She frowned slightly. ‘You don’t want to lead the tribe?’

He shrugged slightly. ‘No, just be a part of
it.’

Riley’s gaze moved past him to the four
gemengs standing behind. Then they moved back to him. ‘Who are
they?’ she asked.

‘From my old tribe. We…’ hesitation, ‘we
decided to stick together.’

Riley hesitated before asking, ‘what’s your
name?’

‘Karesh.’ he said.

‘Just Karesh?’

‘Just Karesh.’

‘Alright.’ She sighed. Another four.
‘Alright. There are rules I expect you to follow. No fighting
without asking for my permission. No courting either. Is that
clear?’

He started. His eyes wide, he said,
‘really?’

‘Yes.’ she said firmly.

‘And,’ the caution was back, ‘may I ask,
when do you usually allow fighting?’

‘So far? Never.’

‘A-and courting?’

‘Never.’ she said grimly.

And he beamed.

Surprised and pleased, she smiled back.

Despite her reluctance, Riley did not refuse
entry to the tribe for long. Those left outside were at the mercy
of everyone
else
outside.

What she hadn’t anticipated, though got used
to, was that those who first approached her making challenges and
throwing their weight around often brought in others after they’d
been accepted into the tribe. Mostly, those others were children.
Once or twice, a pregnant woman was among the others.

The gemengs hid their children somewhere
safe in the grass, and after they’d found a place in her tribe, the
children just appeared. They never informed her they were joining.
One day they were just
there
. And when she asked where on
earth these children-or pregnant women- had come from the gemengs
got very defensive. She didn’t mind, really, despite her
bewilderment. Any sign that the gemengs could care for something
was precious. She certainly wasn’t going to harm that.

Eventually, she had her warriors gather up
the remnants. She felt it better to get it over and done with all
at once. Rules were explained. Fights and challenges were dealt
with.

She was sickened at the size of her tribe.
It had gone from around fifty to closer to five hundred. Managing
that many people was a completely different game. Everyone needed
to be fed. Fights needed to be handled. She enlisted Gakra and some
of the original fifty to help manage her new tribe. Once it was
clear authority was given out not based on killing ability but on
ability to please her, some of the tension eased.

Gemengs were used to adapting themselves to
whoever was leading them after all.

And of course, scouting became extremely
important. Riley intended to stay far,
far
away from any
other tribe at all times. Five hundred was
way
more than
enough for her.

Chapter 66

Karesh was a curious man.
Riley
was
curious about him. He seemed so
different
from the other
gemengs. But he was slippery, in a way. He was very good at
blending into the background. Sometimes he was there and you
wouldn’t even notice. So it was curiously difficult to remember if
he’d been somewhere or not.

He was just part of the background. Every
attempt to bring him out slid right off him.

Riley didn’t have the luxury to be too
frustrated about this. She had plenty of other people to manage
after all.

Aerlid spent most of his days making rounds
of the gemengs with his ‘students’. They weren’t overly motivated
to learn and he wasn’t overly motivated to teach them. Riley,
however, had an annoying habit of dropping by during his lessons,
or asking for a demonstration of their skills, so he couldn’t just
ignore
them, which would have made everyone but Riley
happy.

He had three students, one male, one female,
and he wasn’t quite sure what the third was supposed to be. He’d
chosen the male because of his physical weakness. If he didn’t
learn a useful skill (not that the gemengs would consider medicine
a useful skill), he wouldn’t survive long. The female because she
was less abrasive than most of the children, and she also looked to
have the ability to affect things with her will. That was also why
he’d chosen the it. Those two had the greatest chance of learning
to heal a graze just by looking at it.