Dead and Buryd: A Dystopian Action Adventure Novel (Out of Orbit Book 1) (32 page)

 
Stepping out of the alleyway and onto the street, she didn’t even notice it at first, the way her steps quickened the further she went. Through the Oprust markets, her gait lengthened, her stride more purposeful as she weaved through the crowds and made her way between the rows of stalls. Her gaze darted around constantly, cautious and suspicious. Any of the people in the street might be an Adveni. They could look so similar that if they tried, they would fit in perfectly. Dressed in the right clothes, any person in the market could have been posing as Veniche.

There was one thing Georgianna still couldn’t work out, and that was how they had been discovered. She couldn’t think of anyone who had known the details that would betray them. Maybe Taye had told someone, one of his friends down in the Carae who would do anything for a price. Georgianna couldn’t imagine anyone in the Belsa would have sold them out, even if they’d overheard something, but maybe it was possible.

Frowning as she turned the corner onto the correct street, Georgianna’s gaze swept through the crowd, looking for anyone who was watching the surroundings. All down the street the market was at its peak, lines of stalls covered in different wares, their vendors yelling the wares they were offering over the general craze of people wandering from one stall to the next. In amongst them, people with the odd item or two to sell set up in any space they could find, their calls to buy unable to match those of the experienced vendors. Through the crush of the market, it was impossible to spot anything out of the ordinary. Even if there were Adveni lying in wait, Georgianna wasn’t sure that she could have spotted them.

She assumed Keiran had figured she wouldn’t have been listening when he, Taye, and Wrench were making their plans. Georgianna wasn’t involved, so she hadn’t needed to pay attention. She had anyway. So, continuing down the street, she was able to recognise the two-storey building that they’d talked about.

Even as Georgianna approached, she could see the moss green sign with bronzed letters hanging in the window, but nobody ever slowed to take a look inside. The Adveni owner wanted too high a price for its use, and so the building had remained empty since it had been built. It was a perfect choice for what they’d needed. Once inside, nobody would bother them and it stood halfway down the busy market road, making it difficult to approach with a large force.

Now, standing in front of the gilded wooden door, she was glad she had paid attention as she took one last glance around what she could see of the street. Pushing the door open, she slipped inside, closing the door softly behind her and stepping further in.

One of the windows was broken, glass scattered over the floor. It was an inconspicuous place to meet, not to mention that it had a second floor, meaning that they could keep an eye out over the crowd on the street.

She couldn’t hear anything but the bustle on the street outside. Through the broken window, voices and footsteps filtered in like they were right next to her. Georgianna moved through the building towards the back, taking hold of the rail nailed into the wall beside the stairs, and took the first step upward.

The wood creaked beneath her foot, causing Georgianna to pause. What if they thought she were an Adveni and moved out? No, Taye wasn’t stupid. If Keiran and Alec had been sent out to look for Adveni, Taye would have been the one watching from the window. He would have seen her coming. He would know she wasn’t Adveni.

Each step creaked loudly, the dust muffling her footsteps doing nothing to stop the groan of the disused wood under her weight. With every step, Georgianna paused, listening for sounds from upstairs. If there were anyone here, surely she would have heard it by now? Still, she heard nothing. There was nothing for it. She jogged up the rest of the steps, coming around the banister and onto the open second floor.

Nobody.

Taye, Nyah, Keiran and Wrench were all gone, already moved on to their meeting place, she could only hope. If not, they were on their way back to the compound. She couldn’t believe that. If they’d been taken, she could only imagine that the Adveni would have left people to see if anyone else showed up.

Despite finding no one inside, Georgianna could already see that someone had been there. Smears and patches of wooden flooring gleamed in the sunlight through the dust, round marks where knees had rested, imprints of asses where they had sat perfectly still while Wrench had done his work. In a corner of one of the large glass windows, a gap had been rubbed clean to look down on the street below.

As she moved further across the floor, her steps slow and cautious, Georgianna paused as a glint shone out from one of the corners. It was only for a moment, a reflection of something, but with the rest of the room so utterly bare, she crept forward to investigate.

It wasn’t a weapon, she knew that much already. Not only would she have seen the bearer, it was too close to the ground. Stepping closer, Georgianna let out a relieved sigh as she realised what she was looking at.

She crouched, slipping her fingers around the polished, dark metal, and lifted it from the floor. The cinystalq collar was lighter than she’d have thought. They always looked so heavy, so solid, but now, with wires hanging from the broken end, it was almost delicate.

A second collar lay in the corner, its broken and mangled innards hanging out just like the first. They had to have escaped. The Adveni would have taken the two collars if they’d been caught. Nyah was free, just like Alec. She would be joined with Taye, and even if she had to live the rest of her life in hiding, she would be happy.

Georgianna couldn’t quell the smile that had slowly spread across her lips. She would return to Alec, telling him that everything was okay, if the others hadn’t reached him already. They could take the information about the pillars to the Belsa and this would all be over.

She wasn’t sure what it was that had her moving over towards the window, perhaps the chance of seeing one of them moving down the street, having only left moments before. Georgianna stepped closer to the glass, looking through the small patch that had been rubbed clean, probably by Taye or Keiran as they watched the proceedings, or Wrench while he’d been waiting for the others to arrive.

Standing up on her toes to look down at the street, Georgianna swept her gaze over the crowd in the hopes of seeing one of them, but she couldn’t see anyone she recognised, not even the familiar colour of their hair or the shape of their stance.

She was about to turn back. She would drop the collar back into the corner and return downstairs, slipping out onto the street where nobody would pay any attention to her. She would make her way through the people, back to the building where Alec was waiting. She could already picture it. Keiran would have arrived by that point, angry and worried that Georgianna hadn’t been where she was meant to be. Taye and Nyah wouldn’t be able to keep their hands from each other, the promised joining ring already on Nyah’s finger. Wrench would be badgering Alec for more information on the pillars, but Alec wouldn’t be listening, his face glowing in relief that she’d not done something stupid. She could already see it. It was so vivid, so real, that she was already leaving when she heard a cry of pain coming from the street below.

Georgianna spun back to the window. She pressed her hand against the glass as she leaned closer to look. A woman was on the ground up the street. A space grew around her as she huddled over, clutching her neck.

The space, empty of people, continued to spread. People ducked out of the way and pressed themselves against walls. Five bodies dressed in black armour tramped down the street. Georgianna turned to look the other way. Five more armoured men were moving in from the other end of the road. Their weapons were raised. They pushed people out of their way, never breaking their stride. The elite soldiers of the Tsevstakre were unmistakable and people knew to get out of their way. Whoever didn’t move was forced to. The soldiers’ unparalleled efficiency often ended in brutal results.

Georgianna didn’t even think about the fact she still held one of the collars in her hand. She turned and sprinted across the second floor. She was halfway downstairs when she knew she would never be out of the building before they spotted her. The Tsevstakre were the best, hunters of the Adveni. There was no chance of getting past them.

She turned and leaped back up the steps. Flinging herself across the room, she opened the door in the corner leading to the roof. All Adveni buildings had them. Georgianna had never really understood their use, but as she wrenched the door open, her foot on the bottom step, she heard it. Footsteps above her were coming across the roof. Edtroka had been right: Maarqyn was an important man, high enough in the Adveni ranks to order a full assault for the recapture of his escaped dreta. Two or three of the Tsevstakre would probably have done the job. They were trained well enough to make up for two or three Agrah soldiers. From what Georgianna had seen through the window, he had at least ten on the ground with more above her. It was a full scale attack under his orders.

Her breath wouldn’t come. Her throat felt tight, a large lump slowly wedging itself into place as she retreated back into the centre of the room. There was nowhere to go. She was standing in a building with the broken cinystalq collars of two escaped dreta.

She was trapped.

 
35
The Lightning Commander

 
Flinging the cinystalq collar across the room, Georgianna flung herself around the corner of the banister, jumping down the stairs two at a time. Already, through the window, she could see the path clearing towards the door, the Tsevstakre sweeping people away like columns of dust. She grasped the handle with both hands, wrenching it towards her. It was a risky move, but if there was the smallest chance she could duck into the crowd, she had to take it.

Sunlight hit her, a smack in the face as she stepped out into the street. She took one step, then another. But the moment her hope tricked her into thinking that she’d made it away safely, a large hand clamped down on the back of her neck.

Georgianna squealed, floundering to get a grip on the hand that held her as she was pulled out of the crowd. Before her, people were drawing back with horrified expressions on their faces. They quickly turned their backs, running like rabbits in search of their warrens when the hunters came through the brush. Only when they were far enough away did they turn to take another look, staring open-mouthed.

Shaking her head, trying to wrench herself however she could from the grasp of the man who held her, Georgianna was suddenly set upon by two more Tsevstakre. Grabbing her arms, they held her splayed for the whole market to see.

“Get inside!” a man ordered as he stepped forward. Waving his arm to the Tsevstakre on either side of the building, six men in black moved forward, filing through the door, weapons raised.

The man giving the orders stepped towards them, coming to a stop in front of Georgianna and the men holding her. Georgianna gave another squeal as her head was pulled sharply back to look up at him. He was a giant of a man, the black armour only adding more girth to his already generous bulk. She wished that all that was hidden under the armour was fat and disused muscles, but she knew better. This man was nothing if not deadly: able to kill with a snap of his wrist.

“I know you.” A slick grin slipped over his lips. “You were in the compound. A medic, if I am not mistaken.”

She gritted her teeth. The man on her right gave her arm a painful twist, forcing her to cry out. Unable to turn her head from the grasp on her neck, Georgianna could only glare at the man before her.

“You’re not,” she answered.

“And what would a medic be doing here?”

“I didn’t know the Adveni had claimed the Oprust as their territory,” Georgianna snapped back and was rewarded by another twist of her arm. “I was called.” Grimacing, she pushed her arm the other way, trying to relieve the tension. “I was told there were injured here.”

The man looked at her for a moment, lips curved into an uneven smile. His gaze drifted quite deliberately from her head to her toes before he settled on her face again.

“And you came without any supplies?” he asked in amusement. “You must be incredibly talented, Medic.”

She gritted her teeth, even as the man on her left also decided to try convincing her to answer. She squeezed her eyes tightly closed as she tried not to make a noise that would give away her pain. She hadn’t even thought about the fact she’d left her bag with Alec back at the other building.

“No one,” a voice said from behind her.

The man’s attention turned to the Tsevstakre that had just come down the stairs. Reaching past Georgianna and the others, the Tsevstakre held out two cinystalq collars for the commander to take. He reached out and grasped them with agile fingers, turning each one over in his hands. His smirk faded, his eyes narrowing and his jaw tightening.

“Take her inside,” he ordered darkly.

Tugged backward by the neck, she struggled and tried to hit out, but was held fast by the three men. The effort was fruitless. She was pulled inside, the soldiers working together to move her back until the man holding her neck could step aside and she was pressed to the wall, pinning her in place against the warm brick.

“Where did you find them?” the commander asked.

“Upstairs, Volsonne,” one of the men answered. “There is nothing else.”

The commander frowned and indicated the door. Georgianna glanced to the side and saw four more Tsevstakre coming down the stairs.

“Check every street, every building in this district. I want them found,” he barked. “If you kill them, I’ll shoot you between the eyes.”

Georgianna fixed her gaze on the floor, trying not to let them see the fear that passed through her expression. What if Taye and the others hadn’t reached Alec? What if he was still in that building, just waiting to be found? What if they came back here looking for her? She’d been so sure moments before, but now all her certainty was dripping away.