by Chele Cooke
***
A hand thumped on the side of the metal shack, rousing Georgianna from sleep. With a moan of protest, she stretched her body out, toes just peeking from underneath the blankets draped across her legs, flung away from her body in the stuffy heat. Even through her shifting dreams, she didn’t feel like she’d been asleep long.
Sleep claimed her once again as she relaxed back into the mattress, nuzzling her cheek against Keiran’s neck and the warmth of his skin. She was just slipping back off when two more blows sounded.
“Hey, come on, get up. Keiran, I know you’re in there!”
Georgianna answered the man outside with an unintelligible grumble and a smack of her hand against Keiran’s stomach. It was his shack.
Opening one eye as Keiran let out a pained breath at her attack and swore quietly, Georgianna glanced through the shadows, trying to gauge the time. It was impossible. This far away from the main encampment, they didn’t always have the lights lit, plunging them into a perpetual gloom.
“What is it?” Keiran grumbled, not even lifting his head from the pillow.
There was a static rustle of the tarpaulin being pulled back and Wrench stepped in. It wasn’t unusual at this time of year for blankets and sheets to be abandoned in the middle of the night, kicked and flung away from the skin as sleeping inhabitants tried desperately to find a little relief from the overbearing heat. As Georgianna’s gaze met Wrench’s, she shifted to shield the most intimate parts of her body from view while she reached out, groping around her hips for a handful of blanket, tugging it further up her body.
Wrench glanced down to the blanket before he had the decency to turn his head and stare at the wall. His manners, however, did not stretch far enough to conceal the grin that told Georgianna exactly how much he had seen. A blush burned through her cheeks though she couldn’t hide an embarrassed smile as she buried her face into Keiran’s neck.
“Good night?” Wrench asked.
“Wrench, stop standing there like a horny virgin,” Keiran grumbled.
Unlike Georgianna, he made no effort to cover himself up. Wrench and Keiran had known each other for long enough to have seen it all before.
“What do you want?”
Wrench glanced towards them before averting his gaze again, nodding his head sideways in Georgianna’s direction.
“Came to get you, Med,” Wrench said.
“Me?”
“Got a situation down the Way.”
While it wasn’t the first time someone had burst in on them early in the morning, it was certainly the first time the person coming in had not been looking for Keiran. Generally, people didn’t know that she stayed there, so anyone coming to the shack was looking for the Belsa sergeant. Yet Wrench was aware of her fondness for the man lying next to her, so he would have known where to look. The other medics knew about her home in the camps with her family, but that was a two-hour walk—too far to travel in an emergency. It was much easier to find Jaid or Keinah who lived with their partners in the nearby tunnels.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
She sat up, holding the blankets against her chest as she carefully manoeuvred herself over Keiran, who groaned as her elbow hit his stomach.
“Found Si,” Wrench explained, giving her a hard look.
Georgianna pursed her lips into a frown.
“And?” she urged, glancing up at Wrench.
“Not entirely sure, he’s rambling something bad,” Wrench explained. “But from what Jaid says, he’s been gone more than three days, and from the looks o’ the burns, he’s been out in the sun for most of it.”
“Shit,” Keiran groaned, pushing himself up onto his elbows.
Georgianna echoed Keiran’s moan as she waved her hand towards Wrench. He was shifting his weight anxiously back and forth, but quickly turned his back as Georgianna began reaching for her clothes.
Someone who had been out in the sun more than a few hours without proper protection would most likely be suffering in some way or another, but three days was sure to have caused lasting damage.
“Who’s down there?” she asked.
“Just Jaid at the moment. I was on guard down the black line and she was bringing him past, asked me to get you and meet her there.”
“I thought Keinah was…”
“Jaid sent her off,” Wrench interrupted. “Didn’t want her close if he gets upset.”
“If Si’s been out there that long, we might need to restrain him,” she agreed.
Behind her, Keiran was moving about, wrestling his way into his trousers. Georgianna threw his shirt over her shoulder.
“What was he doing out there for three days?” he asked.
“Don’t really know,” Wrench answered. “Most of the stuff coming out of him as she took him down there was nonsense. Jaid said he’d gone over the Adveni quarters on a regular job, but never came back. Figuring something happened over that way.”
“Why would he be in the Adveni quarters? What kind of job takes a Belsa over there?” Georgianna asked. “Seems a bit of a dangerous place to send one of you guys.”
“You’d have to ask whoever gave him the job,” Keiran said quickly, getting to his feet and stepping past her, reaching for the tyllenich rifle. “Lots of jobs go down without the rest of us knowing, best way to stay safe if someone’s caught.”
Georgianna nodded. That made a good deal of sense. She got to her feet and grabbed up her bag, slinging the strap over her shoulder.
“Come on then, let’s go,” Keiran nodded.
Wrench pushed back the tarpaulin, waiting somewhat impatiently until Georgianna had slipped out of the shack. The two Belsa followed in her wake.
10 Taking Them Down
They hadn’t even made the turning onto the Way when the first scream came echoing down the tunnel. Glancing at Keiran and Wrench, Georgianna broke into a run, holding her bag tight against her hip. Behind her,Wrench and Keiran’s boots pounded into the tunnel floor. Another female cry was followed by an angry shout.
Skidding to a stop outside the first car, Georgianna launched herself inside, falling forward in her haste. But the sight that met her stopped her in her tracks.
Jaid sat on one of the makeshift beds, her back braced against the wall as her husband Si leaned over her. Her arms were stretched out, hands pressed against her husband Si’s chest, but this wasn’t enough to stop the knife that was being pressed against her throat. She was shaking her head, words streaming so fast from her lips that they were almost unintelligible. Si, however, obviously understood what she had been trying to say as he shook his head, his long, ratted hair slapping against his reddened, raw skin.
“You’re lying!” Si growled.
“I’m not, I’m not!” Jaid cried, tears streaming down her face. “You’re my husband, Si. I love you. I would never sell you out to them!”
Wrench pushed past to grab Si. Turning his head, Si’s eyes widened in fury as he pointed the knife at Wrench for a moment before returning it to his wife’s throat.
“Stay back!” he screamed. “I’ll do it, I will!”
Georgianna grabbed Wrench’s muscled arm with both hands, yanking him backwards with all her might. Wrench stumbled back into Keiran who braced him, both hands on his shoulders.
“George,” he murmured, glancing between Georgianna and Si.
Georgianna could guess what Keiran was thinking. It wouldn’t be too difficult for the two of them to restrain the Belsa. The risk was whether they could do it before Si slashed at Jaid’s throat, one Georgianna wasn’t willing to take. Even if Si didn’t do any lasting damage, he would never forgive himself for hurting Jaid in a moment of madness.
Georgianna shook her head. She slowly reached up, lifting her bag over her head and lowering it to the floor. She kept her gaze locked on Si’s panicked, bloodshot eyes.
“Si,” she whispered.
Jaid gasped at the pressure of the knife against her skin. A drop of red blood
slipped smoothly down the metal blade and dripped into her lap.
“Si, look at me!” Georgianna said, a little louder this time. “Si, you don’t want to hurt Jaid.”
“Sold me out! Told them I’d be there,” Si rattled, his gaze flicking around the car too fast for Georgianna to spot what he was focussing on.
Lifting her hands and keeping them open towards Si, Georgianna watched him as calmly as she could, trying to keep the panic and fear out of her face. She could feel her blood pulsing through her ears, but she shook her head.
“Why would she do that, Si?” she asked.
Glancing to the side, Georgianna waved Keiran and Wrench back again. The two men had been inching forward. Reassured that they were staying put, Georgianna turned back to Si.
“Why, Si?” she asked again. “Jaid loves you, you know that. She wouldn’t have done anything to harm you.”
“You’re lying! Someone told!” he cried desperately. “It was safe. We were safe and then…”
“And then what, Si? What happened?” Wrench asked, his voice gentler than Georgianna had ever heard it. “Tell us. Maybe we can help.”
Si looked to Wrench, and for a moment the knife came away from Jaid’s throat allowing her to gulp in large breaths until sobs overtook her, choking. He hesitated, the knife hovering an inch away from Jaid’s neck as he watched Wrench suspiciously.
“No help,” he muttered, shaking his head. “No help. No one to know.”
“Si, you’re hurt,” Georgianna urged. “Let me help you. You’ll feel so much better. Please, just… just give me the knife so I can help you.”
Si’s reaction was instant. He leapt back away from them, swiping the knife fruitlessly.
Keiran and Wrench didn’t wait any longer. They surged forward past Georgianna, past Jaid, towards Si and the knife. As soon as they were past Jaid, Georgianna reached forward and tugged Jaid from the bed. Jaid let out a choking sob and buried her face against Georgianna’s shoulder, holding herself tightly against her.
Si let out an angry scream, slashing the knife as Keiran and Wrench closed in. Keiran swore loudly, his hand coming to his arm as blood sprayed across the floor of the car. Georgianna choked back a cry and hugged Jaid all the tighter. Wrench and Keiran wrestled Si to the ground with a heavy thump, the knife clattering away underneath one of the beds.
It took another few minutes for Wrench and Keiran to secure Si, Wrench kneeling across Si’s shins and Keiran pinning his arms above his head. Keiran was still bleeding, blood dribbling down his arm and soaking through his shirt from a slice near his elbow.
Georgianna let go of Jaid, handing her a cloth to wipe off her face as she placed a small dressing against the cut underneath her jaw. Jaid gave a weak smile and held the dressing in place for a moment before pulling it away to check how bad the injury was. From the look of it, it had stopped bleeding already; it would probably just sting for a day or so.
They didn’t use the restraints often as there was rarely a need for them. Georgianna couldn’t remember the last time she’d used them, though she knew exactly which box to open to find the long ropes. Jaid took one of them, helping Wrench to attach the cuffs around Si’s ankles, tears sliding down her cheeks throughout. Keiran held Si’s hands in place as Georgianna attached the cuffs around his wrists. Keiran let out a huff and rubbed the slash in his arm once he’d secured the ropes to the bed.
Grabbing up a larger dressing from one of the crates, Georgianna moved to Keiran, slipping the dressing through his cut shirt onto the wound and holding it in place with a bandage wrapped tightly around his arm. He might need a stitch or two, but she’d be able to look at it more closely once they’d calmed Si down and treated his burns.
“No!” Si screeched, tugging against his bonds. “No, Alec! Got to get Alec!”
Georgianna froze. Her fingers remained tangled in the bandage around Keiran’s arm where she’d been trying to tuck the end underneath. Her gaze shot to meet Jaid’s. Jaid looked back at her, confused. Georgianna looked away.
“What?”
“Get off me!”
Si pulled at the bonds, rocking his hips one way to the other in an attempt to throw Wrench off him. It was no use, the bonds holding him down were strong enough as it was without the fact Si had been out in the sun for three days, probably without much to eat or drink.
“Get Alec! He’ll tell you! He’ll tell you they sold me out!”
A pain tightened in her chest as she held back a dry sob. She’d fought so hard to forget, and now here Si was, bringing him up like he would walk through the door any minute.
Georgianna didn’t know what to do. She knew that there was no chance of giving Si what he wanted. She returned to her bag, opening it up and taking out a couple of small cloth bags, opening each until she found the ones she needed. She took out a pale yellow pill and dropped the rest of the packets. Moving to stand next to Keiran, she looked down at Si.
“Si, I need to give you a pill. It’s medicine, it’ll help,” she told him softly. “We’ll sort your burns and I’ll send these guys to get Alec for you, alright?”
Her voice cracked around his name.
Si looked at the pill in her hand and shook his head violently, his cheeks slapping against his arms. Keiran frowned at her for a moment, questions in his gaze that he didn’t put voice to. He shook his head, moving forward and grasping Si’s chin, prising his mouth open. Si’s protests slipped into an unintelligible gurgle of sounds as he struggled against Keiran’s hold.
Georgianna dropped the pill into Si’s mouth and pinched his nose hard as Keiran let Si close his mouth, holding his hand over it until he saw the motion of swallowing move down Si’s throat. Si began coughing, shaking his head again. Grabbing up a cantina of water, Georgianna returned to Si, placing the spout near the man’s lips.
“Water, Si,” she said.
Si reluctantly accepted the water, gulping down a half-dozen mouthfuls before he began spluttering and Georgianna pulled the cantina back, screwing the lid in place. There was nothing to do but wait and sure enough, within minutes Si had begun to relax.
“You’ll get Alec,” he murmured. “Get Alec, he’ll tell you.”
Leaning over Si, Georgianna nodded.
“We will, Si. We’ll get Alec. He’ll be here.”
She felt horrible lying to him, but she could see no other way out. Whatever had happened to Si, the sun had made him delusional. Maybe, for the moment, it was better to play on his delusions and keep him calm than to tell him the truth and risk his anger.
Georgianna checked that Jaid was okay before they set to work. She was definitely shaken, and Georgianna couldn’t imagine the pain the other woman felt knowing that her husband believed her to have sold him out in some way, but Jaid was a hard worker, and quickly assured Georgianna that she was fine before setting about treating the burns on Si’s arms.
“Jaid, do you know what happened?” Wrench asked, taking a seat on the bed opposite.
Jaid shook her head, glancing over towards Wrench for a moment before turning her attention back to her husband. She collected up some dressings and placed them next to her before grabbing a jar of pale blue powder and pouring a large amount into a clay bowl.
“Every ten days or so, Si goes off on some job the marshall gives him,” she explained. “He won’t tell me where it is or what he’s doing, just that it’s really important. The last time he came back, he said he had some great news and he had to tell the marshall straight away.”
“What was it?” Keiran asked, looking up from where he’d been peeking underneath the dressing around his arm.
“He wouldn’t say,” Jaid answered. “He said it could change things, but he needed more time and information before he would know for sure.”
“So, what changed?” Georgianna asked.
“I don’t know. He went off that evening and everything seemed fine. When he wasn’t back, I just assumed he had other jobs. Wrench and I went around to check for him wh
en I got off shift in the morning when you showed up, George, but we couldn’t find him. And then… that night Marshall Casey came down asking if I’d seen him, saying he hadn’t shown up for his duties nor checked in with him.”
Georgianna glanced at Wrench. He’d told Beck about Si not showing up. Had Beck known where Si was all along? Surely he would have known where to send people looking for him?
“When nobody had seen him, I began to panic. I found him in one of the northern tunnels, rambling to himself.”
Jaid took the cantina Georgianna had used to give Si water and poured a small amount into the powder. Returning the cantina, she began stirring the mixture into a thick paste which would be used to take the heat from Si’s burns.
“Saying?”
Georgianna glanced at Keiran. He was watching Jaid curiously but his gaze kept flickering to Si’s face. Si wasn’t one of the Belsa under Keiran’s command, but Georgianna could only assume he was curious as to this special job and why he hadn’t been told about it.
“Something about taking them down,” Jaid answered, brushing the back of her hand across her eyes. “That taking them down would give us an opening.”
“Take what down? The Adveni?” Wrench asked.
“I don’t know, I don’t think so, or at least it didn’t sound like it. It sounded, the way he was muttering about it, like something that would help against the Adveni, a target to destroy.”
“He didn’t say anything else?”
Jaid frowned and shook her head.
“That was when he started claiming I sold him out. He was so angry I barely got him back to the Way.”
“And Alec?” Wrench asked.
“Belsa,” Keiran explained. “Alec Cartwright.”
Wrench rubbed the back of his thick neck, glancing at Si.
Georgianna shook her head and stepped over to Jaid.
“It’ll be okay. He’ll be calmer when he wakes up,” Georgianna assured her.
Jaid glanced at Georgianna, a sadness in her eyes that showed she already knew how much damage had been done. There were no medicines they knew of to reverse completely the effects that being left out in the mid-heat sun could have on a person.
“I know,” Jaid whispered, putting down the bowl. Leaning down, she kissed her husband’s forehead, her lips lingering against his raw skin.
“But he’ll never be my Si again.”
11 A Twisting of Wills
Georgianna had been right to some extent. After waking up from the sedative, with his burns treated and having got some relief, Si was much calmer than he had been before. However, he was still muttering to himself when Beck came down to the Way to check on how things were going.
“You mind giving me a moment?” he asked, glancing around at the different faces in the small car.
They trooped from the car, all except Keiran moving a dozen steps or so away from the opening. Keiran stayed next to the metal shell, his expression twisted in curiosity. Jaid shifted her weight anxiously back and forth between her feet, and when the marshall appeared at the opening, she was the first to leap forward toward the car. She didn’t pause to speak to Beck as she pulled herself past him, vanishing inside.
“Anything?” Keiran asked.
Beck shook his head and jumped down.
“Nothing helpful,” he answered. “Maybe after a couple of days, once he’s settled, he’ll be more forthcoming.”
“So he stays here?”
Glancing into the car again, Beck nodded.
“I’ll station someone at the end of the Way. With the other end blocked, there won’t be anywhere for him to go.”
Georgianna clambered into the car whilst Beck ushered Keiran and Wrench a little further down the tunnel.
Si kept on muttering about Alec, asking where his friend was, and Georgianna could only continue with the lie, telling Si that Alec was out on orders from Beck, but he’d be back soon.
She felt awful about it. Si was her colleague’s husband, she didn’t want to lie to him any more than she would have her own friends. While she knew that it was better to tell the truth, the truth would only hurt him. Georgianna had asked Jaid about it, but she’d agreed: until Si was better, they wouldn’t tell him anything.
Georgianna had stitched the gash on Keiran’s arm before bandaging it again. It hadn’t been long before he and Wrench both had to get back on duty, leaving Jaid and Georgianna to watch over Si for the rest of the day. Georgianna knew she could have left, that Si would be more than safe in Jaid’s capable and loving hands, but she didn’t want to leave the woman alone, not when she knew there was a chance Jaid might need someone to talk to.
It was only when Lacie came down to the Way that Georgianna finally excused herself to head out. Lacie could keep Jaid company while the woman was unwilling to leave her husband, and Jaid would help Lacie if any emergencies came in.
Wandering through the Belsa territory, Georgianna made her way to the guard’s sight, coming up slowly to find Keiran sitting against the wall, his Tyllenich rifle resting across his lap. He glanced up, giving her a tired grin.
“How’s he doing?” he asked, shifting the rifle off to the side and patting the space next to him. Georgianna stepped over and pressed her back against the wall, sliding down to sit beside him.
“He’s…”
Georgianna sighed. Bringing her knees up towards her chest, she turned to look at him, resting her temple on her arms. Si had been agitated after the marshall had spoken to him, not to mention that Jaid had been rather indignant at being asked to leave.
“He’s still muttering, still thinks Alec will be down to see him any minute.”
“You didn’t tell him?”
“Couldn’t,” Georgianna explained. “The moment I even tried he got all freaked out, saying we’d sold him out. I had to change mid-sentence, telling him that Alec was on duty.”
“Didn’t know he even knew Cartwright,” Keiran admitted.
“All Kahle. Alec and my brother were good friends, back before all this.”
“Shit.”
Georgianna nodded.
Alec Cartwright had been another of those difficult disappearances. From what Georgianna knew, which was little, he’d been out on orders from Beck with another Belsa, Ashoke. The two of them had been scouting a building out and next thing anyone knew, Ashoke was dead and nobody saw Alec again. With a pass to get into the compound, Georgianna had kept an eye out for him, but with each trip, her heart sank and her guilt rose a little more. It looked more unlikely that any of them would see Alec Cartwright again. After a few weeks people stopped looking, his friends stopped expecting him to come back. Even his brother Landon gave up. Georgianna gave up on ever hearing his voice or seeing that look in his eyes when he believed she was being reckless. Alec Cartwright was dead. Now they just had to find a way to tell Si.
“Did you know him?”
Keiran’s tongue swept out, wetting his bottom lip before he shook his head.
“Not really,” he answered. “I mean, suns, it was two years ago. We may have had duties a couple times, but we weren’t friends or anything.”
Keiran was blunt, but Georgianna didn’t blame him: deaths were common, especially among the Belsa. If Keiran let every one of them get to him, he’d probably never pull himself out of bed. Better to care about the people he was actually close to, she supposed.
“Look, I’ve been thinking.”
Georgianna lifted her head and looked back at Keiran. He was staring at the wall opposite, his gaze occasionally flickering down the tunnel.
“What?”
He placed the rifle down next to him on the ground. Leaning forward, he rested his elbows against his knees, clasping his hands together.
“After Si and all,” he said slowly, “are you sure you should be taking that delivery?”
Georgianna stared past him down the tunnel, not sure what she was supposed to say. She’d agreed to take the packet into the compound for Taye and when she’d t
old Keiran, he hadn’t said it was a bad idea. If anything, he’d been amused that it had taken her so long to say yes, as if it was clear that this was the only option she would choose.
“I don’t…”
“Si was almost caught doing something, George,” Keiran interrupted. “He had to hide out for three days. If you get caught, you’ll already be in the compound. It’ll be a short trip.”
“I promised, Keiran.”
“I know, but he’d have to understand. Things change.”
“Not for him.”
Keiran let out a frustrated huff, wringing his hands tighter together. Georgianna was at a loss, she’d never seen Keiran worried, not about something personal. He had always been so carefree and charming, almost cocky even.
“It’s only small,” Georgianna assured him. “I can hide it under my clothes, it’ll be nothing.”
She let out a breath, leaning towards him. Resting her elbow on his shoulder, she gave him a bright smile.
“It’s adorable that you worry,” she murmured.
Keiran glanced at her and rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, tell me that when we’re sneaking stuff in to you.”
“Better make it alcohol when it’s me,” Georgianna teased. “This thing is tiny. No way there is actually more than a note inside telling Nyah that he loves her.”
Keiran’s eyes narrowed as he looked back at her. He sat up straight, and Georgianna’s arm slipped from his shoulder as he turned to face her a little better.
“Why don’t you just open it and memorise the note?”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why not? It’d be safer.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, Georgianna frowned back at him. The Adveni couldn’t read minds, she didn’t think even they had a machine for that. Still, the idea of reading a personal message from Taye made her feel dirty.
“It’s not mine. I can’t open and read Taye’s private words to her. It wouldn’t be the same.”
“Seriously?”
Georgianna shook her head, her nose wrinkled in disgust.
“Fine,” she argued. “What if it’s dirty?”
Keiran’s grin slid easily across his lips. In a single moment, all the worry and argument had melted away, replaced with a dirty smirk and a suggestive glance.
“Well, then you bring it to me and I’ll read it,” he answered, waggling his eyebrows.
Georgianna reached out and smacked him. If he thought she was letting him read Taye’s dirty messages to Nyah, he was going to be sadly mistaken. At her attack, Keiran laughed, grasping her wrist before she could pull away.
“Then again, I’m sure I could come up with much filthier things,” he wagered.
Pulling back in an attempt to free her wrist from his grasp, Georgianna rolled her eyes. Keiran’s grip tightened a little and he tugged her closer. Shifting her weight against the hard ground sent a spasm of pain through her leg, but as he grinned as her, she couldn’t bring herself to pull away.
“I’m sure you could.”
“Come over tonight, I’ll prove it.”
Georgianna frowned.
“I have work.”
“After?”
“Will you still be awake? You passed out pretty quick last night.”
Keiran nodded as he leaned in, settling a soft kiss against her lips.
“Promise,” he mumbled.
“Alright,” Georgianna agreed. “But if you’re sleeping, I’m throwing cold water on you.”
His laughter washed over her skin, sending an excited tremble through her. Giving him one last, lingering kiss, she pushed herself to her feet, freeing herself from Keiran’s grasp.
The way Keiran could turn the tables on her so quickly was unsettling. She was sure that he knew how quickly he could twist her around to his way of thinking, especially when it meant being close to him. She enjoyed his company and never found herself getting bored, even when they disagreed.
As she stepped over his legs, Keiran reached up and caught her wrist.
“Think about it, alright, George?” he asked. “The note?”
Her mind was already made up. Georgianna knew that she couldn’t back down from her promise now, especially not after Taye had been so happy that she’d said yes. Though, the way Keiran’s gaze searched her face so earnestly, all trace of the dirty humour and the promise of pleasure gone from his eyes, she found her resolve faltering. Gulping back the rising lump in her throat, she nodded, and walked away before he could twist her further to his will.
12 A Promise Sold
It was a week before Georgianna was scheduled to visit the compound again, and no new emergencies came through to her tsentyl. Each day leading up to the regular visit, she could feel her stomach fall a little further, her heart rise a little higher in her chest. She didn’t tell anyone that she was getting worried that this would go wrong, that maybe this time she’d be caught. Each time she’d passed things into the compound before it had been messages, lines she could remember by heart from loved ones of those who had been buryd. She didn’t want to admit that maybe Keiran had been right, that she was risking too much for Taye. Though each time she thought about leaving the package behind, Taye’s face appeared behind her closed eyelids with the knowledge that his fear for Nyah would lead him to do something far more stupid than try to slip an innocent package into the compound.
Georgianna hadn’t opened the packet Taye had given her over a week before. Even as she walked the tunnel to the east, the slim, flat packet stuck to the underside of her breast, she didn’t dare look to see what was inside. She couldn’t betray Taye by looking at something that was obviously so personal and important that he could no longer keep it in his possession. Georgianna wanted to convince herself that the packet was nothing but a message of love, a promise of continued devotion, but there was something that fell from side to side when she tipped it that stopped her from believing this.
Despite the object being slim and light enough to conceal beneath her shirt, with each step Georgianna became more aware of its presence against her skin. The closer she came to leaving the eastern tunnel, the heavier and more obvious it felt. She stopped twice within the tunnel, and once again on the steps leading out onto the path, slipping her hand up beneath her shirt to ensure that the glue paste was holding it securely to her skin. There could be no leaving it behind so close to the compound. Even if she could have peeled it from her skin, she had nowhere to put the packet that the Adveni guards would not find.
As she was admitted through the gates of the compound, Georgianna’s heart fixed itself in her throat, making it hard to speak even as the guard asked her simple questions. It was Edtroka again, his deep eyes continually suspicious under his dark cropped hair. Georgianna followed him inside and emptied her bag like every other trip, trying to make easy conversation with the man though she had to think carefully about every word.
When his hands found her body, smoothing his palms over her skin through her clothes, checking for hidden weapons or items, Georgianna could barely breathe, sure that Edtroka would feel her heart pounding through her chest or one of the sharp corners of the paper packet. It was only once he deemed that she was safe to go in that Georgianna finally let out a relieved breath.
The walk through the corridor to the block seemed to take forever, and when the door of the block finally slid closed behind her, Georgianna’s eyes instantly began scanning through the masses for that familiar face she needed to see.
Men came up to her for help, an infection here, a cut that needed stitches there, and with each patient, Georgianna wished that Nyah would come to her. She’d not seen the blonde, and like the trip over to the compound, each passing minute was making her anxiety to find Nyah that much worse.
She only had a couple of hours. Two hours to see whoever she could get to before she was expected to leave again. Time was ticking away and Georgianna’s hands were slowly becoming unsteady as she searched desperately for her friend’s gir
l.
Still, Nyah did not show her face.
Her tsentyl beeped, a warning that she only had a few minutes before she was expected to be by the door. Grabbing a slim, tall man by the arm as he passed, Georgianna looked at him desperately.
“Where’s Nyah?” she asked.
The man stared back at her blankly.
“Nyah!” Georgianna repeated quickly. “She’s short, maybe twenty-two? Blonde hair, pretty, in here for an attack on an Adveni!”
“Oh,” the man replied, lifting his head in acknowledgement. “She was taken, maybe two days ago.”
Georgianna stared at the man, her eyes wide as her frantic mind tried to figure out if Taye had been right that her punishment would not be permanent, if Nyah had really been freed for her crime.
“She was freed?” she demanded, she still holding his elbow.
The man let out a rough laugh and shook his head. He stuffed one grimy hand into his pocket, seemingly uncaring that Georgianna still had a hold of his arm. He dragged the other hand through a mess of long, matted hair.
“Nope,” he answered. “Sold. Fetched a hefty price too from what I hear.”
Georgianna’s mouth dropped open and for a moment, there was nothing she could do but stare at the man in shock. She couldn’t see how Nyah would have been sold. She had been in the compound for months, there was no reason they would have sold her so suddenly.
“Oi! Medic!”
The authoritative voice rang clearly across the block and all around, men and women alike hurried back towards their cells, away from Georgianna. Even the man she’d been holding on to wrenched his arm from her grasp and rushed back to a barred cell.
Georgianna, still stunned, turned her head to see the guard, Edtroka, standing in the block doorway, looking annoyed. Running with small, uncertain steps, Georgianna glanced desperately around the block, hoping for some proof that what the man had said wasn’t true. Hoping she would see Nyah up on one of the balconies, or peeking her head out of a cell.
There was nothing, only a sea of curious faces who watched as Georgianna gathered up her bag and returned to the block door.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled to Edtroka, slipping past him and out into the corridor.
“You should be more careful with your time, Med!” Edtroka warned her as he returned her to the table.
As Edtroka rechecked her bag and felt his way across her body to ensure that she wasn’t sneaking items out of the compound, Georgianna’s heart once again rose into her throat. She didn’t breathe in, though her body screamed for oxygen, terrified that a single breath would give away the packet beneath her shirt. Edtroka found nothing. She followed him mutely as she was escorted out of the compound and down to the gates, and was left to return to the city in the burning sun. So distracted was Georgianna that she almost walked straight past the tunnel entrance before she remembered to turn and go inside.
Once in the tunnel’s dark shade, she took a seat on the bottom step, leaning forward and resting her head in her hands. She let out a wracked sob, pushing all the air from her body, letting relief flood in and fill the spaces left behind. Blood thudded through her ears, pulsing past her temples under trembling fingers.
She had said that it would be alright. She had promised herself that there would be little risk. It was only as she’d been standing there, watching Edtroka search her bag, feeling his sweeping check over her hips and down the small of her back, that she realised just how close she had come. One wrong rustle of material, and she would have been walking back into the block. One sharp edge of the packet, and she would never see her family again. One wrong word, and she would be sold as a drysta… Just like Nyah.
There was no way she couldn’t tell Taye what she knew, that Nyah was out of the compound, but sold as a drysta to an Adveni. There was no way she would be able to lie and tell him that Nyah loved the packet and sent back promises of continuing love. If she told him those things, Taye would still believe that Nyah would one day be released. He would ask Georgianna to keep checking on Nyah and her growing guilt would stop her ever wanting to see her friend.
Georgianna blinked. In the shock, she’d completely forgotten about the packet glued to her body. Reaching under her shirt, Georgianna tugged the packet from the underside of her breast, hissing as the paste pulled painfully on her skin.
With the packet in her fingers, Georgianna wondered if she should return it to Taye untouched. Whether she should leave it closed so that he could keep his privacy with Nyah. However, curiosity got the better of her, and sadness at Nyah’s situation made her unwilling to fight the urge. She carefully opened up the packet and tipped the contents gently out into her hand.
It was less than she thought had been inside, but the single item unfortunately meant that much more. In her hand, a perfectly woven grass joining ring lay against her palm. Yellow from the sun and being disconnected from the earth, the grass had grown delicate and brittle. Georgianna could only wonder how long Taye had kept the ring in his possession, hoping for Nyah’s return to him. The grass ring was only symbolic, used for the ceremony. Afterward it would be replaced with one made of silver. The grass was used to show that everything, all natural elements from the grass to the sky, would know of their joining. It was an old tradition, one that had mostly gone out of fashion since the Adveni had arrived, but the meaning was clear just the same.
As Georgianna turned the ring over in her fingers, she looked at the other item that had been in the packet. On a small, torn piece of paper, in Taye’s almost illegible handwriting, he’d scrawled a Kahle promise.
I love you above all others.
Under sun and moon, you will be the only one.
My ship to carry my heart
I join myself to you for now and ever more.
Georgianna remembered the promise word for word, even before she’d finished reading the first line. It had been used in every ceremony she had ever attended, including that of her brother to Nequiel. In the darkness of the tunnel, alone and holding a joining ring that did not belong to her, a ring that might never be placed on the finger of the person it was intended for, and thinking of all the rings that now lay cold on lost partners’ hands, Georgianna wanted to cry.