by Chele Cooke
“It doesn’t matter who it is, George,” Keiran murmured, brushing some hair away from her face.
“We still have to go back.”
She glanced at him to find a frown on his lips. He rolled further onto his side, shaking his head.
“It’s too dangerous. You’ve been there twice already.”
“But we have to tell them, they have to be ready.”
Keiran cocked his head to the side as he considered it. Turning towards him, Georgianna propped herself up on her elbow, resting her head in her hand. She wasn’t sure whether Keiran was worried about her, or the plan failing, but either way, it felt nice knowing he thought about those things. She’d been spending more and more nights with him recently, and when she wasn’t there, she missed the familiarity of having him next to her. She was quickly finding it harder to sleep when his breath wasn’t there to lull her into her dreams.
“Taye’s too jumpy,” he said slowly. “It was difficult convincing him to stay back last time, he won’t again.”
Georgianna nodded.
“We don’t tell him then.”
Keiran raised an eyebrow, his frown melting into a smile.
“You’d be a good Belsa, all secrets and sneaking around.”
“Maybe I’ve just known you too long. You’re a bad influence.”
He laughed, an infectious chuckle that soon had Georgianna giggling with him. They melted back into the bed, and as fast as the laughter had come, it was gone.
“I could do a delivery again,” Georgianna suggested.
“Too suspicious,” he answered, shaking his head. When Georgianna turned her head to look at him, he was staring at the ceiling with a faraway look. “I’ve got some contacts. Maybe I can find out Guinnyr’s schedule, get a time when he’ll be out.”
“Is it a girl?”
Keiran didn’t answer, but as Georgianna was considering whether or not to push him on the subject, the oil in the lamp finally gave out, and they were plunged into darkness.
“Did she tell you where he was going?” Georgianna asked.
She didn’t look at him, her gaze fixed on her boots. As it had turned out, she’d been right, Keiran’s contact had been a woman. She cleaned floors in the Headquarters, and according to Keiran, had a keen ear for secrets. Georgianna appreciated the help, even if she hadn’t appreciated standing ten feet away while the woman flirted and asked when she could see Keiran again.
“Had some big-shot meeting.”
“You know who with?”
“Does it matter?”
Georgianna raised an eyebrow as she lifted her head to look at him. It was his turn to avoid her gaze, his lips set in a resolute line. She frowned.
“Who is it?”
He huffed and shoved his hands into his pockets.
“Volsonnar.”
Georgianna forgot to walk. She stood in the middle of the path, staring after him as Keiran took a few more steps before realising she was no longer with him. He turned around, curious, as she gaped.
“The Volsonnar? He’s important enough to have meetings with the leader of the Adveni?”
He hurried back to her, shushing her as her voice cracked. He slipped his hand into hers, entwining their fingers, and tugging her into a steady pace.
“We knew he was a big shot, George. Keep your…”
“Stop there!”
They froze, hand in hand on the path, not even daring to look behind them as a pair of boots approached. Keiran squeezed her hand, and she could feel the beads of sweat dripping down her wrist and between their palms.
The Adveni stepped around them, eyes narrowed and suspicious as his gaze travelled over them both.
“What are you doing out here?” the Adveni asked.
His moss green uniform was plated with dark grey armour that glinted and shone in the sunlight as he moved. Georgianna licked her lips. Agrah.
She wished they’d brought a delivery with them, or they’d told Taye so that he could have brought some product along. As it was, they didn’t have anything. She didn’t even have her medic’s bag, not that it would have made a difference. The Adveni had their own medics, they wouldn’t have called a Veniche.
“Personal call,” Keiran answered as smoothly as if it had been the truth.
The Adveni raised an eyebrow.
“You know people in this district?”
Keiran chuckled, a deep and knowing laugh. His grin spread broadly across his lips, and he nodded. He released Georgianna’s hand and slipped his arm around her waist, pulling her against him.
“Not yet. She was purchased.”
“You’re olcinyty?”
The Adveni gave her all his attention as his gaze slipped down her body. He smiled briefly, but his eyes remained cold and suspicious. Georgianna gulped as she tried not to sneer at Keiran for suggesting that she was a prostitute.
“Yes, Volsonne,” she nodded.
The Agrah didn’t look convinced, he reached behind him, digging into his pocket.
“Come on, wouldn’t you hire this if you got the chance?” Keiran suggested, hugging her a little tighter. “She’s very good.”
“And why are you here?” the Adveni asked, looking at him.
Georgianna beamed suddenly.
“We work as a pair.” She stepped between Keiran and the Adveni guard, reaching back and grasping Keiran’s hips. “Our clients have an… eclectic taste. One they’d rather keep private from the Adveni-run places.”
If the Adveni was shocked, he didn’t show it. In fact, as he looked at Keiran, his smile became almost curious. It took everything Georgianna had to keep herself from letting out her nerves by laughing.
“Can we pass, Volsonne?” she asked.
He looked back at her for a moment before nodding. As Georgianna passed him, she trailed her finger down his arm, putting on a giggle as Keiran took her hand and tugged her along.
“You made me gay?” he hissed as they rounded the corner.
Georgianna sidled up against him.
“Bisexual,” she giggled, kissing his shoulder. “And you started it by saying I was olcinyty.”
Keiran grinned, and dropped the conversation.
Keiran wiped the sweat from his brow and flicked it from his hand into the dry dirt. They’d been outside the house for over an hour, and hadn’t seen evidence of a single person inside. Knowing that there was an Agrah patrol out, they’d switched locations four times already, including once ducking into a bush to avoid an Adveni rounding the corner.
“I’m just going to have to knock on the door,” Georgianna said, picking a twig from her hair.
“You can’t be serious.”
“We can’t stay here all day just waiting for someone to happen to come out. Plus, Maarqyn will be back soon.”
Keiran reached out to grasp her wrist, but missed as Georgianna hurried across the road towards the house. He swore under his breath and ducked back.
A panel was mounted on the wall next to the door with a dozen buttons, each marked with a different Adveni symbol. She stared at it for a few moments, finger hovering over the buttons. In the end, she banged three times on the door instead.
“Get that!”
Even though it was distant, Georgianna could hear that it was the same man who had called Nyah back from the window on their first visit. Her eyes widened in panic, and when she turned to look back at Keiran, he was shifting his weight from foot to foot, looking like he was ready to run.
She took a step back, ready to run herself, when the door opened.
Nyah’s expression mirrored Georgianna’s panic as she stepped forward, pulling the door behind her, leaving just a crack open.
“Gianna, what are you doing?” she breathed.
“We were told that your owner had a meeting.”
Nyah shook her head.
“Cancelled. He’s furious about it.”
Georgianna grimaced, but shook it off. They had to be quick.
“I had to see
you. We’re doing it. Six days.”
Nyah checked through the crack of the open door.
“You can get us both out?”
“Yes,” Georgianna whispered. “You have to be ready to run, Nyah. Both of you. Can you do that?”
She nodded.
“Is Taye…”
Georgianna waved her hands, cutting Nyah off.
“He’s fine, Nyah, look, I have to go. I can’t be caught here.”
A voice echoed down the stairs, and Nyah pushed the door open again.
“Who is it?”
“Sales person, Volsonne,” she called sweetly.
“Get rid of them. Unless it’s the Volsonnar himself, get them the fuck off my land, girl.”
“Yes, Volsonne.”
Nyah glanced to Georgianna with an apologetic frown. Reaching forward, Georgianna squeezed Nyah’s hand.
“Six days, sun-high,” she reminded her in a whisper.
“CARTWRIGHT!”
Nyah almost had the door closed when Georgianna’s hand slammed into the wood, stopping her. They stared at each other as the call echoed around the house. Footsteps followed, and Georgianna stared through the gap, trying desperately to see up the stairs. Without stepping into the house, it was impossible.
Finally gathering her senses, Georgianna mouthed an apology to Nyah before hurrying away from the house, back towards Keiran. He watched her approach, falling into step with her as Georgianna didn’t even pause. He grasped her hand, pulling her into an alcove.
Georgianna’s breath was ragged. She should have known. She’d seen him in the compound, seen him standing in line to the podium in the drysta yard. That had only been a few days before Nyah had been sold.
Keiran manoeuvred her against the wall, letting her splutter and gather her breath.
“Did I hear right?” he asked finally. “Did he say…”
“Cartwright,” Georgianna breathed.
She looked up at Keiran, gulping.
“The Belsa in that house is Landon Cartwright,” she confirmed. “Alec’s little brother.”
The day after learning the identity of the second drysta in Maarqyn’s house, Georgianna was unable to stop thinking about him, or about the brother who had left him behind. A variety of scenarios had played through her mind, of Maarqyn keeping him locked up, or of Landon being subjected to the most despicable torture while Nyah was forced to listen.
With Crisco closed until later that evening and Jaid watching over Medics’ Way, Georgianna slipped from the tunnels and her thoughts, walking the long path that led out to the camps. She was certain, yet again, that she would receive a strong word or ten from her father. Yet as she walked, she found she could not be concerned about it. It was better to meet his worries with silence than tell him into what she had got herself tangled. Georgianna could already imagine her father’s reaction. She could picture the way his eyes would bulge and the way he would keep an eerie calm as he ordered Halden and Braedon from the room. Once alone he would shout and get angry, only quietening when he had shouted himself out, a deadly calm resolution that was not to be argued with. It was smarter not to tell him.
The heat did little to keep the Veniche from the path, unlike the Adveni who were taking every opportunity to shield themselves from it. Out on the building constructions, Adveni forced to oversee their creations stripped to as little as possible in the hopes of cooling their burning skin in the breeze while the skilled Veniche workers kept themselves covered to avoid the harmful rays.
Out in the camps, trade and chores continued as usual and Georgianna was held up from her destination three times by those hoping that she would trade for medicines. By the time Georgianna reached the Lennox home, she had a supply of beans enough for three stews, and had picked up some hyliha leaves. Their seller had been most impressed with the price she offered for them.
Away from the open door, the house was dark with creeping shadows. It wasn’t until she had called twice that her brother appeared from the kitchen, a hide bag swollen with liquid dangling from his fist.
“Well, if it isn’t the girl I used to call sister,” he mocked, giving Georgianna a stern look that was more and more reminiscent of their father every day.
“I don’t know, brother. I remember you would give me far more colourful names.”
“Yes well, were Da’ here, I’m sure he would think of something colourful for you.”
“He’s not here then?”
“Luckily for you, no.”
Georgianna smiled and slipped past Halden into the kitchen. Dropping her bag into the corner and the beans into the trunk, she turned to her brother, glancing down at the hide in his hand.
“You have a foal?”
Halden didn’t use the hide for anything but foals, though he had not had one to tend for a long time, even considering that it was the wrong time of year for it.
“Yeah, got him a few days ago. Ikal was in no place to take a foal, promised him to me soon as he knew the mare was carrying.”
Georgianna’s eyes widened. Foals fetched a hefty price, and Halden reared the best. It would easily keep them fed down the trail. That was, if they were planning on making it. She had shared her wish with Keiran to go, but it only occurred to her now that she had not asked her family. While the south would be much more manageable than Adlai once the freeze set in, they may already have chosen to stay where work was more readily available.
“Come out,” Halden said, moving to the back door. “He still needs the rest of this.”
She followed him to the back door, taking a seat on the step as she watched Halden urge the bandy-legged foal back to the hide. The gentle sound of the foal suckling lulled them into silence, Halden carefully brushing the foal’s neck while Georgianna picked absently at the grass between her feet.
“What’s the excuse this time?” Halden asked, with the same smirk as Georgianna offered when she chose to mock someone.
“What excuse?”
“The one you’re going to tell Da’ to cover why you’ve not been home.”
Georgianna rolled her eyes, taking a blade of grass between her fingers and carefully pulling it into two.
“No excuse. Work.”
“It is a classic,” he answered. “But you’ve used it far too often to be considered truthful.”
It wouldn’t matter whether she really was in Medics’ Way every day and the Rion every night, she knew her father would assume something different. She had been absent too many times before with too many different excuses. Plus, she figured she could probably have been a little more secretive about her off-work hours. It was just that she had always been close to her father, especially after her mother’s death. She didn’t want to lie to him.
“How about you tell me what you’ve really been up to and I’ll help you find a suitable cover?”
Georgianna glanced up at Halden, her dismissive smile faltering. As much as she hated lying to her father, she hated keeping things from Halden even more. Halden had always been there and had always told her the truth, even when he had told her before their parents that he was in love with Nequiel. She didn’t want to lie to him, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell him that she was risking her neck after what had happened to his partner. Maybe Keiran had been right after all: she should have thought of her family before this all became so messy.
“I wasn’t lying, Hal,” Georgianna insisted slowly. “I’ve had work in the Rion, and Keinah is too big to cover the Way much anymore, so I’m covering her shifts.”
Halden looked suspicious and she knew he was trying to sniff the lies out. However, having not been underground except in the main lines, there was no way for him to know. He frowned, weighing the hide in his hand, giving the foal another distracted pat on the neck.
“Jaid also had a thing,” Georgianna added quickly. “Si got caught out in the heat. Three days. He was pretty bad, so she’s been looking after him.”
Halden’s suspicion faltered as he let the hide
hang by his side. He frowned, keeping his gaze on his feet.
“That’s bad. Is he doing okay?”
Georgianna shrugged. Si had improved since his return, but Jaid had been right, he wasn’t the same man who came to check if she wanted dinner. The glimmer in his eyes had faded and the transformation was taking its toll on Jaid too. She was more serious, less likely to share a joke. Her husband had gone, and in some ways, had taken a part of her with it.
“It’ll get better,” Halden said. “Everything else is good though?”
She probably shouldn’t, not before the escape when so much could still go wrong, but Halden had been friends with Alec, the two had grown up together. Landon was a younger brother to Halden almost as much as Alec. She felt it was wrong to keep that news from him.
“Halden… I found out that, uh…”
“Out with it Gianna,” he chastised. “I promise it won’t be nearly as awkward as telling me you’d had sex.”
Georgianna grimaced, but was grateful for the intervention. He was right, there was no reason this should be awkward. She had told Halden far worse things. As he’d rightly pointed out, telling him that she had lost her virginity had been far more daunting a conversation.
“You know how I told you… I said about Nyah?”
Nodding, he gazed at her suspiciously. She looked down at her feet, scuffing her toe into the dry grass.
“I took the note into the compound.”
Halden looked back at her, silent. Georgianna wondered, if like Keiran, he had expected it of her all along.
“She had been sold, so I… I went to the house of the Adveni…”
“Oh, Gianna, what were you…”
“Landon was there.”
He frowned, but didn’t reply, his accusation dead in the air. Well, it was pretty much as she had expected. She had not exactly been a gaggle of words at the news either.
“He’s a drysta.”
“You’re sure it was him? You saw him?”
She shook her head.
“Then Gianna, you can’t be…”
“I heard his name. There is no one else, Halden.”
He didn’t answer her. He rubbed his hand over the foal’s head and down its neck. Georgianna leaned forward, resting her chin on her knees.
