Dead and Buryd

Chapter 29: Keep Him Dead

“I should go, yep, definitely should go.”

Georgianna leapt up off the bed, the Way notes slipping from her knees and littering the floor. Jumping over them and colliding with one of the metal drawers she’d not completely closed, she yelped, pain shooting through her hip. Pushing the heel of her hand against her throbbing flesh, she reached for Si’s elbow, gently urging him to stay put.

“We talked about this, Si,” she breathed, another gasp as she eased her hand over the curve of her hip. “Jaid wants you to stay with me for a while.”

A damp lock of hair slapped across Si’s nose as he shook his head. Pulling his arm out of her grasp, he took a step away from her towards the open door of the tunnel car. He wrinkled his nose and snorted, dislodging the hair.

“No, no, need to get going,” he insisted. “Counting on me, expecting me.”

He took another step and picked up one of the cantinas from the shelves along the wall, wrapping both hands around it and clutching it to his chest.

“Need to take water… long walk. Jaid… Jaid says long walks need water.”

Georgianna watched him cautiously, sidestepping until she could stand in front of the open door, a barrier to dissuade Si. He’d been much better once the pain of his wounds had subsided, but they’d been right about the damage the prolonged heat had done to his mind. Of the few times she had seen him, Jaid bringing him to the Way when she was on shift, he seemed agitated and confused, but thankfully, not often violent.

“Where do you need to go, Si?” she asked. “Wouldn’t you rather stay with me?”

“Can’t.” He clutched the cantina tighter to his chest. “Need to check on him, need to make sure. My job.”

Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, Georgianna pursed her lips, her eyes narrowing.

“Your job? Is this the job Beck gave you?”

His gaze finally settled, staring at the door as he nodded. His finger drew around the mouth of the cantina, feeling the screw threads on the cap.

“What was the job? Maybe I can help?” she asked hopefully.

He shook his head violently, locks of hair slapping across his face. She stepped back, balancing on the lip of the doorway.

“No help. No one to know,” Si muttered. “My job. Casey trusting me to keep him dead.”

Georgianna lifted her foot to step back, her boot finding nothing but air beneath it as she teetered back in the open doorway. She squealed, catching Si’s attention, and grabbed the edge of the doorway, clinging on as she righted herself back inside the car. Si watched her. His finger paused in its progression around the rim, his brow raised.

“Keep him dead?” She was confused. “Beck is alive, Si.”

“I know that!” he snapped before turning away, trampling the notes on the floor with his dusty boots. He lifted the cantina on his chest, resting his chin against the rim of the mouth. “Marshalls remain marshalls, dreta remain dead.”

“Dreta?”

The breath of a word slipped through her lips. She stared at Si. Her mind raced around Si’s words. Memories fell into place. She blinked, wondering how she had missed something so obvious.

“It was Cartwright,” she whispered. “Your job, it was Cartwright!”

Si spun on his heel. The cantina slipped from his fingers. In an instant he was before her, fingers grasping her wrists.

“You…” he sneered.

Georgianna wrenched her hands back. Yet he tightened his grip, tugging her towards him.

“Si, you’re hurting me!”

“You sold me out!” he snarled, ignoring her pleas.

Georgianna trembled in his grasp. She tugged away from him fruitlessly, shaking her head.

“No. No, Si, I didn’t,” she pleaded. “I heard about Landon the other day. Please, Si, let go.”

His grip on her wrists faltered, a spasm of uncertainty, or confusion, that gave her the chance she needed. Tugging herself free, she overbalanced, landing with a thump on the floor. Her breathing was ragged. Tearing her gaze from Si’s, she glanced around the car, making sure that there was nothing within reach he could use as a weapon. As she looked back at him, she cradled her hand in her lap, rubbing her fingers against the sore skin where she knew bruises would appear.

“Saw Alec?” he asked.

Georgianna shook her head.

“No, not Alec,” she corrected. “Landon, Si. Alec’s little brother. You remember, right?”

Si glared at her, but remained silent.

“There’s another drysta in the house with him. Her name is Nyah.”

“No, no others,” Si rattled. “Only Alec dead.”

Georgianna shifted her legs out from underneath her, moving herself into a more comfortable position. Between them, the papers lay scattered and crumpled on the floor.

“Nyah was bought after you were found,” she said, her panic subsiding as Si slipped back to sit opposite her.

He buried his head into his hands, hunching over his legs, and whined into his skin, rocking his body in a rhythmic bobbing. Tentatively, she reached out and laid her hand on his knee. Si froze, still as stone, but did not push her away.

“You’re confused, Si. It wasn’t Alec you saw, it was Landon.”

Si didn’t move, didn’t even breathe as Georgianna shifted a little closer.

“He was your job? Watching out for him?”

Finally, in a motion so small that she would have missed it had she not been staring at him so intently, Si nodded.

“Be… Beck told you where he was, that he’d been captured, didn’t he?”

“Safer,” Si breathed. “Stay dead, no one looks.”

He lifted his head, peering at her through his splayed fingers.

“No one helps.”

Georgianna let out a timid breath, staring at her fingers against Si’s knee. She had taken a guess, but never actually thought she might be right, that Beck would have known about Landon.

“Do you know his owner?”

“Maarqyn,” Si breathed. “Maarqyn Guinnyr. Mean. Cruel. Vtensu.”

She pulled her hand back from Si’s knee, her thumb coming to her lips where she chewed on the nail. Something wasn’t adding up. Si had been found the day after she’d seen Landon in the compound. Si had been missing for days; there was no way that he would know where Landon Cartwright had gone. Not unless someone knew before the sale that Maarqyn would buy the young drysta.

Were there more? Belsa they believed dead who had been sold in secret? Had Si been checking on all of them, and the damage of the heat had merged them into one singular assignment? Georgianna just knew one thing for certain: Beck had lied to her about more than Landon Cartwright.