Chapter 6
They left the forest for soft rolling hills. The vegetation was made up of low grasses, with the occasional shrub. The wind was insistent and cutting as it blew across the hills. They had coats now at least, and warm bed rolls.
Aerlid didn’t think it would snow in these hills, though it was certainly getting very cold and unpleasant. Further north? Maybe.
Riley did not find the hills particularly interesting. She had stopped running back and forth and trudged along beside Aerlid in sullen silence. Aerlid ignored her sulking.
There was no large game in these hills, so perhaps it was good they were loaded down with enough meat to feed a family for a year. Still, if they chanced upon anyone out here (and Aerlid hoped they would), he fully planned to unload most of their burden on the unsuspecting traveller.
They had been travelling through the hills for almost two weeks. They reached the top of a hill and Aerlid stopped. Riley did too, after a few paces. He stretched and looked around. The sky was grey and cloudy, and there was nothing to see except hills in every direction. It would be easy to get lost here. He glanced down into the shallow valley they would soon be descending into. It had proved quicker to just walk over the hills rather than try and find a way between. He stopped in surprise. Was that a curl of smoke rising from the ground? He could see no hut or camp, or anyone down there at all.
Riley spotted it too and pointed. A hopeful gleam came into her eyes. Was something going to break up their routine?
They walked down the gentle slope towards the smoke. As they got closer Aerlid could see that some of the grass was raised and the smoke was coming out from under this. He got down on his knees and observed it more closely. To him it looked as if it was a trapdoor, hidden with grass and left partly open for smoke to escape.
He shot a look at Riley, she stood beside him.
‘Hello?’ He called into the smoky gap. ‘We are travellers! Is anyone there?’ He spoke in the language he knew had once been spoken here. He hoped it hadn’t changed too much. It was just one among many languages he knew and had taught to Riley. If this failed he’d try one of the others.
He could always just leave part of the meat by the hole. As long as he didn’t have to carry it anymore and it didn’t go to waste.
A thought occurred to him. As Riley watched Aerlid changed subtly in front of her. She noted it, but she was not surprised by it. She had seen none of the gemengs from the village do that- though she had an idea that they were quite different to her and Aerlid. She thought no more about that than she did about anything else.
The shine faded from his hair, the sense of vitality and strength drained from him and his skin took on a more leathery, lined look. His shoulders hunched slightly. ‘We are human, we are not gemengs!’ He called again.
No answer. Aerlid glanced at Riley critically. She didn’t appear too strange right now. Perhaps because she was still sulking.
‘We have food, if we leave it with you will it be welcome?’
No answer. Aerlid sighed and sat back on his haunches. Someone was there, he was sure. A human most likely, to live in such a craftily hidden home. What a human was doing out here was anyone’s guess. A pity it didn’t trust them though.
‘Stand up slowly. Keep your hands up and turn around.’
Aerlid fell still at the hard, cold voice behind them. So lost in thought was he that he hadn’t noticed whoever it was sneaking up on them. Seiaan, he thought idly, they speak Seiaan here. That was good, he and Riley spoke mainly in Akran, but Seiaan was similar (or the version he knew was), and less complicated, and he had taught it to Riley.
Slowly, Aerlid obeyed. He saw Riley had done the same. She did not look frightened, just curious, and he could see why.
A frown lit across his features as he saw who had ordered him up. A dull, greenish helmet covered its head and tough, opaque (he assumed only from this angle) glass (or some other material) covered half its face, leaving only a thin line for a mouth below. It wore a suit of what he could only assume was armour. There was plating of the same colour as the helmet over its chest and thighs and arms. It was attached to what looked like padding. The plating was very thin, and the padding covered it from neck to wrists to ankles. It hands were covered in gloves and it wore sturdy boots on its feet. In its hands it was holding a long thin something. Aerlid had no idea what it was, but considering the strangeness of its armour he could only assume it was some kind of weapon.
‘What are you doing here? This is a restricted area.’
‘We are travellers, we did not know it was restricted.’ Aerlid said calmly. How much damage could that thing do, he wondered?
‘Travellers.’ he sounded like he didn’t believe them.
‘Yes, travellers, faya.’ Aerlid said, using the Seiaan term for someone with authority.
‘You claim to be human.’
Aerlid glanced at Riley out of the corner of an eye. Could he claim her as well? ‘I am.’ he said, ‘my companion is not.’
The weapon quickly turned to point at Riley. She was gazing at it, with wide bright eyes.
‘We are carrying much meat with us, when I saw the smoke I thought someone might be willing to take it, that is all, faya. I meant no offense.’
‘Hmph. Where are you travelling to?’
‘Uh…the house of my mother.’ He did not know the name of the place they travelled too.
‘You’re taking a gemeng to see your mother.’
‘She is the daughter of my sister, faya.’ He lied, a hint of sorrow entering his voice. ‘A gemeng…’ he glanced quickly at Riley, who was paying no attention to him whatsoever. ‘I prefer not to speak of it in front of her, if it pleases you faya. My sister did not survive and I have been looking after her daughter ever since.’
‘Hmph. Your mother lives in Astar?’
Aerlid nodded, ‘Yes, faya.’ It was somewhat galling to be so obsequious to this man.
‘Fine. I’ll escort you out of the area. When you get to Astar you’ll have to be tested…I can’t say they’ll let the…gemeng…in.’
Aerlid nodded sadly.
He gestured for them to precede him. He walked behind them, the weapon still pointed at their backs. ‘You can put your hands down now.’ He said after a while.
‘What place is this?’ Aerlid asked after a while. He did not see any other humans or signs of habitation. Craftily hidden indeed.
‘Resource extraction.’ he replied after a few tense moments. ‘Very well defended.’ He added, a warning note in his voice.
What did he think they would do? Go find some big mean gemengs and tell them there were humans here? Aerlid did not respond, though he was curious nonetheless. He was pleased Riley wasn’t asking about the weapon though. Of all the things in the world, the one thing that engaged her curiosity was fighting and all things related. Yet she seemed a surprisingly peaceful child, at least compared to the gemeng children.
They walked for almost an hour before the guard called a halt. The hills here didn’t look any different to the hills anywhere else, though Aerlid supposed they were.
‘Keep walking that way.’ the guard pointed. ‘Stay away from this area.’
Aerlid looked around. ‘It all looks the same.’
A small smile tugged at the guard’s mouth. ‘Good. Just don’t wander to the east and you should be fine.’
‘Thank you, faya. May the Lord and Lady bless you.’
The guard frowned a bit and nodded, though he didn’t move.
‘Faya, would you take any meat?’
The guard hesitated. ‘Leave it here.’
With a smile Aerlid quickly removed his pack and began piling up meat they didn’t really need. He left a little under half in his pack. ‘Thank you!’ Aerlid said, with a deal more meaning than before, then quickly added, ‘faya.’
‘Off you go now.’ And the guard made a gesture with his weapon.
Aerlid took Riley’s shoulder and they started walking. He was aware of the guard watc
hing them for a while. Aerlid didn’t turn around to check if he left.
Riley, thankfully, did not ask about the ‘creature’, as she put it, until the next morning.
The hills had ended and they were back in a forest. Riley was happy. He had told her from now on they were only to speak Seiaan together, something she had accepted without comment. She was bouncing around and climbing and running all over the place. So much so that Aerlid ended up carrying her coat more often than she did.
The forest here was different to the one that Riley perhaps thought of as home, if she thought of any place like that. For one, there were no leaves and the trees were stark and bare. Riley knew what that meant. She gave the trees a sorrowful look, Aerlid a dark one and climbed anyway.
‘Will we be gone before it gets cold?’ Riley asked hopefully, speaking in Seiaan, not Akran. Her Seiaan was not as good as her Akran.
‘I do not think so.’
He stifled a laugh at the expression on her face. ‘We are almost there I think.’
‘We’re going to live here.’ her tone was expressionless.
‘Aye.’
Riley didn’t talk to him for the next few days.
Two days after Riley started talking to him again they found a road. Riley was thrilled. She had only ever seen a road in the gemeng village and so they were very new to her. And this one was much wider than the road in the gemeng village, though still only made of dirt. Aerlid looked back over his shoulder and saw the road came from the west. They had come from a more south-easterly direction.
Not long after that they found an encampment just off the side of the road. More ‘creatures’ patrolled the encampment and appeared to be in the process of moving people out of it.
‘You failed the test. You can’t stay here.’ They heard from somewhere within the camp, and more like it.
Riley stayed close to Aerlid, her expression closed.
The camp was small and consisted of tents and bedrolls in a rough circle beside the road. Gemengs roamed through it. Mostly, these gemengs were skinned, though there were some furry, scaly, strange looking ones too. Some sat shivering by fires, others watched the human guards as they hurried the gemengs who had already been tested out of human lands. ‘If you don’t leave within 24 hours of failing your test we will shoot you. Now move!’
Aerlid stayed on the side of the road furthest from the camp and they hurried on. They rounded a corner and stopped suddenly, for there was a line right in front of them. At the end of the line was a block of a building. Riley peered around the line at it curiously. Another thing she had never seen.
Aerlid raised his eyes above the block, above the trees and saw, barely visible, the tops of buildings. He lowered his eyes, his heart beating fast. He had seen cities that made anything the humans had ever made look like little more than the encampment back there, still…it had been a long, long time…
‘Excuse me, faya.’ Aerlid spoke politely to the man ahead of him. ‘What is this line for?’
The man turned around, revealing small, watery eyes with two small horns just above. ‘For the testing centre.’ he said, his voice so thick it was hard to understand him.
‘Thank you.’ Aerlid said and the man turned back around.
Riley was looking up at him. ‘We will stay in this line for now.’ Riley’s brow crinkled. Aerlid thought he would have to explain the theory of queues to her while they were here…another thing she had never come across. ‘Then we will go through that building, and perhaps after we will be in Astar.’
‘Astar.’ Riley sounded the word out. ‘Is it a tree?’
‘…No. It is a…it is like a village, but bigger.’
For a second she looked small and frightened. She moved a bit closer to him. Aerlid, a fond smile on his face, patted her head. Slowly and subtly, he began fading and changing. Riley glanced at him once and paid no more attention to his change.
The line moved forward slowly. As it moved he thought. Aerlid, he thought, was not a very human name. And they were bound to mispronounce it and call him ‘Erlid’ or ‘Arlid’ instead of ‘Ay-erlid’ (the first syllable was pronounced like ‘hay’ without the ’h’). Riley had called him ‘Erlid’ for a while, though that was excusable in a child, and certainly in a child who could not even pronounce her own name. She had decided Riley was the appropriate way to shorten her name and that was what she had been ever since.
To Riley he said, ‘Call me Arntar.’
‘Arntar.’ she repeated after a moment, testing it.
‘Now, what’s a good Seiaan family name…? Meilis. I’ll be Arntar Meilis and you’ll be Riley Meilis.’
‘Arntar Meilis. Riley Meilis.’ She mimicked, not showing the slightest interest in her new name.
‘That’s right.’ He told her.
And that was the end of that.
That night they camped in line, and the next too. Once again, Aerlid refrained from singing. He heard from the people around him that weapons weren’t allowed into Astar. The gemengs in line advised him to leave his weapons with the guards, if he failed he’d want them back. The next morning they were standing in front of glass doors, at the head of the line.
Two guards stood at the door, one on either side. A third stood in front, he was directing people into the centre.
‘You,’ he gestured at Aerlid. ‘You’re a gemeng?’ he asked.
‘No… but my companion,’ and he patted Riley’s head. She looked up and smiled beautifully at the guard, ‘is a gemeng, faya.’
‘Hn. Well, you can go in together. They’ll check you too, just to make sure. Some gemengs try and pretend to be human…’ he shook his head. ‘Oh, you’ll have to hand over your weapons before entering. You can get them back later if you fail, not that the testing should be a problem for you… if you’re a human.’
Aerlid calmly handed over all their knives.
‘We have to check you just to make sure.’ the guard told him. ‘Some people try to sneak weapons in…’
Aerlid made some commiserating noises and knelt down by Riley. ‘You must not be scared now.’ His hands gripped her shoulders tightly. ‘Just do what the nice people say and everything will be fine.’
A strange feeling was coming over Riley. She felt lightheaded and tingly. She nodded anyway.
Aerlid stood up and let the guards pat him down. The second guard remained by the door, his strange, long, thin weapon at the ready. After finishing with Aerlid the guard moved on to Riley.
‘Alright, that’s it. Go on through.’
Aerlid smiled and thanked them. Taking Riley’s hand he led her through the open doors and into the corridor beyond. The sword on his waist and on hers went by unremarked.
A woman, wearing less armour than the guards but still some, sat behind a glass window. She looked up at them, uninterested. ‘Gemeng?’ she asked.
‘No, I am human, my companion is a gemeng, fena.’ he repeated, using the feminine form of faya.
‘Hm. How old is she?’
‘Seven. If it is alright, I would like to stay with her, fena.’
‘Go to the door on the left. Off you go.’
Aerlid nodded and still holding Riley’s hand, walked to the door on the left, which opened as he approached.
It was a small room. A man in a coat was waiting. He smiled and asked them to step into the room. As they did he locked the door.
‘Ok, which one of you thinks he’s human?’ he asked cheerfully.
Aerlid repeated what he had told the guard and the woman. The man in the coat took some of his blood and took it over to some vials and strange looking instruments.
‘This’ll take about ten minutes. Why don’t you sit down and relax?’
Riley surveyed the room in wonder. She was more than occupied for the next ten minutes.
‘Well, look at that! You are human!’ The man unlocked the door and gestured them towards it. ‘Off you go! Have a nice day.’
The door slid closed behind them and they were
back in the small room with the lady behind the glass. Riley had been quite disappointed they’d had to leave.
They waited as the lady was talking to a long, lanky man. He moved off to the door on the right. Then the lady called Aerlid and Riley over.
‘Ok sir, you’re officially human.’ and Aerlid was graced with a smile. ‘I just have to ask you some questions.’
As he answered the lady made tapping motions on little squares set in front of her. Aerlid was fascinated, something even he had never seen! He managed to refrain from asking about it.
Aerlid told her his name (Arntar), his age, where he was born, why he had been travelling and so on and so forth… most of which was lies.
‘Ok, that’s all.’ the lady said after a quarter of an hour. ‘Now you’ll have to take the girl to the door on the right. Room 4. Have a nice day.’ She smiled at him again.
Aerlid murmured a response, smiled and led Riley to the door on the right. It opened as they approached, revealing a hallway with doors coming off it. He could see the doors were numbered one to six. As they approached door 4 opened for them.
Davi looked up as the door opened and a man and a girl (or was it?) stepped into the room.
He smiled welcomingly at them as he looked them over. The man, he had been informed, was human. There was a slight hunch to his shoulders, though his arms were nothing but corded muscle. Well, they’d have to be if he travelled outside the human lands- and survived. His hair was long and grey. His skin was lined and leathery with years of outside work, and his eyes, very pale eyes, were quick and calculating. He smiled at Davi, and his face brightened. Davi relaxed slightly.
The man carried a white coat in his arms. Around his waist was a belt, upon which a sword hung. He knew little about swords. They were gemeng weapons. For some reason, it didn’t occur to him to question why this human was allowed to carry a weapon.
He turned his gaze on the girl. Apparently, she was seven. If she was human, he would have put her around that age, but she wasn’t, and you could never be sure with gemengs. She was holding the hand of the man and looking around with wide eyes. She was paying Davi very little attention. She wore black. There was little else to say. It was just a plain, unadorned black suit that went from her neck to her ankles to her little black boots. On her waist, like the man’s, was a belt and sword. Her eyes were big and green in a pale face. White face. No. He looked more closely. White? His heart skipped a beat. No, she didn’t look human at all. He had seen white skinned humans. Most were freckly. Most were a little sick looking. He had never seen skin like this. She was perfectly white, there were no freckles or discolourations on her skin. And there was nothing unhealthy or weak about it either. It almost shone. He’d never seen skin that looked so vital and alive. His eyes dragged as he looked towards her hair. Black. But black like her skin was white. Black that was not different to white, but the same. More same than different. Black looked happy on her. Black looked positively cheerful- it looked like yellow! But wait…he blinked. It was still there. A flash of green in her hair, though the light hadn’t changed. He was momentarily reminded of green meadows and summer leaves. Then it was gone.
She wasn’t human. Oh no, definitely not human. (Though he’d never seen a gemeng like her either).
He smiled, his smile shaky. ‘H-hello. I’m Davi, you are?’
The girl’s eyes flicked to his and he wished they hadn’t. ‘My name is Riley.’ she said solemnly and somewhat stiffly, didn’t she introduce herself often? She held out her hand.
Davi smiled sickly and didn’t take her hand. He turned instead to the cupboards. ‘Well Riley, we’re just going to do a few tests, alright?’
Behind him Riley was turning to the older man. ‘Yes, you said it right.’ There was a touch of pride in his voice. Davi didn’t pay attention.
He turned back around, a needle in his hand. ‘We’ll take some blood first, is that alright?’
She nodded again.
But he didn’t approach. He shook his head slightly, his brain hurting as he looked at her weapon. Something didn’t seem quite right. But he said, ‘Uh… please remove your weapon.’
A touch of defiance came into her features. Somewhere in the recesses of his mind he thought, she doesn’t hide her feelings well.
‘Riley, I will hold onto it.’
‘But-’
‘Riley, please.’
There was something in that tone that made the monstrous girl sigh and unbuckle her belt. She handed it to the older man. The pain in Davi’s head subsided and he forgot about the sword.
Davi almost wished he was testing a giant furry gemeng with fangs that couldn’t speak. The strangeness of this girl was almost too much for him. Even so, he stepped forward and asked her to hold out her arm. She did so.
He hesitated to touch her. But he did, and rolled up her sleeve, and found her arm felt no different than a human arm. Perhaps she just looked strange? He was very surprised when the needle went into her arm without any trouble. Even more so when dark red blood came out, doubly surprised when the needle didn’t burst into flames. He’d seen that before. Those gemengs failed.
He moved away quickly and went through the tests automatically. Metal, wood, paper. Then put the blood in the vials and watch the colours…
Nothing burst into flames. Nothing corroded away. No strange smells, smokes, colours or fireworks. The liquid in the vials turned the right colour too, with layered yellows and oranges. He was horrified. No, she couldn’t be…she was a monster!
Despite his misgivings he turned back to the girl and smiled. ‘Alright, now another test. This one will hurt a bit, ok?’
Riley’s eyes narrowed in suspicion at him, though he didn’t notice as he gathered his tools and approached her. The girl was getting the feeling this male didn’t like her. Didn’t trust her. Feared her. She didn’t like it.
He measured the width of her shoulder. Narrow. ‘Hmm…you’re going to have to remove your shirt.’
Riley stared at him.
‘You have something under there, don’t you?’
Riley slowly nodded.
‘Ok, off it comes, I need your shoulder bare.’
Riley glanced at Aerlid, her expression pained. Aerlid merely nodded at her, so Riley complied. She pulled off her shirt and handed it to Aerlid. Underneath it she just wore a singlet. These clothes she had had all her life. She’d noted she couldn’t have made them from any animal she had ever come across, but she had never asked Aerlid where his and her clothes came from.
Davi turned back and measured the fat of her shoulder. Little.
‘Alright, now go stand over there.’ he pointed and Riley moved to stand on a red line marked on the floor.
Davi moved back to the cupboard, replaced the tools and got out the energy weapon. He changed the settings and moved to his position.
He raised the weapon. For a moment it hovered at her face. Then he lowered it to her shoulder. Pulled the trigger.
There was a zap and hiss, the smell of burning flesh. The girl’s mouth opened in an ‘o’, her eyes wide. She was very still. Then she began shaking.
Davi looked at her in shock. Straight through. He could see the wall through the hole-no more than a centimetre across- in her shoulder.
Aerlid, sickened, asked, ‘is that all?’
Davi nodded. Aerlid moved to Riley and touched her other shoulder carefully. ‘It’s alright now. It’s alright…’
Davi, his fear gone, moved towards the cupboard. He replaced the weapon and got out some medical supplies. He’d almost been…he chuckled to himself, he’d almost been expecting nothing. He’d thought the gun would not hurt her. He didn’t know why but that was what he’d thought.
He turned back to the pair. There was no blood- the flesh was seared shut. ‘Alright, I’ll just patch that up for you. You’ll have a big scar, perhaps some difficulty moving it, perhaps not.’
‘That’s the last test?’ Aerlid asked, his voice wobbling in his ef
fort to stay calm.
Davi did not notice. He nodded. ‘Yes. Go on back to Ingia and fill out some forms, and then you’ll be starting your new life in Astar!’