by Chele Cooke
“Yet you don’t like him?”
“My feelings for my brother are none of your business, Ven,” she growled.
Georgianna didn’t dare look at her. She’d spoken too much as it was. Yet, she didn’t dare turn away from the Adveni. She wrung her hands together, gritting her teeth.
“Keep my words in mind,” Ehnisque said finally. “You do not want to be on the wrong side of Commander Guinnyr. I’m sure that your friend would tell you the same.”
There were only two people that she could have meant, two people that she had claimed she’d not seen since the escape. From what Nyah had told her, Maarqyn was not a man to cross if you could help it. He handed out punishment easily and brutally, and not just pain. Georgianna gulped and looked away from Ehnisque until the Adveni had disappeared back into the crowd.
Ehnisque left Edtroka’s drink half-empty on the bar. Georgianna longed to grab the glass and gulp down the rest before anyone saw her, but she sighed and turned back to the bar, ordering another to take to Edtroka. She was sure that a drunk drysta would not be looked on kindly by the Volsonnae of Adveni society. Also, she couldn’t be sure that she wasn’t still being watched, as Maarqyn waited for her to make a mistake that could cost her everything.
Edtroka had been talking to the same woman for the last half hour and Georgianna was caught between boredom and impatience. Her legs were tired and she found herself wishing that Edtroka would finish his drink just to give her something to do. The woman he was talking to was beautiful in a way that caught her off guard. Her features were almost too perfect, and she was made up impeccably. There wasn’t a single strand of hair out of place, whereas Georgianna had spent the entire evening repeatedly tucking the same lock of hair behind her ear.
What Georgianna had been surprisingly annoyed about was that, while with this woman, Edtroka had lost the polite, stiff look he’d had while talking to the others in the room. Instead, he was relaxed and, even though she couldn’t understand the conversation, she could see that he was being perfectly charming and engaging. The woman hung on his every word and he was revelling in it. Georgianna wasn’t sure which she was more annoyed about, the fact that Edtroka was clearly interested in this woman, or that she cared that he was.
She admonished herself for thinking about it. She was supposed to be focussing on Keiran. Beck had given her three days to prove that Keiran had been helping her and that they had a plan for taking down the compound. Standing around at this function was wasting time. All she’d done all evening was wait to collect drinks for Edtroka and listen to him talk. She wanted to catch Edtroka’s attention and beg him to leave, even though she knew he wouldn’t be happy about it. So instead she stayed quiet and continued to worry.
She took a step back, closing the gap between herself and a group of three older Adveni. They were speaking in hushed tones. Even standing as close as she was, she could barely hear them. Glancing over her shoulder to ensure she wasn’t going to bump into anybody, she bit her tongue and let her gaze wander over the room. She had little interest in listening to Edtroka flirt, but she didn’t dare stray too far.
The group’s conversation was mostly lost on her since they spoke quickly and quietly. A small man with a stain on his shirt was waving his hands as he spoke. From their tone, she could hear that they were talking about something important and they were worried. One of the men tried to keep his voice low, but every time he became enthusiastic, or concerned about something, his deep voice boomed over that of his colleagues. He was discussing the Mykahnol.
It wasn’t surprising. The destruction of the pillars was not something they’d had to deal with since building them. The fact they’d revoked Veniche travelling permissions and increased security was enough to talk about, but there was another word that sparked their worry as well, a word Georgianna was not familiar with: Cahlven. Whenever they said it, they dropped their voices significantly and practically whispered. Even the man with the booming voice didn’t utter the word any louder than a murmur. It was repeated several times before Georgianna heard it properly.
It didn’t sound like anything she’d heard of. In her opinion, it didn’t even sound like an Adtvenis word. The Adveni language was often coarse and sharp. This one sounded soft, far more like Veuric than anything, but it was no word she knew.
The woman Edtroka had been talking to walked away, her dress flowing out behind her. She waved over her shoulder and Georgianna stood up a little straighter as Edtroka turned to her. His smile faded and she found herself annoyed at him again.
Knowing that her brief time away was over, she stepped back into Edtroka’s shadow.
“Not much longer,” he told her in a low voice. “Are you alright?”
She nodded, rolling her eyes. He had to know that she was bored, standing around with nobody speaking her language.
“Can I ask you,” she began, glancing at the men again. “What does ‘Cahlven’ mea…”
Edtroka stepped forwards, grasping her arm and yanking her towards him. Georgianna squealed in surprise.
“You never mention that word again,” he growled viciously under his breath. “You understand?”
She could understand Edtroka’s mood swings when she did something wrong, when she broke one of his rules. Now, however, she was flummoxed.
“But, I just…”
“I will make you shut your mouth if you force me.”
Georgianna pulled against his grasp.
“Perhaps if you told me what’s going on instead of getting me to lie for you, I’d know what to ask about,” Georgianna snapped back without thinking.
Edtroka released her with a small shove.
“Get my jacket. We’re leaving now.”
Georgianna glared at him, heat flushing her cheeks. He glowered back, flexing his hands into fists. She longed to argue with him, but his rule about disagreeing with him in public was clear in her mind. Who knew what he would do if she showed him disrespect in front of his superiors.
“Yes, Volsonne,” she hissed bitterly.
Stepping around him, Georgianna was seething. Despite the secrets she had kept for him, the lies he had demanded she tell, he wouldn’t answer a question about a single word. It had been stupid to snap at him, especially here, but her frustration was reaching breaking point. After spending hours listening to conversations she didn’t understand, instead of finding a way to help Keiran, she wasn’t feeling particularly friendly towards her owner.
She shook her head, glancing over her shoulder to see that Edtroka had already walked away from her. He was saying his goodbyes to someone important. No doubt it was someone far more important than her or Keiran. Gritting her teeth, she jerked to a stop as a man appeared in front of her.
Maarqyn blocked her path. She obviously knew he was here, she’d seen him watching her earlier in the night but, after the conversation with Ehnisque, she’d assumed that he would keep his distance.
His smile was broad and surprisingly honest, unlike the usual sneers she received from him. His gaze flickered from her to Edtroka. A lump formed in her throat. She glanced over her shoulder. She couldn’t give him any reason to be angry with her here, no matter if she was annoyed. While Edtroka’s rules were stern, she knew that he would at least consider helping Keiran. Maarqyn would not. She’d threatened Edtroka that she would ask Maarqyn about traitors, but it had been an empty threat. She wanted nothing to do with him. The best thing was to be polite and go around him, as with any other Adveni. She sidestepped and nodded in apology.
He grabbed her wrist as she passed. Georgianna stopped, waiting for an insult, or a demand about Alec’s whereabouts, but he wasn’t watching her anymore.
“Disagreement?” he asked quietly.
How would Nyah have handled this? She couldn’t imagine having to deal with him day in and day out. Edtroka’s temper was scary, but he usually came around. Maarqyn, she had come to realise, didn’t stop until he got what he wanted and he didn’t worry about how he came to
get it. She gulped.
“Nothing I didn’t deserve, Volsonne.”
Maarqyn gave a low laugh and she tried to squirm away as his thumb began stroking back and forth against her wrist. It took everything Georgianna had not to grimace at the touch. Her skin crawled.
“I’m sure you deserve much more if you’d only ask for it.”
The reflex to gag was too strong. A small, strangled noise slipped from her throat and she quickly swallowed. After everything he had done to Alec and Nyah, she couldn’t imagine how bad things would have to be for her to ask Maarqyn for something better. Had he done that to Nyah? Broken her down until she begged for his kindness? The idea of kindness from this man sent shudders of revulsion through her.
He was gone as quickly as he appeared. He slipped through the crowd as easily as if he were avoiding trees in a forest. She watched his back until his shirt was indistinguishable from the others in the crowd.
Georgianna forced herself to move again. He had a way of catching her off guard every time she saw him and with each meeting, the pit of fear in her stomach grew and gave her the feeling of being hollowed out. She didn’t feel like a person when she was in his presence. She felt like a toy, a doll he wanted to break apart.
As she waited for Edtroka’s jacket to be retrieved by another Veniche in pale blue, Georgianna checked over her shoulder every few seconds, waiting for Maarqyn to reappear behind her. He’d been so close, the more she thought about it, she realised that he must have heard everything that passed between her and Edtroka.
Which meant that he knew Edtroka had asked her to lie for him. Would Maarqyn think that it referred to him? To Alec, maybe? Worse than showing disrespect to Edtroka in public, had she just questioned his loyalty to the Adveni in front of the man who already suspected him of being a traitor and who simply needed the proof to act? Had she just given him the proof he wanted so that now all he needed was to get it out of her?
“Who were you to make such a claim?”
“They were going to kill him, I had to do something!”
Edtroka threw his jacket through the doorway into his bedroom. Georgianna was quietly relieved. Watching him gesture and fling his hands around in annoyance was getting distracting while the jacket flashed back and forth. She sat on the edge of the chair, as she had done for the last hour, listening to him rant and rave about the stupidity of the Belsa.
He’d been pleased enough with the message from Keiran that the contact he’d been asked to make had agreed to what Edtroka had said. She’d sat there, waiting for him to explain what was going on, like he’d promised he would. However, he remained silent.
It was when she realised that he had no intention of explaining his plans that she had finally admitted what had happened since Keiran’s return, describing his capture, Beck ordering his death as a traitor and how she’d managed to secure him three days’ grace before the orders were carried out. Edtroka had stared at her in mounting disbelief, but had not said anything until she told him that she’d lied and told Beck that they were trying to bring down the compound. As she’d expected, he was not as impressed about that news.
“So I am to give up my position in order to save your boyfriend, is that right?”
“He’s been helping you. How can you be so cavalier?” she demanded. “He wouldn’t be in this mess if it wasn’t for you.”
“He knew the risks.”
“How will you continue with your big plan if he’s not around?”
“I will make do.”
“He has three days!” she cried. “You have to stop this!”
“Why? Zanetti is in no position to end this war,” he sneered.
“Is that really all you care about?”
He began pacing between the sofa and the table. Georgianna drew her legs up to her chest, out of the way.
“Why should I care for more?”
“Because he’s a good man! The Belsa are good men and…”
“Do you really expect the Belsa to drive the Adveni from this planet? They’ve been trying for a decade and their biggest accomplishment is disconnecting two of the towers from a single Mykahnol.”
Shaking his head, he began flinging his hands around again. Georgianna leaned further back in her chair to avoid getting smacked in the face by an errant gesture.
“The Belsa have neither the firepower, nor the understanding of war to cripple the control of the Adveni over this planet.”
“So why have you been working with Keiran, if you thought we had no chance.”
“Because having the Belsa on side was a good strategic move. This is a bigger war than you know.”
Georgianna brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.
“Because you won’t tell me!”
She rested her forehead on her knees and stared at her thighs. She couldn’t watch him pace any more. Listening to him rant was bad enough. She didn’t know what he expected her to do. Had he assumed, like Alec, that she’d just let Keiran die?
“He was making contact with allies. Those who stand a chance of driving the Adveni back.”
“That pact, right?” Georgianna asked.
“Yes. I see Zanetti did not leave you completely in the dark.”
“More than I can say for you.”
“There was no point in telling you. Until we knew whether the Cahlven would even…”
Georgianna lifted her head.
“The Cahlven?”
Edtroka looked at her, but instead of being angry, instead of telling her to drop it, he nodded.
“So that word, it’s a… it’s a people?”
“A race of people, yes. It was they who the pact was made with.”
“That’s why you were angry when I mentioned them?”
“Yes, it’s… complicated.”
Personally, she hated it when people used complicated as an excuse. It was rarely complicated. As she’d learned from her father, telling someone that something was complicated really meant that you didn’t want to talk about it.
“That’s what Keiran said,” she confirmed. “He also told me who you are.”
His eyes narrowed.
“What do you mean? You know who I am.”
“Son of the Volsonnar?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “You never told me that.”
“It’s not important.”
“You are the son of the most powerful man on this planet. The leader’s own son has dissented. How is that not important?”
“Georgianna, you have to understand that I have no protection from that man. I do not get privileges from his position.”
“Maarqyn won’t touch you.”
“They fear my father’s retribution. They tarnish his reputation if they accuse his blood. They fear that he will protect me, but he won’t. I’ve been playing on that fear to protect myself.”
“So use it to help us.”
“The moment I move against the compound, my protection will be gone. I will be hunted far more ferociously than any Veniche.”
“The Belsa will help you. Keiran said the Cahlven are coming. He said he got through. It won’t be long.”
“It will be too long,” he said. “The Tsevstakre know where the Belsa are. They have been waiting, ensuring that everything is set so that they capture every single person involved. Once they do, it’s all over.”
“What?”
“If I betray them, they will make that move. Trust me. I know how Maarqyn’s mind works. I’ve served beneath that man since the day I took my Nsiloq. My capture and execution would be his crowning glory.”
Edtroka slumped down onto the sofa. Licking her bottom lip, Georgianna twirled a lock of hair absently around her finger. She couldn’t go back to Beck and tell them that she had lied, not again. She could say that the information she’d asked Keiran to check had turned out to be false, but Beck would want proof that Keiran wasn’t a traitor. He would need something else and she couldn’t think what else to give him. Telling him abou
t the Cahlven was an option, but if he decided that another race joining the fight was even worse, Keiran could be in an even more perilous situation. Who knew if these Cahlven would leave again after the war was done. What if the Adveni won against them? It might only make things worse.
“If the Cahlven are coming, it will only be so long before they know anyway,” she murmured finally. “So, what if we can get more Veniche to fight?”
“The Belsa have been trying to get more people to fight for ten years, what makes you think more will come now?”
“We give them a reason.”
His eyes narrowed.
“What exactly are you suggesting?”
“There are three things most Veniche fear above all others,” she said. “Execution, the cinystalq, and the compound.”
“So?”
“So, we destroy all three.”
The look of exasperation he gave her would have been comical if she hadn’t been serious.
“You’ve gone from wanting to take down the compound to wanting to take down all three?”
Georgianna shuffled forwards on her seat and grasped his hands, tugging him forwards.
“Think about it. If they don’t have those to fear, they might fight.”
“It doesn’t matter how many Veniche you get to fight, Georgianna, they will not win this war.”
“Then why are you even trying if the Adveni can’t be defeated?”
“I never said that they could not be defeated. I am saying that the Veniche will not be the ones to do it, the Cahlven will.”
Georgianna smiled. She felt alive and confident. There was a chance that it would all go wrong, that they would make things worse, but for the moment, it was the best plan they had.
“Well,” she said. “Why don’t we give them a head start?”
“They left Os-Veruh the same time we did,” he explained. “There were dozens of groups, all around the planet, all wanting to get away safely. The Cahlven were from another part of the planet and we’d never gotten along, fighting over territory and over who deserved what.”