Hey guys! :-)
To everyone who took their time to read and review this story, thank you all so very much! I'm sorry it took me so long to update (2 years - oh my, shame on me). It seems I got lost on the path of life...
Since I never got to finish this story, it kind of stuck with me - so here I am with the attempt to give Law and Savenna their well-deserved happy ending.
Again, thank you for your patience and your enthusiasm, and I hope you guys are still here...
Savenna didn't remember seeing proper daylight since she had crossed the Flevance border. No matter where she turned her face, something was always blocking the sun. The scent of burning iron itched in her nose. Gray dust had already settled on the long sleeves of her coat. In the distance, she could hear the familiar hammering of the mines, only here they weren't digging up chunks of white, poisonous metal.
Heavy clouds were rolling in from the mountains, and dispersed slowly over the bay before drifting out onto the sea. Even with its people gone, it was as if the White City still managed to cast a shadow over its northern neighbor. Like a wet blanket, blue fog was hovering over Fort Esperance, gathering in back alleys, occasionally spitting out a hooded figure before engulfing another. On the main road, facades of closed-up shops followed empty street corners, each of them looking so similar that it was hard to tell whether Savenna and Fetch were actually making headway. Even sound seemed to travel in circles, the echo of their steps disappearing and returning in the fog. It felt as if they had been walking for ages, erring through a labyrinth of abandoned houses with frozen windows.
With the familiar feeling of disdain, Savenna took her time observing the pitiful town and the dirty, pitiful people in it. But then until she realized that this was all there was left. She took a deep breath and pressed her cheek against the coarse fabric of Fetch's coat, trying to get warm.
"How long have these houses been abandoned?" she asked to distract herself.
The thief shrugged. "Back in the days this has been the merchant's quarter. Even though you can't see much of it now, here's where all the rich folk lived. Some of them owned entire fleets and shipped off iron all across the North Blue. But when they struck lead in the south, the money moved to Flevance and everything else with it. They say it was the end of an era."
Savenna smiled coldly. After causing years of envy and misery, Flevance had paid the price. Maybe hundred years from now, the same snow would be falling on the ruins of her home, on the cards scattered on the floor and the books stuck between the pipes.
Fetch felt the girl's arms getting tired but didn't dare quicken his pace. "Hold on just a while longer," the thief muttered. "The last I heard, they were hiding in an empty ship's carcass next to old port. We're almost there."
As they turned around the next corner, Savenna understood Fat Louise's concern. The street teemed with marines whose white uniforms managed to stay unstained in the polluted air. With their caps up straight and the guns loaded, they were searching houses, pushing people out of doors and stopping everyone who appeared the least bit suspicious. A woman stood half naked, shivering in the cold, while two marines examined the skin on her back.
Savenna pulled her hood deeper and brushed back the loose strands of her white hair. "They are still looking for survivors," she whispered, feeling hopeful and fearful at the same time. Fetch nodded and took the advantage of a marine turning his back to them to dive into the next back alley. As they went on, shops like Louise's began to appear but none of the few people they passed dared to go inside. Most of them were fronts for gangs like their own, and common folk tried to avoid them.
"What about the marines? Don't you get in trouble if everybody knows about what you do?" Savenna wanted to know.
"The bosses pay them off. Louise does it with the money we bring back from our raids. It's like paying taxes if you want. If they get their money, they skip our quarter during the rounds. Now they have bigger trouble on their hands." When Savenna didn't reply, he added clumsily, "Sorry, I didn't mean to..."
But the girl was hardly listening. The salty smell of the sea had reached her nose and Savenna's pulse quickened.
Law.
He was close.
The desire to see a familiar face was suddenly so strong that Savenna almost yelled at Fetch to walk faster.
As they finally stepped out on the pier however, she felt a wave of disappointment. The town port was nothing like she expected. A part from a couple of desolate fishing boats and a half-sunken warship, there was no vessel that could have brought them past the three marine cruisers anchored in the bay. They would have a hard time getting out of this place.
The stench of rotting fish crept into her nose. The tide had left behind parts of rusting ship hulks and mussels shells picked out by the gulls. As Fetch ventured out into the bay, his feet sunk into sticky mud. Only when she almost fell off his back, the thief agreed to put her down.
The shape of the ship carcass was hidden in the iron fog and whatever traces might have led back to the shore, had been washed away by the tide. Savenna listened carefully for voices inside, but couldn't hear anything.
"Come on, quickly," Fetch hissed. On wobbling knees the girl followed in the thief's big footsteps. There wasn't much time. Voices were rising from the old harbor. Afraid of attracting unwanted attention, they crept up to the carcass from the lee. There was a place where waves had smashed a hole in the rotting wood. That's where they would enter.
Savenna forced herself to breathe steadily. Remembering pain pinching her heart whenever she ran or got upset, she tried to stay calm. Now of all times she couldn't allow herself to pass out.
Indeed, at the rear of the ship, a piece of cloth fluttered over a whole of three missing planks. Savenna wanted to object when Fetch insisted on going in first, but she decided to save her strength. The thief pounded three times against the wood.
No answer. Fetch tried it again but no one replied. "They must be extra careful with the marines around," Savenna figured.
"Seems so." But suddenly Fetch didn't seem convinced by this own words. Eventually he ducked his head and pushed the cloth aside. Just as Savenna wanted to go after him, he came rushing out, looking pale.
"No, don't...," he objected as she hurried past him. The inside was dark, apart from the rays of cold daylight piercing the room through cracks and bullet holes. A foul, stuffy smell almost made Savenna retch.
"Hello?" she tried calling in the dark. "Law?"
But the only thing coming back was an airless echo. "Law, are you there?" she called, louder this time. Nothing. Only as her eyes began to adjust to the darkness, she realized the room was empty. The shadows in the corner were but piled up boxes and overturned barrels.
Fetch came after her and tried to hold her back, but the cold touch of her hand made him retreat. Disoriented, Savenna walked on. Suddenly her the soles of her shoes touched on something slippery and as she caught hold of a cracked beam, she realized it was blood.
"What happened here?" she whispered. Fetch didn't know, but he couldn't wait to get out of there. The place reeked of death, and there was no guarantee that whoever did this wouldn't come back. He did everything he could to persuade the girl to leave, but Savenna wouldn't listen. Like a sailor gone mad on a desert island, she trashed through the ship searching every corner for whatever ghosted through her head.
Much had been left behind. Trunks, suitcases, shoes and winter coats. Someone had definitely been here, and Savenna kept wondering how these people had managed to bring their belongings this far. In one of the trunks she discovered an empty jewel case and held it under the daylight entering through the bullet holes, where it revealed its white shimmer.
Amber Lead. Stubborn, stupid people!
As Savenna turned it upside down, her stomach twisted. There was her family name, cursively engraved into the poisonous metal. Their own deathly merchandise. How many of these her father had shipped across the world? She let it fall on the floor with sorrow and disgust, and went on searching.
What for she didn't know. Obviously, Law wasn't there. No matter how strongly she had imagined him to be, it hadn't been enough to conjure him up. But she wasn't ready to accept it. She crept in every corner, under ever beam and as her hands were full of splinters, her fingers closed around a furry piece of cloth. Carefully, she pulled it into the open.
She recognized the hat immediately. She had made fun of it a thousand times.
Now there was just time enough to pull it close before she was sick.
Fetch carried her back into the old port, kicking and screaming. Staying calm hadn't worked out. Savenna took her grief out on the man until she hung exhausted in his arms, eyes wide open and fingers clutched around Law's mushroom hat. Half of the gray fur was gone and blood had dried on the right side. There was no way of knowing whose it was.
Luckily, the voices they had heard didn't belong to the marines. The men hanging around the harbor were from a gang no different that Louise's, and remembered Fetch from one blurry evening at the butcher's. They were standing outside the old port tavern, when Fetch put the girl down on a bench. She had a wild look about her but remained silent. They weren't particularly nosy. Telling them he had brought Savenna to the hideout to check if there was still something to loot, seemed to be enough information for them.
"Pity. You guys should have come earlier. Three hours ago those suitcases were quite full," one of them mentioned, loudly chewing his tobacco.
"What happened to the hideout? Seemed pretty empty in there," Fetch wondered, trying hard not to show more interest than he was entitled to. The men furrowed their brows. "You mean you don't know?"
The thief shook his head.
"That's strange. The butcher being the one who's sold them out..."
"What?"
Both Savenna and Fetch turned around with disbelief. The girl had just enough sense to look away before one of them recognized the lightness of her skin. "Apparently Fat Louise sent a messenger to the marine quarters yesterday. Nobody had the guts to do that before. The rest of the Flevance folk paid us, you know. So we keep our mouths shut. Nothing wrong with that if you ask me... But that hag wouldn't have any of that. She went straight to captain Montmort, that bastard, and gave them away." The casual tone had gone from his voice. "At dawn the whole marine corps was down here."
"Where did they bring them? The Flevance people," Savenna wanted to know, her voice sounding like that of an old woman. The man looked down to meet her gaze, but her white eyes kept staring into space. Finally he shrugged and said, "Nowhere. The marines had them all shot. Piled them up on boats, set them on fire and let them drift out to sea. No one wanted the poison buried here. It was bad smoke, took ages to go away."
Against Fetch's warning the girl stormed into the butcher's back room. He had considered locking her up for her own good, but she was quicker. Half the gang had gathered in the kitchen, dozing and waiting for their shifts to start when Savenna burst through the door. Fat Louise was sitting behind the counter, lazily picking her teeth with a knife. As soon as she saw Savenna, a wide grin twisted her lips, revealing a few missing teeth "Well, it looks like someone ignored my orders and went out for a stroll."
"Shut up, you fat peasant cow! How could you? Do you have any idea what you've done?" Savenna yelled, her tired features filled with rage. Sudden everyone was awake and the first heads turned around when she smashed Law's hat on the counter. "My people are dead because of you! And for that I'm going to kill you with my own hands, you proletarian piece of trash!"
The room was silent. Every pair of eyes wandered to the butcher, secretly afraid of her reaction. Fetch himself stood frozen in the doorway, unsure whether he had the guts to intervene.
"Fancy words to insult a simple woman," Fat Louise chuckled and put the knife down. When she got up and started walking toward her, Savenna realized she'd better figure out how to carry out her threat. But before she could even think of making the woman faint, a steady hand was smacked across her face. So much for a dog that didn't bite. The blow was so hard it swept the girl off her feet. Only when Savenna hit the floor, the other gang members dared to share Fat Louise's sharp giggle. Fetch wanted to rush to the girl's side, but the butcher's gaze told him to stay put.
"Well, I wonder how you're going to do that from down there, princess," she ventured.
"Go die!" Savenna spat. She was silenced by a kick in her stomach. The butcher shook her head with disappointment.
"I'm afraid you'd have to make that happen yourself, now that you promised. So get up and show me those murderous hands of yours."
Savenna's limbs felt heavier than before, and as she saw Law's forlorn hat lying on the counter, she wondered if she could get up at all. Only her wounded pride straightened her spine and pushed her back up. But before she could even attempt to attack the butcher, she tumbled back down.
Confident laughter filled the back room. Hot cheeks pressed to the floor tiles, Savenna could only see the dirty boots of the butcher looming over her. "So, now that we've sorted this out, you might as well listen up. Never question my authority again, princess. And should you plan on killing me, for Roger's sake, do it when you're ready. Anything else would be a waste of my time."
The laughter grew louder. Savenna could hear Catch's raspy voice somewhere in the corner. "And just so you know, I saved your sorry ass. I gave those marines what they wanted so they won't come looking for you. That should be enough, don't you think?" A heavy laugh escaped the woman's throat. "Here only selfish trash survives. I thought you'd already know that. After all, you're the only one who made it this far in one piece." The group was disappointed when the girl finally remained silent.
"And you are going to pay for disobeying me. Clearing your debts won't be enough after what you and Fetch pulled off today." The butcher didn't take much time to come up with an appropriate punishment. "I want a map of Flevance. Warehouses, stocks, mansions, all that's left in that forsaken place. And remember, if you resist I'll put those bullets back where they belong!"
Savenna was locked in the cellar where she wouldn't see daylight for three full days. At at Louise's orders two smelly bandits had left her in a corner with two damp pieces of paper and coal pencil. But even if she had given in to the butcher's demands, she wouldn't have been able to do as she was told.
The trip to the harbor had drained whatever force she had recovered since her escape from Flevance. Her legs remained in the same uncomfortable position, her arms twisted in the same angle. Even moving her head felt like a feat she wasn't ready to perform. For some time she believed her throat was sore from calling Fetch, and insulting the drunks scavenging the cellar for rum. But as she actually tried to open her mouth, she knew she had been imagining it. Her jaw had become too heavy to lift. She didn't know how much time had passed before she lost feeling in her back. The cutting pain left by the bullets had disappeared, and Savenna could hardly tell if the wall she was leaning on was still there.
The wild anger that had made her jump right into the lion's den slowly subsided. The pain she imagined inflicting on the butcher, didn't bring her any satisfaction. Her rage faded until there were only Fat Louise's words echoing in her head. No matter how she despised the woman for what she had done, she knew that deep down she was right.
Law had forfeit his desire to live a long time ago. For him, it was over when the flames had engulfed the hospital and the ones he loved. He would never have left home. Stubborn and heart-broken, he would have walked back into the hospital, crawled next to Lamie and held her hand. The smoke would have made him fall asleep like everyone else. He had always been the rational one, the grown-up. He had no illusions of adventure, no childish hopes of fairy tales coming true.
If it weren't for her, none of this would have happened. If she had only listened to him for once and stopped acting like a brat willing to do everything to have her way. After all this time she had learned nothing. She had pushed him further than he was ready to go, just because she believed that a happy end was waiting for them somewhere else.
But her stubbornness had achieved nothing. She was strong enough to turn back time, or to keep a simple promise. Instead of leaving him with his family, she had made Law walk toward a smoking gun by himself. Knowing, counting down steps and heart beats.
She had only saved herself.
Suddenly Savenna was back in hospital, sweating with fever on Law's narrow cot. Whether it was exhaustion or Amber Lead playing tricks on mind she didn't know, but she stopped resisting the images flooding her head.
In the half-dark, she recognized a small figure materializing in the corner. It was crouching, the head pressed against the wall. She saw herself getting up and walking toward it. But the room expanded and it felt like weeks passed before she could come any closer. When her feet finally reached their destination, she saw it was him. Law's face was haggard, his black hair sticky with blood. The wooden wall behind him was pierced with bullet holes leading into bottomless space. All times of day had merged into a directionless twilight, only heavy iron dust left floating in the air.
She wanted to fling her arms around him but he cut her off. He complained about his arm. He didn't sound like a doctor. He was scared. His arm hurt and he couldn't move his fingers. Distressed, Savenna took a closer look and saw that it had been punctured by bullets; there was hardly anything left but fractured bones.
"Just...sit tight, Law," she stammered. "I'll help you!" And as she turned around, there was Dr Trafalgar's medical kit sitting on a table. Savenna almost jumped on it, but the only tools she found were the scalpel Law had used to dissect the squirrel, searching for a cure for Amber Lead poisoning; the shot he had shoved into her shoulder after dragging her in the icy bathtub, and the needle and yarn which had served to sew the boys' hands together to buy them time.
Convinced she could do protect him like she had that night, she grabbed the scalpel and started severing her left arm at the shoulder. She expected it to hurt, but it came off like a piece of clothing. Meanwhile Law's condition worsened. He'd almost passed out when she remembered giving him the shot. Then she started replacing his arm with her own. "Hold still now. It's just a few stitches," she whispered, sticking the needle deep under his skin. But no matter how many stitches she made, they all popped up again. She started over and sewed until there was no yarn left.
She hadn't done anything at all.
A tray with food had been brought to her, but Savenna was caught in a loop of repeating dreams. Next time she saw Law, he stood by the small hospital window, watching her through a blind, bleeding eye. The bullet had shattered his eye-ball, making him look like one of the antique dolls she had inherited from her mother. Only his healthy eye looked at her with flat disappointment. He remained silent, while she grabbed the same scalpel and cut out her eye to give it to him. She kept pushing and squeezing but it didn't work. He was so disgusted by her sight that he would rather go blind than accept a part of her.
Over the next hours Savenna fought for his life many times. But with every body part she gave up, he seemed to get angrier. She could prevent neither his death nor his resentment for her. When she had finally cut out her heart and fiercely tried to stuff it into his chest, she was crying with frustration. She had connected all the blood vessels, but the heart wouldn't start beating. "Please, Law, tell me how this works! I can't do it!"
His gaze was dark, mocking. "Of course, you can't. There's nothing there." The next moment she was holding a block of blue ice melting into dirty puddles at her feet.
"Dying at last, I see. Finally! We started thinking that brat was immortal. I just hope the lead will keep the nasty soul inside," Catch muttered, staring over Fat Louise's shoulder to satisfy a morbid curiosity. Meanwhile, despite the dark rings under her eyes, the butcher was patting the girl's burning forehead with chunks of ice wrapped in an old rag.
"She's not gone yet, she'll hear you", the she grumbled, before she started changing the bandages on Savenna's back.
"Her organs are failing. There's not much she can do about that. Why do you even bother?" The butcher didn't answer. "Go and be useful somewhere else. See if Fetch has some of that medicine left. She's not crying or anything, I don't know what she needs..."
Catch turned around begrudgingly and left.
A week had passed since the incident in the back room. The wounds on Savenna's back had caught a nasty infection after her trip to town, and she had been feverish ever since.
Fat Louise was far from being a doctor. The only thing that qualified her for the job of fixing people, were her unbreakable nerves and steady stomach. However, usually her patients died under her knife right away or were able to walk out of her establishment the next day. But this time even Catch could tell that the clumsy stitches on Savenna's back didn't look well.
She wouldn't eat or close an eye at night. Fat Louise tried feeding her with a spoon like an infant, but Savenna wouldn't have anything but water and a few gulps of rum. All that time she kept dreaming with her eyes open, staring frantically at the same spot in front of her. And the longer her she was awake, the more invisible the people around her became. First she stopped insulting Louise, then she ceased answering at all. If the butcher didn't know better, she'd think that whatever she was staring at during the day, was poisoning her at night.
Her white skin was slowly turning yellow - either her liver of her kidneys were failing. Louise had seen it with members of her gang who had had one glass too many. Sometimes at night she would yelp like a someone drowning, gasping for air, even though the little window was cracked open.
Laboriously, Fat Louise got up and closed it for the night. A snow storm was coming.
After disobeying the butcher and putting the whole gang at risk as she called it, Fetch had been imposed his own punishment. While Savenna had still been locked in the cellar, he had been ordered to transport stolen goods from the butcher's shop into the secret warehouse. It was a job everyone avoided passionately, since it required sneaking through the town's back alleys in during the worst hours of the day. But well aware of Fat Louise's spitefulness, the thief didn't complain. He carried bags and boxed through the night, as gray snow fell from the sky and the north wind threatened to freeze his eye-balls. And as the passer-by started seeking shelter from the storm, he didn't intend to stop.
Even though the butcher hadn't forbidden him to see the girl between his shifts, they didn't see much of him. First, he had made a huge fuss and insisted Fat Louise should let her out. She was sick, for Roger's sake! But since her health had started declining, his visits became scarce. The gang which had started to take interest in the matter either because of the potential loot the girl would bring in, or simply because they wanted to see someone challenge their leader, believed he regretted bringing her back. Some said he was scared of the Flevance curse. Catch however, swore the man was in pretty bad shape himself. The girl's condition hit him hard. He couldn't stand seeing her like his. The fact was, that since she'd stopped eating, he had stopped visiting her at all.
Fat Louise had better things to do at that time than running after him. As long as his duties were done, she had nothing to say about the matter. In Fetch's absence she had brought the girl into his room to keep her out of the way. Her nasty looks didn't exactly brighten the mood. But as she moved her now to clean her wounds, she could swear her limbs were getting heavier. She must be imagining it.
However, after sending Catch away, she had to admit there wasn't much she could do if the girl refused to get better. She had sent one of the new underlings to start digging that grave two days ago, just in case. The earth would be frozen in that time of year, so better to get a head start.
Irritated about the time she was losing because of her patient and frustrated that none of her remedies seemed to work, she spent the entire day at Savenna's side, fearing for her own future with every sweat drop rolling over the girl's forehead.
Their money was running out. If they were to maintain the generous bribes they paid to the marines to leave their business alone, new income must be found, and the ruins of Flevance were the obvious solution. The last raid had brought them more ten times a much money as they earned in a month. But they needed the maps, if they wanted to extend their range. With the heavy security on the borders and the marines on their back, walking into Flevance without a plan was nothing short of suicide. Hence, Fat Louise was very unwilling to let the girl die so soon after she had found a suitable purpose for her.
However, two hours later there was still no sign of Catch or the medicine she had sent for. So Fat Louise got up and after shooting the girl a last skeptical glance, she walked back into the kitchen. Apart from a few snoring bandits, it was empty and no sign of either Catch or Fetch. The butcher cursed. Suddenly she heard the sharp sound of a shovel hitting frozen ground. Glad that at least someone was following her orders, she opened the back door and to her slight confusion, saw Fetch heaving chunks of earth and stone out of a small hole in the yard.
"You're not thinking of burying her here, are you? You know the guys, once they're dunk enough they'll be convinced she's haunting the place and I don't want to know where that brings us," she called past the howling wind. Violent gusts we tearing on Fetch's coat and swirled up the snow at his feet.
The thief paused. Then he went back to his digging, as if he hadn't heard anything.
Fat Louise's patience was running out. "Are you listening to me? That's a bad spot! And I didn't order you to do this...You better get inside anyway. With that storm coming, you'd just catch death out here."
"Does it matter?" Fetch asked, finally turning around. "I'm as good as anyone else." Only as the butcher stepped closer, did her eyes fall on the backpack leaning against the door frame. Seeing the determination in his movements, and a piece of a sleeping back peeking out of the pack, the gang leader realized he was leaving. While he went back to punching the ground like a madman, the butcher stepped quietly into the snow. "Where you at least planning on leaving a note, or how exactly was I to find out you were gone?" she asked sourly.
The thief shrugged.
"Oh, I see. Maybe Catch would have told me after he'd sobered up."
Fetch shot her an irritated gaze. "What do you want me to say?"
The usual roaring laughter escaped the butcher's throat, and died within the snowy walls of the court yard. "I came here to ask whether you had more of that medicine you stole. You know, for the Flevance brat you brought here, remember?"
"That's gone," he replied sharply and wanted to go back to work. But before he could plunge the spade back into the earth, the butcher had caught him by the shoulder and punched him in the face. "Well, it seems I need to teach you a thing or two", she spat while he was holding his broken nose, hissing curses. "I see the brat isn't the only one who needs to learn about respect and responsibility." The thief hoped that the punch would have done it, but Fat Louise was just warming up.
"You know, I always defended you when they called you a coward behind your back. But it seems you're as weak as they say, running away when things get ugly, unable to finish what you started. That's exactly what cowards do."
The butcher laughed again, only this time there was no amusement in her voice. "You call me cruel, but what the hell is this? I don't care for the girl's feelings - she could be dead next morning. But what about me? I took you in when you had nothing. I gave you food, a job and a place to sleep. And this is how you repay me? By running away and leaving me with a ticking bomb on my hands? I'd expect something like this from Catch, but not from you. That's not the way we do things here."
"You don't understand..." Fetch said, desperately searching for the right words. Dark blood was running down his chin and into his collar. "I can't do this...Not again. I thought I could help her and become a better person, but I can't. I'm failing again and it's too hard."
Fat Louise's features softened for a moment. Then she came closer, put a hand on his shoulder and said, "I don't understand and I couldn't care less what kind of person you are. And I bet neither does she." Then she picked up the shovel and pushed it harshly into the thief's hands. "I don't know why you helped her, and I don't want to find out. But if it's redemption you're looking for, I suggest you face the music, be good or bad. It's your brat, Herbert. You brought her here, so you bury her."
With that she left him bleeding over the shallow hole in the earth, the icy winds rising around him.
It took Fetch an half an hour to pick up what was left of his courage, ten minutes to clean his nose and another fifteen to dig up his backpack from under the snow. And when his drenched, unimpressive figure was finally standing in the doorway, Fat Louise knew she had won.
As the snow storm went on, trapping them inside the house, Fetch himself had started to change. He had the reputation of sticking to himself and of completing all of his tasks quietly. His great ability was that of disappearing in the crowd and of remaining unseen. He managed to adapt to whatever environment he happened to find himself in without attracting attention. Calm and very much uninteresting, he was someone who would be overlooked and whose face would be forgotten the moment he walked out of the room.
That natural, undramatic way of his had not only delivered Louise valuable information, but also loot that no ordinary bandit would have been able to get his hands on. He had stolen navigational charts from under the nose of a marine officer, and managed to swipe a rival gang leader's most intimate possessions, after walking in to their quarters and convincing him that he'd been part of his crew for thirteen years. He had just one of those faces. Having no home and no attachments left, Fetch could walk the streets and pretend to belong wherever he lay his head.
That changed the day he returned to the girl he had almost left behind. He started out by tricking her to eat. As if she were a dog, he tried pouring sugar on everything he served her. When that didn't work, he tried reading her bedtime stories to make her fall asleep. When that failed, he moved to more drastic methods.
Without Louise's consent and in spite of the storm, he'd had two pharmacies robbed and hadn't even bothered to clean up the mess. Louise didn't like that. What she liked even less was him trying to bribe a doctor to see the girl. Of course, as soon as the old man had heard about Amber Lead, he said he'd rather take a bullet than get involved. And now Louise had to arrange that too, once the snow had stopped.
Fetch remained his taciturn self when she confronted him. But left alone with her patient he just wouldn't shut up, talking as if to chase the silence. Hearing that Louise was surprised he knew more that the fifty-something words which made up his usual vocabulary. And she was completely at a loss when he showed up with a tacky dollhouse.
Bumped on two sides, and with its blue color peeling off, he ugly thing had belonged to one of her whores who had been unfortunate enough to end up with a child. The butcher had forgotten that she'd wanted to sell it for a cheap price, when it suddenly made it back to daylight.
"What on earth did you dig that out for?" she asked, brows furrowed. The thief shrugged. "She's a kid after all. Kids like toys... Maybe she'd like to play when she gets better."
"Whatever. Just don't make it get in the way," she grumbled, shaking her head. He might be losing his mind, who could tell? In that state the girl wouldn't be playing with dolls anytime soon. When Fetch sat down next to her and emptied a bag filled with dusty, broken dolls, Savenna wasn't conscious of his presence.
He wasn't as delusional as Louise believed. He knew that there wasn't much that he could do, and that the girl would die before he could make up for his past mistakes. But he wouldn't be running away this time.
Outside the wind was howling and inside the butcher's quarters were filled with smoke, smell of burned food and hushed whispers.
After pulling off his dirty gloves, Fetch grabbed a broken doll and continued their daily conversations. "I'm sure the ones you had back home were prettier," he said. "But maybe after we find some glue and plain, you'll like these too." The doll he showed her had lost both her hair and two of her limbs. Meditatively, Fetch pulled a yarn out of the old carpet he was sitting on, and began reattaching the arm to its torso.
"Louise is by far not the kindest person around here. Roger knows how much we fear her... I'm sorry I wasn't able to stop her before she sold your people out," he said with pinching honesty. "I don't think she did it out of cruelty though, you know. All she thinks about is her business and keeping it as far away from the marines as possible. Her business is all she has. And dealing with guys like Catch and the captain Montmort...it forged her quite a rough character." Fetch paused to fish the doll's leg out of the dusty pile. "She is right about many things, but she can still be wrong about others."
For a moment, the thief believed he could sense the girl's eyes move in this direction. "Failing someone we love doesn't make us bad people. Even though that's how it often feels. It happens to many of us. To some even more that once..." He paused, unsure what to say next. He would have like her to yell at him, he knew she wouldn't. "I thought I was such a person, but just now someone reminded me that failing means only that we're not as strong as we would like to be. I know I wasn't."
Savenna gave no sign of whether she had heard him, so he went on. "Louise called us selfish, and for most of us that's probably true. But you did more for the boy with the hat than any of us would for our own family. And living to see another day doesn't make that any less true. One day you'll make it up to yourself by helping someone else."
He had brought her food every day, urging her to eat it and leaving it on her pillow during the night. But on that day, he the only thing he gave her was the patchwork doll. He placed in on her pillow, before leaning back and falling asleep against the wall.
When Louise walked in an hour later, she was so surprised, she had trouble staying quiet. Savenna's eyes were closed for the first time in days. She had fallen into a light but troubled sleep, clutching the doll so hard her fingers had undone Fetch's mending efforts. Scandalized and feeling somewhat cheated, she stood there wondering.
She had tried everything to make the girl rest but nothing seemed to work. Her sleeplessness had become quite the conversation topic among her men. People were growing uneasy in the girl's presence. Apart from Catch's enthusiasm about her kicking the bucket, the girl's condition wasn't taken lightly. The bandits who had laughed at her attempt of revenge, now refused to enter Fetch's room. And those sleeping next door started having nightmares. Amber Lead wasn't contagious, but whatever other sickness she had brought with her, was spreading among them now.
Louise took another look at the dollhouse and pondered. Before the girl had found out that Louise had sold out what was left of Flevance, she had been feeling fine. Amber Lead poisoning was there but it wasn't acute. In fact, the way she handled it, she must have been living with it for a while. From what she had overheard, the marines had found many dead in the Flevance hideout. The poisoning targeted everybody from the smallest child to the strongest man. And yet, this girl had survived. Making it out of Flevance and walking into Fort Esperance like she owned the place.
It had been the bad news that had brought her down.
First Louise had believed it impossible that the girl's willpower had pushed her this far, but the more she thought about it, the more it seemed like she survived simply because she was too stubborn to die. And now, with her temper gone the girl was entirely helpless.
Louise had seen many strange things over the years. Islands changing seasons, Devil fruits that gave people insane abilities. But if the latter was the case, the Flevance would have been cured by now. No, this was different. She wasn't dying of Amber Lead poisoning but of a broken heart. Only in some mysterious way, for her the two were linked.
All she had to do was to find a remedy that worked, so Louise decided to repeat her latest success.
The next day she banged the door open and let the food tray land on the floor only a few inches from Savenna's face. "You've had your grief, princess. That's more than most people have. Now get up."
When Savenna didn't react, Louise grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her violently against the wall. To her satisfaction, she saw a hint of fright cross the girl's face. "You think that the world owes you something after what happened, but it doesn't. I could snap your neck this very moment, and the world couldn't care less."
Savenna glanced up in confusion, expecting an outburst but the woman remained calm, clutching her shoulders firmly. "Listen carefully now, princess. I'm not the enemy here. I do what I have to to survive, but I am not the one who killed your friend. So if you're trying to punish me, you're barking up the wrong tree."
"Bad things happen. You are not the first person to lose someone and you won't be the last. You have no power over Amber Lead, and you cannot raise the dead, no matter how hard you try. But what you can do is make a decision. Either you wallow and give up on the chance you were given, or you can find those who hurt you and make them pay. The way you deal with pain is the only thing that remains completely up to you."
Making the most of the girl's short-lived attention, Louise stepped back and pulled out Law's crumpled hat. Although much time had passed since she had been young, she had recognized the girl's sore spot.
"Whoever he was, you won't ever speak of him again. Not until you find the one responsible and stab a knife in his back." Then Louise pulled the furry hat over the girl's head, and pushed a wizened apple between her teeth. "Remember, you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Now suck it up and eat!"
The butcher made a show of storming outside, but joined Fetch lingering in the hallway instead, where the two of them watched the girl silently from afar. "And you call me chatty these days", the thief ventured.
Louise chuckled. "That one is just being dramatic. Amber Lead will get her another day, trust me." Fetch shot her a confused look, but then his features softened. He didn't know whether Savenna would make it, but he had found out for certain that underneath old layers of crudity and disregard, his leader wasn't as selfish as she claimed to be.
For a long time nothing happened. But when they started losing hope, Savenna raised her hand and took a bite.
The first apple made her sick. Her stomach felt like it was tearing itself apart from the inside. The second did the same; so did the third. But Louise didn't care for that. As long as she could force the girl to eat all the kitchen could spare, she didn't care that half of it was thrown up again. After a few days the fever broke and Savenna raised her voice for the first time to ask Fetch to change her bandages. The wounds finally started healing, and slowly transformed into two ugly purple scars.
But even though Savenna was on the way to recovery, her ghosts remained.
She had gotten used to Law dying on purpose in every part of the room she happened to have her eyes on. Halfway through her delirium, he had been joined by her mother. The tall woman used to sit next to the door, needles sticking out of her arms, while she watched her daughter with a composed smile. Savenna wanted to bury her head in her lap and ask for forgiveness, but she was never strong enough to get up.
Sometime the ships woke up under the sea, and her father's sailors kept singing through the night. Their voices made her dizzy, but drowned out the gun shots that would rattle through her head like waves hitting the shore. On especially cold nights she could see Lamie dancing through the room, jumping up and down to the rhythm to keep warm.
As if themselves caught in a fever, they seemed to have forgotten they were dead. Savenna regularly reminded herself, but telling them was useless. Like a bunch of headless chicken they erred from room to room, confused and unresponsive. However, they weren't the ones keeping her awake.
Day in day out, Law was watching her. When she was alone he would creep up to her and breathe the air out of her lungs. As their eyes met for a thousandth time in the damp darkness of the room, Savenna's head was pounding with exhaustion.
Slowly Savenna admitted the past to herself. This must stop. He was dead and he needed to remember.
Silently she made her decision.
When Fetch had fallen asleep and she could hear Louise snore next door, she gathered her courage. The mushroom hat hadn't moved from where Louise had put it, and Savenna pulled it deeper over her forehead when her bare feet ventured out of her cocoon. When she finally managed to get up, the floor felt unstable. Her sweaty skin prickled in the cold. On wobbly knees, she lumbered on toward a pair of dark gray eyes.
Law shot her a venomous glare as if to push her away. However, she kept going until she felt her fingers grasping his shoulders. He resisted and tried to wriggle himself out of her grip. But with a strange sense of confidence she let her arms move around him, carefully sliding over his back until she held him in a firm embrace.
That's how they would part. Her face buried in his neck, she began pulling memories out of him. One by one. Him walking toward her at school on the day they met, the ridiculous tie he wore the night she got sick, her trying to kick him out of bed, him coming back for her when the ground started trembling... Only when she understood how much she enjoyed looking back, she realized she was standing in the middle of an empty room hugging herself. Fully conscious for the first time in a long while, Savenna returned to her nest of coats, closed her eyes and fell asleep.
That night the storm passed and Law never bothered her again.
Two sunrises later, the maps of Flevance were drawn. Magdalena would have been furious: Savenna's handwriting was awful. Two of her fingers had suffered frostbite and she had to work without a ruler or a decent pen. The sheets Louise had given her hadn't been enough, so various things had to be used instead; old marine charts, cardboard and the back of wanted posters of pirates long dead.
Savenna remembered every street, the names of stores and crossroads, and the more she wrote down, the less painful it became. In the end, she'd given them jewelry stores, written down the addresses of fashionable houses and indicated which of her father's storehouses would still contain merchandise from before the outbreak. She had even given them the address of her own house, under the condition that she wouldn't see anything they brought back.
Gathered in the kitchen the bandits shot her hesitant looks, while flipping through the maps. Well aware it was what they had demanded, it still seemed unnatural for someone to give up the remnants of their home. While some reacted well to the prospects of filling their pockets, others felt even more uncomfortable in Savenna's company.
The girl was sitting on Louise's chair behind the kitchen counter, applying last corrections to her instructions, when one of the younger men came up to her and asked bluntly, "Are you sure these are correct?"
"I'm no nativagor, but my father has taught me how to read maps and sea charts when I was very young," she replied soberly.
The man shook his head with intent. "I mean, how do we know you're not trying to screw us over? It is your home we're looting after all..."
The room grew silent, prepared for debates and insults. But Savenna did nothing of that sort. Her white eyes remained cold. Louise recognized Fetch's calm settling on her features, as the girl faced her accuser.
"You have nothing to worry about. This is my home now."