chapter thirteen, scheming face

     LAVENDER DIDN'T KNOW if she was alive or dead already. She only remembers how soldiers took her into another room, that looked like a display room with a huge window in front and left her there to bleed.

     She couldn't count how many wounds she had. Her legs, her back, her hands, her abdomen— her right eye bared nasty wounds. The drüskelle barely bandaged her eye wound so that she wouldn't bleed out, but it was a little chance she will survive. Still, she didn't say a name.

     Lavender averted her one eye to the window, where the commander stood tall and proud of himself, smirking at the wounded woman. Oh, how she wanted to rip that grin off his face.

     Soon, he pressed something and dark orange gas was released from the ceilings, making the woman's lungs get alerted and causing her to cough immediately.

     It was jurda parem.

     She pushed the sleeve over her nose as she kept on coughing, her head falling on the cold ground. She has seen what jurda parem did to those Squallers— they got addicted and eventually died from it. The drüskelle wanted her to behave, they wanted to control her and doing so was the smartest way.

Lavender knew she had to survive this and stay strong as much as she could even if death sounded so welcoming.

"My little flower, you are gonna do as you are told, alright?" Lily's voice was quiet but sweet as always, however, the look on her face told her that something was wrong. "Stay hidden where I told you and don't come out until I come to you. Under no circumstances get out of there— only when ma comes, alright?" Lily gave a brief smile to her terrified daughter.

Ever since the plague has risen, Kaz and Jordie didn't come back and it broke Lavender's heart. Lily was praying with Lavender to the Saints, or to whoever is out there that the boys would be alright and well. But Lily always heard Lavender cry upstairs during the night, the little one has lost her hope already.

Lily placed a soft kiss on Lavender's forehead and hurried her into the little closet that had many clothes in it and Lavender was able there to squeeze in and stay silent. She didn't question anything, she didn't even make a sound— she trusted her ma. She had to do whatever her ma said.

It was very dark and uncomfortable in the closet, but a little crack in it provided her with a hopeful source of light and a slight view to the kitchen, where she spotted her mother, grabbing something from the counter as the front door of the house suddenly opened.

"It's a nice place, isn't it?" The man's accent was thick, little Lavender could barely decipher what he was saying.

"What do you want?" Lily asked, her voice brave enough.

"Justice, only justice," the man's voice was calm as he was walking heavily around the small living room. "Where is the baby?"

"I lost it when I came to Ketterdam," Lily coldly replied.

"When you ran to Ketterdam," the man exclaimed with a certain rush of anger.

"I had no other choice," she bitterly replied.

"You HAD a choice!" He suddenly yelled, making Lily flinch from the sudden sound.

"You forced me to be there! I never wanted to stay in Wandering Isle, at least not with you," she fiercely said.

"Was I not good enough for you?" The man gritted out the words, getting closer to Lily.

"You weren't good at all," she spat the words out.

Thuds were heard, screams, muffled screams, cries, wailing and Lavender wanted to cry so bad at that moment. She didn't know what was going on at that moment, but she had to obey her mother— she had to stay hidden. Even if the man in her house just slashed her mother's neck open with a knife.

𓄿

JAKOB HERTZOON WAS a con man. Jordie and Kaz only found that out when he advised Jordie to invest in risky investments and then disappeared with their money. Apparently, the wife who cooked them hutspot and the daughter Saskia were con artists, too.

Kaz only remembers how fast everything happened. He remembers the disappointment in Jordie's face, the loss. At least they had somewhere to go.

Lily has warned the boys about the con artists in Ketterdam, but greed has taken Jordie completely and Kaz hated to see his brother like that. Jordie's eyes were hungry for power, for some sort of influence and Kaz just didn't get it.

However, no one prepared them for the real loss. After a few weeks, Jordie decided to go to the bank and ask for the money that they invested, since they had a paper written for any losses. At the same time, he would search for a job and he decided to take Kaz with him.

If only they wouldn't have left that day.

Once they stepped into the city, into the heart of Ketterdam and by the time they reached the bank— the bells of the plague began. The chaos was unleashed.

Kaz remembers the panic as the entrances to the city were blocked, meaning Jordie and he were stuck in the city with no money. They couldn't go back to Lavender and her mother.

Jordie tried not to panic and he went like this for a day— they both slept under the bridge, no stadwatch in sight because of the plague. But the next morning Jordie woke up with a fever.

They had no money to buy food or anything and all the stores were either closed or working in secret— everything was shut down, and everything started to smell like fire and chemicals.

Kaz was afraid.

Kaz got the fever, too, but Jordie seemed to get worse within seconds. He barely moved and Kaz didn't leave his side— they both lay under the bridge, no one knows for how long...

Kaz believed he died that moment once he laid beside his brother since he woke up in the place where there were tons of corpses laying around him in the water. It was the place where the plague victims were taken away.

The little boy didn't have an ounce of energy left in his body and he couldn't scream— he tried to shake Jordie, but his opened eyes got stuck looking at the dirty clouds above them. Kaz wanted him to wake up.

He didn't know if he will survive— he shouldn't have survived. But something clicked in the boy— he had to survive to revenge for his brother, to make the man who took their money away from them pay for what he did.

That's how Kaz got back to the shore— his body lingering on his dead brother's body, swimming that way since he had no strength and once he got to the shore— the old Kaz died.

"I should probably close his eyes," the child whispered as he looked at his floating brother's body. He didn't have any tears in his eyes left to cry, his hands were aching and he felt like throwing up.

But then, Kaz ran towards the entrance of the city, towards where Lily and Lavender were— they were his last hope. However, in the distance, he saw a cloud of huge smoke coming from the house— seeing that the house was burnt down.

Several men were standing outside of it, some of them were laughing and Kaz just sprinted into the bush that they wouldn't see him. And at that moment, Kaz recognized one of the men— it was Jakob Hertzoon. The man that doomed his brother and now took Lavender and Lily away from him.

      Kaz wanted to yell at him, beat him up, but he was just a helpless child.

That week Kaz lost everything. He lost everything that made him human. There was no more Kaz Rietveld— he drowned with the corpses.

Kaz and his plans were crazy. If breaching the Ice Court and getting Bo Yul-Bayur sounded already insane— then the plan that he just came up with was even crazier.

Nina and Inej were to enter with the Menagerie, Kaz and Matthias will pretend to be guards and get inside of the celebration and into the treasury to find Lavender and Bo Yul-Bayur. They were all sure now that both of them will
be located at the treasury. Meanwhile, Jesper and Wylan will make sure that the gates will be kept closed.

In other words, their plan was to cause the Black Protocol to rise. Even if it meant their doom. Maybe Kaz was going crazy that their plan was failing, that Lavender was taken away from him— again.

"I am sorry, isn't the Black Protocol the only thing that we should avoid?" Jesper's confusion overtook him whole.

"Do you want to save your sister or not?" Kaz bitterly replied, receiving an agreeing look from the Zemeni guy. Jesper would do anything to save his sister and if Black Protocol was the only way— he was going to do it.

"Isn't the Black Protocol our doom? Once the alert will be heard we will be all trapped inside," Nina pointed out.

"Not quite exactly. Helvar has been holding on us," Kaz gave a glare to the Fjerdan giant.

"How—," Matthias stuttered, placing his hand on his jaw and cursing underneath his breath, "Demjin..."

"In an emergency, there would be another way to get reinforcements to White Islands and to get the Royal Family out," Kaz explained and Matthias just nodded, almost dramatically— sorrow written on his face.

"Okay, so we lock it at the drüskelle gate, but how do we get out?" Jesper asked, shifting his weight from one foot to another. Jesper had to trust Kaz to get his sister out alive.

As Kaz was explaining his plan to all of them, they were all in motion— Nina was making her making the Menagerie tattoo on herself and on Inej from the way Inej was telling her. It may not be perfectly accurate, but they should pass through with it. Nina could see the disgust on Inej's face when the ugly mark appeared on her forearm, reminding her of everything that was horrible in her life. Everyone felt bad for Inej.

"No mourners," Jesper breathed out, his eyes looking at the distance, his teeth nervously nibbling his bottom lip.

"No funerals," others, even Matthias replied the words softly. Inej and Nina walked further to the roof to see when the Menagerie girls will come since they always loved to be fashionably late.

"Kaz..." Jesper grunted out the words, catching the man's attention. "I—," he didn't know what to say, or how to say that Kaz should find his sister.

"I will find her, Jesper, and she will be alive," Kaz cut him off, giving him a reassuring nod before he deeply breathed out.

"I have something for you," Inej quietly appeared behind both of them and she passed the leather gloves to Kaz, watching how for a split second, relief overtook Kaz's face. Kaz simply nodded to her, as a way of saying thank you and he quickly put them on, feeling not so bare anymore.

Inej nodded to both of them and disappeared with Nina further on the roof, to get a better look at the front gates. It was time for them to go, that's why the rest of them started to go in a different direction, to a druskelle section where Wylan and Jesper make sure to break the gates and cause the Black Protocol.

"What if I say no? I don't want to do this— you don't want to do it," the giant beamed beside Kaz, barely catching up to him even if Kaz was limping badly and he didn't have his cane.

"It's not about what you want to do or not, Helvar. You are already in this and would you leave dear Nina stranded on the White Island?" Kaz asked with a mocking voice, making the Fjerdan grunt out in annoyance.

Soon they all reached the drüskelle sector roof with pieces of rope they had left and a grappling hook. As Kaz was securing the rope to the edge of the building to get down to the shore, he gave Jesper and Wylan a brief look: "You know what to do. The bells will be our guide. Eleven bells and not before," he explained as they all before they crossed to this roof, heard nine bells already.

"When have I ever been early?" Jesper muttered, but then realized that the panic of losing Lavender might make him do some unexpected stuff, that's why he was glad that he was left with Wylan.

Kaz simply rolled his eyes and moved down to the rope, easily sliding down to the shore, waiting for Matthias to come. Kaz didn't even understand completely what was going on, only Jordie's voice was telling him that he was going to find Bo Yul-Bayur and get his four million kruge, however, soon enough, another voice overtook Jordie's telling him that Lavender was still alive and he was the only one who could find her.

The Ice Court was surrounded by water, to Fjerdans water was also sacred since it was a big step for a drüskelle initiation. They supposedly wash off your sins and make you reborn as a new person, a better person. There was nothing there at the shore, ice moats were slippery and the water was rushing with a small force.

Kaz had to trust Matthias on this one and he didn't have an ounce of trust to spare. Hell unleashed or not, Kaz is going to get back his crow.