chapter six, the sea is not for the sick

     LAVENDER'S MOTHER HAD a huge heart. Once Kaz approached her daughter at the coffee shop, she accepted the boy as her own alongside Jordie. Many days Kaz and Jordie would spend at Lily's, Lavender mother's place and they would have a great time.

      Lily was an extraordinary woman— she lived with her daughter outside Ketterdam, just a few miles away, her house was always clean and smelled like chocolate muffins. But that wasn't the thing that interested Kaz, even if that house became his second home, it was Lavender.

      Kaz looked at Lavender as she was out of the world, they both talked about everything, walking near a pond on more sunny days, her blabbering about birds... Oh, how he enjoyed it when she spoke about birds.

      "Did you know that crows always remember the people that were nice to them?" Lavender asked as she was sitting on a little bench that was facing the calm pond, Kaz seated beside her.

      "Do they come back to see them?" Kaz implied as these conversations always interested him. He was always that kind of boy that was interested in everything, he would notice everything.

      "They do, but people just don't notice that they did," the little girl flashed him a smile, her dimples appearing and that view made Kaz smile, too.

      "Why do you like crows so much?" He asked.

       "They are free and they are very smart. My ma says both of these things are necessary for everyone," Lavender replied. "Will you come back to me as crows do?"

       "It's a silly question," he pointed out with a half-smile on his face.

       "Would you?" Lavender didn't back away. Her big green eyes were looking at his ocean ones, her cheeks crimson and painful from all the smiling. None of them knew that this childish love will bring so much pain.

     
The memory flashed through Kaz's head as he made his way to the belowdecks, coming into chaos. Nina was seated on the chair as she just finished treating Wylan and Jesper placed Inej on the table as Lavender placed her bags on the chair nearby and took out her stuff.

      Lavender was a real mirror image of her mother. She was her copy. The same red curly hair, the same smile, just different coloured eyes. The same big, caring heart.

      "Lavender, what do you need me to do?" Jesper asked, his hands stained with blood, panicking.

      "Go up and stay there. Nina will be able to help me, if what I will ask for you," Lavender replied in a rush, her trembling fingers running through different bottles.

       "You are hurt," Jesper pointed out, making Nina stand up in the horror that Inej was dying and Lavender was badly injured. Nina was a good Heartrender, not a good Tailor, she won't be able to save two lives.

      "I will survive, now do as I say— it's crowded in here," Lavender exclaimed, her eyes filled with horror, but she knew how to work under pressure.

     "Don't worry, Jesper, I will take care of her," Nina reassured him and Jesper gave a sad look to the wounded woman and left the room.

      Lavender quickly ripped a huge chunk of bandages with her teeth, removing her own tunic and revealing a nasty stain of hers and wrapping it all up tightly, making Nina scrunch her nose at the sight. "Slow down her pulse, raise her tunic, grab this and press it to her wound," Lavender gave instructions to Nina and passed her a clean cloth as she finished tying up her own bandage that was already sunken through with blood.

     Nina complied, opening Inej's tunic and gasping in Ravkan as she did as told. "Hold it for a few minutes and see if the bleeding slowed down," Lavender said and she grabbed some things from her bag, splattering them on another small table, taking out different clean platters. She wiped her hands with a clean cloth, splattering some alcohol on her hands.

     Kaz couldn't believe what he was seeing. Lavender was working nonetheless the fact that she was dying herself. Her breathing was off, she was getting more pale within seconds. "You are hurt," he finally said.

    "I know, don't worry your Wraith will survive if we act quickly. Come here," Lavender implied hurriedly as Nina was doing her best to keep Inej's pulse slow and steady.

      What if you won't survive? The thought flashed through Kaz's mind and he shook it off as he got to the red-haired woman and watched what she was doing. "Prick yourself with the needle, just a drop of your blood in that pallet," Lavender pointed to it.

     Kaz took the needle and looked at the smaller woman in confusion. Treatments weren't innovating, there were no fancy cures for many diseases, the hospitals weren't thriving. A mere broken bone was examined with a bare eye of some sort of old man who called himself a medik. So what the hell was she up to?

     "Are you going to transfer Inej some blood?" Nina asked, her eyes wide, "Not even Healers can do that, I am not even talking about mediks!"

     "It's nothing really difficult once you know what to do," Lavender exclaimed, "I did it twice— both of them survived." The woman turned to Kaz seeing that he was just standing with the needle. "Prick your finger!" Her voice raised in panic as she did the same, grabbing another needle and pricking her own finger, letting a few drops fall on the pallet.

     Kaz sighed, but he complied without saying anything and did the same after taking off his glove. Lavender wanted to ask what was his deal with the gloves, but it wasn't the right time. He quickly put his glove back and stood further from the woman, watching what was going to happen.

     Lavender grabbed a clear swap and went to Inej, wiping some blood off her wound and she quickly got back to the pallets, dropping Inej's blood on the two samples and throwing the swaps away.

     "You can't see shit with a bare eye!" Nina pointed out as she was scared, it seemed as if Lavender was about to totally finish off Inej's life.

     "I have a fucking microscope, Nina! I know what I am doing!" Lavender exclaimed loudly, panic and pain overtaking her whole. It was too much, but she had to keep ongoing.

     "Who takes a microscope with themselves?" Nina gasped.

      "FOR FUCKS SAKE, NINA!" Lavender exclaimed loudly, panic rushing through her body as everything ached— her vision was blurry and she needed to focus

Lavender took the microscope out, ignoring the sharp pain on her side and she placed one of those clear pallets on it. She grabbed the lantern from above and Kaz passed her another one, placing them on the table. She looked through the lens, noticing that the blood molecules were sticking together. There weren't very well informed medik books. She didn't even know what she was looking at exactly, she just had done this before, that's all that matters.

"Yours is not a match," Lavender mumbled to Kaz, moving to the pallet with her own blood on it and she examined it, quickly. It fitted.

"Mine fits. Nina, I need you to start tailoring her wound while I prepare for blood transfer, " Lavender moved away from the microscope, receiving a nod from the Grisha and Lavender took off her tunic, tossing it away.

Lavender quickly took the bloody bandages off her and placed another one on. She hissed out of pain and groaned, pushing her head back as she took a flask from her bag and chugged a little bit down her throat. She had to stay awake.

Her eyes met Kaz's and she was still dazzled to see that he was right here. His eyes were turned on her, worry slightly visible in his eyes, but she knew it was not for her, it was for Inej. "You are making me nervous, Brekker," Lavender slightly smiled and Kaz noticed how pale she got. "Go, your Wraith will be alright," she croaked out.

Kaz wanted to stay. But he was angry, horribly angry and he needed to unleash that angriness somewhere else.

As soon as Kaz left the belowdecks, she got to her bag, took out rolls of cloths and gave them to Nina for wiping the blood. Nina deeply inhaled as this was hectic and she was about to get crazy. As soon as Grisha complied and began her slow healing, Lavender took out a copper hollow needle, a tube and a plastic bag with a rubber wire.

"Fuck, are you really about to do this?" Nina asked, her face red as she was sweating while healing Inej.

"We have no other way, she lost too much blood," Lavender answered and she sat on a free chair and pushed the table closer, placing the things there, before she called for Jesper to come.

Jesper jogged down instantly and he looked at everything with wide eyes, questions flowing from his mouth. But as soon as he saw the blood sinking through his sister's bandages, he loudly gagged and grimaced.

   "Come here," Lavender croaked out and he quickly shut his mouth and got to his sister.

Lavender attached the plastic tube to the bag and placed a needle in the tube, securing it. She gave the bag to Jesper and pushed his hand up as a way of saying for him to hold it like that. Then, she grabbed the bottle with alcohol and splattered it on her forearm, pushing the rubber wire on her upper forearm and tightly wrapping it around her arm.

"Oh Saints," Jesper breathed out, as he was feeling as if he will faint while watching this. He could not believe what he was witnessing and it was his sister...

Lavender saw a vein pop out on her forearm and she pierced the needle in her skin, in the vein and the blood started to flow up to the bag, making Jesper let out a gag and for Nina to gasp.

She suppressed a hiss and closed her eyes, sitting still, her breathing off and uneven. She knew she was making it worse for herself, but she wasn't necessary for the plan.

After a decent five minutes, the bag was full as it wasn't a huge bag and she took out the needle, telling Jesper to flip the bag down so the liquid wouldn't spill. He seemed ill while doing so, holding his sister's blood just like that.

"How is it going, Nina?" Lavender asked as she pushed her hand tight for the wound to close.

"It's working," she replied, intensely focusing on the wound, seeing how Jesper and Lavender moved to Inej with the blood bag. "Where did you learn all of this? Mediks are not prepared for this."

"I met a lot of travelling mediks that knew way more than this. I only obliged," Lavender abruptly explained as she took out another copper needle, attaching it to the small tube and she disinfected Inej's arm, searching for her vein. And once she found it, she pushed the needle inside and saw how blood slowly started to go down the tiny tube.

"Keep it high, Jesper," Lavender informed, receiving a simple nod from her brother.

Inej will be alright. The Wraith will survive.

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    KAZ WAS GOING out of his mind. As soon as he stepped up and noticed the fading city of Ketterdam and he felt relieved. The plan was going to work, but they were ambushed, even if that was expected.

     He was impressed by Lavender and her skills. She was a truly valuable medik and he was wondering where she learnt that. Lily was a medik, too, maybe it's just what encouraged Lavender to be one.

     Besides being impressed, he was furious. Totally furious. Someone tried to kill Wraith to ruin his plans. Everyone in Ketterdam knew that Kaz Brekker had a spider that collected all of the information. Getting rid of Inej was other gangs main task.

      However, whoever did this came after Lavender too and that— that destroyed Kaz completely.

One of the men helped Kaz to get the man that was after Inej and Lavender. His name was Oomen, they have met each other a few times before and he wasn't intimidated by this man. Besides, it seemed like Lavender and Inej did their job already.

Helvar dragged Oomen to the rails as his hands were bound, his half of the body was bloody, but he kept his stupid grin on. Kaz wanted to slash that grin off his face with a knife.

Matthias kicked the man on the knees, making him groan out and how down in front of Kaz. Meanwhile, Kaz looked further into the sea, his hands clenched in fists as he was furious— he only saw red.

"I suggest you be really careful about the things you say. Geels probably think you are dead— I can do whatever I want with you here," Kaz started as this man in front of him belonged to another gang— The Black Tips. No gangs really agreed with each other.

"Why were you after the Wraith?" Kaz asked.

"Oh come on, Brekker, you know why. Everyone is after your precious little Wraith," the man snarled, the grin intact on his face.

"Do you think it's funny?" Kaz raised his eyebrows slightly.

"Oh, I do. And that Kaelish girl? I like redheads," Oomen grinned, even more, making Kaz feel sick in the stomach. How dare he talk like this about Lavender?

"Hold him," Kaz said to Helvar as he flipped his sleeve and a small oyster knife appeared in his hands. That was when Kaz made a neat slash across Oomen's right eye that was met with the man's scream. Then Kaz slashed again, creating a perfect X.

"That is for Wraith," Kaz gritted the words out as he dug his fingers into Oomen's eye socket and pushed the eyeball out of it, leaving nothing but the trail of blood around.

Kaz threw it off the board and stuffed his fingers back into the eye socket. "Who hired you?" He gritted out.

"He will kill me if I tell you!!" Oomen screamed out.

"You want me to take another eye out?" Kaz grasped Oomen's shirt and shook him slightly.

"It was Pekka Rollins!" The big man cried out and Kaz went blank for a few seconds, taking his fingers out of the blood fall, stuffing a handkerchief instead.

Pekka Rollins was the man Kaz wanted to destroy. He wanted to outsmart him and make him regret what he did.

"Is he leading a crew to Fjerda?" Kaz asked, listening to the man's cries.

"No, no, I don't know any crew! I need a medik, please!" Oomen cried out in pain, his body twitching.

"It's lovely that I have a medik," Kaz sweetly began as he made Oomen stand up and walk towards where the entrance to belowdecks was, but instead, he pushed him to the rails.

"I TOLD YOU EVERYTHING!" Oomen screamed at the top of his lungs, tears, mucus and blood coming from his eye socket.

Kaz leaned to him, that only he could hear what he was about to say: "My dearest medik is the red-haired you liked so much. I am doing her a favour— you are not her type," he spat out the words angrily and pushed the man off-board, without any hard feelings.

"No! What did you do?" Wylan gasped, his eyes wide, looking over the rails at the sinking body, his whole face turning blue within seconds.

"I didn't promise to keep him alive," Kaz simply exclaimed.

"But that's wrong!" Wylan protested.

"Do you want to get overboard too?" Kaz sent a glare to the merchling.

"You wouldn't do that— you need me," Wylan huffed out, making Kaz scoff for a second. What was up with everyone today defying him?

"Watch me," Kaz simply mumbled the words before he limped away from the annoying kid.

     He needed no one... He needed no one.

Then why did his thoughts lingered on Lavender?

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