Out of Orbit- The Complete Series Boxset

by Chele Cooke

  “All the tsentyls have it,” Alec said. “You just need to change the measurements.”

  Jumping to his feet, Keiran faced Alec and shoved the device at his chest.

  “Here. You’re such an expert? You work it!”

  Alec took the device in his hand and looked down at it. Scowling, he turned it around and glanced over at Dhiren and Georgianna.

  “I can’t read the Cahlven stuff.”

  Keiran smiled, and he snatched back the device.

  “Oh, can’t you? Join the club.”

  “So, we’re working from a map none of us can change,” Alec said, “and we’re searching an entire forest for one man? Fantastic!”

  Lacing up her boot, Georgianna kept her head down and tried not to listen to the bickering. It had been four days of the same thing. Since they’d left the Cahlven, everything Keiran had done was wrong in Alec’s eyes, and everything Alec said was to wind Keiran up. When they really went for each other—which happened at least once a day—it was Dhiren who had to pull them apart. She’d tried getting between them once when Dhiren was busy hunting and wasn’t keen to try again. Her shoulder was still sore from being shoved so roughly aside that she’d toppled over. Alec and Keiran had both apologised, blaming the other, and she had decided that next time she would just let them fight it out.

  Dhiren rubbed his hand over his face, glaring at the two and the growing argument. Georgianna thought that he would be used to people’s bickering, having spent so long inside the compound. But the longer the snapping continued, the less patience Dhiren had for them.

  Tucking his hands into his pockets, he shuffled his feet.

  “You do both realise that the person we’re looking for is a skilled hunter,” he said. “If we had any chance of finding him, your incessant fighting would let him know we’re coming and give him a chance to run.”

  He rolled his eyes and, after checking that Georgianna was ready to move again, set off through the trees. She noted with a smug smile that Keiran and Alec both looked embarrassed at Dhiren’s words. Grinning at them, she followed Dhiren at a jog, catching up with his long strides.

  “Dhiren, how did you meet Edtroka?” she asked.

  The look he gave her was sceptical. He pulled his hands from his pockets and flexed them into fists.

  “It’s just that you two obviously know each other well. You said he was making a back-up plan for your benefit. You were close, right?”

  “We met during the Wash, before I was caught and sent to the compound,” he said, scuffing his boot against a clump of moss. “He told me he was against the Adveni. He knew no one would believe me if I told them. I started helping him after that.”

  “So you were in contact with the Cahlven?”

  Dhiren shook his head and glanced at her.

  “This was before. E’Troke needed a second person to contact them, protocol or something, and that was going to be me. I was arrested before we could do it. He started working with Keiran not long after.”

  The other two had caught up to them. They trudged along behind, Keiran following with his gaze still set on the device in his hands. He frowned and cursed under his breath, tapping at different parts of the screen.

  “He didn’t get you out?” Georgianna asked.

  “Couldn’t,” he said, though there was bitterness in his voice. Dhiren had made comments about Edtroka’s leaving him in the compound, but she’d not understood it before. She couldn’t work out why Edtroka would have had anything to do with Dhiren’s capture if they were friends.

  “He couldn’t have bought you or something?”

  “He convinced someone that I could be kept in the compound, made me sound like a good catch for Ta-Dao and Vajra. They put a bid in with the guards pretty quickly, otherwise I would have been executed with the crimes they had me on. They wouldn’t have let me be sold, he knew that.”

  “So he left you there?”

  Dhiren raised an eyebrow.

  “Hey, no one questions that more than I do, Med,” he said. “Given him a lot of grief about it too, but he’s a good man.”

  Behind them, Alec snorted and swiped at a branch above his head.

  “Yeah? If he’s so good—on our side and all that—why don’t you just shout that it’s you?” he suggested. “Face it, that’s why you’re scared he’ll hear us coming. You’re scared he doesn’t want us to find him. You’re scared he didn’t run off for some noble cause.”

  Dhiren’s bag hit the ground with a wet slap. He spun and jumped over it, mud flying up from his boots. He grabbed Alec by the throat before any of them had realised what was happening. A single swift kick around Alec’s ankle was all it took for him to go down. Dhiren landed on top of him, still holding him tight at the neck. Driving his knee into Alec’s stomach, he hovered over him, growling.

  “I’m sick of your shit, Cartwright!”

  Georgianna stepped forwards as Alec spluttered, but the larger man only tightened his grip on Alec’s throat, holding him still.

  “If you’re so against E’Troke, why don’t you just run off back to the Cahlven?” He gave a snarling laugh. “Or better yet, your owner? Tell him what awful, traitorous Ven we are.”

  Alec opened and closed his mouth. His legs jerked and he twisted in the mud. Gurgles squeezed past Dhiren’s grip but nothing more.

  Dhiren looked ready to spit blood.

  “E’Troke didn’t come back to Adlai because he’s stupid. He didn’t leave because he was running and he thought the south would make a nice camping spot.” Alec grappled at Dhiren’s wrist, his nails leaving gouges in the flesh. “He came to turn himself in, you idiot. That’s why he’ll run. Not because he’s a bad guy but because he doesn’t want us stopping him.”

  Alec’s cheeks were pale, his lips purple. Georgianna groaned and grasped Dhiren by the shoulder. Without a second thought, he flung her backwards with his free hand. She saw a brief glimpse of his face, how flushed he was. His teeth were bared. He had that feral look about him again. She staggered backwards, scared to return to him.

  “Let him go,” she begged. “Please, Dhiren, he can’t breathe!”

  Even Keiran looked uncomfortable with the turn in Dhiren’s mood. His hand hovered by the gun at his hip.

  “I’ll let you go if you promise not to open your mouth on the subject again,” Dhiren said.

  Alec nodded frantically. Slapping his hand against Dhiren’s shoulder, he seized and jerked.

  “One word from you and I’ll snap your neck before anyone thinks about putting a collar around it again.”

  The gasp that rattled through Alec’s throat as Dhiren released him was sweet and painful to hear. Dhiren rose to his feet and gave a flick of his hand. Blood from Alec’s nail gouges splattered over the younger man’s face. Alec’s eyes were wet with tears but he didn’t bother to wipe his face as he scrambled to his feet, staggering as far from Dhiren as he could.

  The chuckle made all of them jump. Spinning around, they stared into the trees. They heard it again; closer but not where the first sound had come from. The laugh rumbled through the spaces, making Georgianna shiver. A crunch and a squelch under boots, a rustle of leaves. The noises circled them. Gulping, her hand went to the handle of the knife in her belt. How many people were around them? Were they Veniche or Adveni? She drew the knife from her belt.

  Keiran had pulled the gun from his hip. Dhiren balled his hands into fists.

  “It’s been a long time since anyone threatened to kill to defend my honour,” Edtroka said as he finally stepped out of the bushes. Keiran groaned and replaced the gun in his holster as Edtroka straightened up, brushing leaves from his shoulders.

  “It’s been a long time since you had any honour to defend,” Dhiren replied.

  The flush of anger in Dhiren’s cheeks receded to something warmer. He crossed the gap in two strides and the embrace between them was tight and desperate. Edtroka’s hand reached to the back of Dhiren’s head; his fingers threaded into his short
hair. Georgianna turned away from them, staring at the ground with wide eyes.

  ‘Close’ was not the right word for their relationship.

  Alec rubbed his neck and glared at them. True to his promise, he didn’t say a word. Keiran put the device into a pocket on his bag and leaned against a tree.

  “Could have made it a bit easier on us,” he said. “How long have you known we were here?”

  Edtroka pulled back from Dhiren. He shrugged.

  “Few hours.”

  Dhiren growled under his breath.

  “Thanks.”

  Edtroka’s smile was short lived.

  “Well, you’ve found me,” he said. “And now it’s time for you to leave.”

  Edtroka led them through the forest to the place where he’d camped. He said he’d arrived the day before and had been gathering his courage to send a message to the Volsonnar when he heard people coming. Not wanting to be discovered before getting in contact with his father, he’d tracked the noises until he came upon Georgianna’s group. Apparently, it had been funnier to watch them traipse around the forest than to reveal himself.

  They came to a small clearing in the middle of a patch of large-trunked trees. Edtroka jumped to reach the lowest branch, where he’d hidden his things. The sack he’d brought with him was small compared to their own. Georgianna stared at the ground, shuffling her feet.

  She knew what he planned on doing.

  The moment they’d seen the dot on the map blinking, they’d all known Edtroka’s plan. Even Alec, with his snide comments, couldn’t have denied what it looked like. But as Edtroka was only a dot on the screen of the Cahlven device, the idea of his turning himself in remained abstract and far away. Standing there, seeing his lack of supplies and knowing he hadn’t intended on needing them—it was too real to think about. As the others spoke, she busied herself with taking off her own bag and searching through it for food.

  “You’re being stupid,” Edtroka said, settling against a tree. “The Cahlven can protect all of you. You shouldn’t have come.”

  Dhiren harrumphed and sat as far from Edtroka as he could in the small space between the trees. His joy at seeing the Adveni had faded with Edtroka’s explanations and before long he was sullen and quiet.

  Alec and Keiran also chose to sit on opposite sides of the clearing, shaping them all in a circle. Unsurprisingly, Alec sat as far from Dhiren as he could. That did, however, put him next to Edtroka, which surprised everyone as he sat down without comment. He threw a cautious look at Dhiren and quickly began searching through his bag for supplies, following Georgianna’s example.

  “You shouldn’t have left,” Dhiren said.

  “Why? The Cahlven have taken control of this whole thing, you’ve seen it. My involvement was to bring them here. Now that’s done, their use for me is gone. I can’t help them by staying any more than any of you can. But if my handing myself over buys you time for a peaceful negotiation, why shouldn’t I?”

  Georgianna pushed her bag away. She leaned over her knees and glared at him.

  “You’re talking about it as if you’re going to be slapped on the wrist and sent back to work. You’ll be killed! That is, if they don’t decide to torture you for information first.”

  “George…”

  “No! Don’t say it like I don’t know what I’m talking about. Have you ever worn a cinystalq, Edtroka? Have you?”

  He frowned and leaned back against the tree.

  “No, I haven’t.”

  “You were the one who said that Maarqyn would never just accept that I’d told him everything. Do you think your father will be any better? They’ll keep digging until you’ll tell them anything just to make it stop. You said it. You’ll die revealing your deepest secrets.”

  Edtroka’s gaze flickered from Georgianna to Dhiren and back again. He lowered his eyes and stared at his boots, rubbing his hands up and down his legs.

  “And if I accept that?” he asked. “I can buy you time, George. Time you desperately need.”

  “We don’t, not at this cost.”

  Keiran dug the point of his knife into the ground and began scratching at the wet soil.

  “Don’t you think your knowledge is useful?” he asked.

  Edtroka looked at him warily but Keiran didn’t lift his head. He was carving out channels in the dirt with his blade. When Edtroka opened his mouth to argue, Keiran continued.

  “You know more about Adveni systems and methods than the rest of us put together. Who gives a sun’s turn about Veniche travelling habits, or which tunnel gets you to the Oprust district the fastest? Without you, we’re walking blind.” He looked up, fixing Edtroka with a stare. “Even the Cahlven are in the dark here.”

  Edtroka wrapped his arms around his legs and clasped his hands, wringing his fingers.

  “I don’t know where the Mykahnol is, Keiran,” he said. “I can’t help them any more than you can.”

  “But you can tell them the standard responses to attacks. You can outline formations and technology.” Keiran glanced at Alec and licked his lips. “You managed to get me out of that ambush by knowing their tactics and movements.”

  “What good is that if we can’t stop them from blowing the city sky high?”

  “They hate Maarqyn,” Alec croaked. His voice was raw and he winced and coughed at the words. Rubbing the side of his neck tenderly, he avoided their eyes and leaned against a tree, watching the leaves. “People are scared of him but they hate him. I was with that man for two years and I saw enough of you.”

  Edtroka’s eyes widened. Georgianna, on the other hand, was transfixed by Alec’s quiet words.

  “You were their friend, their equal. You weren’t someone ordering them about and humiliating them when they failed. Maarqyn has few friends in the city. The only people who like him are Volsonnae, and even they are scared he’ll destroy them if they don’t lick his boots.”

  “That doesn’t matter,” Edtroka said. “It just means they’ll do whatever he asks because they’re scared of what happens if they don’t.”

  “But they’ll do what you ask because you ask it,” Dhiren cut in.

  Their gazes met across the space between them. Neither looked away. Dhiren’s face was a model of determination, though Georgianna wasn’t sure whether his intention was to win the war, or simply to convince Edtroka against going through with his plan.

  “They won’t.”

  “I saw their reactions to you. From within the compound and before. They respect you. Some of them were scared you would call in daddy, but they respected you because you did a good job.”

  “What’s your point?”

  “Do you think your father would have made your betrayal common knowledge, knowing how it would damage his reputation?” Dhiren asked, mirroring Edtroka as he drew his knees up and bound his arms around his legs.

  “Perhaps, I don’t know.”

  “Then we still have a chance to get to some of the people you knew. Maybe you can get information out of them.”

  Edtroka got to his feet, rubbing his hands vigorously around his face. When he realised there wasn’t enough space for him to pace, he stood still, staring down in frustration.

  “So instead of walking into Adlai to give myself up and buy you all time, you want me to walk into Adlai and ask for information that may not even help?” he sneered. “Like that won’t get me caught, anyway? If I do that then I’ve not even bought you negotiation time.”

  “We don’t want negotiations,” Georgianna said. “Beck doesn’t, either. The Adveni have done too much to be allowed to stay here. Olless keeps talking about it like it’s just a conversation and it doesn’t mean anything. She hasn’t been here. She hasn’t seen the extent of what they’ve done to us.”

  “We want them dead or gone,” Alec agreed hoarsely. “Not sitting around a table. These negotiations are only a good idea if we can use them to keep their leaders busy while we destroy them.”

  Edtroka snorted and rolled his
eyes.

  “You’re all talking like we can do this alone. We can’t.”

  “How do you know that?” Georgianna asked. “How do you—”

  A high beeping sound cut through her words. Georgianna looked around, heart thumping hard against her ribs. She knew that noise. Keiran pulled his knife from the ground and Dhiren jumped to his feet. He turned in a circle, threatening the trees before his gaze settled on Edtroka’s bag. A blue light blinked through the canvas.

  “It’s my tsentyl,” Edtroka said, extracting the small black cube. “I had it set to minimum communication but I’d turned it on fully just before I heard you all.”

  “If you had it off, how were we able to track it?” Alec asked.

  “We had the signal from when he contacted the Cahlven,” Keiran said, patting his pocket and thrusting his knife into the dirt. Dhiren sank back to a crouch. Edtroka grinned at Keiran.

  “I was wondering how you’d found me,” he said. “It makes sense. Tsentyls give off an individual signal so you can find a specific one if needed. This one isn’t registered to me so they wouldn’t have known to look for it. It would have been just another dot on a map, indistinguishable from the tsentyls of those in the Nyrahby who were busy bombing us.”

  “Why did you turn it on?” Georgianna asked.

  “I was getting ready to contact my father.”

  He swiped the tsentyl from its cube form, letting it slot into a flat square screen in his palm. He clicked through it; the light from the screen bathed the small clearing in an eerie blue glow. Georgianna watched as he frowned and blinked. His lips parted and he let out a heavy breath that cut through the silence. Even the wind had stopped to hear the news.

  “Well?” Keiran asked. “What is it?”

  Edtroka was silent as he locked down the tsentyl and closed it into a cube again. He bent down and placed it into his bag, taking his seat against the tree trunk.

  “E’Troke?” Dhiren pressed.

  “It was a final warning for all Adveni stationed in Nyvalau to evacuate,” he said. “The Mykahnol has gone into final countdown.”