Hey there :-)
I'm sorry it took me so long to update (again!)...Life just seems to have it out for me. But no excuses anymore! Here goes chapter 11!
Thank you so much Guest666-69 for all the comments and inspiring ideas! :-D And thanks a lot to HologramHoney, GoddessArtemis22, Scarlet3Wolf12 and IdioticLaptopUser for sticking around and reviewing this story. This keeps me going! You guys are awesome!
And thank you Jenny123jenjen for the helpful grammar tips! I'm revising the first chapters now hoping that me, punctuation and syntax might become friends one day...^^
I hope you guys will like the next chapter even though it turned out a bit longer than the previous ones. I plan on doing two more before Savenna and Law meet again (I'm so much looking forward to that^^), and give her some time to grow...
Anyway, I'll stop rambling now.
Enjoy! :-)
Savenna knew that as a Flevance survivor she wouldn't ever find a real home. For as long as her skin remained white, there was nowhere she would belong. Someone would always turn away with fear or revulsion. And for a girl who had lived in one place all her life, it was a bitter pill to swallow. It was only after arriving in Fort Esperance that she realized how much she had been in love with her hometown. But there was no going back now.
Even though she had delivered Louise's gang another year worth of loot, the bandits still distrusted her. Some feared she would get them in trouble with the marines, others were still convinced she'd infect them with the white poison. Apart from the hostility which she learned would never entirely go away, it were the little things that got to her. Her reputation and family name would never precede her again, not if she valued her life. There would be no walls she could paint in her favorite color, no baker that recalled her favorite bread and no one who knew what a good dancer she was.
The maps of Flevance had repaid her debts to Louise, but if she intended to stay she had to bring in more. And as Savenna, for the first time in her life, didn't have a penny to her name and had no useful skills whatsoever, Louise decided that housework was the right task for her.
The girl cursed the butcher every time she plunged the mop into a bucket of dirty water. She thought of all kinds of torture she would repay her with whenever her shoes slipped on the floor, and mocking laughter hit her already wounded pride. "Not so smug now, eh, princess?" Catch called out then. She tried hitting him with the mop but failed.
Working for Fat Louise was the hardest thing Savenna had ever done. Once her mother had forced her to volunteer at the hospital after a Flevance ships had been attacked by pirates. It had been the event of the year. Savenna had spent hours arguing with Magdalene who'd refused to sew her a nurse uniform for the occasion. And then, instead of emptying bedpans and changing sheets as she was supposed to, she had spent the day at the sailor's beds, admiring their wounds and listening to the stories they'd embellish just for her. If Law had seen her back then, he'd just rolled his eyes and gone off sulking in some corner.
That day had been the closest Savenna had ever come to physical labor, but it was nothing compared to what Louise put her through. Slowly the gravity of her loss paled next to the hatred she developed for the poverty she had always looked down upon. Gritting her teeth with humiliation, she swore that if she made it out alive, she would never work for a bowl of watery soup ever again.
As soon as she felt strong enough to explore the premises, Savenna discovered that the hideout was not just one building, but a compound of run-down houses encircling a sad looking court yard. The butcher shop, the kitchen and the sleeping quarters she was already familiar with were only a small part of Louise's little empire. Another large building served as a storage for smuggled goods and a small shed contained all sorts of weapons stolen from marines and civilians. Next to the storage was a small whore house where Savenna saw women of various height and beauty enter at the crack of dawn. All the bandits who still waited to become seasoned members of the gang slept in the one-story house that was attached to the shed, where cows and pigs lingered waiting for the slaughter. And all of these places needed to be dusted, scrubbed and mopped.
The butcher shop turned out to be the worst place to work. Savenna was forced to wash blood out of clothes that had been washed too many times. Acting as the butcher's nurse she learned the difference between a stab and a gunshot wound, and was taught how to sharpen knives and clean pistols, which resulted in her almost almost shooting Catch in the back. And after every night the floors and the rusty medical equipment needed to be scrubbed with bleach and sand to chase the stench of death. Remembering the first night she had spent under Louise's knife, Savenna insisted on cleaning the instruments with rests of rum and liquor when the woman wasn't watching. Blood poisoning was an exceptionally bad way to die.
But even though she worked hard, not everyone liked seeing her around. Savenna was being shoved aside, insulted and yelled at on a daily basis. At the end of her shift she cried with fury and frustration, her body wrecked with fatigue.
The butcher wasn't going to stand up for her again, believing this to be a valuable life lesson. Fetch tried to help her, but none of his words or threats seemed to work. One evening, with her face hot with tears and her muscles aching from another battle with the kitchen pots, she decided that it was time she took matters into her own hands. She might have been a spoiled brat in another life, but she wasn't going to apologize for it. Her father had taught her better. She had dealt with bullies before and these weren't any different. Basic intimidation would work on them just fine.
The next time one of the thieves decided to tease her, she walked up to him and coughed right into his face.
The man was terrified. It took him a few hours and two of Louise's check-up to be sure he wasn't going to die. From then on he took a wide berth around the girl. Others were licked or bitten. Once Savenna even cut her palm just to smear some of her blood on a teenager's face. Most of them never bothered her again. Some of them even learned to laugh about it, even though they kept checking their bodies for symptoms when they were alone.
In the end her old tricks secured Savenna's way into the gang. She was quite proud of herself. She imagined Law shaking his head with disapproval and smiled to herself.
Once she had earned her place, she listened to the bandits discussing their coups, learned that a heist was only as good as the getaway plan, argued about sea monsters and talked about Gol D. Roger's favorite food. When she grew annoyed with the butcher, she'd keep scrubbing the floor around her while pointing out the errors in her books, until Louise would throw the pen at her or ask for help. The girl might have lost some weight and attitude, but her brain hadn't let her down yet.
The woman was the one who carried Savenna to bed when her sickness shook her with fever. On some days she didn't feel the symptoms of Amber Lead, bothered instead by the tiny rations of stale rice and dry fish. But her attacks returned whenever she heard the marine whistles blow outside. Moving her arms felt like lifting bulks of iron, and every breath was a bucket of water that needed to be pulled out of a deep well. In these days she grew slow, threw up over the floor she'd just cleaned or passed out over a hot iron, almost burning the pantry to the ground.
Next to her mattress Fetch had set up a pharmacy of stolen pills, shots and ointments. Nobody really knew what which medicine was good for, so out of lack of alternatives Fetch and Savenna had taken turns trying different combination. As a result, the thief had almost died of an overdose and the girl had lived through three days of hallucinations. But now Savenna was smart enough to know that two red pills and an injection of the clear solution would soothe the pain, and if she was lucky, make her sleep through the night.
Louise still wouldn't permit her to leave the house, but thanks to her the girl managed to learn more about what was going on in town. The man who had ordered the execution of the last Flevance survivors, was someone called Major Montmort. Head of the local marine force, he was known for his unquestionable obedience to the fleet and for merciless scrutiny when it came to health inspections. While washing dishes at an ungodly hour, Savenna overheard that he had arrived in town almost a week before the invasion. His division had provided the foreign military with unregistered weapons and explosives, and had been stationed at the outskirts of Fort Esperance in case the battled crossed the border.
"It's almost as if they knew what was going to happen," Catch muttered over a glass of rum.
"Yeah, I heard they were the ones who made the army close the borders weeks in advance. Orders from above apparently..." a short, tubby smuggler replied. "Damn those marines. If they didn't boost the black market prices, I'd be happy to shoot them in the head."
Savenna went to bed thinking. It seemed that not only had the marines abandoned Flevance, but that they had a hand to play in the attack. But why would they help the army invading a small country in the North Blue? They couldn't have known about the sickness, could they? Surely not before Trafalgar had found out?
That night Savenna felt Amber Lead knocking again. It always started with a sizzling in her cheeks and a numbness in her palms. Thinking of Major Montmort she lay on her bed, waiting for the pain to hit her temples. Silently, she watched the dawn breaking outside the window.
Winter was almost over and the days were getting longer. Even though Savenna thought it had stopped the day she was brought here, time was passing.
She was surviving. It would be her twelfth birthday in spring. And she was still alive.
For the first time she dared to miss the good things. Now that it didn't hurt so much, she allowed herself to long for the smell of a good meal, the feeling of falling asleep in a clean, comfortable bed and the carefree sound of music.
The smile of somebody who loved her.
Whether or not it was because she had finally found another person to blame for her misery, she realized she wanted more than just survival. Amber Lead or not, she had to make something of her left-over life. Although hunger and sickness had mellowed her temper, they hadn't put it out. That night her pain was met with anger about the sheer unfairness of life, and with the desire to take back what she considered rightfully hers. Louise was right, she couldn't bring back the dead. And it didn't matter that those people didn't know who she was. She did and she wouldn't forget. Her father would have never permitted her to live in poverty and helplessness. He would have found a way out, no matter what. And so would she.
Like she had told Magdalena long ago, money could always be returned. It couldn't cure her, but it could most certainly give her power. And that she knew how to handle.
When Fetch came home a few hours later, Savenna was sitting on the kitchen table, her white shoulders wrapped in a patchwork blanket. Before he could take a new box of pills out of his pocket, she said, "I want in. Teach me how to be a thief."
Many sensible reasons spoke against Savenna joining the thieving squad. Apart from the obvious and possibly fatal consequences of being a criminal, she would have to deal with the marines searching civilians, with competing gangs that were only waiting for Louise to show weakness, and with anybody else who could pull down her hood while tripping on the sidewalk by accident. She would put the entire crew at risk by walking out the front door. No matter how well she was trained.
And being a sensible man, Fetch refused to hear anything about it. Savenna cried, begged and pleaded, but he turned out to be annoyingly rational when it came to his job. Even his affection for her wouldn't make him change his mind.
But the girl was persistent. To persuade him she had to change strategies. A criminal wouldn't train her out of sympathy, but he would out of necessity. Patience, her worst enemy, stood between her and her crusade for her old life. She had to wait until there was a coup the thief couldn't pull without her talents.
Never had she been more up-to-date with the gang's schedule than in the weeks that followed. She knew what Fetch was up to before the mission was assigned to him, she prepared his disguises and learned which marine was in charge the night he would be out. But every time she thought Fetch would require the help of an unskilled cleaning girl, he ended up walking out of the room without her.
It would take one month until Savenna would have her chance. One night she woke up to someone was pacing through the room, pushing stuff off the shelves just like she had while trying to escape. "What the hell..." she muttered. Only after rubbing sleep out of her eyes she recognized Fetch's figure twisting in awkward circles. "Are you drunk?"
He paused realizing she was awake, but remained silent. "Just let me know if I have to get bucket," the girl sighed.
"I'm rehearsing," he admitted surprisingly sober. "I'm dancing in two days...at Captain Reed's dinner." At that Savenna raised an eye brow. Then she started laughing. Captain Reed was one of the wealthier merchants still dealing with iron mined in Fort Esperance. Nothing compared to her late family – obviously – but still a man worthy of Louise's attention. "You'll need more than practice to get that stick out of your ass." Since nobody of the bandits cared about etiquette, she had stopped watching her language a while ago.
"Very funny...Go back to sleep," he grumbled, before falling back into the dance that made him look like a turtle walking on stilts. Someone had scribbled down the steps on a piece of paper which was regularly sailing out of his hands.
"You're pathetic," Savenna giggled and got up. And while Fetch was still wondering what she was up to, she had already seized the opportunity. Ten minutes later the room was lit with crooked candles sticking out of empty rum bottles, and Savenna walked up to him in a dress fabricated out of a bed sheet and an old leather belt. Then she took the piece of paper and threw it away. "You won't learn anything from that. Let's go!"
Remembering her father teaching her many years ago, she grabbed the thief's hand forcefully and told him to follow her steps. Him being taller and heavier made it difficult for her to lead, but after a few tries she managed to push him into the right direction, crying out whenever he stepped on her bare foot. Soon they were awkwardly dancing through the room without music.
Only when she stepped away with a bow, she realized how much fun it was. She was almost sorry she would have to use it against the man. Fetch might have been a good actor but social skills took ages to acquire. In Louise's improvised treasury Savenna made a great effort to find appropriate silver cutlery to show the man how to eat a proper merchant dinner. Which spoon was used for soup, which was to be saved for dessert, what was the difference between a salad fork and a sea food fork...Savenna went on until she found the perfect moment to strike.
When the thief wanted to lift the first fork she snatched it out of his hand. "Not so fast. I have my conditions." Like during her meeting with Trafalgar, her voice remained calm. Negotiations were the only thing these people understood. The thief cleared his throat, a tired smile playing around his lips. "I'm listening." He wasn't a fool. He doubted that she would be helping him without wanting something in return. She had been living with bandits after all.
"Your cover will blow without me and you know that. You might be the greatest con artist in the world, but you have to learn from a rich person to impersonate one." She paused, weighing her words. "I'll teach you everything I know. But only if you teach me."
And so Fetch was beaten as his own game. He could only become an iron merchant if she became a common thief.
Before Fetch would teach her any sneaking, lurking, stealing or anything that Savenna found remotely interesting, he showed her how to act. The chin-high-belly-in-and shoulder-back stance would give her away the moment she sat foot on the street. Instead of making heads turn when she walked through the door, she needed to become invisible - something Savenna had little talent for. Fetch made her walk up and down the hallway, modeling her like a doll when she lifted her glance higher than an urchin would dare.
Language was the next step. Over the years, Flevance high society had developed a distinct accent, that could be identified on every island from Fort Esperance to Grand Line. "There's nothing wrong with the way I talk!" Savenna argued. But she had to get rid of it, along with everything that would single her out as a citizen of the White City.
That being said, speech was harder to correct. Doing any kind of exercise with Savenna was useless. She lost patience every time she had to sit still and repeat words. Having never taught anyone anything before, Fetch was helpless. None of his efforts paid off, until one night he walked in on Savenna sitting at her dollhouse.
She didn't see him and went on rearranging the dolls he had brought for her. As if she had done it many times before, she placed them into their respective rooms, some facing each other, some by themselves. Then she began to play:
Quick! We have to hide. The bad men are coming!
You're a coward, Lamie. We're a lot scarier than them. See, here he comes! A third doll joined the party. Where have you been, Mushroom Head?
Cutting hearts out with a table spoon. Poison is boring.
Already? I told you to wait for me!
Don't worry, I left the worst ones to you. You can suck the life out of them whenever you're ready.
Oh, how sweet of you, Mushroom Head! Do I get a kiss when they're dead?
Only if I get to keep the heart...
Deal!
It was the strangest child's play Fetch had ever seen. In fact, he found it quite disturbing. He didn't know who the people in the game were, or if they were real at all. Savenna had never told him more about what happened in Flevance than she had on the day they had gone to the harbor. And he didn't ask. He wasn't sure he even wanted to know.
Death did strange things to people. He rarely thought about the time when he had found out his family was gone. There wasn't much to remember. He hadn't been sober for about three years. He had lost everything and it had taken him ages to get back on his feet. And he hadn't even been there to see it happen.
But Savenna had. Watching her play, he realized that her sanity must be as fragile as her health. If one saw past her bad character, it was astonishing how normal she was. When he remembered the time she had almost died on his watch, he began to understand. As long as she remained her dramatic, joyful self, the sickness went easy on her. And to stay that way, she was spinning her life into nonsensical stories. Reality became fiction out of self-preservation. Stories could be controlled and rewritten. Unlike what had happened to her.
Fetch sighed. If a disturbing imagination was what she needed to keep Amber lead at bay, he wouldn't object to that. He didn't mentioned it to anyone, but after brooding over it another day, he figured out a way to teach his pupil. He would make up his own game.
He thought of various scenarios: one day she was an orphaned girl and he a friendly shop owner to be robbed, the next they it would be the other way around. Then she was an apprentice marine who had lost her way and he a tinker traveling through. And before every game, Fetch went to town to buy a handful of sweets. They were hers to eat if she made it through the story speaking the dialect of his choice. When she mispronounced a word he would open the little bag, and eat the candy in front of her.
Savenna jumped head-on into the game. Anger and ambition worked well. To prove him wrong rather than to win the candy, she paid more attention to detail, spoke slower and chose her words more carefully. Despite her stubbornness Savenna was a quick learner. After a month she had mastered three different dialects and started learning two new languages. Soon she knew how to adapt voice and vocabulary to her audience, and after a short observation she could impersonate almost everyone Fetch pointed out to her.
And it turned out Savenna already possessed basic manipulation skills. She had been lying and pretending to get her way since she could remember. All she had to add was a character. She already knew how to cry on command, how to sweet talk a stranger or charm her way into a father's heart.
Soon the thief decided to add something new. In every turn there was something one had to steal from the other - a scarf, a bottle or a coin. On her first try she picked up a fork and threatened to stab him. Fetch grew a little upset. "No matter if you are a little girl or a muscle giant, when it comes to theft the less violence you use the better."
"Why? I'm a criminal now! Isn't that what we do? The others threaten people all the time. Yesterday I helped Catch bury the guy he stole rice from."
"That's not the point," Fetch insisted. "I'm teaching you to steal, not to fight. The loot is never your priority. Invisibility is. Especially in your case. You need to know the difference." Savenna grew silent. "No matter what needs to be stolen, good thieves only leave traces when they intend to."
"So no weapons?"
"Not unless your life depends on it."
"Fine..."
Over the next few weeks, Savenna mastered the basic techniques of picking pockets and took an unhealthy pleasure in practicing on other gang members. Smugglers suddenly lost their shoes, Catch his rum and Louise her best knifes. Even Fetch was relieved of a coin or two whenever Savenna was upset with him. Louise gave her a beating from time to time for crossing the boundaries of criminal loyalty, but Savenna didn't care. She was starting to have fun.
Things got even more interesting, when she was taught how get inside a locked box inside a locked wardrobe standing in a room with a lock on the door. "Who would go through all that trouble to hide a piece of silver?" Savenna scoffed, playing with the threads Fetch had fixed over the doors. For every thread there was a bell that would ring every time her movements weren't careful enough.
"It's not actual coins we'll be stealing," She raised an eye-brow in his direction. "That's the way of getting information. Valuable secrets are better protected than any treasure."
So when she had finally overcome all the obstacles, there would be an envelope waiting for her that contained a sentence she must read as many times as she could, before Fetch took it away. A week would pass and then, out of the blue he would ask her the exact content of the letter.
"But why? You could have asked me ages ago!" she protested. "Yes, and in the real world you could have been captured, tortured or have your thong cut out in that time. You have to remember your bit of information, no matter what. You cannot know how much time will pass before you'll be able to share it with the right person."
Sensing that she was approaching her goal, Savenna's motivation grew. She asked random people in the kitchen to draw objects for her on a piece of paper, and tried to reproduce it three days later. To train her memory further, she borrowed a chart of Catch's that listed all the marines stationed in Fort Esperance and repeated every night their name, age, rank, abilities and prior injuries. Many times she wished for Law's brain. What a waste, she thought, he would have made for a good criminal, smart and cold-blooded... He would probably have pulled those bullets out his back and wouldn't have flinched. She tried to concentrate. If she wanted to succeed, she needed to be diligent, focused, just like him. Law could learn anything. Except for proper social behavior... Even though he wasn't haunting her anymore, she kept thinking about their games and arguments. Unable to permit herself to miss him, his face popped up in her mind at the strangest of occasions, leaving her with the feeling that her efforts mattered.
She kept wrecking her brains until she managed to remember the exact words of the first chapter of a novel a month after she had laid eyes on it. She recited it to everyone in the kitchen on a Friday night. A sip of rum had calmed the nerves. The bandit bunch was roaring and clapping hands, some of them in applause, others too drunk to remember why they were there in the first place.
But it was done. She was ready. However, when Fetch came up to congratulate her, a meaty hand on his shoulder held him back. "Not so fast! I'm still in charge of this little party!"
Louise had walked in from behind the counter and didn't look particularly pleased. "You two have had your fun, but this ends here. I won't have our princess putting us back on the marine radar, after I have been buying us off it for the last six months."
The cheering ceased. Every pair of eyes had settled on the butcher.
"But she is good," Fetch replied. "It took me ages to acquire the skills she learned in a few months. And she is tiny. You yourself have tried to hire children to sneak into the marine's warehouses."
"Yes. They all got caught and shot in the process. Reckless, little idiots."
"That's because you didn't take the necessary time to prepare them. But I did!" He pointed at Savenna. "I trained her well and she knows how to handle herself." She had rarely heard Fetch speak with such ardor. But Louise wasn't convinced.
"Oh, does she still have Amber Lead hidden somewhere in her clothes?"
Fetch remained silent.
"Or have you found a magical cure that will make her look normal again?"
The thief sighed. "No."
"Then my answer is still no," Louise barked, staring at him wildly. "Let me get this straight. I doesn't matter how good she is. She will get caught or wear herself out and die out there in the worst possible moment. In both cases there will be witnesses who will put an end to our little arrangement with Montmort. Amber Lead is Amber Lead. Not even your acting is good enough to make it disappear."
Savenna had heard this before. Before she could defend herself, the butcher left the room, smashing empty bottles on the floor as she went. Disappointed, with panic rising in her chest, she turned to Fetch but he rushed away without facing her. The people around her seemed to have found her speech and the butcher's interjection quite amusing, and were now returning to their drinks.
Savenna felt her blood boiling. Fat Louise herself had told her to get it together and to do something. It was her idea that she'd act and get revenge. Without her Savenna would have given up long ago. And now she was the one standing in her way. A coward afraid of a little girl.
"Oh, screw you!" she called out, but nobody was listening. Out of habit, she stuck her head up high and picked up the nearest glass and emptied it in one go. Then she smashed it into the fireplace, and stormed out before three unconscious men fell off their chairs.
She was too angry to sleep when Fetch came up to her in the middle of the night. As soon as she recognized his shape in the dark she shot up. "Where the hell have you been?"
"Shh. Get up and come with me."
Savenna frowned. "Where are we going?"
"To make sure our work wasn't for nothing," he said but didn't bother to light a candle.
"And how are we going to do that? The cow made herself pretty clear," Savenna replied.
"Tomorrow we're going to show her what you can do. But we have to take care of a few things first. Come on, we don't have much time," he explained and tossed one of his patchwork sweaters in her direction. A few moments later Fetch was leading her down the main hallway. After making sure that no one was looking, they crossed the yard, sneaked past the barn toward a narrow building with candles still lit.
"The whorehouse, really? I thought you were old enough to go there by yourself."
"Shh!"
She rolled her eyes and followed him. They entered through the back door that led to a long corridor. At the end of the hall was a door left ajar. Sneaking up behind the thief, Savenna managed to peer into a crowded room.
The flames in the fire place were burning hot and filled the little room with heavy mix of smoke and flowery perfume that made her dizzy. Half a dozen women were sitting at their dressing tables with their faces painted for the night out, exchanging complaints, comments and hushed giggles. When Fetch knocked, the heads turned into their direction.
Savenna raised a brow when the women eyed her from head to toe. Fetch cleared his throat before muttering an awkward greeting.
"Well, well, it has been a while since you've strayed in here," a tall, middle-aged woman with bright red hair remarked, before getting up from her chair with a slow, flowing movement. Her dress revealed a deep cleavage and a high cut in the skirt exposed most of her leg. Green, slightly slanting eyes inspected Savenna with something between curiosity and distaste. "And I see you've brought a visitor. But isn't she a little young for me? Louise must have had one too may..."
"That's not it," Fetch rectified. "She needs your help." He paused. "I need your help."
"And what exactly can I do for you?" the woman asked in a mocking but melodic tone. But Savenna wasn't fooled. The authority in her voice and the self-assured way she had approached the man, made it clear that she was in charge. With high cheek bones, piercing eyes and a long neck, she must have been pretty in her youth, but now layers of make-up tried to hide the wrinkles that gave away her true age.
"You want me to hide her death sentence for a while longer" she finished looking down at Savenna. "I'm just teasing, Fetch. We've heard about your little student. We're not entirely cut off from the world, you know. Anyway, we'll help as long as she won't start cleaning again. She made a mess of all our stuff here...
Savenna was about to burst but Fetch held her back. "Of course."
They locked eyes for a moment. Then she turned around and with a commanding voice she called, "Rose? Where are you?"
The whispers and giggles had stopped the moment the red-haired woman had taken the stage. Now the room was quiet enough that everyone could hear clumsy feet rushing from the back-room, helplessly tripping over discarded dresses and open trunks. "Yes, Lady Viola?"
A short, young girl in a white dress had emerged and tried to catch her breath as she waited for her orders. Another quick smile crossed Lady Viola's lips. "You're in charge of the Flevance girl. She needs a makeover, but nothing too fancy. Turn her into a street urchin, maybe chimney sweeper's son... Fetch's lovely victims shouldn't know who they're dealing with."
Her eyes glued to Savenna's skin, she made an effort to chose her words carefully. "I'll leave it to your imagination then."
The girl seemed confused but nodded obediently. Savenna shot Fetch a slightly desperate glance, while she was guided to one of the dressing tables. The thief however sent her off with an encouraging nod.
"Oh my, look at her..."
"That skin..."
"Her eyes are empty! Scary..."
"She would have been a pretty thing...What a shame!"
"I bet she'll never get a man."
Savenna gave her best to ignore the nasty and nosy comments and walked straight to the chair Rose pulled out for her. Lady Viola had retreated, but the girl could still feel her watching her.
Savenna had no opinion on prostitutes. Like pirates and marines they were supposed to be part of a different world that had somehow started to invading hers. Therefore, even though she was annoyed by their behavior, she couldn't help but steal a few glances at their perfume bottles, the fake pearls and revealing tops. Rose's shy voice managed to get her attention only after she repeated herself three times. "I'm sorry. I'm a bit...overwhelmed."
The girl gave a lighthearted laugh. "Yeah, that happens. Some of them are a piece of work, but they're okay when you get to know them. You can call me Rosie, by the way. Everybody does."
Savenna nodded silently. Up close, the girl seemed younger than she had thought. Despite the generous cleavage and the round hips, her face filled with childish curiosity when she could take a proper look at Savenna. She couldn't be older than eighteen.
And she was staring at her.
"What?"
The girl was slightly embarrassed. "Does it hurt, the snow skin?"
She shrugged. "Sometimes..." Before she could say anything else, Rosie was poking her arm as if it were an exotic plant. "Feels like ordinary skin, though. How strange..."
What did she expect? An armor? Savenna scowled but was completely helpless when the girl started inspecting her hair, staring at the white iris of her eyes and pulling on each of her fingers. After a while she was joined by the other women looking over her shoulder with vivid interest. Like a doll she was turned around and scrutinized from every side. Rosie looked forward to her task with undying optimism, while the others uttered their concerns.
"You'll need special make-up for her neck and shoulders."
"And coal for the eyes."
Strangely, none of the women seemed to fear contagion. In spite of their previous remarks, her condition was now handled like an ordinary problem needed solving.
The girl took their advice into consideration and began mixing something that strangely resembled baking dough, but smelled like the bleach she had used for cleaning floors. Rosie made her turn away so she wouldn't breathe the vapors. "It's slightly toxic, you need to be careful. I'd give you ordinary make-up but you need something that doesn't fade or smudge." She paused, taking a deep breath. "You can leave this on for three full days. I guarantee you that the color will last. But after that the toxins might penetrate your body, so you'd better wash it off sooner."
More poison. Perfect.
After giving it some thought, Savenna didn't want to know what it was. She began feeling lightheaded and soon Rosie's brown locks were all she could see. The make-up restored a healthy pink on Savenna's cheeks, but the strokes of Rosie's brush hurt like hell. Unlike Amber Lead, the paint left a sharp, stinging sensation and two women had to hold Savenna back so she wouldn't scratch her face off. "There, there... Beauty knows no pain," they shushed.
When she was finally ready to look in the mirror, she felt exhausted. The others retreated and she slouched deep into the chair, unable to sit up straight. But as she managed to peer at her reflection, she couldn't hide her surprise. The mirror showed her old self. Healthy skin and rosy cheeks. The eyes surrounded with black coal. She might almost be attending her parents' annual ball. However, when Rosie returned with a pair of scissors the warm feeling of familiarity disappeared.
"What are you doing?" Savenna yelped.
"Your hair needs to go. There's no way I can hide it." Savenna wanted to object, but the girl was right. It was just another thing that would give her away. "I'm sorry," Rosie muttered before making the first cut. With every strand of white hair falling down, Savenna saw herself disappear. And once Rosie was done, all there was left were short spikes pointing in different directions.
The girl didn't miss the empty expression on Savenna's face and gave her best to cheer her up. When her jokes didn't work, she rushed away into the back room and returned with an assortment of wigs and a pair of black gloves. "See, you might not recognize yourself, but now you can be anyone you like! Isn't that exciting?"
Indeed, after what she had learned she could be anybody. Pretending had become a routine. Taking her pick was all she had to do. From the beginning this had been her only option. Everything else would be fooling herself.
She was too tired to look at the wigs. Instead her eyes rested on the gloves. They resembled the ones she had put on after moving into the Trafalgar house. Savenna took a deep breath. "I guess you're right."
Fetch had been jumpy all morning. They were standing in the back of the whorehouse, looking at the sun rising over the mist. Waiting.
"It's a game like any other," she said, finding herself comforting him. Proving Louise that Savenna was ready to go on raids alongside him and Catch had been his idea. But the more he thought about it, the more reckless it seemed.
"No, it's not," he said sternly. "It's real and it's dangerous. If you're not feeling up to it, it's not too late to blow it off."
Savenna's features remained hard. They had come too far to give up. "It's only going to get more dangerous from now on. If I don't get real now, I never will. This is our only chance to convince her."
Fetch had spent the better part of last evening thinking over the Louise problem. And no matter how he put it, the best way for Savenna to earn her trust was to rob her. As strange as it seemed, profit and results were the only things that worked with that woman. So he had came up with a plan.
It was the day Louise's monthly payment to the marines was due. Since they had arrived in town she talked of little else, so Fetch figured she would be particularly upset if the money she had put so much effort in saving was stolen. It was the perfect opportunity. As usual, the butcher and the bag with money would be accompanied by three bandits, one of them Catch, until both arrived safely at the marine headquarters. Disguised as an urchin, Savenna would first relieve Louise of her belongings, and then dressed as a young marine soldier deliver it to the headquarters at the harbor. Fooling both sides would be good enough. Fetch knew she could do it but looking at her now - sick, tiny but determined - he didn't know if he could.
Rosie who was now sleeping in a chair behind them, had done a terrific job. Savenna looked like something the cat had dragged in. The white of the Amber Lead was hidden under a layer of burning, but durable make-up and a generous portion of dirt. The white lion mane had turned into boyish, blond hair. Rosie had spent the rest of the night assembling Savenna's outfit. Fetch's old pants were shortened to her size and were held together by Rosie's belt. The shirt was sewed together out of rags Savenna used to clean the tiles in the kitchen and the scarf was produced from the blackened seam of Lady Viola's green cloak. Her legs however, hid underneath good quality stockings and like the gloves, gave revealed not a bit of Savenna's skin. With Fetch's dirty shoes the disguise would be complete.
Savenna stiffened when loud cursing echoed across the yard. Louise wasn't a morning person.
"It's time," Savenna muttered.
Fetch cleared his throat, trying to concentrate on the task. "You have fifteen minutes to get to the crossroads. I hid the marine uniform in the left trash can behind the bakery. You can change in their storage room, but only between eight and eight thirty before the assistant comes in."
For a moment he could see the doubt flicker in her eyes. "I won't be part of security but I'll stick around, just in case," he assured her.
Savenna nodded. "I guess I need my shoes now." He helped and tied the laces extra tight.
"Remember, as long as you believe your story, everyone else will too," he told her before she ran off. And with an uncertain smile, she turned around her first street corner.
In the middle of spring the air had grown warm and stifling. Savenna's heart was banging against her rib cage, and pearls of sweat were rolling down her temples. Since Fetch had helped her study the map of the city, she knew corners and street names by heart. However, after spending months confined to Louise's compound, the outside world hit her in the face like a cloud of noise and smoke.
She pushed past a group of miners headed for the buses taking them into the mountains, and almost ran into Louise's carpenter. After making sure he hadn't recognized her, she turned on the main street and started running. Three blocks separated her from the crossroads where she was to meet Fat Louise and her bodyguards. But the butcher wasn't the only person she had to look out for. Every gang and smuggler ring came out of their hideouts on Black Tuesday to pay their bribes to Major Montmort. The first Tuesday of the month had become ridiculously civilized, since provoking the Major would be a death sentence for their respective businesses. Therefore, there wasn't a safer day for Savenna to be roaming the streets, and at the same time, it was the most dangerous one. If someone recognized her not even Louise would be able to help.
Thinking of everything that could go wrong, she reached her destination earlier than expected. But looking over the crossroads, Savenna smiled. It was as busy as predicted. The shabby town was coming to life again. The weekly market was taking up the whole square, with stands selling everything from winter vegetables to cheap jewelry. All sorts of people went about all sort of business: shady merchants hunted for new customers to cheat, fishermen tried their best to yell louder than the competition and here and there a marine officer could be seen hitting on a waitress. Savenna could bet that half of her people's possessions ended up being sold on markets like these. She mingled with the crowd before sliding into a spot between two food trucks, where she stood and waited for her victim to appear.
Scanning the faces of passers-by she wondered if Law had been as nervous when he stuck his first needle into her arm. He wouldn't be very proud of her if he could see her now. Using that flawless conscience of his to tell her that what she was doing was wrong. He wouldn't even recognize her. Before she could give it another thought, Savenna saw Catch turning around a corner, followed by two smugglers and Louise holding a leather bag, as if inviting her to snatch it form her hands.
"Well, suck it up, Mushroom Head," she muttered, checked her disguise ready to commit her first crime.
Louise had been clutching her bag with anger. In less the ten minutes she would be giving her last money over to the marine, who was slowly but persistently driving them into bankruptcy. She hadn't told anyone but the Headquarters had raised the monthly contribution that allowed them to stay out of prison. The gang would be alright for now but if Montmort's prices kept growing, they would have to find another solution soon or leave town. Flevance be damned! Even dead they manage to give me a hard time.
Maybe it was because she was more distracted than usual that the butcher didn't notice the loose wooden plank in her path. When she finally did it was too late. She ripped her eyes open and gave a helpless yelp as she tripped. A single moment of thoughtlessness was enough. Her bag was jerked out her hand before she landed on the dusty ground. Out of instinct, the butcher pulled out a knife, but the beggar boy dodged it with ease and disappeared in the crowd before any of her bodyguards had noticed a thing.
Louise cursed through gritted teeth. "You don't know who you're messing with, you little shit! Wait until I get my hands on you!"
The bag was hanging like dead weight in Savenna's arms when she finally skidded to a halt behind the bakery. Things must have gotten worse for the butcher, since she seemed to have scraped all loose coins together to pay the Major. The girl steadied the bag under her arm and swept the sweat from her forehead. To her surprise not a bit of Rosie's color had faded. At least something...
Following Fetch's instructions, she reached behind the trash can and fished out a worn-out marine uniform. After making sure that she remained unseen, she broke the lock to the storage room using a hair pin. There she exchanged her disguise for white shirt, blue scarf and hat. The shoes were too big for her, and the pans needed to be rolled up. Wearing her uniform like an armor, she walked out of the front door of the bakery as if she belonged there. With a serious face, the money bag in one hand and a pounding heart she walked toward the new harbor, straight toward the marine headquarters.
It was a big, impressive building. In only a few weeks the marines had transformed the old port terminal into a white, imposing construction with blue bars and solid gangways connecting it to the white-sailed ships moored at the pier.
Soon the crowd around Savenna grew thin, showing only the gray faces of delivery men, a few carpenters and mostly marine soldiers shooting her cold, slightly puzzled glances.
Breathe. Drop off the bag and you're done here, she told herself. She tried her best not to think of Fetch who wasn't by her side anymore. She was alone with nothing but good acting and luck separating her from most certain death. Savenna bit her tongue and reminded herself why she was had made is as far as the front gate, when an officer opened up and eyed her with suspicion. "What do you want, newbie? Lunch isn't before twelve."
Savenna lowered her voice and tried to sound as dispassionate as possible. "Need to see the treasury officer. Some of the bandit money was delivered to our unit." The officer hesitated, but let her through after inspecting the bag.
"Where from?"
"The butcher Louise. North district."
The officer seemed quite unimpressed as he led her through numerous white hallways where they passed more mariness with guns resting on their shoulders, doubtlessly headed for the center of town. Savenna had almost begun to breathe normally, when the officer said casually, "The treasury is out, you can leave the money with the Major. He'll end up counting it anyway."
"What? The Major? Major Montmort?"
"No, Roger. Of course, Major Montmort! I swear they let anyone into the marines these days" he hissed and rolled his eyes before pointing at a large door at the end of the hall guarded by two marines. "What are you waiting for? Move!" he snapped and Savenna awkwardly stumbled forward.
The door sprang open before she could knock. Before she knew it, she staggered inside the office facing a tall, light-haired marine. Many times had Savenna imagined the man who had shot Law only hours before she had come for him, but none of the many faces she had drawn up matched the one she was staring at now. Despite broad shoulders and an impressive height, his smooth features looked astonishingly young. His eyes resembled small light blue buttons and made Savenna uncomfortable. The white uniform with golden shoulder patches and numerous insignia was neatly ironed and hardly moved as he rose from his chair. Major Montmort greeted his apprentice marine with a mocking disinterest and a sly, dry smile on his lips. He wasn't what Savenna expected a cold-blooded murderer to look like. But she could feel that something about him wasn't right.
"Care to tell me why you are carrying the butcher's money? She has received strict instructions to deliver it herself," he said in an unusually high-pitched voice. Apparently he knew what he was expecting. .
"She was afraid she would punch you in the face, Sir. Said the contribution was too high this time," Savenna replied with her well-trained boyish voice.
The man gave a hollow laugh. "That's sounds like her. Since we don't have enough prison space for all of them, we're just bleeding them dry. Getting rich while getting rid of the scum, there's no better way to do it."
Savenna decided to remain silent. This wasn't the time to be defending anyone. Major Montmort's office was a large, bright room with long windows looking onto the gray northern sea. A plant was slowly dying in the corner, and neat piles of documents were waiting on his desk. The walls were full with freshly printed Wanted posters. The smell of the ink managed to calm her down a little. In spite of Magdalena's disapproval, she used to collect them as a child and only the handsome ones made it to the inside of her closet door. Those were the days when she had still dreamed to become a pirate.
She eyed the new posters with fleeting interest. Some of them were old hats roaming the seas since before she had been born. Then there were the usual new faces, sun-burned teens gritting their teeth and swinging their swords. However, Savenna's glance stopped at the picture of a pirate grinning into the camera through a pair of purple sunglasses. His fondness for everything pink exceeded even Savenna's girly tastes, but it wasn't his choice of clothes that sparked her feeling of imminent dread. She was quite certain that she'd never seen this man before, but something about him terrified her.
"Donquixote Donflamingo. Devil fruit user and captain of the Donquixote Pirates. The worst of the worst. Even pirates prefer boarding a ship to Impel Down instead of crossing blades with him," the Major explained noticing her interest.
"Is he a danger to our town, Sir?" Savenna couldn't help asking.
The Major hesitated. "Flevance has been attracting quite a number of pirates lately. Patrols have reported that they're not scared of the contagion and looting whatever treasure the locals haven't managed to get their hands on. There was quite some money in the White City."
Savenna smiled bitterly.
"Anyway, Donflamingo's poster arrived this morning. He's been seen in the North Blue a couple of weeks ago, not far from here actually. So you better be prepared."
The Major paused and took the opportunity to scan Savenna from top to bottom. She tried not to flinch. Stand up straight, chin up, stomach in, imagine mother's watching... She withstood the inspection until the pressure became too much and she put the bag down on his desk just to escape his scrutinizing gaze. "Why haven't I ever seen you before? Where are you from, boy?"
"Good old Esperance, Sir. Enlisted a couple of months ago," Savenna replied mechanically. Know your story, Fetch had repeated to her over and over.
"Why? Passionate about serving justice?"
She shook her head hesitantly like a boy who never had the chance to speak to a superior before. "No, mum's dead and dad's gone to sea. Have to get by somehow, Sir."
"How honorable," the major scoffed. There was was something maliciously condescending in his features. Convinced he was talking to an imbecile, he didn't insist on small talk. Savenna was ready to turn around and leave, when he called her back.
"Wait." Dammit. "Now that you are here. I was wondering what they teach the young ones these days. They say the upper ranks never care about the newbies, but that's not true. Why don't you give me a little report on your progress?"
Dammit. Dammit. Savenna tried fanatically to come up with something. Shooting. Killing. Humiliating people... "I've seen a few sick, Sir," she muttered finally. She was having a casual chat with Law's killer. Disoriented, Savenna was seized by fear, nausea and fury. She wanted to punch the man herself but she was also scared to be discovered for who she was. Louise was right, this had been a bad idea from the start.
The Major raised his brows. "A few sick, you say?"
"Yes, Sir."
"What's your name, boy?"
"Law." A second she opened her mouth Savenna could have slapped herself. She had prepared first name, surname, the boy's mother's maiden name. She had known everything but forgotten it the moment it mattered most.
"What a suitable name for a marine," he said with a dry laugh. "So, Law, what do you think of the Flevance situation? Does it suit you as your first operation?
"I guess so, Sir."
"Did you have the chance to witness any executions during your service?"
Blood rushed out of Savenna's face. "No, Sir."
"A shame. That's what needs to be done with the sick. See that you get some training in that department."
Then something strange happened. His smooth features distorted bit by bit, forming a grotesque mask of enjoyment and disgust. "It's like executing orders, really. It gives you such an overall satisfaction. Like pulling out weeds one by one. I try to remember every part of it. The weight of the bullet, the direction of the wind, the sound the brain makes when it splashes against the wall. That's when you realize the frailty of a human body. In fact, lead under the skin and a lead bullet stuck in the skull have the same effect. An unforgettable revelation, I must say."
Savenna's limbs had turned stiff. No acting she had learned was able to conceal the expression of horror taking possession of her face. She felt anger rising to her chest, her fingers trembling. Her body was growing numb.
Not now. Of all the bad moments Amber Lead could choose to remind her of its presence, this was by far the worst.
Meanwhile, the major found her shock rather amusing.
"In fact, a while ago I shot a boy that looked just like you. Small and weak with disease, and those gray eyes full with sorrow. He didn't cry when my men pushed him against the wall. He didn't even speak. They say the lead drives people mad..."
That's it! Savenna was ready to break character, pick up a pen from his desk and stab it right into his neck. Her fists clutched she was about to give in to her rage, when there was a sound on the other end of the door. Something heavy seemed to have fallen on the floor. Alarmed, Savenna recognized the white of the marine uniforms peeping out from under the door. The guards had collapsed. She waited for screams revealing an intruder, but the hallway remained silent.
It took her a moment to realize what was happening. Oh, no...
When she turned to the major, he was leaning over his desk. His hair had fallen into his face and he looked a little older while rubbing his temples. "Cursed headache. Must be the weather..." Then he got up and gave her an apologetic smile. "But as they don't seem to be teaching you much out there, I'll give you a free lesson today, Law. Follow me."
Savenna didn't object. Whatever would distract the Major from the fainted guards was good with her. But if her anger was making people fall asleep again, why was he still awake?
She bowed and followed the major through a narrow door in the back of his office. The door led into a narrow corridor that opened into a small cabinet that looked like the Major's private study. Here the windows were smaller, and the daylight was tempered by half-closed window shutters. Another marine was guarding the door and nodded silently in their direction. "It's time you learned some more about your operation, boy. How much do you know about Flevance?"
"Not much," Savenna lied.
"That's what I thought," he said massaging his forehead. His headache seemed to be getting worse. "Some of us wanted to go in last spring. Drop a couple of bombs and clean out the city before the outbreak. Everything had been ready and the world wouldn't have seen the white nastiness creeping out. But the Fleet Admiral insisted on waiting. It wasn't our call to make. Apparently, keeping up appearances was part of the order. And there's no objecting the Gorosei..."
Savenna didn't understand what he was saying. "What...The Gorosei...?"
The Major advanced further into the room. "Stubborn old men and their alliances. But that's not of importance now. You'll learn about them another time."
Flevance schools had been among the best in the North Blue. And being at the top of her class Savenna knew perfectly well who the Gorosei were and how much power they had. What she didn't know, however, was what they had to do with the destruction of her home town.
Spring... He wanted to invade in spring, which was months before she had shown her first symptoms. Then when had they started planning the attack? Savenna froze. The moment it dawned on her, she cursed her own stupidity. They had known, both marines and world government. They had known about Amber Lead poisoning before Flevance had. What happened was no coincidence.
Flevance had been betrayed.
She felt the sudden urge to shake the man and squeeze the information out of him, but all she could do was wait and get out of there as soon as possible. Savenna followed the man's steps like an automate as he walked toward his desk, but stopped when he turned the chair around.
A woman with white skin just like her own was slouching in the chair. Her nightgown was torn on both sides, head was hanging low. Hands tight to the arm-rest, she twisted from side to side, while blood was dripping from her chest, her arms and temples. The only thing that prevented Savenna from being sick, was the lace of her nightgown. It was gray Alabastian silk and was worth as much as half of Fort Esperance. Savenna didn't know this woman, but she was no ordinary prisoner. A lower noble or somebody close to the royal family.
"Do you know what Amber lead does, Law?" the major asked, the twisted enjoyment slowly creeping back on his face. Upon Savenna's silence he answered his own question. "If a patient happens to survive the first attacks, death comes very slowly."
Savenna didn't dare to move as he approached the woman. "And how are we today, love?"
The woman's head shot up as she tried to bite off his finger. When she failed, she leaned back with disgust. "Rot in hell!"
The Major shrugged and turned back to Savenna. "You need to know something about these people before you go out there," he said, and his eyes grew dark. "The people of Flevance, or rather what is left of them, have a gruesome will for survival. I have never seen anything like it. They can take anything. Sickness, cold, starvation... They enter hell and keep on walking. They were so rich and pretty, we forget they are still people from the north. Ruthless and stubborn. They would kill their own mother to save themselves."
Without knowing it, Savenna clutched her fists to hard her palms started to bleed.
"Killing them is difficult. They will fight until the very last breath. Sometimes you'll need more than one bullet, and even then they won't die right away. It'll give you nightmares...What they fight for, I honestly don't know. There's nothing left for them here."
Savenna was beside herself. There were pens lying on this desk as well. It wasn't too late to jump on the bastard and free his prisoner. But before thinking of a plan, Savenna knew she wouldn't do it. She couldn't risk it. Too much was at stake. Trying to contain both anger and disgust, she did her best to uphold a mask of ignorance.
"But this is not what this is about," he went on with a wry smile. "Only a few of the other marines know this about me, but my family were all doctors. Mother and father, even my little brother. Even though I didn't show the necessary...aptitude for the profession, I do share some of their interests. I'm not as fond of healing people as I am of riddles, right love?" he said addressing the woman.
However, to his visible displeasure, she had lost consciousness in the meantime. Savenna had no control over what she was doing, but for this she was glad. The air was heavy on her shoulders and buzzing inside her ears.
The Major himself was growing paler by the minute. His voice sounded weak, "I want to find where it sits, that venomous strength of theirs. Extract some of it before it disappears." He reached casually into a drawers and produced a scalpel. That must have been what had inflicted the existing wounds of the woman's body. "Maybe it's in the heart, in the mind, or inside their bones... Who knows," he muttered stroking the white skin with the blunt edge of the knife. Then he stepped back and wanted to pass it on to Savenna.
I'll drive it through your heart, you monster!
But before she could say something, his face cringed with pain. He buried his fingers into his hair and the scalpel fell on the floor. He was too preoccupied to react to the guard who collapsed behind them.
It felt like ages since something like this had happened. Savenna had started to believe she had only imagined it. But now it was getting out of control. Not only would the marines notice that something strange was going on, but she could feel her own legs shaking. Whatever it was, it had been keeping the Amber lead attack at bay for the last half an hour, but she knew for experience that it wouldn't last much longer.
Acting out of despair she bent over the Major and said, "You seem unwell, Sir. You need help. I'll fetch the medics!" With that she turned around and marched back through the door, through the office, the hallway, past a dozen marine soldiers, and only when she was outside the harbor she started running again.
Savenna made the way home like a puppet on a string. She didn't think, neither about the Major's victim nor about what he had said. Instead she marched back to the bakery, invisible as she had been taught, changed and sneaked back to the compound. She wouldn't remember a second of it.
When she got home, the house was trembling with some of the most offensive cursing that had ever reached the girl's ears. The butcher hadn't calmed down since the episode at the market. Half of the dishes lay in ruins, Lady Viola's prostitutes were hiding behind closed doors and Catch was tending to a fresh gunshot wound. Like a ghost Fetch had settled in the corner, dodging the occasional knife flying his way, after searching the entire harbor for his pupil. What could have taken her so long?
When he finally saw her, he jumped off the chair as if someone had kicked him. Savenna didn't bother sneaking in through the back. She marched through the front door in full disguise and walked into the middle of the room. Eyes glittering with fever and hands shaking with pain inside her pockets, she stared into the kitchen with an empty expression on her face.
"Hey, that's the guy from the market!" Catch was the first to recognize her. Immediately he came stamping and lifted her up by the collar. "Where's the money, you little..."
"Stay back!" Fat Louise roared and pushed him aside before he could put the girl down. Savenna landed on her butt before receiving a thrashing blow from the butcher.
"You have the guts to show your face here! Oh, you've robbed the wrong woman, and that will cost you! Now, where's my money?"
"In your ass, that's where it is. I bet it's not the first thing to have gone missing there" Savenna replied rather unimpressed, her eyes shooting sparks at the butcher.
Fat Louise wanted to slap her again, before she recognized the voice. Then the glare. It took her a moment to put two and two together. "What...It can't be you!"
"Newsflash, peasant cow."
Louise was too surprised to react. Instead she just stared at the girl who had changed into a completely different person in the last twelve hours. "Before you ban someone from your thieving squad, make sure you're not as easy to rob as you were today. That was just embarrassing," Savenna said coldly. "And don't worry about the money. It's safe in Bastard Montmort's hands. An apprentice marine delivered it personally."
Louise looked rather grim. "I see. You must have had help..."
"Don't bother punishing the whores. I'll know how to get back at you." That being too much attitude to handle, Louise sat down on the bench waiting for the girl to bask in her victory like she usually did. Instead Savenna turned around and disappeared in the direction of the sleeping quarters.
She counted the steps. Her body felt heavier than ever before. She wasn't even sure she was still awake at this moment.
If Amber Lead festered their hearts to cruelty, Savenna didn't know. But it did bring out the worst in people. It had molded Law's bitterness, had transformed Dr Trafalgar's hope into cynicism and turned her own temper into uncontrolled rage. And Montmort, whatever he had been, was now a textbook psychopath.
Savenna was wavering when she reached her room. Her eye-lids were dropping as she filled up her syringe and injected the medicine. She was still holding needle and bottle, when Rosie and Fetch rushed through the door moments later finding her passed out on the floor.