Dead and Buryd

Chapter 37: The Inmate and the Influential

Whatever humour had once lit the guard’s eyes at their banter was gone. Cold eyes narrowed and the almost delicate features of his face contorted in fury.

“Whatever you expect of me, Med, you will forget it,” he ordered in a venom-filled snarl.

Georgianna flinched, unable to turn her face from his tight grasp. While Edtroka had often seemed cold and surly, she had never seen him with as much anger as his voice held. She realised in that moment how deeply she had insulted him by asking for his help. Being on relatively friendly terms with a medic allowed into the compound to treat inmates did not extend to him helping a prisoner.

“I’m… I’m sorry,” she stammered, gazing desperately up at him. “I didn’t…”

“You would do well to get used to the idea of Maarqyn owning you,” he sneered. “He pays a hefty price, far more than you are worth.”

Georgianna’s legs hit the side of the bed before she even fully realised that he had released her. The force at which he flung her back sent her onto the thin mattress with a heavy bump, her head only just missing the wall as she rocked back.

“Confirm, you are Georgianna Lennox, Kahle Tribe.”

“Yes,” she whispered.

Edtroka pressed something on the tsentyl.

“You were involved in the escape of two, legally owned dreta.”

Georgianna paused.

“Yes.”

Another tap of the device.

“You will not name other conspirators in this crime?”

Georgianna didn’t even need to answer before Edtroka pressed something on the tsentyl. She shook her head just the same.

“You will remain as an inmate of Lyndbury Compound unless it is seen fit to sell you,” he informed her emotionlessly. “Get up.”

Georgianna carefully got to her feet. Reaching into his pocket, Edtroka tugged out a small knife like device. He grabbed her wrist and slotted the end of the item into the bind holding the rope fastened around her wrists. Turning it twice in one direction, then once in the other, the binding slid open and off into his hand. Edtroka unwound the rope from her wrists, wrapping it around his palm.

He stepped closer to her, his hand coming up towards her. Georgianna flinched, eager to step away from him, but with the backs of her calves pressed against the bed there was nowhere to go. Edtroka curled his index finger, hooking it underneath her chin and pushing her head back with a jerk. Georgianna kept her face towards the ceiling, but looked down at him through her lashes as he leaned forward, a breath between them as he twisted the collar around her neck.

“Stay still,” he said.

Georgianna didn’t dare move. She had seen the burns those who had once worn collars had been scarred with. Having only known those who had the collar removed by Wrench or another Veniche who had the skill to get the device off without killing the wearer, Georgianna had never seen one removed properly by an Adveni. Edtroka moved the device this way and that, one hand still holding the tsentyl, which he pressed instructions into with his thumb. His dark eyes narrowed in concentration, finally void of anger as he focussed on the task at hand. His lips set themselves into a thin line, his cheek pulled in as his jaw moved, chewing on the inside flesh. Finally, after what seemed like an age of watching his face through her lashes, Georgianna heard the cinystalq emit a sharp whistle and click open. She hadn’t felt a thing.

Edtroka stepped back, turning the collar in his fingers almost absently.

“Inmates are expected to be ready for count at sunrise and sunset,” he ordered, turning and unlocking the cell door.

He pushed the door open, standing to the side as he allowed Georgianna from the cell. The door slammed behind her and Edtroka’s hand slipped around her arm, holding tightly onto her elbow as he led her through the corridor down towards the block. The heavy door she knew so well was fast approaching. Georgianna glanced at the guard she had felt she might have been able to be almost friends with.

“If you have injured,” Georgianna muttered hopefully. “I can still help. With supplies, I can…”

“You are an inmate, not a medic,” Edtroka answered. “You should get used to that.”

He placed the odd-looking key into the lock and turned it. He exchanged the key for the black card and Georgianna watched as it intricately etched itself with blue lines when pressed to the device next to the door. The door creaked open, and finally, Edtroka stepped back.

Georgianna could feel at least a dozen sets of eyes on her as she looked one final time at the Adveni guard. His expression, cold and distant, gave no impression that they had ever known each other at all. Her hopes of keeping any semblance of her old life slipped away.

Georgianna stepped into the block for the first time without her medic bag hung from her shoulder. Without a tsentyl to request her release, the door closed behind her.