The Lord of the Plains (79 page)

The night was fading, chased away by dawn.
The horizon was glowing gold, the sky a lighter blue. But where
they were, it was still dark. At least for a little while.

Aerlid supposed it could be worse, as he
gazed
up
at her. Riley had spent the last three hours
circling the city. At least if she fell now, she’d be falling down
onto the city. Though… considering the city’s defences, he didn’t
know if that would end up with her being here or on the ground.

The situation appeared to be improving. The
path was winding down, bringing her closer to the city. She was no
more than ten meters above the ground.

Aerlid was tired. And hungry. And he’d spent
the whole night being worried.

Finally, Riley jumped down off her last
step, and she was in the city. She waved and smiled at him. He
hurried over.

‘Are you alright?’

She shrugged, tired. ‘Do you have anything
to drink?’ she asked, her voice hoarse.

‘Of, course.’ he took her arm gently. ‘Sit
down.’

‘Aerlid.’

‘Yes?’

‘I won’t have to do that to get down, will
I?’

‘No, no, I can leave with you.’

She sagged in relief.

It was not long before a group of valkar
came over to see them. Notably, Dearlid was with them and a young
Moonsinger.

‘I’m here.’ the Moonsinger said, in Valkar.
She hurried forward. ‘Let me see what’s wrong with her.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with her!’ Aerlid
growled, standing in her path.

‘She took all night to get here,
Moonsinger.’ The woman said briskly. ‘Clearly, she suffers from
some severe, debilitating defect. Do you know what’s wrong with
you?’ She leant around Aerlid to ask Riley.

Riley, who could understand Valkar but not
speak it, just stared. She said in Plains speech, ‘I’m very
thirsty.’

‘Oh! Why is she doing that? Can’t she
talk?’

‘What were you doing up there?’ another
valkar was asking her. ‘Why did you sing your way up there?’

‘She can talk
fine!
’ Aerlid said.

‘I didn’t have much control. But I also
wanted to have a look. Please, can I have some water?’

‘Ah, you wanted to look.’ the man agreed.
‘Aela, maybe she’s not as broken as she looks.’

‘Really, you wanted to look? Well, that’s
alright. But are you sure you can see? If you’re a mute perhaps
you’re blind too. Are you blind?’

‘She’s not blind
or
mute
!’
Aerlid was exclaiming.

‘I think she must be very old.’ Dearlid was
saying. ‘Perhaps she’s just aging.’

‘Old! Really? I thought she was just ugly.’
Aela said.

‘You’re right, Aela, it’s not age. It’s
unattractiveness. I remember, she can’t be more than a hundred and
thirty two.’

‘I’m seventeen. Please, I need some water.’
Riley said.

‘Seventeen!’ The man exclaimed. ‘Why! You
can’t possibly be seventeen!’

‘She’s using a lunar calendar, you damned
ground lover!’

‘Seventeen lunar cycles?’

‘Noo!’

‘You said lunar calendar!’

‘Seventeen lunar years!’

‘Well that’s what I said, a hundred and
thirty two!’

‘Moonsinger, get out of the way-’

‘And you know being a ground lover is better
than having your head stuck in the clouds all day-’

And so on.

It took nearly half an hour for them to
realize Riley had walked off.

Morning had come by the time Riley wandered
away from the group. The city was unlike any place she’d ever seen.
Astar was a city of grey blocky buildings and paved or dirt roads.
Coastside was lovely and warm, but it was still stone and rock
covering the earth beneath. This was more… it was more like walking
down a mountain side. The ground was grassy and flowery. The few
paths were more like game trails through a forest, they were not
roads. And the city was slanted, as if it had once been part of a
mountain side. Plants and trees grew in abundance. There were
natural dips and hollows in the earth- it had not been smoothed and
made into a nice, easily traversable path.

All this was not to say there weren’t any
buildings, though they did not seem like buildings people would
live in, or shops or bakeries or… Riley couldn’t really tell what
function the buildings served. She saw a lovely fountain, small and
delicate, no higher than her shoulder. Yet when she approached to
try the water it faded into the sunlight, as if it was made of dust
motes dancing in the light. She saw what looked like a giant sea
shell made out of clouds sitting on a lovely, sunlit meadow. She
saw a tree house and a spindly tower made entirely out of sticks no
thicker than her finger. As she watched it swayed in the wind. The
only thing in common between all the… things, was that most of them
had a small light in front of them, like a firefly. Mostly the
lights were green, but she saw a few yellow. She did not know what
they signified.

Riley crossed a small stream. It was a very
strange stream- it tumbled over the rocks and pebbles and looked so
shallow she wouldn’t have been able to scoop any into her hands to
drink from it. And yet she saw large, brightly coloured fish
swimming around in it. Riley gazed at the stream for some time. She
could not make the two images reconcile, so instead she put her
hand in the stream. She could feel the pebbles, only her fingertips
were wet, and at the same time her arm was wet up to her elbow,
deep in a cold ocean, the place the fish were. Her stomach ached at
the conflicting information her senses were giving her.

Riley stood and shook her head. She didn’t
feel like trying to drink from that stream. So she turned from it
and continued walking down the slope. Ahead she saw what look like
a dome made out of mud with an opening in it, like a door, with a
curtain made out of long grass. As she passed it she suddenly
noticed a valkar climbing it. Riley stopped and watched as the man
who looked like a cloud sat on top of the dome. He looked around a
bit. And then he slid down the dome and started walking away.

‘Hello!’ Riley tried to catch his attention.
‘Do you have anything to drink?’

The man looked at her, he blinked, as if
trying to clear his eyes. Then he shook his head.

‘Do you know where I can get some
water?’

He pointed upwards, at the clouds.

Riley looked up too. When she looked back
down, confused, he was gone.

Her mouth dry as dust, Riley looked around.
He was nowhere to be seen.

The cloud man was not the only valkar Riley
had seen. But they had all been too far away and been walking too
fast- or perhaps ignoring her. It was easier to see them from far
away. That was, you could almost pretend they were normal. You
wouldn’t have to try work out how a stream or wind or sun or a
particular type of rock or plant could have gotten itself into a
human shape. The only similarity between them was that they all
went barefoot and had their hair unadorned and unbound.

Thirsty and annoyed, Riley continued down
the slope. She had not gone very far when suddenly everything went
crazy. The whole world flipped upside down, her stomach with it.
Bewildered and disoriented, Riley suddenly realised she was staring
at the ground far below. Her stomach lurched. Her eyes drifted over
the scene, not quite understanding how this could be. She spotted
her tribe- a conglomeration of tents spread out over the plains.
She looked down at her feet- grass and dirt. She glanced to the
side- the city, upside down. A valkar was walking towards her. The
woman glanced at her as she passed.

The woman walked on and did not fall to the
ground.

So Riley, gathering her courage, slid back a
step. And the world flipped again. Dizzy, Riley plomped down on the
ground. She looked around. Everything was how it should be; the sky
above and the ground below.

It took a while, but eventually she stood up
again. She decided to turn around and take a different path. Even
if it was safe, it was extremely uncomfortable.

Every step she took from then on she took
with some trepidation, prepared for the world to flip.

On the new path Riley passed a hollow stone
cube. Cylindrical holes had been carved out of the inside walls and
filled with dirt- flowers were growing out of them. A tree was
growing out of about five of the cylinders and curling around the
building. The floor was dirt. There was a light in front of this
building as well. It was yellow. Most of the buildings she saw had
had green lights in front of them.

As she watched, a woman who looked like a
river walked up to the cube garden and knelt down. When she rose
the dirt floor was a pool of sparkling water.

Riley hurried over to the woman. In Plains
speech she said, ‘can I drink that?’

The woman raised her eyebrows and said in
perfect Plains speech, ‘how would I know?’ and turned to walk
away.

‘Wait!’ Riley kept pace with her, ‘would you
mind?’

‘I don’t know that I would mind. You should
ask the pond if it would mind.’

Riley paused only a moment, ‘would the pond
mind?’

‘Why don’t you ask?’

‘I don’t know how.’

The woman stopped. After observing Riley for
what seemed an age her gaze drifted past her, to the pond. ‘The
pond doesn’t mind.’ she said. ‘But the tree thinks you asked the
wrong question.’

Riley frowned slightly, though she continued
on as if this was a perfectly normal conversation. ‘What’s the
right question?’

‘Oh, I wouldn’t know. I don’t often talk to
trees.’ and she walked away.

Riley walked back towards the cube garden.
She knelt down and looked sceptically at the water, then up at the
tree.

Riley stayed there for a few moments, then
she stood. Perhaps she should find something else to drink.

Riley continued walking. The ground was not
so sloped anymore.

Eventually, she came to a place where the
world shifted again. This was different than before, and yet in a
way more unsettling. She did not feel as if she was upside down-
she felt she was the right way up. But as she looked up, she saw
the ground was above her. Looking out across the city, she could
see the sky was below. Unsettled, Riley decided to continue
forward. She slid one foot forward, and then another. When nothing
catastrophic happened Riley went a bit quicker. Eventually, the
world switched back. She shook her head. The sky and ground were in
the right place once more. She kept walking.

Extremely thirsty, tired, and hungry, Riley
did not feel particularly hopeful when she came upon another group
of valkar.

There were three of them. They were all
gathered around a buzzing purple moth about the size of Riley’s
hand. She noticed then a large, grey animal with a horn coming out
of its face standing near them.

‘Hello.’ Riley said as she approached the
group, she glanced at the animal and then at the moth. She saw that
the moth’s top side was green. Startled, Riley took a closer look
at the moth. A tiny house was resting on the moth’s back, and the
green was starting to look more like grass than moth fur.

The valkar stopped talking and all looked at
her.

‘Hello.’ one of them said in Valkar. This
man looked like a rock.

‘Don’t do that!’ one of the others said, one
who looked like a river, ‘she won’t understand you!’

‘How do you know?’

‘Well she’s not talking Valkar, is
she?!’

‘You’re making an assumption that that means
she can’t. You there,’ the man who looked like a rock said to
Riley, ‘do you understand me?’

‘Yes.’ Riley said. ‘Please, I need something
to drink. I’m very thirsty.’

They all stared at her.

‘Well,’ the river man said, in Valkar, ‘what
do you drink?’

‘Water. Please.’

‘What sort of water?’

‘Fresh water.’

‘Obviously she drinks the same water the
humans do.’ said the third, the first he had spoken. He looked like
the wind.

‘I don’t know that that’s obvious at all.’
the rock said.

‘I do.’ Riley interjected. ‘I drink what
humans drink. Please.’

The river was staring at her intently. It
was a bit unsettling.

Suddenly, Riley got a very strange feeling.
She coughed and shook. It was as though she was filling up with
water. She couldn’t speak to say, ‘not like that!’

Then the feeling was gone, and she was no
longer thirsty.

‘T-thank you.’ Riley said, a bit
uncertainly. Now that her thirst was gone her hunger pangs hit her
hard. But she was afraid to ask about that, Aerlid had been very
strange about food around Adila.

‘Perhaps you can help us.’ The wind said.
‘We’re having some problems.’

‘What is it?’ Riley asked.

‘We’re trying to get this rhinoceros into
Caralid’s garden.’ the rock said.

Riley gaped at the large, grey, horned
creature. She’d never seen anything like it. And then she looked at
the buzzing, fluttering moth.