Out of Orbit- The Complete Series Boxset

by Chele Cooke

  “I was at the evening count,” he announced suddenly.

  Georgianna frowned in confusion.

  “The brothers are not happy. Apparently they’ve been causing quite a stir since their new toy was sold out from under them.”

  She grimaced and Edtroka glanced at her out the corner of his eye.

  “You never told me that the brothers had wanted to keep you within the block.”

  “They wanted to stop me from helping inmates.”

  Edtroka hummed thoughtfully.

  “Yes, I can see how that would be beneficial to their little power struggle.”

  “People die in that block, Edtroka.”

  “I know that.”

  “It’s hardly a ‘little power struggle’.”

  He laughed.

  “They will never get out of that block. Whatever power they think they control, it is limited to four walls. In the scheme of things, it is very little.”

  Thinking of it like that, she supposed that he was right. The brothers may have had control of the block, but that was it. It was pathetic. They fought so hard and did despicable acts to control a large room that they had no chance of leaving. She was sure that Edtroka saw it the same way.

  “Will you tell me something? I want an honest answer.”

  “Have I been lying to you?”

  Georgianna frowned and glared at him.

  “Well, no, but you’ve not exactly been forthcoming with information. No one has.”

  He shrugged.

  “Why did you agree to buy me? At first I thought it was orders, that Maarqyn had demanded it, but why agree to make a deal with my brother and Keiran?”

  She could see that he wasn’t completely comfortable with answering her. He didn’t meet her gaze and he shoved his hands into his pockets, hunching his shoulders.

  “It wasn’t illegal, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “It wasn’t?”

  “They offered a decent price and your crime was minimal. If not for Maarqyn’s involvement, you would have been on the yard to be sold much sooner.”

  “He wanted me kept in the compound?”

  He turned further away.

  “No, I did.”

  She couldn’t think of what to say to that.

  “I know what Maarqyn does to his dreta and others under his command. I… I didn’t want that for you, so I stalled.”

  “He listened?”

  “No,” Edtroka grumbled. “But even for a man like the commander, there are channels to go through. I am not so easily overturned. I know how to use the system to my advantage. Before he had managed to secure your appearance on the yard, I had made my deal with Zanetti and I bought you.”

  “You are a surprising man, Edtroka.”

  Edtroka finally looked at her and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up under the effect of his penetrating stare.

  “I hope so.”

  “So, how does this work?”

  Edtroka had barely stripped off his jacket. She’d been thinking about it for most of the trip back to the small apartment, but she’d figured that he would not want to talk about their arrangement out in the open, especially not in the Adveni quarter, where others might question him.

  He threw his jacket over the nearest chair. Georgianna picked up the jacket immediately, and folded it properly, earning a rather surprised and amused look from him.

  “This?”

  “The arrangement.”

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out the bronze card he used to open the door. Turning it over in his fingers a few times, he stepped forwards and held it out for her. She took it cautiously, also turning it over in her fingers.

  “You are to keep this on you at all times,” he began. “If I send you a message, you are to return. Do you still have your tsentyl?”

  In all the surprises of the day, Georgianna had completely forgotten about the medic bag she’d left with the Belsa before her arrest. She had no idea where it was now. For all she knew, it could have been emptied and the supplies sold off. Somehow, she doubted Lacie would have allowed that to happen.

  “I think so.”

  “Well, tell me as soon as possible. If not, I’ll have to get you a new one.”

  “Alright.”

  “You answer every message immediately. When with me, you will act the part of my drysta, but when you are away, you can continue your life pretty much as normal.”

  “I can do whatever I like?”

  “For the most part.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Well, you cannot leave the city. If I find out you have left the city, even just for a stroll, I will revoke this arrangement.”

  “I underst…”

  “And if I even suspect that you are involved in anything unlawful,” he interrupted, the stern look on his face returning. “I will send you back to the compound.”

  “You wouldn…”

  Edtroka was before her in a second, his hands grasping her shoulders, and his dark gaze boring into her eyes.

  “Med,” he warned. “If I discover that you are involved with the Belsa, or in any other plans against the Adveni… I will sell you to Maarqyn myself.”

  There was silence.

  “Sit down.”

  He disappeared into the bathroom before she could question him. When he returned, he had a small square box with him, which he placed on the table. Tugging the table closer to where she sat, he took a seat on the edge, his legs on either side of hers. The paste within smelled sweet but unfamiliar. Georgianna flinched as he moved to dab it around her eye. He smiled and curled his finger under her chin.

  “Who knew the medic would be such a wimp when it came to getting help herself?” he mumbled.

  Georgianna rolled her eyes, but stayed still. She let him spread the paste in a thin coating around her eye and across her cheek. Then he took her hands and began smearing it across the backs of her fingers.

  “Thanks.”

  “What can I say? I like my drysta pretty, not bruised.”

  His attention was on her hands as she looked at him, watching the way his brow furrowed slightly as he worked. He’d helped her. He had stood up to Maarqyn for her, even though the man was his superior. Maarqyn could really damage him, but he’d done it anyway. She didn’t want him to think that he’d done it for nothing.

  “I wasn’t lying.”

  “Hmm?”

  “About Alec,” she explained. “To Maarqyn. I wasn’t lying. I honestly don’t know where he is.”

  “I know.”

  “You do?”

  Edtroka shrugged and smeared the last of the paste off onto his trousers. It soaked in almost instantly, the yellow paste disappearing in the material. Even though the work was done, he didn’t release her hand. His finger and thumb met where they curled around her wrist. She could feel his pulse against her fingertips. It felt steady and solid, the same rhythm as any Veniche.

  “Even if you had known the plan; you were caught,” he answered after a moment. “They would have been stupid not to change their plans after that.”

  “You think that they’d assume I’d talk?”

  “It is not an insult. Many people crack under the pressure, or they say whatever is asked to save themselves.”

  “I’m not like that,” Georgianna argued.

  Edtroka smiled, looking up to meet her gaze.

  “Perhaps not.”

  She gulped, unable to look at him even as he released her wrist and moved the table away from her. He collected up the box and was just placing the lid back on it when Georgianna looked up.

  “Edtroka,”

  “Hmm?”

  “What does ‘dessiq’ mean?”

  She’d heard the woman say it and had assumed it was an insult, but the woman had been disappointed with Edtroka’s response, angry perhaps? The woman was pretty and, knowing that Edtroka was a Tsevstakre as well as a prison guard, Georgianna wondered if the two had worked together, or perhap
s had been something more in the past.

  Edtroka took a measured breath and clicked the lid into place.

  “Dessiq is a term of endearment,” he explained, his voice low and deflated as he walked off to his bedroom. “It means brother.”

  Georgianna stared after him, her mouth hanging open, but no words formed. He disappeared through the door. Beyond the wall she could hear him opening cupboards, but he said no more. Georgianna doubted that he would offer further explanation without prompting, which she wasn’t ready to do. His moods turned easily and she didn’t want to offend him by pressing him with personal questions. She didn’t know anything about his family, he’d never revealed anything about his life prior to arrival on Os-Veruh. But was this woman really his blood relative, or was “dessiq” a name used by comrades who felt like family, as some of the Kahle addressed her?

  Either way, Georgianna knew that he had done more for her than she’d realised. Whether blood-related or not, he had gone against someone who considered him family in some sense. However, when he returned, she couldn’t bring herself to thank him.

  “It’s no wonder they caught you,” Edtroka announced as he spread a selection of cards across the table. “You can’t lie to save your life.”

  Georgianna stared at the cards in her hands and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth.

  “I can,” she defended.

  Edtroka leaned back into the sofa, beaming at her.

  “With words, yes, but not with your face.”

  “I’m meant to lie with my face?”

  She looked up from her cards, and taking a good look at the ones he had placed down on the table, she scowled and put her cards down before her. She still wasn’t certain on the rules of the game, but she was pretty sure that he’d just won again.

  Edtroka didn’t have to be back at work until the following morning, at which time he said she would be free to go back into the city if she chose. For the evening, however, after they’d eaten dinner, he had decided to teach her an Adveni card game.

  “Did you never lie to your parents?”

  Faltering, Georgianna picked at a thread coming off her shirt. She didn’t feel entirely comfortable talking about her family with him. He’d allowed her time away from him, for which she was grateful, but she wasn’t sure that she wanted the two parts of her life to blend together. It was safer keeping them separate.

  “About what?”

  “Suns, I don’t know. Where you were the night before, why you scored badly on a test.”

  “We didn’t have those.”

  “Fine. What about men? You never lied about who you were with?” he asked, pausing for a moment. “What about Zanetti? Did you lie about him?”

  Georgianna knew that she was supposed to hate him. Beck had asked her to spy on Edtroka and that would be easier if she kept him at arm’s length. She was supposed to be acting like a good drysta, remembering the lessons he had taught her and then using him to gain information for the Belsa.

  Instead, she grinned.

  “If I lie about you, will it make you happy?”

  Edtroka laughed.

  “Oh, Med,” he sighed. “It would make me incredibly happy, but it would be pointless. They would know you’re lying. You can see it on your face. You don’t look at people when you lie to them.”

  “What’s that got to do with it?”

  “You’ve got to be able to stare someone straight in the eye, make them trust you and then punch them in the stomach.”

  She thought about it for a full thirty seconds and still she didn’t know what he was talking about.

  “I have to what?”

  “Figuratively. You need to stop looking away, as if lying will hurt them and you feel bad about it.”

  Georgianna picked at the thread again.

  “And stop fidgeting too. It’s another thing that gives you away.”

  “It’s a lot to remember. Half the time when you ask me these things, I’m trying to remember which card means what.”

  Leaning forwards, Edtroka collected up the cards and began lining them up face down to start the game again.

  The truth was, it wasn’t just her confusion at the Adveni game that had her fidgeting and nervous. Beck’s request whirred around in her mind, floating to the surface every time she looked at the Adveni before her. Was he planning something by letting her go, as Beck had suggested? She hardly knew anything about him, but she was sure he wouldn’t tell her much, even if she asked.

  “Why did you come back?” she asked, reaching out and turning a card a quarter turn, the first dead card. She selected a card for herself and held it in both hands. “The Adveni.”

  “To Os-Veruh?”

  She nodded. Edtroka turned another dead card and chose his own.

  “I don’t know. Power? Greed? Nostalgia?”

  “You were nostalgic for a planet you’d never been to?”

  “Me personally? No, not in the slightest. I didn’t actually want to come.”

  “Why did you then?” Georgianna asked, her hand hovering over a card as she glanced up at him.

  “Because I am a soldier, not a commander. I do what they tell me to.”

  “You couldn’t have stayed on Ovtenlaist?”

  “I could have,” he murmured. “I didn’t.”

  Georgianna was about to kill the card when she moved and turned one on the other side of the table. Edtroka laughed and shook his head.

  She wasn’t angry that he hadn’t answered her question properly. There probably wasn’t much information to be learnt from decisions made over a decade before. Edtroka seemed not to know the answer, anyway. Maybe she’d been right when she spoke to Beck. Edtroka was a guard, he didn’t know anything important, though the questions still formed in her head.

  “What would happen if the pillars weren’t here?”

  Edtroka’s hand was halfway to a card when he stopped, pulling back. Georgianna froze. She hadn’t meant to ask him. The words were out of her mouth before she thought to stop them, but they were too late to take them back.

  “Why do you ask?”

  She couldn’t tell him about the information Alec had told her. She wasn’t even sure how much information he had gained from Maarqyn. It could all amount to nothing. Though, if what Edtroka said was true, she had to stop worrying about whether the lie would hurt him, or if the answer would hurt her. She met his dark gaze and shrugged.

  “Curiosity. It’s always been one of those conversations people have out in the camps. What would happen if the pillars weren’t there? We wonder whether the Adveni would retreat without their protection.”

  “It’s not something else?” he pushed.

  “No.”

  With five dead cards on the table, Edtroka turned the sixth face-up so that they could both see the painted face, a sun card. He selected his third card and turned it over in his fingers, seemingly unaware that he was showing Georgianna the face with every turn. She looked away. While she didn’t want him to think she was lying, she didn’t want to cheat either. She held her own cards against her chest, focussing on her hands, trying not to fidget with them.

  “It wouldn’t cause a retreat,” he answered finally, setting the card properly into his hand. “If anything, it would bring down stricter rules, harsher punishments.”

  “Even if they just broke, or something?”

  He nodded.

  Georgianna chewed the inside of her cheek as she killed another of the cards and selected her three final cards. Edtroka didn’t pause before doing the same. He took another glance at her, his suspicion slowly abating when she didn’t press the point any further.

  “That man yesterday, he was your brother, right?”

  Her fear over blending the new role in her life with everything she had been before rose inside her. She didn’t want to discuss Halden, or any of her family. She didn’t want to risk bringing harm to them if Edtroka became unhappy with her. However, she’d asked him personal questions, asked him fo
r information she knew she shouldn’t. He would only find it suspicious if she didn’t share anything of herself in return.

  “Yes,” she said. “His name is Halden.”

  Nodding, Edtroka fanned the cards out in his hand, but he didn’t comment. Georgianna held back a sigh of relief and plucked out one of her cards. She lowered it next to one of the dead cards and turned them both face up, taking glances at Edtroka, waiting for him to say something. When he didn’t, when he awakened one of the dead cards with one of his own, she finally pushed herself forwards in her chair.

  “Do you have any brothers?”

  He stroked the tip of his finger along the edge of his cards.

  “No. Well, no brothers. I have two sisters.”

  Crossing her legs and leaning back into the cushions on the sofa, she laid her cards in her lap and grasped her ankles.

  “Are you the oldest?”

  “Middle,” he explained.

  “Are they here too?”

  Edtroka took a slow breath. He stared too intently at his cards, as if they would give him an answer to something he wasn’t willing to say.

  “The oldest is.”

  “You don’t sound happy about that,” she suggested, to which he shrugged.

  “We don’t get on.”

  Georgianna grimaced and picked up her cards again.

  “What about the younger one?”

  “Dead.”

  He didn’t speak after that. After apologies and a respectful silence, Georgianna tried to prod him with questions about the rest of his family and why he had joined the Tsevstakre. After a while, however, she gave up, playing the game in silence, only to lose twice more. Whatever information Beck wanted her to get from Edtroka, she was going to have to find it herself.

  Most of the cabinets were locked. No matter what she tried, she could not get them open. She knew that one contained weaponry and Edtroka’s Tsevstakre uniform, so she hadn’t even tried to get into that one, but she tried each of the others, hoping that they would contain information she could use.

  It felt worse than she’d thought it would, betraying him like this. Edtroka was an Adveni. She knew that she shouldn’t feel guilty for trying to find information against them, but after he’d been so kind to her, had saved her from Maarqyn and the brothers and given her a semblance of freedom, she felt like she owed him.