Chapter 77
The night was dark. Only low and weary sounds were made by the tribe; the sound of someone rolling over, a snore, a low whisper. It had been a hard day’s march. Riley was feeling the passing days heavily. She wanted to get back to the rest of her tribe. She wanted to prepare the caves. Everything needed to be ready before the ehlkrid came.
She sat outside her tent. The night was warm and she thought she might sleep outside. She looked up as Aerlid approached. As usual, his tent was set up near hers.
‘Aerlid.’ she said softly. He looked up at the sound of her voice. ‘Can we talk?’
‘About what?’ he asked as he sat down beside her.
‘I have some questions about the valkar.’
‘Go on.’ he replied.
‘Aerlid, what do they eat?’
‘Ah,’ he sighed. ‘Thank you for not asking Adila. Well,’ his tone changed as he went into answering questions mode, ‘it depends. Rarely do they eat. Adila can get all the energy she needs just by sunbaking. If she’s very tired, she’ll eat, but not what humans eat… Valkar do not kill. Plants or animals.’
‘By sunbaking?’ Riley repeated in whispered awe.
He nodded. ‘Rose should be able to get what she needs by walking upon the earth. With the city in the air it’s harder for her and those like her. The Queen’s Garden helps.’
‘What do they eat then, when they do eat?’
‘What Ralana gave you. She asked a tree for it. That is how the valkar get all of their materials, by asking the earth and the trees and the animals. Some valkar can also make things from what is around them, they can rearrange what’s there, what’s in the air and the dirt and make something. That’s very difficult though. Adila usually does that, she’s not so good at talking to plants.’
‘They’re very different.’ she said pensively.
‘More so than you can know.’ he sighed. ‘I think I must explain something to you, Riley. I don’t think you’ll understand, but I should say it anyway. Also, you must never tell anyone.’ his voice hardened. ‘Not Karesh, not Vann, not anyone.’
Riley let that sink in before she nodded. ‘Alright, Aerlid.’
He paused. ‘I- I need your promise. It’s not that I don’t trust you but…’
‘I promise.’
‘No. I can make it so you can’t say these words. Will you allow me to?’
She hesitated. Then she nodded. ‘Ok, Aerlid.’
He sighed, relieved. ‘Alright. Valkar cannot kill, Riley. It’s not that they don’t want to, or think it’s wrong. It’s just that they can’t. Not plants. Not animals, not anything. When a valkar says a human is violent it is not the same as a human saying a gemeng is violent. Humans can choose whether or not to kill. Valkar can’t.’
In the darkness, Riley watched him intently.
‘I doubt you can understand. It took the humans hundreds of years of living side by side with us to understand. To even be near a human who kills something to eat, merely so they can survive, is very upsetting for a valkar. The valkar created food for the humans who lived with us to eat. I think even Rose does not understand. That’s why her judgement upset her. It did not occur to her that a human could wish for peace and still be capable of murder. But that’s probably good, she has never lived with humans, never been forced into a situation where killing would make things so much easier. If she never understands the violence, or the reasons behind the violence, of humans, I will be happy.’
Aerlid was right. She did not understand. The words made sense but… she did not understand. And the screaming contradiction that was Aerlid did not help.
‘Riley, a valkar can no more kill than you can breathe water or fly. It’s not a choice. To even have the choice makes humans, even those who don’t kill, very violent to the valkar.’
‘And other animals?’ she asked slowly.
‘Other animals?’
‘Wild animals kill each other for food, does that bother the valkar?’
‘Ah… yes, but not nearly so much as humans. Animals do not have the same ability to make choices as humans, and even if a valkar were to go give a salad to a mountain lion, it could not eat it. Further, the whole world is so connected, if the valkar were to stop one animal from eating and keep it alive, what it would have killed may go on to kill something else. So it bothers them, but not nearly so much as with humans. Mostly, they do not try to unravel the web of connections, they accept it and ignore it.’
Riley nodded. There was silence. Then, ‘Aerlid,’ she began, ‘I have seen you hunt.’
He said nothing.
‘If you tell me this isn’t important, I will accept that. But what you say does not seem true for you.’
‘It is not important.’ his voice was a whispered sigh, hard to catch.
‘Alright.’
Riley fell silent, her mind turning.
After long minutes she said, ‘is that why the valkar helped the humans who had attacked them?’
He nodded. Sadly he said, ‘to be aware of someone else killing is nearly as bad as doing it themselves, for a valkar.’
‘So they can-’
‘No. But valkar will go to great lengths- ridiculous lengths to stop killing once they learn of it. Lengths a human couldn’t understand. That’s why being apart from humans is so important. If death happens and they don’t know, it can’t hurt them.’
Riley thought about this for a moment before saying, ‘that’s how humans defeated the valkar, isn’t it?’
Aerlid nodded. ‘Yes.’ he said bitterly. ‘The valkar did what the humans demanded in order to prevent them from killing. The humans never quite believed it was actually working until they had the valkar in chains. Riley, if you ever hope for the valkar to live anywhere near humans again, you’ll have to make it so they can’t give the humans anything.’ The tone he used said it was impossible. Once humans realised the valkar’s weakness, they could force them to do anything they wanted.
‘Those must have been strong chains.’ Riley mused. Everything he’d said was going round and round in her mind.
‘They captured a young Sunsinger first and forced her to make them.’ he sighed bitterly, his eyes closed. ‘And then they forced the other valkar to put them on themselves.’
‘But they are free now.’
Aerlid nodded. ‘Yes. They are free now.’ He did not elaborate, and she did not ask for details.
She reached out and touched his arm. It seemed a poor comfort. She did not know what to say; there wasn’t anything to say.