by Chele Cooke
When all the sacks were secure, Edtroka set off in the lead through the forest. The wide spaces between the tall trees made for easy passage, but they were all jumpy, especially as twigs and leaves rustled and cracked underfoot.
“Think we should hunt?” Dhiren asked an hour later, as yet another deer bounded off through the trees. “We’ll need fresh food.”
“You wanna carry a carcass as well as all this?” Wrench asked, adjusting the sack against his shoulder. A rifle hung on his other shoulder, swinging with every step.
“We’ll be close enough to a forest to hunt when we stop further north,” Edtroka explained.
“Where exactly are we going?”
“We’ll come out of here on the northern border of the forest,” he said. “From there, we head north-west. We should get to Nyquonat around sunrise, the day after tomorrow.”
“Nyquonat? Seriously?” Alec scoffed. “That place hasn’t been used in decades.”
“Speak for yourself,” Dhiren interjected. “Your tribes stuck to their own precious trails. You never knew the things the rest of the landscape had to offer.”
“You’re saying people still went that far?” Georgianna asked.
“Oh, absolutely. Great trade up there. Every year I got enough bear to make a killing in Adlai.”
“Killing,” Wrench chuckled. “I bet you did.”
“And what do you know of it?”
Wrench glanced over his shoulder, and the caution came back into his eyes at the sight of Dhiren’s annoyance. They’d all seen how easily he could take a life if he wanted. He had seemed amused by it. Even Georgianna, who knew him, had been terrified at that moment.
“Well, you were in the compound,” Alec said coolly. “I was there, what, an hour, and I heard a dozen rumours about you.”
Georgianna met Dhiren’s glance.
“Murder, three Adveni,” she said, remembering Dhiren’s explanation of his incarceration. “That they caught him for.”
“Three,” Edtroka snorted. “Yeah, right.”
He turned and walked backwards between the trees. The tsentyl communication device hung from his hand, but he didn’t even look at it. Georgianna had the feeling that he’d walked the trail through the forest many times to figure out the best route.
“That’s what my papers say,” Dhiren answered, and Georgianna was surprised to find that he didn’t sound defensive, but teasing. “Why, do you not believe me, Grystch?”
“No, I just don’t believe the people who caught you could be so stupid,” Edtroka said. “You were on the radar long before you were caught. The killings were always the same. You left a trail two-dozen bodies’ long. And that’s the ones they heard about in Adlai. I’m sure there were more.”
Dhiren’s expression of pride once again reminded Georgianna of a child who had been praised for his first kill. Only, it was becoming increasingly apparent that Dhiren’s experience outstripped that of every person there. Everyone perhaps, except Edtroka.
“And how many Veniche did you kill before that?” Alec asked bluntly.
“Worried I’ll knife you in your sleep?” Dhiren laughed. “I was a hunter, not a murderer.”
“Then why weren’t you with a tribe?”
“Because I didn’t want to be. I had everything I needed. I was never a people person.”
“Why am I not surprised?”
“Do the others know where we’re going?” Georgianna asked loudly, cutting them off.
“They have a different route,” Edtroka said and, from his small smile, she could tell he too was grateful for the change in conversation. “But yes, they will meet us there.”
“And then the Cahlven?”
He nodded.
They had left the northern border of the forest hours before. The sun had set and, while they were all stiff, tired and grumpy, they kept trudging across the open ground through the dark. Georgianna didn’t think that she’d ever been this far north. When they were younger, some of the hunters had gone on week-long hunting trips and brought back great quantities of meat and hide. But there had been no reason for her to go along with them.
The ground was different up here. It was still hard and warm, but different plants grew, and it was clear they had received a great deal more rain than they did in Adlai. Scattered trees and brush littered the landscape, which they had to navigate through in the dark. Georgianna tripped more than once. It was uncomfortably clear that the others had far more experience off the normal trails than she did.
Dhiren led them down into a small canyon just after sunrise, where they ate and slept for a few hours, despite Edtroka’s protests. He was eager for them to get going again and, seeing Georgianna continually yawning as they climbed out of the canyon, took her sack of supplies. She protested that she could continue, but truthfully, she was relieved. Her leg was in enough throbbing pain without adding the extra weight of a heavy bag.
Clouds dominated the sky and frequent rain soaked through their clothes. Even Dhiren was sullen and quiet by the time the sun finally set. The low-hanging clouds blocked out the stars, forcing them to walk in the pitch dark. They each tried to follow in Edtroka’s footsteps, staying in single file, but their exhaustion was making concentration difficult.
It was only as the corners of the sky turned pink that they all began laughing and groaning in relief. The ridge they’d been following had come to an end and a steep hill led down into a wide valley. Their weariness evaporated with every step. Mountains towered out of the horizon at the other end of a valley in which Nyquonat sprawled beneath them.
Nyquonat Lake stretched all the way to the bottom of the mountains. Their sore feet were cooled by the clear water as they sat on rocks, dangling them into the shallows. Dhiren asked Edtroka for wire or twine, which the Adveni pulled from one of the sacks and handed over. While the rest of them stripped down to as little as was considered modest and washed off in the shallows, Dhiren sat on his rock, toes waggling in the water, and wove the wire into a mesh.
Trees and lush, green grass bordered the lake, spreading out into a wide forest on one side. Further around the lakeside, Georgianna pointed out small collections of rudimentary houses, which Dhiren explained were for the free use of those who came this far north. Despite the suggestion that they move further around the lake and use a couple of them, Edtroka was adamant that they stay where they were.
Helped by Alec and Wrench, Edtroka set up the tents. Watching them from where she was sorting through the supplies, Georgianna deduced that the work would have gone much faster if Wrench and Alec had left Edtroka to do it alone, but she continued to grin as they repeatedly got it wrong.
By the time they were set up, with weapons and supplies hidden in the back of every tent, Dhiren had caught half a dozen fish using his wire net. He held each one by the tail and smacked its head against a rock. Then he laid them out and skilfully gutted them without fuss, humming a tune under his breath.
Instead of helping with a fire and cooking the fish, Georgianna crawled into the mouth of one of the tents and slept.
When she woke, the moon was smiling low in the sky. Someone had covered her in a couple of jackets and propped another beneath her head. A plate of chopped fish had been placed on the ground next to her and, through the opening of the tent, she could see Edtroka sitting by the lake, tapping on the tsentyl.
She sat up and brushed her hair out of her face. Stretching, she glanced behind her, surprised to find Alec on his side, curled up next to the supplies. She laid a jacket over his shoulders and a second over his hips. Crawling out of the tent, she grabbed the plate and headed over to Edtroka.
“Have you slept?” she asked, taking a seat next to him.
“I will,” he said. “I want to get this done and I didn’t want to leave us undefended.”
“Is everyone else asleep?”
“For the moment, yes. Cartwright finally gave up trying to keep an eye on me about an hour ago.”
“He’s not keepin
g an eye on you.”
“Oh no?” he asked, laughter ringing through his voice. “You notice that he chose to crawl over you, instead of using the free tent.”
Georgianna glanced over her shoulder and, sure enough, there was an open tent at the end, with nothing in it but supplies and air.
“He’s…”
“Protective,” Edtroka finished with a smile.
Georgianna wasn’t sure whether Edtroka’s smile was because he approved of Alec’s actions, or because he was amused by the thought that Alec thought he could protect her from the Adveni. The Belsa had hardly kept his opinions of Edtroka to himself. He’d been open in his assumption that the Adveni had hurt her since she’d been sold to him, an assumption that Edtroka had not corrected. Georgianna picked up a small cube of fish. It flaked in her fingers. She dropped it into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully.
“Do you think the others made it?”
“Their journey was longer than ours,” he said. “I purposefully sent them on a wider route to get here.”
“Why?”
“Because a large number of people heading north would have drawn too much attention. They headed west before doubling back.”
“That didn’t answer my question.”
Edtroka placed the tsentyl down on the ground between them and rested his elbows on his knees.
“I can’t say whether they made it,” he admitted. “To get into the systems that allowed me to find out would be to give away the use of this tsentyl.”
“Wouldn’t the messages do that?”
“I’m careful.”
“So careful that you broke into an Adveni compound and blew holes in it.”
He grinned broadly.
“Exactly.”
Dhiren was the first to spot the strangers. He hushed Georgianna’s and Edtroka’s conversation with an urgent gesture as he leaped to his feet, knife in hand. Wrench was still asleep in the furthest tent and Edtroka nudged Georgianna to go and wake him. Alec and Edtroka raised their weapons and the three men crept silently up to the tree line, waiting for the strangers’ approach. Georgianna woke Wrench, took a copaq, and returned. None of them scoffed or pushed her aside when she raised the weapon beside them.
The people coming towards them had weapons too and were wary in their approach down the same hill they had descended that morning. Georgianna could see a couple of the group turning to check behind them.
“Twenty,” Edtroka whispered.
“Twenty?” Alec hissed in surprise.
“Wrench, Dhiren, you cover the left. Cartwright and I will take the right. George, fire straight into the middle.”
Dhiren huffed and pulled a copaq from the back of his trousers, though he kept the knife in his hand.
“What if they’re friends?” Georgianna asked.
“Then don’t fire,” Alec chuckled under his breath.
The closer they came, the harder her fingers trembled against the copaq. She’d been taught how to fire one during the war and Edtroka had given her another rudimentary lesson after she’d finished eating, but she wasn’t sure she could hit anything. Even her lessons with a bow as a child had mostly been useless.
The group moved closer and one of them pointed to the tents on the shore of the lake. A single person started jogging ahead of the group and, as the others raised their weapons, Wrench lowered his.
Before any of them could stop him, he pursed his lips and let out a low, five-note whistle. It carried across the space between them. The jogging man stopped in his tracks. The whistle he sent back was similar but ended on a higher note. Wrench beamed.
“Keiran,” he shouted. “Over here.”
“You fucking idiot!” Edtroka snapped, but Wrench wasn’t listening. He brushed the Adveni off and strode out of the tree line. Georgianna barely hesitated before following him.
“Suns, buddy, you have no idea how good it is to see you!” Keiran called. “Thought we were going in circles.”
“Well, your orientation always was awful.”
The moment they met, the two hugged tightly, slapping shoulders and laughing like they did this every day. Georgianna hung back a few steps, watching the faces that began to emerge through the twilight, lighting up in recognition.
There were half a dozen Belsa with them, including Jaid and a confused looking Si. Taye spoke over his shoulder to a few Carae, Nyah tucked in under his arm. Georgianna even recognised a few people from the camps. Apparently they hadn’t simply headed out of the city; they’d gathered people as they went.
She was so busy scanning the faces of the newcomers that she didn’t realise that Keiran and Wrench had broken apart until Keiran kissed her temple. His hand slid across the small of her back. Glancing up, she gave him a weak smile. It didn’t matter what he’d said before. She didn’t care that he’d thought she wasn’t strong enough to handle Edtroka’s assignment. He was here and seeing him alive, laughing and cheerful was enough.
“Ny?”
Alec bumped her shoulder as he moved past them. He grabbed Nyah from under Taye’s arm and hugged her tightly. Taye stepped back away from them, a deep scowl on his lips. Alec laughed into Nyah’s hair and held her face with both hands. Taye walked past them silently, quickly immersing himself in a hushed conversation with two other Carae.
“Is that…”
“The guy from the compound, yeah,” Alec answered quietly. “Dhiren.”
Georgianna followed Nyah’s gaze. Dhiren ambled over, a few steps behind Edtroka, turning his knife casually in his hand. He beamed at them, a smile that was not returned by the young blonde.
“You found us alright, then?”
Edtroka clapped Keiran on the shoulder, earning a pained hiss from the Belsa. Keiran moved out of range of the Adveni’s hand. For a moment, Edtroka looked confused, but Georgianna quickly shook her head. He smiled at Keiran as if nothing had happened.
“Had to go a bit further west than expected,” Keiran said.
“You eaten?”
“Caught a couple rabbits yesterday morning, but I think everyone’s about ready to drop.”
Alec and Wrench had already begun leading the others over towards the shoreline. Comments about food and sleep passed back and forth with excitement. Georgianna spotted more than one curious and fearful look in Edtroka’s direction, but either he didn’t notice or didn’t care. Dhiren bounded back towards the lake, fishing net in hand. He looked so much like a dog that Georgianna forgot about the worried stares and laughed.
“How did it go?” Edtroka asked.
“Everything went as planned. Pods did a good job of destroying the podium in the square, and Taye said the collars went down alright.”
“The failsafe worked?”
“Just as you said it would, but things were pretty hectic. Even if any dreta managed to get away from their owners, I don’t know how far they got.”
“And Casey? I thought he was heading up with you?”
Keiran shook his head.
“He wouldn’t go.”
“What?” Georgianna demanded.
“Not without Lacie. He headed back into the tunnels. I’m sorry, but I don’t know if he got out.”
“Vtensu!”
Without another word, Edtroka stalked back towards the lake, people scattering out of his way.
Edtroka, Keiran, and Dhiren went into the forest in the middle of the night. Georgianna watched from the mouth of a tent as Dhiren disappeared amongst the trees with bounding steps. He’d become progressively more cheerful since they had left the compound. He hardly seemed to be the same person he had been before. Surrounded by new people, people who didn’t know where he’d been or why, he was quietly charming and helpful. He spent most of the evening catching fish for the weary travellers.
Most of the new arrivals were cramped into the tents, trying to get some much-needed sleep. Georgianna moved to the rocks on the lake shore, dipping her toes into the water as she scrubbed Ta-Dao’s blood from her shirt.
Dim light reflected from the water’s surface, framing a shadow at her left shoulder. He stood still for a moment, watching her, and then took a seat, leaving a wide canyon of space between them. She barely glanced up as she rubbed the soap bar against the stain.
“Have you come to apologise?” Georgianna asked.
“Excuse me?”
Alec turned a copaq over in his fingers absently, staring across the water with the stern expression he wore when he was deep in thought.
“Or admit you were wrong, perhaps?”
“I have nothing to apologise for, George. I did nothing wrong.”
“You told me to leave Edtroka in the compound. You tried to kill Keiran!”
He placed the copaq down on the rock between them, clasping his hands in his lap as he leaned forwards. His unkempt hair flicked across his forehead in the breeze, the ends just brushing his eyebrows as they knitted together.
“I thought we were okay,” he mumbled. “You barely left my side on the way up here.”
“Because I had no other choice,” Georgianna said. “I could hardly walk. That doesn’t mean it’s forgotten.”
She scrubbed harder at the stain, but it wasn’t coming out. It had dulled since leaving the compound, since they had left Ta-Dao to his fate in the compound, or death, but she couldn’t imagine that it would ever disappear entirely.
“Look, I did what I had to. I won’t apologise for trying to keep you alive.”
“Trying to keep me alive? What, at their expense?”
She balled her hands into fists, her nails leaving crescent grooves in the soft soap. Pink suds had stained her fingers. She stared at the stain on her shirt. If Alec had had his way, it would have been Edtroka’s blood she couldn’t remove from her clothing. It would have been his death that she were carrying with her, stained into her fingers. They would have headed back into the city. They might all have been dead by now.
