Chapter 24
ADRYEL
The transport smelled like sweat and old ore and something chemical that burned the back of her throat.
Adryel told herself that was the only reason her stomach was unsettled. It didn’t have anything to do with the five thousand scenarios she’d made up in her head about what could happen to all of them, with one good shot from a determined zealot.
Or worse.
“He could have gotten a nicer one,” she muttered, just loud enough for Janae to hear.
“Maybe it’s cover. They wouldn’t think all of us would be on an ore transport vessel, would they?” Janae said.
Adryel shifted in her chair, to give Janae more room as she sat down, but it didn’t seem to help much.
Instead, their shoulders touched in the cramped seating, and for a few minutes they talked — quietly, the way they'd learned to talk when they didn't want to be overheard.
About the knotting.
About Stron.
About what came next. Janae's eyes went soft when she talked about Khalzin, and Adryel let herself feel something close to happy for her friend. She deserved a better hand than what she’d been given so far in her life.
And Khalzin seemed like a good person. A little grumpy, Janae claimed.
Maybe it was a Kantenan thing, because Stron could certainly have the grumpiness too.
Sereya slid into the seat on her other side. Not Janae's side. The other one.
Adryel looked at her. "You lost?"
Janae peaked around Adryel’s shoulder.
Sereya's mouth curved slightly, her gaze darting between Adryel and Janae. "Roemary's idea, actually."
"Roemary told you to sit with me. With us." Adryel kept her voice flat. Well that was absolutely terrible. "And you did it.”
“Are you backing up her next big scene?” Janae asked.
Sereya sighed. “It’s not like that.”
“Then please, tell us what it’s like.”
She nodded. "She thinks Dhomhes is interested in her." Sereya said it quietly, looking straight ahead. "She wanted to prove it. Told me to sit elsewhere so he'd come to her instead of—" She stopped.
"Instead of you," Adryel finished.
Sereya didn't answer, which was its own answer.
Adryel studied her for a moment. Sereya had that polished, composed look she always wore, but something underneath it was different. Tired, maybe. Or just done.
Oh. There was a lot more to this than she was spilling.
"And you went along with it,” Janae said.
"I always go along with it," Sereya said. Then, quieter: "Be careful." She leaned close when she said it. "I don't know what she's planning. But she's planning something."
Adryel held her gaze for a moment. Regardless of the circumstances before, and her frustration with Roemary and Sereya, her gut told her this was different.
Sereya was different. "Thanks for the tip."
Sereya looked away, like she hadn't said anything at all. Her perfect mask back on her face, like nothing in the world could touch her.
The transport rocked and the gears started shifting.
They were getting ready to leave.
Guards and some remaining staff were boarding, and the humanoids were all grabbing last moment seats.
Adryel was still processing Sereya’s warning when Janae suddenly straightened. "I have to go," she said, already half out of her seat. "Khalzin—" She didn't finish the sentence, just squeezed Adryel's hand once and moved quickly toward the ramp before it sealed.
Janae jumped out, and ran straight to Khalzin who stood at the foot of the ramp, watching it start to close.
She saw Khalzin put his hand on Janae just before the ramp closed.
It sealed with a wash of air being sprayed on her and everyone else in the back of the transport.
Adryel cringed, because the air smelled awful.
“They need to clean their filters,” Adryel muttered.
Sereya caught her gaze out of the corner of her eye, and a tiny bit of a smile spread over her otherwise perfect features.
But then it shut off.
And Adryel felt all alone.
She shifted in the seat, her hand moving to her ribs automatically. Nothing there. She exhaled and made herself stop.
The refineries, she told herself. They were heading to the dark side. Of course it smelled like that. Everything here probably smelled like that.
She almost believed it.
The transport sealed and lifted, and Adryel watched the platform drop away through the narrow viewport beside her seat. Two escort ships swung into position alongside them, sleek against the dark sky, and she felt something loosen slightly in her chest at the sight of them.
Dhomhes had come through.
She told herself to relax. They were moving. They were safe. Stron was at the front of the ship, Dhomhes had done everything he said, and in a few hours this would all be —
There it was again.
Faint. Underneath the ore smell and the recycled air and the press of too many bodies in an enclosed space. Earthy. Smoky. Wrong.
She made herself breathe evenly and look straight ahead.
The refineries, she told herself. Dark side atmosphere. She'd never been anywhere like this before and her nose was just confused.
She almost convinced herself.
Almost.
She watched the escort ships hold their position alongside the transport, steady and reassuring. She tried to focus on them instead.
It didn't work.
The smell came and went in waves. Sometimes she'd go a few minutes without catching it and convince herself it was gone, that she'd imagined it, that the dark side atmosphere was doing something strange to her senses.
Then it would drift back, faint but unmistakable, and her stomach would drop all over again.
She thought about going to find Stron.
She didn't move.
He was at the front of the ship with Dhomhes, doing whatever needed doing, and she wasn't going to walk up there and tell him she thought she smelled something. She wasn't going to be that person. She'd handled worse than a bad feeling on a transport.
Beside her, Sereya sat perfectly still, hands folded, eyes forward. Whatever had cracked open between them when the ramp sealed had closed again. But she was still there. Still sitting next to Adryel instead of Roemary, wherever Roemary was.
Adryel didn't look for her.
She didn't want to know.
The transport shuddered once — turbulence, or the atmosphere changing as they crossed from the light side to the dark. Through the viewport, the landscape shifted. Green gave way to grey. The last of the trees disappeared.
She pressed her hand flat against her ribs.
Nothing.
She exhaled and dropped her hand before anyone could notice. Instead, focused on the windows, looking out to the dark side of the world.
Which was exactly like she'd expected. Barren and industrial, all hard edges and thick air. No trees. No golden light filtering through a canopy. Just refineries and rock and the kind of sky that hadn't seen green in a long time.
She watched out the window, but really, there wasn’t much to see.
Just rocks. Channels where ore had been mined. Or processed. Or something.
They moved over a complex that had that same weather-beaten, hard-lived look as the transport did.
Yep. They were in the right place.
The transport set down with a shudder.
Around her, the other women started moving, unstrapping, gathering their things. The noise level rose — voices, footsteps, the hydraulic groan of the ramp lowering. Adryel stood with them, letting the crowd carry her forward.
The smell hit her the moment the ramp opened.
Not faint anymore. Not something she could rationalize or blame on the atmosphere.
Vetiver and ash.
Strong.
Close.
Her stomach dropped.
She kept moving because stopping would make her visible, and visible was the last thing she wanted to be right now. She scanned faces as she walked. Guards. Miners. Refinery workers watching the arrival with flat expressions. Women from the transport filing past her.
Nothing. Nobody.
She was almost at the bottom of the ramp.
Maybe she was wrong. Maybe it really was just—
A hand closed around her arm from behind. Hard and certain, the way hands grabbed you when they didn't expect you to get away.
"Don't make a sound," a voice said close to her ear.
She knew that voice.
She'd known he was dirty the moment he didn't mention the moonstone.
Burk.