Dead and Buryd

Chapter 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 when 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.”