by Chele Cooke
The grey door slid open, revealing a small, tiled room. Edtroka stepped back, waving for Georgianna to proceed. She stepped forwards. She’d never seen this room before. Along the far wall, a line of five metal shower heads sprouted from the tiles with a dial underneath each one. A series of grates were evenly spaced through the centre of the uneven floor. Next to the door, a low stone bench had been set into the wall. Resting on it was a towel, some Adveni products for washing and a simple beige smock.
She turned to Edtroka. The silent question lingered between them. Rather than answer, Edtroka raised one eyebrow and waved her forwards before crossing his arms over his chest.
“You’re not even going to close the door?”
“Can’t leave you alone.”
His voice was cold and flat, but Georgianna was certain she saw expectation and amusement in his eyes. She loathed him at that moment, far more than she loathed Maarqyn. To be sold was bad enough, but he was teasing her, heightening her fear by not telling her what was going on. Worse still, she was to be humiliated beforehand.
Over the weeks in the compound she had become accustomed to the lack of privacy. Washing with water from the basin in her cell was a difficult task to complete with any semblance of dignity. The cells opened up to the rest of the block, but even then she had been able to find ways to hide her body from those who would peer through the bars.
Spite raged through her. She had always felt moderately comfortable with her own body. During the early years of her life with the Kahle tribe, it had been impossible to keep her body entirely private, especially on the trail as they’d moved north and south to escape Os-Veruh’s volatile seasons. However, being forced to undress and shower in front of a man who hadn’t so much as looked at her in weeks made her want to scream in indignation.
Grabbing the bottom of her shirt, she tore it up over her head, wringing it in her hands. She glared at Edtroka, silently daring him to find out what would happen if he tried to do anything further. He didn’t move. He watched her with an expression of cool indifference.
Georgianna remembered the note tucked into her waistband just in time, and slipped her hand behind her back. Pulling the note free, she turned away from Edtroka and bought the note around to her stomach, stuffing it into the shirt and placing it down on the bench. She finished undressing and gathered up the products that had been left for her.
She read the Adtvenis label on the first bottle three times before she turned around, thrusting the offending product out to him. He almost laughed, she could see it. A guttural sound slipped out and he couldn’t hold back his grin as he stepped further into the room.
“Tuulriy,” he said. “For your hair.”
His self-important smirk at her inability to understand Adtvenis made her want to punch him in the face.
Turning away from him, she stepped over to the metal head in the corner. She placed each bottle down in turn before looking up at the head. They had showers out in the Veniche camps. They didn’t look like this one, but she figured it couldn’t be too hard to work.
With a force that showed her anger far more than her urge to work the shower, she thumped the dial with the heel of her hand.
Nothing happened.
Growling under her breath, able to imagine the look of smug enjoyment on Edtroka’s face, she grasped the dial and turned it sharply to the right.
Georgianna screamed as a blast of cold water rained down in a sudden gush. She leapt back. Behind her, Edtroka forgot all restraint and snorted with laughter.
“Turn it further.”
She didn’t trust herself to look back at him without spewing a slew of obscenities. Reaching around the spray of water to turn the dial, the icy water abated to a pleasant warm spray.
The faster this humiliation was over, the better, and so Georgianna washed and dried off again as quickly as she could manage before she picked up the cotton smock. Her nose wrinkled in distaste at the short dress, but she tugged it over her head.
Once she was ready, or as ready as Edtroka deemed necessary, he grabbed her old clothes, pulling a small cloth bag from his pocket and shoving them inside. Her heart pumping, she checked the floor and bench quickly and surreptitiously to make sure the note hadn’t fallen free. It must be still in there. Then she followed him out, waiting for Edtroka to lock the door.
The drysta yard doors were still closed at the end of the corridor and, turning towards them, Georgianna was not entirely sure that she would be able to walk through them without screaming or vomiting. The taste of bile was already rising in her throat, but there was no turning back. She either had to go out into that yard, or back into the block with the brothers and their deal.
She took one step, then another, but Edtroka grabbed her arm, pulling her back.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re not going there.”
“What?”
He wasn’t even paying attention to her when she looked back. He was searching for something, and he released her arm, reaching to the small of his back.
“What do you mean?” she repeated. “Where am I going?”
“You’ve already been sold.”
He tugged free a pair of binding cuffs. Panic flooded through her. She ignored the orders Edtroka had given upon her entrance to the compound, forgetting that he was supposed to be Guard Grystch, that he wouldn’t do her any favours. She grabbed his shirt and pulled him forwards.
“No. Please don’t do this, Edtroka. Don’t sell me to Maarqyn.”
He didn’t bark at her or push her away. He calmly took hold of her wrists, prying her fingers emotionlessly from his uniform.
“Please, I’m begging you!”
He didn’t comfort her. He remained unmoved as he fastened the binding around one wrist and then the other. He didn’t answer as she pleaded with him all along the corridor. The man she could perhaps have called a friend at one point didn’t speak as he pushed open the door and led her out into the bright sun that would shine down on a life lived in slavery.
Georgianna had expected Edtroka to lead her through the tunnels beneath the city. Even though the network of underground tunnels didn’t lead as far as the Adveni dwelling quarter in the north-east, she thought that he would want to avoid the long walk through the heat sun. Instead, he turned her away from the tunnel entrance, walking away from the compound and out into the open ground between the prison and the city.
It was still burning hot, but the season’s heat was slowly abating. It was becoming more comfortable each day. High walls had blocked out the gradual change in the air from the compound yard, letting it cook in the continual beating of the sun’s rays. Out in the open air, however, Georgianna could feel the breeze and the promise of rain. She took a deep breath. She was leaving one prison to walk into another. She might as well make the most of her few minutes in the open, for she knew that Maarqyn would not be offering her space alone any time soon.
As they walked, the compound walls slowly bled into the horizon behind them. She kept pace with Edtroka’s long strides, even after he released her arm. The bag of her belongings hung from his wrist, swinging back and forth with his stride. If Georgianna wasn’t mistaken, he was having fun.
She’d not said anything to him since passing the gates. Despite her fear, she hadn’t wanted to cause him problems by acting too familiar. If she got him into trouble, the chances of him helping her would be quashed to nothing. But now that no one could overhear them, she hurried forwards a couple of steps.
“Edtroka,” she urged, placing her bound hands against his chest. “Please, I am begging you. Tell Maarqyn I was sold, do something. You can stop this, I know you can.”
Edtroka barely wavered. He sidestepped and lengthened his stride. She turned and hurried after him.
“Please! You know me.”
“Even if I wanted to, it’s already done,” he answered emotionlessly.
Kicking a stone and sending it bouncing away, he stuffed his hands into his pockets.
“Undo it, then?”
He shrugged. There wasn’t any trace of cruelty in his face, but there wasn’t much compassion to be found either.
“Even if I could… I don’t want to.”
Georgianna cried in frustration. It was probably Edtroka’s plan, or perhaps his orders, to keep her on her toes. He might have been ordered by Maarqyn to amplify her fears of what was happening to her. Unfortunately, she doubted the commander was above such petty cruelty.
If that was, in fact, his plan, he was doing a good job. Though she was already sure that Maarqyn had been the one to buy her, the fact that it hadn’t been said put her on edge.
“You know, if you hope to get along in your new life, you should learn to hold your tongue a little better,” Edtroka mused.
“And if I don’t want to ‘get along’?”
She had no intention of making Maarqyn’s life easy. If he wanted her to be the ideal little drysta, he would have to do far more than make a few idle threats.
Even as she thought it, she realised that she was thinking too highly of herself. She’d already broken under Maarqyn’s torture once. She had no doubt that he would have ways of getting her to do whatever he wanted.
“Unfortunately, Med, you don’t really have much of a choice in what you want, do you?”
Ta-Dao had said the same thing. Georgianna had been sure that she understood him, but now she was wondering whether he was right after all. The world did turn on wants as far as she could see. It revolved on the wants of conquering armies and the will of important men. Unfortunately, it did not turn on the wants of a Veniche medic.
As they walked along in the hot sun, Georgianna couldn’t stop worrying about Keiran’s plan. If he still intended to save her from the compound, what would happen when he made a move only to find her already gone? Her childhood friend Taye had been lucky as he’d not had a plan to free Nyah from the compound. After Nyah’s incarceration for defending herself against an Adveni, her boyfriend Taye had become obsessed with getting her back, and would stop at nothing to secure her freedom, even if it meant living in hiding. Nyah’s sale had turned out to be beneficial for hatching their escape plan. Keiran wouldn’t be so lucky. She wouldn’t be so lucky, not when Maarqyn had already lost two dreta. This time he would be on his guard.
Her wrists were sore from the binding cuffs, her neck and legs slowly turning pink in the sun. Sweat beaded across her forehead and she was finding it harder to keep her head clear. Had this been a request from her owner as well? By bringing her through the sun, she would be weak and unable to resist by the time she arrived.
From what she knew of the Adveni, Maarqyn Guinnyr was an important man. The Tsevstakre were the elite fighters of the Adveni and Maarqyn held rank above most, if not all of them.
“Edtroka…”
He jerked his head.
“Where do you fit in when it comes to the Adveni?”
His brow furrowed.
“There are ranks, right? That’s what you call them. People who are more important than others. Where do you fit in?”
Edtroka walked on in silence for a moment and Georgianna sighed, thinking that he wasn’t going to answer.
“Why do you ask?”
“Because I really don’t want to think about where I’m going,” she answered honestly.
Edtroka gave her a small smile.
“I am Tsevstakre,” he said. “I took the guard position because there is less to do in the city these days.”
Georgianna’s mouth dropped open. She had known that the guards went through training for their position, but she had never considered that it was not their original purpose. Now that she thought about it, it made sense. The Adveni were all trained to join a military branch of their society. It was how they were brought up. She heard that they believed the strict disciplines of military life made for good, efficient workers.
“So you’re important?”
He let out a derisive snort.
“Tsevstakre may be the best at what they do, but in the end we are still soldiers and little more. Unless we move on to command, we will continue to be seen as such.”
“You don’t want to command?”
Edtroka shook his head.
“Do I not make a good guard?”
He glanced at her with an amused grin, and despite herself, Georgianna smiled back.
The buildings around her were unfamiliar. She hadn’t spent a lot of time in the dwelling quarters of the Adveni, but when she had, she had been going to Maarqyn’s house to check on Nyah. None of the buildings they passed looked like those she had seen with Taye and Keiran. It was likely that Edtroka knew shortcuts, but it unnerved her that she hadn’t recognised a single structure.
Digging into his pocket as they walked along a wide, straight road, Edtroka pulled out a tanned leather wallet and opened it up, extracting a metal card with a series of markings. It was similar to the one he used to open doors within the compound, except that this one was shining bronze instead of black. He took a path leading to a towering building.
Georgianna looked up and down the street. Something was wrong. She had seen Maarqyn’s house, she knew what it looked like. This monstrous tower was not it.
“This isn’t Maarqyn’s house.”
Edtroka stopped and turned back to her.
“This isn’t it!” she repeated. “I saw his house. It’s this big square thing—but not this big.”
He walked back down the path to her, slipping his wallet into his back pocket. He grasped the bindings around her wrist. Georgianna struggled, but Edtroka only grinned and tugged her along the path.
“Medic,” he said slowly. “Whoever said Commander Guinnyr is the one who bought you?”
Edtroka’s mockery outside was one thing, but after following him up three flights of stairs, she still couldn’t think of another Adveni who would have known enough about her arrest and incarceration to purchase her before she put a single foot into the drysta yard. That wasn’t even considering that private sales had to be expensive. While the dreta in the yard were sold like cattle, they fetched a high price. A private sale would have to be far more expensive, not to mention needing the connections to pull it off.
At each floor, she counted four different doors, each one numbered in Adtvenis. Edtroka passed each without even looking at the numbers. He clearly knew exactly where he was going.
“If it wasn’t Maarqyn…” Georgianna cut herself off quickly as Edtroka glared at her over his shoulder.
He walked to the end of the corridor with long purposeful strides as he turned the bronze key over and over in his fingers. They came to a door with the number thirteen on it, or was that seventeen? Georgianna had always had a problem with the threes and sevens in Adtvenis. There was hardly anything between them, only an emphasis on a single curve. She narrowed her eyes as she stepped up behind him. It was a three.
Edtroka slid the key into the reader, cursing under his breath when it became stuck and he had to tug it out and slide it in again. Shoving the key with the heel of his palm, a low buzz finally emanated from the door and he pushed it open.
There was no chance of running, even if her wrists hadn’t been bound. She was feeling woozy from the long walk, the heat and the climb. She doubted she would get to the top of the stairs before he caught up. A resigned sigh slipped past her lips and she stepped into the doorway.
“So,” she asked. “Some volsonne gave you the key to his place so that you could deliver me personally?”
Edtroka’s laugh was loud and guttural, a bark that disappeared as quickly as it had come. He walked further into the home and tossed his jacket and Georgianna’s clothes bag onto a table next to the wall.
“Does this look like volsonnae living to you?” he asked. “You said so yourself. You’ve seen the commander’s place. He’s important, but even he ain’t the volsonnar.”
Edtroka rubbed his hand across the back of his neck as he moved further through the living roo
m.
“Ships, Med, will you close the door already?”
She shot a final glance down the corridor, back towards the stairs, before she pushed the door closed. As it clicked into place, it let out a high-pitched buzz. She carefully turned the handle and tugged. It didn’t budge.
“You know, I did enjoy watching you in the showers,” Edtroka admitted suddenly. “My own personal drysta. If I’d wanted to, I could have stepped in. You should be happy I have some manners.”
Georgianna spun around so fast that she almost lost her balance. She grasped the side of the table, staring back at him. Edtroka beamed, thoroughly self-satisfied as he tossed his wallet onto a low metal table in the centre of the room and slipped down onto a sofa.
“You…”
Edtroka’s eyes widened in mockery, putting on a shocked expression. She could imagine that she probably looked rather funny to him, staring back at him like a fish about to be gutted.
“Seriously?” she asked again. “You?”
“Me.”
“Wha… How…” Georgianna stopped.
She wasn’t going to Maarqyn. She wasn’t being delivered to a volsonne she had never met. Edtroka was her owner. He had freed her from the compound. Having refused to as much as look at her since her capture, he had bought her.
“Why?”
“Maarqyn wasn’t first in the queue.”
She remembered Edtroka telling her that no other Adveni would be first in the queue if she were to be offered for sale. A man had enquired as to her price, but she’d not been in the yard as a drysta then, rather as a free medic. Edtroka had been angry when the man had tried to convince him to sell her anyway.
“Will you stop looking at me like that? You’re making me uncomfortable.”