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chapter 6 : the deal is the deal

Darkness. Hitched breathing, cold.

Liv reached around, hands touching her pitch-black surroundings, coming in contact with invisible splintery planks.

A shout. She held her breath, placing a hand in front of her mouth to stifle the shuddering rise and fall of her chest.

An unidentifiable terror overtook her, she didn't really know why she was as scared as she was. Not truly.

Adrenaline coursed through her veins and she could feel her heart in her throat as she listened.

Grunts and talking voices approached her darkness.

Until the darkness faltered, a yellow glow appeared in the distance, peaking through the planks that now revealed her to be in a crate.

A familiarity overtook her, a weirdly soothing sensation. But the feeling didn't last when she looked over to the side, noticing a label taped over the wooden planks:

The Queen's Lady, Ahmrat Jen to Ketterdam.

Memories flashed.

Fevers, pain, floods, drowning.

Then, the mellow light that illuminated the small space grew blinding as a splintering crack was heard, the crate was opened and Liv screamed.

Liv sat up with a gasp, surrounded by darkness once more.

Terror still hammered through her limbs, her black surroundings not soothing her uneasy mind. She forced herself to think for a moment, think of memories as ankers tying her to the ground, bringing her back to her current time and place.

When her family died, she was forced to live on the streets, where every night she would hide away in one of the wooden crates that littered the harbours. She had always been terrified that one day she would end up in a crate to be sent out to the sea, or even worse, to be discovered by one of the gangs that haunted Ketterdam, to be taken and sold into whatever horrible situation the devil had readied for her.

Taking deep breaths, Liv tried to steady herself and that was when she started to feel the pressing pain that shot through the back of her head.

"Motherfucker."

Memories of the events that led her into this particular situation flooded back, Geels' angry eyes and the swinging of a bat against her head.

She tried to reach a hand over to her head, to soothe the throbbing ache but was stopped by the dangling and tugging of chains that were placed between her wrists.

Shit.

She tugged once more at the tightly bound restraints, but her efforts were fruitless. Where was she?

The answer to her question came sooner than expected as a door opened in the distance, the light of a flickering candle illuminating the room.

In stepped a girl with caramel skin and purple silks, eyes decorated with dark dyes set in a narrowed gaze.

The girl, who Liv realised to be of Suli descent, moved forward cautiously, her steps making surprisingly little sound, almost like she was floating, gliding over the carpeted flooring.

Liv moved back, her eyes still adjusting to the sudden presence of light, a hard gaze upon her features, "Don't come closer."

The Suli girl obeyed, ceasing her movement.

It gave Liv a moment to take in her surroundings. She found herself in a smaller room, decorated with many colourful pillows and silks; it looked like an imitation of a Suli caravan Liv had once read about.

Another rush of terror as Liv looked back at Suli girl, who seemed to follow her train of thought.

She was in the Menagerie.

No. She couldn't be here. Of all places. After all those years of running and hiding and promising herself she would never end up here, she had fallen into the clutches of the saint's forsaken Zookeeper herself.

The girl must have noticed Liv's increasingly irregular breathing and took another step closer, which had an opposite effect as Liv scooted back even more, finding a wall behind her back.

She looked in front of her to find the golden chains that bound her, and as she looked she also realised that she was not wearing her own clothing, instead she was dressed in a white silk gown, her pale arms exposed; she felt naked, violated.

The girl shushed, lowering herself down to Liv's seated position, hands up in surrender, "You're okay. I only had to change your clothes, nothing else happened."

Liv glared at the girl. What did she know?

But then she noticed a glint in the Suli girl's dark eyes and she knew otherwise.

The girl in purple silks was thin, with bruises on her shoulders and one on her neck. She was no older than herself, but something in her eyes showed horrific memories and held no spark. Liv felt sick.

This could've been you. Liv thought, this could be you.

"What's your name?" Liv asked after a moment of silence, tension faltering with every flicker of the candle that the Suli girl held in her hand.

"Inej," the girl replied slowly, cautious like a prey crossing an exposed field. She set down the candle beside her and slowly sat down, legs crossed beneath her, "And you're Liv."

Liv's eyebrows lowered in a frown, "How did you know?"

Inej shrugged, averting her gaze for a moment, "I just do."

"Why am I here?" Liv continued, pulling up her knees to her chest, awkwardly wrapping her bound hands around it. She only now realised that her hands were ungloved, her scar exposed to the burning candle on her side. She moved away ever so slightly.

Inej was quiet for a moment, before meeting Liv's pale gaze again, "She wants you as leverage against Kaz Brekker. She needs something she can't have done herself."

Liv huffed, a dry heave of air leaving her lungs and dry lips. That was interesting. She wasn't entirely sure if she should be relieved or not as it meant that she was not at The Menagerie to venture into a new life, but simply as a hostage. Liv hoped that was the case. But there was an uncertainty, her as leverage against the Bastard of the Barrel himself? It seemed foolish. He was nothing if not heartless, she would not be the reason for his persuasion. He would not do something for Tante Heleen just for her, not from the goodness of his heart. So she hoped desperately that Tante Heleen had another reward prepared for him.

"What happened to your hand?" Liv met Inej's gaze once more, the question making her jerk her hand away, hiding it behind her leg, shadowing it from the girl's curious gaze.

"Accident." Liv replied curtly, desperate for a change of subject, "Why do you not make a sound when you move?"

It was not Inej's turn to be taken aback, her mouth falling into a narrow line, "I'm a dancer."

Partially true, Liv figured.

"You're the Whisperer, right?" Inej asked, head slightly tilted to the side, feigning curiosity, but Liv spotted a knowingness in her features.

She scoffed lightly, "Some people like to think so, why?"

Another shrug of the shoulders, "I've heard about you. I've seen you as well. On the rooftops."

Liv's eyes narrowed as she looked at the girl's small frame, smaller than her own, the nimbleness of her limbs and the airy way she carried herself, like a ghost.

"You were the person I saw." Liv mused in realisation. The night she was sketching on the rooftop of The Kopstoot she saw a figure pass over the rooftops, running with a precision like a choreographed dance.

"You're not supposed to see me," Inej muttered, frowning.

Liv wanted to ask more but was interrupted by the opening of the door behind Inej, revealing a bulky man with tattooed arms and a shaved head, a dark grin on his face.

From the corner of her eyes, she could see Inej's posture falter, shoulders hunching.

"Tante Heleen wants to see you."

—

Pure terror coursed through Liv's veins as she followed the man up the marbled stairs. She could feel the gaze of curious stares upon her back as she moved, whispers surrounded her as she ascended.

She tuned out the noises until they were out of earshot, as they approached the top of the stairs, on which they turned to that one dreaded door she never wanted to see.

Liv had heard about the horrors of Tante Heleen, she had actually encountered her before herself. The last time Liv had the displeasure of encountering the Zookeeper, she had been promised that the next time she would see her, she would be one of hers.

To Liv's dismay, Tante Heleen turned out to be right.

The door was opened and Liv was pulled inside by the man, who closed the door behind him.

Liv couldn't form words as she entered Tante Heleen's salon. Every inch of the office was extravagantly decorated with marble gold and animal prints, multiple animal heads lining the walls like trophies, each in correspondence to one of her animals; Shu serpent, Ravkan mare, Fjerdan wolf, Suli lynx.

Then a door behind the marble desk opened and out stepped Heleen Van Houden. Liv's breath hitched and she couldn't help but glare as she looked at the smug woman, arrogance and triumph drawn onto every feature of her sharp face. Liv felt sick.

"Long time no see, little Dove." the woman mused, sitting down behind her desk, and placing a pair of golden glasses atop her narrow nose.

The nickname sent shudders down Liv's spine, and suddenly she felt like a child again. A terrified child, running and hiding every day to escape the potential horrors of being caught.

She wanted to reply but her voice got stuck somewhere in her throat, instead, she could only stare, earning a chuckle from the blonde woman in front of her.

"Still not much of a talker, I see." she mused, going through some papers before looking back up at her, "You owe me something, little Dove. Quite a lot actually."

Tante Heleen rose from her seat, taking a few slow strides in Liv's direction, before striking her against her cheek, hard.

Liv gasped, and she reached for her cheek, her mind overcoming with a thick fog of panic and fear, clouding any rational response.

"That's for the brawler I had to replace because of you."

Liv thought back as she stared into the predator's eyes. A couple of years ago, when she encountered some of the Menagerie's men, she had tried to flee over the rooftops. Three men had followed her and she had managed to lose two of them through her nimble frame and flexible figure. But one of the three men, the largest one, had managed to catch her. When she had tried to escape his grip, she had accidentally pushed him over the edge of the rooftop, a nasty crunch echoing through the alleyways as he hit the ground. Liv hadn't dared to take a peak over the edge, afraid of what she would find. But she knew that that was the first time she killed a person.

"And now you're finally here to repay that debt," Tante Heleen continued, snapping Liv back from her cloud of thoughts, "You will make a fine addition to my House of Exotics."

"I don't belong to you," Liv snapped, throat rough and coarse with effort, a dark glare set upon her brows.

The woman laughed, "Don't you, now? Who do you belong to then, the Bastard? Rollins?"

She grabbed a tight grip of Liv's lower arm, revealing its bare skin, "I don't see any marks. Which means you are free game. And seeing as you owe me for the damage you have caused to my company, I have every right to ask for that money back, don't I? Unless you're able to pay for it yourself right now."

"How much is it?" Liv asked.

"One million kruge," Tante replied slowly, dropping each syllable with a taunting weight, a nasty smile upon her arched lips.

Liv wanted to object. One million kruge was ridiculous; it was a joke, a nasty abominable taunt that, if applied, would dangle over Liv's head for the rest of her life. Because she could never make that money back, not with the way these debts worked, not here, not in a place such as the Menagerie. Because somehow, every indenture that was signed in this establishment, only seemed to grow over time, instead of reduce.

But before she could object, Tante Heleen spoke again, moving away from her to retrieve a piece of paper from her desk, "It's all here you see. All fair in the eyes of Ghezen."

With manicured nails, she held the paper in front of Liv's eyes.

The inked letters showed ridiculous prices and accusations: property damage; insufficiency in safety guarantee for the indentured at the menagerie; intellectual damage. The list was long, way too long. But in the eyes of Ghezen, the god of trade to which every merchant and businessman in Ketterdam abides, Tante Heleen's claims would stand. And the price was so ridiculously high, that even Kaz wouldn't be able to pay out Liv's debt, not that he would want to do it anyway, it would be a bad business decision, he would say. Liv couldn't argue with it.

Nausea crept up Liv's stomach as Tante Heleen lowered the piece of paper again with a satisfied look on her face, "You will be a favourite here, no doubt. Everyone wants a piece of that pale beauty of yours."

Liv was going to throw up, she was almost entirely sure of it as her mind could only concern itself with the many nightmares she had endured over finding herself in this very situation.

Her vision swayed, and a cold shake ran down her spine as her mind spiralled into darkness and horror.

The following events that occurred, she only experienced from a distance, in a daze; a distant fog that clogged any coherent thought to form and took over the entirety of her mind. So when the door opened, and a dark figure entered the room, she barely noticed.

That was, until the figure turned to her, and she came in contact with that all too familiar icy shark's gaze. It was brief, but there was comfort.

He came.

Slowly, but surely, holding onto Kaz's presence like a lifeline, she could return to her current place of being. She kept her gaze steady on his form, watching the clench in his jaw and the furrows in his brows as he talked. She couldn't make out any of the words. A high pitched noise blocked every way to decipher the words being spoken.

Suddenly another figure entered and blocked her gaze from Kaz, and yanked her forward by her chained wrists, placing her in a lock with a knife precariously placed against her neck.

Liv let out a gasp as she was lurched back into reality. The high-pitched noise faltered, and the distant, muffled voices in the background unscrambled themselves to reveal the words being spoken between Kaz and Tante Heleen.

"What do you need done?" Kaz asked bitterly, standing in front of Tante Heleen's desk, his weight shifted to the side to rest upon his cane.

The woman in front of him smiled, "I've received information on a potential new drug. I want in on it."

Kaz scoffed, "I'm not some dealer you can send out onto the streets."

Tante Heleen held out a dismissive finger like a mother would to scold her child for interrupting her, which seemingly aggravated Kaz even more.

"I was not finished, child. It's not just some jurda I want you after."

She sighed, a triumphant, expectant sigh, "I can't give you much details on it, but it will change lives."

Kaz moved backwards slightly, eying the woman in front of him doubtfully, "Why would someone only concerned with the trade of bodies like you, be interested in such a thing."

He spat the parts about Tante Heleen's "profession" with such vileness, that she looked taken aback.

"I don't need to explain myself to you, Bastard." She replied, in an equally disdained tone, "I just need you to do your job. Remember what you have at stake here."

The woman sent a quick glance to Liv, which sent another shiver to run down her back.

Oh, how she hated how terrified the woman made her.

Fortunately, Tante Heleen turned back to Kaz, who had not looked at Liv and placed her hands over each other, leaning forward over the desk slightly, "I need you to fetch the recipe for the drug. The only known copy belongs to some merchant who died some time ago. I'm not sure who, that's what you need to figure out."

Kaz did not reply for a moment, only sending a quick glance towards Liv, which she caught with narrowed eyes, before he looked off into the distance, biting his lip ever so slightly.

There was no doubt in Liv's mind as to what that meant; his scheming face.

"You want me to retrieve a piece of paper, which belonged to some dead merchant– of which there are many– without any clue as to who the merchant is, in return for the release of my employee?" Kaz started again, his gaze firmly placed on Tante Heleen.

She nodded, "Indeed."

Kaz turned again to look at Liv and she was honestly scared that he would decline, leaving her behind in this saint's forsaken place. The knife that was placed against her neck, which she had almost forgotten about felt as sharp as ever.

But then, Kaz stuck out a gloved hand with a slow hesitation as he looked back at Tante Heleen again, "The deal is the deal."

Tante Heleen's angled lips tugged upward, and she shook Dirtyhands' hand, "The deal is the deal."

She then gathered the stack of papers that were laid down in front of her, "Off you go."

But Kaz remained in place, hands both leaning on his cane, "I want Liv with me. I need her for the job."

Tante Heleen's downturned eyes set into a glare, "And why should I do that? This girl can make me fine money in the time you take to get me that recipe."

A short pause ensued in which Kaz's frown turned even deeper, his chest rising and falling in an almost restrictive manner, before he picked up his cane and tossed it onto the marble desk.

The silver crow-head landed atop the desk with a loud clang, making Liv shift in her place and Tante Heleen lean back slightly.

"Consider it a deposit," Kaz hissed with a tight jaw.

Liv's eyes widened at the scene. Why in the saint's name would he give up on his prized possession for such a reason.

However stunned Liv was, Tante Heleen seemed even more shocked as her feline eyes widened momentarily, before they fell back into their downturned position and a smile appeared on her lips.

"Very well." She replied, before sending a nod to the man that held Liv in place and he moved away, knife retrieving from its spot against Liv's neck and removing the shackles from her arms.

Liv immediately reached up to her neck as she took a step forward, moving away from the man, and taking in a deep breath.

She took a moment to regain her senses, before looking up at Kaz, who eyed her with a certain disinterest that somehow stung. He then gestured to her to follow her and they left the overly decorated office with little space between them, as Liv wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

Kaz moved down the stairs without a word, leaving Liv to follow with clumsy steps, dodging all the bodies that made their way up.

"Kaz?" Liv asked as they descended another set of stairs, struggling to keep up with the boy's surprisingly quick pace.

His shoulders looked strained as he walked, either to compensate for the pain he was undeniably feeling in his leg or because of something else.

They made their way towards the bottom floor, and eventually outside. Liv welcomed the gust of evening rain with open arms but was quickly rid of her relief at the undeniable distance that existed between her and the dark-haired boy in front of her who marched forward, not having looked back once while they left the Menagerie.

"Kaz-," Liv started but was interrupted by a pair of long, dark arms that wrapped around her, startling her.

She shrieked and tried to push away the arms before she realised that it was only Jesper.

Liv proceeded to hit his arm anyway, "You bastard, you scared me!"

He shot her an apologetic glance, and it was enough for her to wrap her arms around him as well.

Jesper cleared his throat, "I'm sorry, okay? I was just happy to see you."

Liv moved away after a long moment, enjoying the embrace, looking up at the Zemeni boy, "What are you doing here, anyway."

The comment made Jesper frown, "Rescuing you of course, how did it go, by the way?"

Liv thought. She was not sure. She was free, at the moment. But, now they had to perform a seemingly impossible task, the kind of impossible that not even the Bastard of the Barrel might get done.

"I'm not sure," Liv answered eventually, watching Kaz's retreating figure as he slowly disappeared into the crowds of the Barrel.

Jesper apparently took Liv's answer as satisfactory as he moved on from the subject as he glanced up and down at her figure, before shrugging his coat from his shoulders, "Take this, you look cold."

Liv smiled in reply and took the coat. She was happy that Jesper didn't prod further into the question of why she found herself in these bare silks.

The welcome warmth of the worn jacket hugged her lowering body temperature, and she wrapped her arms around her chest tightly, "Thanks, Jes."

She took hold of his hand and started marching forward, pursuing the steps of the Bastard of the Barrel himself as he had just but disappeared between a group of cackling tourists, "Now let's get home. I need a drink."

Jesper let out a hearty laugh, "Now, that sounds like a good idea."

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[A/N]

woo an update omg- also thank you guys so much for the almost 700 reads already, it really means a lot to me that anybody would even read my silly little story:)

this chapter was a bit of a struggle to write for some reason but i think it worked out well in the end-- let me know what you guys think and leave a vote while you're at it hehe

- Blue