Chapter three
"Maya Spensor?" A young medic asked. Maya looked up from her bed in the spare room she was laying on and nodded. "I am Emiel Abela and been asked to examine you." Emiel gave Maya the impression he was tired, but she didn't blame him. He was probably woken from a sound sleep. Sitting up she allowed the Emiel to examine her on the flower coverlet. Maya's bruise was fully formed into a blue bruise.
Emiel used a stethoscope to listen to her breathing, He slipped it under Maya's brown vest to listen to her heart. "Breathe deeply." He asked her. When she did so she started coughing into her white poofy sleave. He placed the stethoscope on her back as well and her breath deep again "It could be either a fractured rib or bruised one at this point it's hard to tell." He said when Maya stopped coughing. "This is morphine I want you to take one every four hours." Emiel said handing her bottle.
"It has enough to last a couple of weeks, after I will send over another prescription with a lower dose and so on. Avoid activities that involve pulling, pushing, or lifting, as they might make the pain worse or cause more damage to your ribs." Emiel went over properly taking over her injury.
"If complications do arise, please contact me and we will see if surgery is your best option, but I don't see any signs that would be necessary." Maya glanced at the bottle handing it back. "I don't see why I need morphine is there anything else I can take." She inquired.
"
"There is aspirin but I..." Maya cut him off. "Then I will take aspirin." She concluded. "Thank you." She said concluding his visit. "I will have a prescription sent over right away then." Abela shut the door to Maya's room behind him as he made his way back downstairs. The staircase was in the center of the second floor, at the end of the hallway was Marya's room, Wylan's mother.
At the bottom of the stairs led to the living room Kaz was sitting on one of two couches there were also a few chairs and a rug that covered the entire living room floor. Inej sat next to Kaz as Wylan stood a few feet away. Wylan's hair was red and matched the pajama's he was wearing, slim and didn't look very happy. Jesper was tall dark skinned and wore silver pajamas.
"I will send you a bill." Emiel said before leaving. "I think I will take my leave as well." Kaz said standing up. "Not so fast." Wylan said turning to face him. "I think we should set a rule on how you enter this house." "Wylan, Maya saved our lives she got injured in doing so. We owed her to get her treatment right away." Inej said.
"By breaking and entering my house?" Wylan continued. "We didn't break anything." Kaz replied. "It's a phrase it doesn't mean actually breaking something." Wylan commented. "I'm more interested in how you two had to be saved by Maya." Jesper grinned. "The two deadliest criminals of the barrel bested by the worst gang in it." "They were slavers or ex slavers. They complained about not being able to sell girls." Inej said grimly.
"They were probably told something about Inej that let them know it was her. They had a nine-year-old trailing me according to Maya because they were jealous that my crow club took most of the revenue and got a good look at Inej." Kaz finished.
"I'm going upstairs to make sure that Maya is comfortable." Inej said to Kaz. He reached out and touched hers, with gloveless hands. Inej replicated the gesture before Kaz turned and left. "He's tired let him go." Inej said before Wylan said anything. "You and I are going to have words tonight." Wylan said to Jesper going upstairs to their bedroom. Jesper sighed. "Maybe I should sleep on the couch tonight." Instead, he followed Wylan who was already halfway up the stairs. Inej felt a little guilty in her part of Jespers trouble. Maya was propped up in bed on pillows when she entered. "How are you feeling?" Inej asked. "Still sore." Maya said. The room was just as Inej remembered it when she stayed at the mansion. The walls were white, a desk with a mirror was attached to it against the wall and the plush carpet blue.
"When I came to Ketterdam it was because I was kidnapped and sold to whorehouse called the menagerie." Inej said Maya's mouth made a perfect O. "I was released because Kaz bought my indenture but my time at the menagerie changed me." Inej confessed. "We're not weak because of what people have done to us." "You're talking about the scars on my back." Maya said.
"Yes, you couldn't meet our gazes after I examined your bruise and saw your back, and you still can't. Kaz and I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you." Maya finally met her gaze. "But Kaz was right if I'd of told someone sooner..." She didn't finish her sentence. "So, then tell me why you haven't?" Inej challenged.
"I didn't know she was connected to The Wild Ones. I never saw them together" Maya said. "Kaz doesn't know what to say when someone does something he wasn't expecting." Inej explained to Maya confidentially. "He doesn't say thank you. So, I will thank you Maya." Inej pulled her into a tiny hug surprising her. "I'm sure even if I hadn't kidnapped Esmee you two would've found a way out of it."
There was no way out." Inej said. "Jorn had his gun in position of Kaz's head, Kaz was too afraid to move because of me." There was a thin line where he had cut her neck. Maya grimaced. "I should of killed all three of them." Maya muttered.
"No, you did right by killing one. Killing all three would've left Esmee with no one. Kaz didn't do more than strike Jorn in the chest because breaking another one of their bones would of left them too vulnerable." Inej said. "Try to get some sleep? I'm going to sleep on one the couches downstairs."
Inej heard someone knocking on the door as she made her way downstairs Inej cautiously answered it, her hand on one the knifes inside her jacket when she opened it the man apologized. "I was asked to deliver this right away; I was knocking for ten minutes." Inej realized it was a prescription for Aspirin and thanked the man handing him a few kruge.
The next morning Inej woke up to Jesper and Wylan talking softly to each other. "Morning." Inej said sitting up letting the blanket slide off her as she stretched. Jesper was splayed with Wylan comfortably cuddling into him. "I apologize for last night..." Inej began. "It's okay." Wylan said cutting off her apology. "Jesper talked me down and he made sense. The only medic you would have been able to summon was ours because they are in high demand and know they can pick and choose their clients."
Medic's always demanded payment when they attended to a patient, but even now wealthy people didn't have the indenture of Grisha. "Kaz's medic did quit on him." Maya said. "He's been looking for another one for weeks but the pressure of tending to gang members wounds are not ideal." Knife wounds, gunshots, and other injuries were common among the type of injuries his medic was expected to tend to, and because they were not Grisha many tended to die from their wounds leaving the medic frustrated.
Inej sat up higher on the couch it was apparent she was wearing the same clothes from the night before however she took her jacket off. The bright sun shone directly into her face with the curtains having been opened by the servants who tended to the mansion. Inej heard cooking in the kitchen and smelled hutspot making her stomach growl.
"Hungry?" Jesper asked. "Yeah." Inej smiled at Jesper and Wylan. "We're having enough made for all of us, so it will be done in a bit." Hutspot was sausages fried with potatoes, the potatoes taking the longest to fry. Inej went upstairs to freshen up and checked on Maya who was still sleeping and when she came back down breakfast was ready and she joined Jesper and Wylan at the table a bowl that was already prepared set-in front of her. Wylan and Jesper had their breakfast in front of them. Jesper and Wylan were still in their pajama's as they ate. "So, Wylan I was wondering if you would join Kaz's job?" Inej asked innocently as they ate. Wylan put his fork down. "Inej..." He opened his mouth shut it again and stared at his half-eaten food. "We need you and Jesper." Inej insisted. Wylan picked up his fork again eating slowly as he contemplated it.
"You should know that Kaz had Maya help him negotiate the deal with Sturmhond." Wylan said glancing at her for her reaction. Jesper nudged Wylan shaking his head at this tactic of catching Inej off guard. "We did have an argument and I left in a hurry with my crew." Inej confessed. "Is that why I was there?" Maya asked. Inej Wylan and Jesper jumped, seeing her standing there. With one of the servants moving around the kitchen they missed Maya's appearance completely. "Kaz always has his reasons." Inej replied to Maya's question. "Is there a bowl for me?" Maya than asked.
"I'll make one up for you." The servant replied with a smile she was short wearing a white apron around her waist over a plain green dress. Her black hair was cut short and naturally curly "Thank you." Maya replied taking a seat next to Inej. "What did Kaz have you in the meeting for?" Inej asked. "What he told me was that Sturmhond was going to try to use you to try to drive down the cost my role was to prevent that from happening. Kaz was right about Sturmhond's tactic. He promised me a cut of whatever price I drove up, true his word Kaz promised me 250,000 of it when the jobs done. "A plate was placed in front of Maya, and she dove into it with her fork.
"Are you going to do the job Wylan? I'm wondering cause I kind of want to go too so if anyone can put a good word in for me." Maya blushed looking into her bowl. "After yesterday I don't think you have to ask, he may just invite you himself." Inej said. Maya smiled. "You think so even with this?" She pointed at her left side.
"You're dealing with it really well and we're not going to leave for another month." Inej replied to her eyes on Wylan. "Are you going to come with us?" "What do you think Jesper?" Wylan finally asked. "Kaz wouldn't ask us unless he needed us Wylan, but I don't want to disappoint you either." When Jesper fell in love with Wylan he hadn't considered having to play two different sides. One being a merchant and the other being a part of a gang. "Truth be told I wouldn't be where I am at without the crows, so I guess I am in." Wylan said. They ate the rest of their breakfast in silence.