Heat still rose in chest-tightening waves, even after the sun had set. Out of the city and away from the towering buildings the Adveni had erected in its centre, there was nothing to shield the ground from the baking rays, leaving it to expel the heat throughout the night once the sun had disappeared over the horizon. Georgianna lay on the ground, her head resting on Keiran’s shin as he cleaned a pistol in his lap. Wrench, still a little sore from his injury, but doing better than anyone would have expected after a copaq wound, was sipping dark berry wine, swirling the liquid around in the bottle every time he lowered it.
They’d decided on a spot outside the city to talk to Taye. While the tunnels would have been acceptable, Wrench had been antsy to get out of Medics’ Way and Georgianna had been cooped up underground most of the day. This wasn’t the type of thing you could discuss in the Oprust district, not knowing who would turn you over to the Adveni for a few coins. So they had left instructions for Taye and headed south out of the city, a good half-hour’s walk towards Keiluck Forest. They had considered going as far as the forest, but even to the wary Belsa it seemed over-cautious to walk two hours out of the city in both directions just for a conversation. Instead, they had chosen to meet under the southern Mykahnol pillar, knowing that most gave the towers as wide a berth as possible whenever they could.
The Mykahnol pillars weren’t actually dangerous. If anything, the towers themselves were a safety measure. However, no Veniche living in Adlai could think of the pillars without thinking of the device that they were installed to control. Aimed at the centre of Adlai, at the centre of every city in fact, the Mykahnol weapon was more destructive than any that the Veniche had ever seen before the Adveni arrived. It was capable of wiping out a city in a single blast and, if the Adveni were to be believed, without the pillars reigning in its power, the force of the blast would continue until it consumed the whole of Os-Veruh. The four pillars, installed equidistantly around Adlai, provided some kind of electrical lasso, or unseen force that held in the blast.
No Veniche person had proof that the destruction would continue without end if the pillars were not in place, but many had seen the pillars contain a Mykahnol blast, Georgianna included.
It had been near the end of the fighting, when most people were giving in to Adveni rule. Many fled south, hoping that they would be able to find their own small corner to live out their days. However, as they neared Nyvalau, the weapon was detonated. Even from two days’ travel away Georgianna had seen the blast, a humungous cloud that rose into the air like a field mushroom, the crackle of electric green lightning flashing in a sphere below it. They’d sheltered for three days, waiting out the aftermath that was sure to come, but when no such force hit them, they continued south only to find that their entire southern lands had been levelled, a great canyon in its place where some began to rebuild their lost Freeze homes.
From the information skittering through the different tribes, the Mykahnol was the last resort of the Adveni. Should they choose to leave Os-Veruh for good, they would detonate every Mykahnol as they left, destroying everything they had ever built on the planet in the fast-growing cities. The pillars weren’t something people talked of often, not wanting to think about what would happen if the Adveni made good on their threats. However, staring up at this one , as it towered ominously, silhouetted against the sky, Georgianna wondered if the force of the blast would continue past their world if the pillars were not in place. Perhaps it was not for Veniche protection and survival that they had been put in place, but for that of the Adveni.
Keiran had picked up some bottles of dark berry wine. Though Georgianna thought it was best they all remained sober while they sorted out a plan, Keiran and Wrench had talked her down because surely liquid was good while out in the heat. She had tried to explain that actually, berry wine made the heat’s effects on the body worse, but before she’d even finished talking, Wrench had one of the bottles open and was drinking large, unhealthy mouthfuls. So, she had instead resorted to staring up at the pillar as they waited for Taye to arrive.
“Took me a long time to find you guys!”
Georgianna lifted her head, spotting Taye walking towards them. His lightweight jacket had been shrugged off and he carried it instead, swinging it from one hand.
“Well, didn’t want to make it too easy by sitting right on the path next to a giant erection,” Keiran answered sarcastically, glancing first at the pillar and then off to his left where the path was trodden into the ground not ten feet from where they had camped out.
Taye threw a glare in Keiran’s direction before coming over and slumping down next to Wrench. Wrench, far more cheerful now he’d drunk a decent amount of berry wine, offered the bottle. Taye looked at it sceptically before he shrugged and took it, glugging down a mouthful as he reached into his pocket and tossed Wrench a small linen pouch.
The other opened it and peering in, let out a laugh.
“Oh, brilliant!” he cheered, lifting the pouch and taking a deep sniff. “Yapoque?”
“Foinah,” Taye corrected, glancing at Keiran. “Your usual, right?”
Georgianna turned her head, glancing up at Keiran as he looked at Taye in surprise. She blushed and quickly looked away. She’d told Taye that Keiran smoked cigarettes made from foinah leaves when he could get it. Of course, they were harder to get than yapoque, but better.
“Uh, yeah,” Keiran answered. “Thanks man.”
Taye shrugged and took another mouthful of the wine, glancing sideways at Wrench. Georgianna didn’t know how well the two knew each other, she was even sure that Taye didn’t know Keiran that well. He knew him enough to know his name and a few other choice pieces of information, gathering from their conversation in the Adveni dwelling quarters, but whether the two had ever actually held a conversation, she didn’t know.
“So, how’re things going?” Taye asked awkwardly.
Leaning forward, he placed the bottle between them as Georgianna pushed herself up off the ground, turning around to face the centre of their little circle. Crossing her legs, she sat comfortably next to Keiran, his arm brushing against hers as he continued cleaning out the pistol. After Wrench’s injury, he’d been unwilling to travel so far without it.
“Wrench was hit by a copaq,” Keiran announced, as if that explained how they were doing.
“Fuck, man, you alright?” Taye asked, glancing to Wrench.
Wrench nodded, a cigarette paper on the ground in front of him as he sprinkled the foinah into it.
“Yeah, thanks to Med here,” he answered. “And that kid, Jake.”
“Jake?”
“Escaped drysta,” Georgianna explained. “Was in a pretty bad state when he was found, but turns out the guy is a herber, knew enough to change the way we treat those things.”
“Ah, well, that’s good then.”
Wrench and Georgianna nodded. For a minute there was silence, no one really knowing what to say. It wasn’t like this was any ordinary meeting. How were any of them supposed just to blurt out a plan to free a drysta?
“So, your girl’s been sold, huh?”
Georgianna looked at Wrench in surprised amusement. Apparently, that was how it was done. Taye looked at the ground between his legs, nodding to nobody in particular.
“I found out he’s military,” Taye answered, glancing to Georgianna. “Maarqyn.”
“They’re all military,” Keiran answered. “Hence their… their… dickishness!”
Georgianna snorted.
“Coming from someone who could be considered to be involved in a Veniche military organisation…” she suggested, leaving her comment hanging in the air between them.
“Yeah, well, I wasn’t brought up saluting and bowing to Casey’s every demand, now was I?” he asked, grinning back at Georgianna.
“Okay, so he’s military,” Wrench interrupted. “Makes sense about the collar then.”
Taye picked up the pouch of foinah leaves and began dealing out portions for three cigarettes into papers, evening them out before he dropped the pouch onto the ground in front of him.
“He’s some kind of commander,” he explained.
“So, we’re gonna need a solid plan with backups,” Keiran agreed.
“What do you suggest?” Georgianna asked.
Out of the four of them, Keiran had the most experience in these sorts of things, closely followed by Wrench. The two had been in the Nerrin together. From what Georgianna knew, both from Keiran and from Liliah, who had taken the opportunity to tell Georgianna about their tribal days, the two men had been hunters, meaning that they had a lot of experience in planning attacks, even if those attacks had been against animals. Once the Adveni arrived, it was only natural that the two joined the Belsa, though Georgianna also knew a lot of hunters who had preferred to keep their heads down and avoid joining the rebel group. More recently, however, a hunter had come to mean something completely different to most people. A hunter was an Adveni whose job it was to track down Veniche who had escaped punishment for a crime. From the Adveni perspective, Keiran and Wrench were no longer hunters, they were very important prey.
“She’s got a collar on, right?” Wrench reconfirmed. “We’re gonna need somewhere to get rid of it. Can’t risk one of those coming into Belsa, not for anything.”
“She’ll be coming to the Carae!” Taye corrected fiercely, looking up from the papers in his lap.
“You want one of those collars in the Carae?” Keiran asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked over at Taye. “Good luck keeping the Adveni off your ass, you do that.”
“Where she’s going isn’t the point,” Georgianna interjected. “Wrench is right. We need somewhere else, somewhere we can remove the collar before she goes underground.”
“Where?” Taye asked.
“Oppression City,” Wrench suggested. “Busy as hell, especially if we get it at the right time. Even the Adveni will have trouble getting through quickly.”
“Alright,” Keiran agreed slowly. “Wrench, can you find a place? I would suggest the Trade, they’re always willing to help, but Oz won’t appreciate an Adveni battalion bearing down on his ass. Get somewhere central enough that it’ll hold the Adveni up.”
“Doesn’t that mean we’ll be held up?” Georgianna asked in concern.
Keiran glanced at her, his tongue flicking out to wet his lips.
“Well, yeah, but we ain’t got a lot of choice.”
Georgianna nodded. She didn’t exactly know a lot about battle tactics. Keiran probably knew best.
Taye leaned forward, offering one of the rolled cigarettes out to Keiran. He accepted it gratefully, holding it up in a toast to Taye before he stuck it between his lips, but he didn’t light it. Almost immediately, he plucked it from his lips and used it to point at Georgianna.
“Oh, and another thing,” he announced. “We’re doing it on a day you’re at the compound.”
“What?” Taye and Georgianna demanded at the same time.
“Why?” Georgianna asked.
“We need her!” Taye exclaimed.
Keiran dug into his pocket, pulling out a lighter, a convenience the Adveni had brought to Os-Veruh with them. Lighting his cigarette, he inhaled before bringing it down from his lips, blowing the smoke up into the dry air.
“You asked that guard about the girl,” he explained, looking at Georgianna squarely. “Minute she goes missing, you’ll be suspected of being involved. We need to make sure they got nothing on you, that you’re somewhere the Adveni can recognise you.”
“But, what if we need her?” Taye asked, holding a cigarette out to Georgianna.
“The first priority is going to be that collar,” Wrench said. “No matter who needs what. The longer that collar stays on, the more likely we’re carted off to Lyndbury to be sold with your girlfriend. I say George meets us later. We get to Oprust, we remove the collar, everything else comes after.”
“Do you think Beck could get some Belsa to help?” Georgianna asked, turning the unlit cigarette over and over in her fingers.
Wrench watched Georgianna as he sucked in a lungful of smoke and let it flow lazily past his lips.
“Jobs like this, the less people the better. More people that know, the more likely someone will talk.”
“A Belsa talk to an Adveni?” Taye asked. “Come on.”
“No, to a friend,” Keiran answered. “Guy talks to his buddy over a drink about how they’re helping break out a pretty little piece of ass from the Adveni. The friend talks to another friend. That guy tells an Adveni for a few coins.”
Georgianna wasn’t sure which Taye looked angrier about, that Keiran had proven his scepticism wrong, or that he had called Nyah a pretty little piece of ass. Even Georgianna felt a stab of annoyance at the latter. She didn’t mind jokes about him seeing other women, she didn’t even mind that it happened. But it didn’t mean he had to talk so openly about it in front of her.
“What if we don’t tell them what it’s for?” she asked. “Just a couple of guys to hang out around the place where Wrench’ll remove the collar? So they can warn you guys if Adveni show up?”
Wrench thought about it for a minute before looking at Keiran.
“She has a point. A few lookouts might be helpful, especially if this collar proves difficult.”
“Alright,” Keiran answered. “We’ll try to get some men to look out.”
Though, for some reason, he didn’t seem too happy about it, quickly taking a swig of the wine.
“George, you got some paper?” Wrench asked suddenly.
He reached out and took the bottle of berry wine from Keiran, drinking down a mouthful as Georgianna tucked the cigarette behind her ear and dug into her bag, pulling out her journal and a pencil. Placing the bottle down between them, Wrench took the journal and opened it on the back page, checking both sides before he began scribbling something down. Georgianna picked up the bottle as she watched him, sipping the wine thoughtfully.
“When can we do this?” Taye asked hopefully.
Keiran glanced at Georgianna expectantly, but she could only shrug.
“This is a list of things I’m gonna need,” Wrench explained, placing the journal down between them. “Once we have those, we can go the next time George is in the compound.”
“And I’ll meet you after,” she added, glancing at Keiran.
As Taye reached out, holding the journal open at the back page to get a good look at the list, Keiran reached out and brushed some of her hair back. Smiling, she leaned in as he placed a soft, simple kiss on her lips.
“And you’ll meet us after.”
YOU ARE READING
Dead and Buryd
Sciencefiction"You are an inmate, not a medic. You should get used to that." On the planet Os-Veruh, the native Veniche have endured a decade under the oppressive rule of a race of invaders, the Adveni. When Georgianna Lennox, a Veniche medic, discovers her child...
