by Chele Cooke
When the Adveni arrived, they’d set up buildings, large metal monstrosities that held the different elements of their science. The buildings, or factories as they called them, created food and drinks on a mass scale as was rumoured to have been common practice centuries before, weaponry and special clothing that protected the body from firearms injuries.
In one factory, the Adveni had begun instructing the Veniche on electricity, an invisible force that powered the lights down below in the tunnels and the buildings in the Adveni-controlled areas. In another, they harvested water from the local rivers, purifying it before sending it through large constructed pipes that separated off into each Adveni-made building.
It wasn’t long before the district was renamed by the Veniche. While formally still called the Oprust district, amongst themselves, the Veniche named it Oppression City, a place where, when driven to desperation, A Ven might get work from the Adveni. The work was horrendous manual labour. Workers were forced into cramped areas amongst loud machines, and the money it paid was hardly worth what you had to go through to get it. Yet when a family was starving, Oppression City was often its only hope without resorting to illegal or compromising measures.
The market was still set up each day, but cramped into a single street. It was flooded with people trying to get to the stalls and attempt a decent trade. As such, it had become a haven for thieves and other criminals, who took advantage of those trying to get by. As the thieves moved in and business was forced to be done faster within the market, up popped those who wanted to trick and scam. Dried, crushed lemongrass replaced the rarer quinati, which cured aches and gave off the same smell as the lemongrass. Other such substitutions made trading for good products difficult.
Georgianna used to shop in the Oprust for supplies. It was easy and she liked giving the business to those who needed it, but the more dangerous trading became, the more she relied on the Carae and people she knew for her medical needs. Sure, the Carae may have charged her more, and they also took advantage by selling the mind-altering substances that people became so dependent on over time, but at least she knew what she was getting, especially by dealing with Taye, who she knew would never knock her over for a scammed sale.
The Trade Inn was one of the few remaining bright spots in Oppression City. Before the Adveni it had been used as a place to get specially made delicacies, sweets that most couldn’t make. Yet, as time wore on, and less people had the ease to spend money on such luxuries, they slowly began selling other food. It became a place for workers in the district to stop in and get a meal on their short breaks.
One of Georgianna’s reasons for liking the Trade Inn was that Oz, the owner, had worked in one of the Adveni alcohol factories for a time and now brewed the stuff in the back room, selling it at a much cheaper price. Many complained that the alcohol Oz brewed was akin to the oil used to clean the machines in the factories, but from how much business the place received, it seemed no one cared enough about that to turn it down.
Taye was sat at one of the back tables when Georgianna walked in. A watered-down wheat beer sat in front of him despite the time not really being appropriate for drinking. Before him, a man was hunched close, his hand jangling with coins whenever he moved. Taye leaned in too, obviously arguing with the man, but as the man got up to leave, Taye made no effort to stop him.
Georgianna quickly busied herself at the counter as the man passed, giving Taye enough time to pocket something that had been placed on the table, before she went over and slipped in opposite him.
“Georgianna!” He seemed surprised at her arrival. “What are you doing here?”
“Looking for you.”
He didn’t answer, but drank a mouthful of his beer and placed the glass back on the table. She shifted her bag onto the chair next to her and rested her elbows on the wooden table top.
“I went to the compound.”
Taye’s interest was piqued. He leaned across the table, almost knocking over his beer in his hurry to wrap his fingers around her wrist, pulling her hand towards him.
“Did you get it to her?” he asked. “What did she say?”
Georgianna gulped. This was the moment she’d been afraid of. She didn’t know how to say it. She didn’t know whether she should be blunt and simply tell him, or if she should calm him down and explain slowly. Carefully, Georgianna reached into the side pocket of her bag with the hand Taye wasn’t clutching between his own, and pulled out the small packet.
Taye’s gaze shot to it and his excited expression faded instantly to one of confusion.
“Gianna…”
“Taye, I…”
“But we had a…”
“She wasn’t there.”
Staring at her in shock and confusion, he released her hand.
“Nyah was…”
Georgianna paused. Taye’s face was so readable, always had been. She wondered how in the world he got through sales with a face as clear as a sign post. Yet, there it was, staring at her, waiting for her to admit what she knew.
“She was sold. Three days ago.”
He was on his feet almost before she realised what was going on. Leaping up, she grabbed him by the arm, forcing him back towards his seat. Perched on the edge of his chair, looking ready to jump up again at any moment, he glanced between Georgianna and the packet still lying on the table.
“To who?”
She shook her head and released his arm, letting him slide farther back.
“I don’t know. I was told by an inmate.”
“They could be lying!”
“Why would someone lie about that?”
Taye frowned at the table.
“I don’t know.”
She watched as he slipped into silence, head bowed, one finger slowly tracing the rim of his glass. For the first time in a long time, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. His mouth curved into a determined frown, and she pursed her own lips together, wondering what to say. She couldn’t tell him that the idea of finding Nyah and freeing her was ridiculous. It would be catastrophic if he wasn’t already thinking it. On the other hand, he would be angry if she suggested he was doing the right thing in leaving it be if he were already planning an attack. So Georgianna stayed quiet.
“Who would know where she is?” Taye asked, not looking up.
Georgianna furrowed her brow and shrugged.
“The guards at the compound, I guess. Apart from that…”
“You’re allowed in there, maybe they’d…”
Her mouth dropped open as she realised what Taye was suggesting. She could still see the look Edtroka had given her, as if he was suspicious of something. There was no way he would not realise something more was going on if she started asking questions.
“Taye! Do you know what you’re asking of me?” Georgianna replied, glancing over her shoulder to make sure nobody was around them.
“To be a friend, Georgianna!” Taye snapped back under his breath.
Georgianna’s nose wrinkled as a snarl threatened to hiss through her teeth.
“Friend?” she repeated. “And when you have this information, you’re not going to go straight after Nyah? If anything happens to her, they’ll suspect me immediately!”
“So?”
“So I don’t want to be buryd, Taye!”
Taye pushed his chair back sharply, stood up, and leaned over the table.
“You have it so sweet. You’re allowed into the compound, a decent living in that bar. You need to remember whose side you’re on!”
Georgianna could do nothing but stare open mouthed as Taye got up from his chair. She thought about how she helped the Belsa, that she was a good daughter to her father and a good sister to Halden. She helped her friends and did what she needed to in order to live. How was she on the Adveni side? She detested what they were doing in that compound, how they pulled families apart with their drysta yard.
No, she had to believe that Taye was just angry, that he was upset about Nyah and he w
as looking for the easiest outlet. That had to be it. Georgianna was positive that she wasn’t helping the Adveni any more than Taye was.
Taye stepped around the table, snatching up the packet and pocketing it. For a moment, Georgianna thought he was going to leave her there without another word, leaving them both angry with each other, but as she stared stubbornly at the other wall, Taye leaned over her.
“I’m getting Nyah out! You can either help me or not, but I’m getting her out.”
Georgianna didn’t have a chance to reply before he was gone from the Inn. She sat at the table with Taye’s abandoned beer, staring through the grimy window long after the door had slammed closed behind him.
“That self-indulgent, selfish vtensu!”
Keiran had worn a shallow rut in the dry earth as he paced continually back and forth, boot prints merging into one another. Dust clouds puffed out as each foot landed, but Georgianna had grown tired of watching them settle amongst the dry grass since Keiran had begun ranting. A rolled cigarette was hanging from his fingers, ash gathering on the end as he forgot to flick it away while he paced. Georgianna watched him silently from her position on the wall, her heels knocking against the brick as she swung her legs. She’d tried telling him not to be angry, tried slipping her arms around his waist and telling him to forget it, but she was as good at calming Keiran down as she was with Taye. The more she tried to change the subject, the more it came back to Taye and his—in Keiran’s opinion—ridiculous demands.
Georgianna had been closing down the bar for the night, sweeping the floor while Liliah and Penn put the glasses away and restocked the bottles behind the bar. As she reached the front of the building, she’d been caught by surprise to see Keiran leaning against the building opposite, a bottle of wheat beer hanging from one hand, a cigarette from the other. Glancing back towards Penn and Liliah, Georgianna had signalled to Keiran that she just needed a few more minutes before she locked the door behind her, carrying the broom back out towards the back of the bar. Seeing as Georgianna had offered to finish up many times for Liliah in the past so that she could get home to her partner Qiyan, Liliah had grinned broadly and quickly ushered Georgianna out of the side door towards the Belsa.
He hadn’t planned much, but he’d brought a couple of bottles of wheat beer, and with the promise that he didn’t have to be on duty until later the next day, they’d decided to spend a little of their time together outside the tunnels. They headed to the park that the Adveni had cornered off next to the Rion district.
The park was nice enough, with plants organised in straight lines and low walls cutting it off from the road. Once they’d hopped over the wall, Keiran had brought out the bottles, opening both and handing one to Georgianna before asking about her day.
She had started explaining about Taye’s reaction, and almost immediately Keiran had been up off the wall, his beer abandoned as he began pacing, throwing out questions that Georgianna was sure he already knew the answer to, making comments she was already painfully aware of. However, now he’d started, she wasn’t sure how to stop him. Every time she tried, he would find a way back to his annoyance with the younger Carae man.
“What does he think you’ll do? Walk up to the first Adveni and start demanding to know the location of his little girlfriend?”
“I don’t know. And he didn’t demand anything, he just…”
“He insinuated you were fucking grutt if you didn’t help him break half a dozen laws,” Keiran cut her off matter of factly.
Georgianna raised an eyebrow, watching him with a small smile. She was grateful that he was standing up for her, even if it was only the two of them listening, but his lecturing her on law-breaking was, admittedly, a little funny.
“Because you’re such a good, upstanding Veniche,” she commented sarcastically. “Shall we check that one with the Adveni? Maybe there has been a mistake over that pesky law of being a Belsa meaning an instant death sentence.”
Keiran rolled his eyes as he glanced at her and brought his cigarette up to his lips, inhaling a large breath of the sweet-smelling smoke. He finally flicked the gathering ash off the end, and Georgianna watched as it flittered through the air into the dry grass.
“That’s not the same,” Keiran dismissed her before pointing his cigarette at her. “And it’s not like you can claim complete innocence either.”
Laughing, Georgianna brought her knees up to her chest and perched her heels on the edge of the wall, wrapping her arms around her legs. Resting her chin on her knees, she nodded her head in determination.
“I certainly can, thank you very much!” she claimed happily. “I am just a medic. A nice, wants-to-help-others medic who always follows the rules.”
Keiran paused in his pacing, watching her for a moment before turning and stepping up to stand before her. With the cigarette still perched loosely between his fingers, he leaned over, placing his hands against the brick on either side of her body, smirking at her.
“You, Miss George, are anything but innocent.” His hand moved closer to her, his thumb stroking gently back and forth against her hip.
“That’s not a very nice thing to say.” Georgianna tried to look moody, but failed. She grinned instead.
“Nice, no,” he replied, cocking his head to the side as he considered it. “But true, yes. I don’t think there is a person alive who’d think you were innocent if they knew the truth about you.”
“Oh?”
“If the Adveni found out that you help the Belsa, you’re not an innocent young medic anymore. If your boss at the bar finds out you swipe a bottle or two practically every shift you work, you’re not the sweet, cheerful barmaid.”
Georgianna opened her mouth to argue. She didn’t swipe alcohol nearly as often as he was making out, but just because she didn’t do it every night, it didn’t mean she didn’t do it at all. Seeing as his point was relatively valid, she pouted at him, nodding for him to continue.
He leaned in closer towards her, his lips just shy of brushing her skin as he spoke. Georgianna shivered, his breath flowing over her lips and past her cheek.
“And let’s not forget your da’ and how innocent he’d see you if I were to tell him just how much you like it when I…”
“Alright!” she yielded, placing her hands on his shoulders and pushing him sharply away from her body. “Let’s just agree right now that you are never meeting my father!”
Keiran laughed as he grinned triumphantly and took another drag of his cigarette.
“Agreed.”
She nodded.
“So, I know you’re already un-innocent,” Keiran said slowly, the amusement from his voice gone in an instant as he took a seat next to her. “But that doesn’t mean you have to be stupid. He’s asking too much, George.”
The smile faded and she let out a huff. She should have known better than to think they were off that conversation. Staring out across the grass of the park, she couldn’t think what to do. She didn’t want to hurt Taye by saying no, but the risk of getting caught had been weighing on her long before Keiran had put it so bluntly.
“I just hate seeing him miss her like this.”
“Yeah? How much is your family going to miss you? I mean, forget the things you do for the Belsa, and how much time I’d have on my hands if you weren’t turning up in my bed when you’re bored, what would your da’ be like if you were caught? Or your brother…”
Keiran paused and she glanced at him. His brow was furrowed, his tongue darting out to wet his lips.
“Halden,” she confirmed.
His expression immediately loosened and he nodded.
“That’s it! What are they going to do if you get locked up?”
Georgianna frowned. She hadn’t really thought about how it would affect her family. She worried about things happening to them, but it was never the other way around. They’d already lost her mother to the Adveni and Halden had lost Nequiel. Neither her father nor brother would be happy if anything happened
to her. She would be inconsolable if anything happened to Halden, Braedon, or her father. She would go to the ends of the world for them, put herself in the line of five bears if it even gave one of them a slim chance of getting away unharmed. The way she saw it, she had been selfish to even consider leaving them to such sorrow.
The more she thought about it, staring out across the dry, yellowed grass, the words her father had constantly driven into her began replaying in her head. The same words her mother had told her as a child. The Kahle were family. It didn’t matter that they were not all connected by blood; they were family because they chose to be. They looked after each other. They cared like family and so that made them one. She couldn’t leave Taye to his sorrow and heartache any more than she could abandon Halden. Nyah was her sister, and Taye her brother, both by choice. If it were Halden in the compound or sold on, Georgianna knew she would not stop until he was safe, until he was free, so how could she expect Taye to leave Nyah to her fate?
“You’re right,” she exclaimed, nodding her head.
Keiran leaned back and let out a sigh, a thin stream of sweet smoke billowing up into the warm air. She pursed her lips, watching as he stared up at the sky. From the look of relief on his face, he obviously thought he’d convinced her, and he had.
“I have to help him.”
He sat up much faster than he leaned back and turned his head, glaring down at her.
“What?”
“I have to help,” she repeated. “If it were Halden, I would want help getting him out. So how can I not expect the same of Taye?”
“George, that wasn’t what I…”
She cut him off, reaching out and placing her hand over his, resting it in his lap.
“I know it isn’t what you meant, but it’s what I have to do. You won’t change my mind on this.”
Keiran groaned and untangled his hand from hers, reaching up and rubbing his fingers over his face. For a moment, he frowned up at the stars, his gaze darting amongst them before he finally looked at her, giving her a resolute glare.
