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33: MERCY


Law jolted awake to stare at an unfamiliar plain white ceiling.

What happened? Where am I?

She was in a bed with metal railings with various monitors attached to her and IV needles in both her hands. The big clear fluid bag on her right was half full, but the bag of blood dripping into her left arm looked nearly empty. Sitting up shot pain through every fiber of her body. Sunlight streamed through the window to the left of her, proving that it was daytime outside. She’d been unconscious for hours, if not days.

She was at Mercy Hospital. She recognized the styling of the room once she sat up: her grandparents had had multiple stays in the same kind of semiprivate room toward the ends of their lives. The bed beside her was occupied but the privacy curtain was drawn, keeping the myth of “semiprivate” alive. She could hear a soft beeping of monitors and some type of breathing machine.

The TV was on but muted. Hal Rogers was doing an interview with EIA Director Maynard. There was a banner reading OAKLAND FRONTLINE. Maynard seemed to be standing in front of Poppymeadows, and work crews were clearing rubble from the street. Other than that, there seemed to be no real sign of fighting.

What Law couldn’t see was Bare Snow.

“Bare?” Law whispered, just in case the female was invisible for some weird reason. Normally, Bare Snow could walk around without her spell active and people still didn’t seem to see her. She apparently had spent her life judging people’s line of sight and how to anticipate how others would turn to avoid being seen by a casual viewer.

Somewhere down the hall was the clatter of metal bedpans. No one answered her.

Fear started to set in. Where was Bare Snow? What had happened to her? They’d been alone against an army within the graveyard. How did Law end up at the hospital? Bare Snow wouldn’t have known where the hospital was or what it was. She would have taken Law back to the Bunnies.

Maybe the Bunnies had brought Law to the hospital.

The thought was comforting for a couple of minutes—enough time to take inventory of her body. She’d been totally stripped; even her boyshorts underwear was gone. She had dozens of bandages on both legs and arms and random places on the very edge of her torso. She’d been lucky; no major organs seemed to have been hit by the puffball’s darts. Major blood loss alone would explain the IV in each hand and being unconscious for hours.

The most chilling thing she found was the plastic bracelet on her wrist. It identified her as Monroe, Lawrie Earie. There were perhaps twenty people in the world who knew her full name: her parents, and the kids who were in school with her in first through sixth grades. Specifically the ones in her class when David Gillespie discovered what her middle name was and started to call her “Earwig.” Every recess had her using her fists in an effort to get him to stop shouting the nickname. (Nearly twenty years later, she wasn’t sure if he’d had some kind of death wish or actually had a secret crush on her. There was a good reason why she didn’t like men.) Her driver’s license only had her middle initial. After Lawrie graduated from high school, she shortened her name to just “Law.” The Bunnies didn’t know what Law stood for. She didn’t know their real names. It was understood that they would never ask.

It meant that someone who actually knew her—but not the Bunnies—had brought Law to the hospital. If Bare Snow had been unhurt, why hadn’t she come with Law and whoever transported her? Had Bare Snow been invisible and unconscious? Was she still at the graveyard, badly wounded and overlooked?

The worst of it was that Law hadn’t thought to tell Bare Snow what to do if they got separated. The female might be roaming the city with no clue how to find Law or how to contact the Bunnies. Hell, just getting up to Mount Washington on foot wasn’t obvious if you had only driven there.

“I’m a stupid idiot,” Law whispered.

She climbed out of bed, wincing and swearing at the pain. Where were her clothes and boots and most importantly her phone? There was a little storage locker opposite her bed. She limped to it, dragging IV stands and monitors along. Her boots, soaked with blood—probably her own—sat at the bottom of the locker. None of her clothes apparently had been deemed salvageable—there was no sign of them. Her keys, phone, lockpicks, a handful of bullets, and a few other items that would have been in her pockets had been placed in a plastic bag and hung on the other hook. She’d left her wallet locked in her truck, so she didn’t have ID or money.

She had turned off her phone when the city’s network went down. She turned it on to discover that it was still at half power.

Usagi answered on the first ring. “Law! Are you okay? Where are you?”

“I’m at the hospital. Wounded. I don’t know how I got here. Have you heard from Bare Snow?”

“Oh, dear God, no, I haven’t. I thought she was you. I’ll come get you.”

“You don’t have to…” Law started to turn Usagi down without thinking. She didn’t like getting other people involved in her messes.

“I asked you to join our household,” Usagi said. “That means I see you as family. Of course I have to come get you when you’re in the hospital. That is what family does for each other!”

Law paused and actually thought about her options. She didn’t have a lot of choices being that all she had to her name was a hospital gown and boots. Her truck was on the other side of the town—miles away. She felt too lightheaded and weak to hike to it. “Okay. I’m going to need something to put on. Can you bring some clothes? The whole works. Underwear. Socks. Pants. Shirt.”

“Oh, Law!” Usagi said in dismay, recognizing that it meant that Law had been badly wounded. “I’ll find some. My jeans would be too small for you. Clover probably has some that will fit you. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

Law gave her the room number and said goodbye.

For Usagi to be able to drop everything and head to Mercy Hospital, it meant someone else was home to watch the kids. Probably Clover or Hazel. Usagi could maybe drop Law in Oakland but Usagi couldn’t take her as far as the graveyard. It wouldn’t be safe. Law wasn’t sure where else to look for Bare Snow.

“Oh, fucking hell.” Law leaned against the locker as her vision started to go dark. That’s how she ended up passed out on the floor.

* * *

Law woke up the second time as Usagi and Dr. Nan Nuessle—who looked very sleep deprived—got her off the floor. They were both petite women, so it wasn’t smooth going as they guided Law back to her bed.

“What the freak do you think you’re doing?” Dr. Nan growled. “I don’t have patience for this right now. Half the population of the city decided to play soldier yesterday. We’ve got wounded coming out of our ears.”

“When you said ‘wounded’ I didn’t expect to find you this hurt,” Usagi said. “You look like someone used you as a dart board.”

“Yes, basically, they did,” Law said. “Which is why I’m worried about Bare Snow. Who brought me to the hospital?”

“It was all hands on deck last night in the ER,” Dr. Nan snapped. “I was probably busy with someone else when you came in. No, wait, I did see you from across the room. Linda Gaddy brought you in.”

That explained her middle name on the bracelet. Gaddy had been in her class all through grade school. They hadn’t been close friends then and drifted further apart in high school. They hadn’t seen each other since graduation.

“I need to talk to Gaddy.” Law held out her right hand and started to pry at the tape holding in the IV needle. “I need to take these off.”

“No! No, you don’t!” Dr. Nan smacked Law’s fingers. “You’re not going anywhere. You lost a dangerous amount of blood. Until these bags are empty, you’ll go face down every time you stand up. You might think that those IV needles will only smart a bit if you pull them out, but it will hurt a whole lot more when my nurses put them back in, and they will put them back in. Until the next Shutdown or Startup or whatever connects us back to Earth, a wasted resource could mean the difference between saving a life or not. You’ve started those bags, you will finish them.”

“How long will that take?” Law said.

“Another hour or two.” Dr. Nan said.

“An hour or two?” Law wailed. “Can’t I just take them with me?”

“No!” Dr. Nan said. “First off, when you came in unconscious, we put a Foley catheter in you. It has a balloon attached to it. That has to be removed by us. If you try to just yank it out yourself, you’re going to learn a whole new meaning to the word ‘pain.’”

Law was beginning to feel very violated. “How long will it take to remove it?”

“Depends on who is available,” Dr. Nan growled. “Even with it out, you can’t just waltz out of here. The fluid we’ve given you needs to equilibrate with the blood already in your body. We’ll have to check your hematocrit an hour after the transfusion and again the following morning to ensure you’re not bleeding internally.”

“Morning?” Law howled. “As in tomorrow morning?”

“Oh boo-hoo, we’re trying to save your life here,” Dr. Nan said. “What part of ‘almost bled to death’ do you not understand?”

“I’m just a little lightheaded.” Law said. “Do I need all these wires and stuff?”

“For now—yes! I’ll tell my nurses to take out the catheter but everything else has to stay—like this cardiac lead.” Dr. Nan indicated one of the wires taped to Law’s hand. “It’s connected to your EKG monitor. That’s how I knew you were lying here on the floor. It’s being watched by a sweet little old lady named Betsy. If you yank that off, your monitor will flatline, and Betsy will fall out of her chair and have a mild heart attack. Once she picks herself up off the floor, Betsy will call a code blue. People will come running from all over the hospital. They will come to your room to save your life! Only you wouldn’t be dying—yet!

“After last night, my staff is overwhelmed and exhausted. Someone is going to throw in the towel and quit. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get good medical talent here on Elfhome? If so much as one staff member quits because of you, I will Hunt. You. Down!”

“I’ll be good,” Law promised. “You should try and get some sleep.”

“After the transfusion is finished, we’ll talk again about whether you can leave or not.” Dr. Nan stalked off, hopefully to get some rest.

“I brought you some clothes.” Usagi held out a child’s pink backpack with rabbit ears. “It was the only bag I could find fast. But I don’t think you should leave—not until you’re well enough to actually walk out under your own power.”

“I need to find Bare Snow,” Law said.

“I understand completely,” Usagi said. “If it was one of my babies, I’d crawl over broken glass to find them. But I also know that it would be the quickest way of leaving them completely alone for the rest of their very long lives. It’s why I started up my household—so there would be someone else who could protect my babies when I couldn’t.”

“I haven’t really given you an answer,” Law said, “on if I’m going to join your household or not.”

“And I’m glad you haven’t,” Usagi said. “It means you’re considering all the pros and cons rationally. That’s what I would hope for, for such a large life decision.”

“I know it would be good for Bare Snow,” Law said. “And I really care for you all. But I’m not sure I could take the kids twenty-four seven.”

Usagi laughed dryly. “I can’t take it nonstop either. We all need to have some alone time with the door shut. None of us are getting it because we’re squeezed in too tight. The place we have now was okay when it was just me, Babs and Hazel. When we picked up Clover, things started to get too tight upstairs. Poor Widget slept on the couch all last winter as her ‘room’ is just a lean-to on the roof. We’ve been shuffling the babies around all summer, trying to give Widget her own room that is weatherproof. There’s no way to expand, perched on the cliff edge like we are. It would be nice if we had a garden and maybe some fruit trees and a few chickens, but there’s no space for all that. And the heat is dependent on the gas and electric staying on. We don’t have any backups. I’m not sure we can put in a wood stove safely in the main room. The one wall is all glass and the other wall has the upstairs overhang weirdness.”

“Are you trying to distract me from leaving?” Law asked.

“A little bit,” Usagi admitted. “I want you to think rationally. You’re not all alone in this. You have a wealth of friends that you can reach out to.”

“I don’t have that many friends,” Law said.

“Yes, you do. Every time I’ve had trouble in the past, you’ve always been like ‘I have a friend that can help you.’ What employer would hire illegals, no questions asked, but still be perfectly safe to work for. Who to call to get our furnace working last winter. Where to get a big table made that sits all of us. Every time I thought my back was to the wall, you found someone who could fix my problem.”

“This is different,” Law said.

“I’m assuming you don’t know how to get hold of this Gaddy,” Usagi pressed on. “Who would?”

“I don’t know. In high school, her best friend was Lisa Mosteller but she went to college stateside and didn’t come back—or at least, I don’t think she came back.”

“Would this Gaddy be part of Widget’s resistance?”

“Maybe?”

“Let’s find out what Widget knows,” Usagi said, taking out her phone.

* * *

Widget answered her phone. “Hi, big sis, I think I’ve found us a cool place to consider.”

“What?” Usagi said in surprise.

“You know how we talked about moving? I asked around and I think I found a place,” Widget said. “Well, I didn’t, a friend of mine did, but that will have to wait until later—the walls have ears and all that.”

“We’ll talk later. We’ve lost…a friend…someplace and we’re trying to find her,” Usagi stumbled through trying to talk code.

Law leaned in to say, “I’m looking for my other half.”

“O. M. G.” Widget actually spelled it out. “I heard you got taken to the hospital! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Law said. Usagi gave her a look that made her change it to, “Mostly fine. I’m not completely back on my feet yet. Did you send Gaddy to find me?”

“I wish I’d been that clever but no,” Widget said. “Oh, wow, how am I going to explain this chaos?”

“Where is my other half?” Law repeated to keep Widget from wandering off in story-mode and code talk.

“I think…” Widget said slowly, as if she wasn’t sure, “she’s at Sacred Heart.”

“Where?” Usagi said in surprise.

“The new enclave at the Rim?” Law said to be sure that they were talking about the same abandoned Catholic high school. There might be another one—somewhere—that Law didn’t know about. The enclave was the last place she would have thought Bare Snow would have ended up.

“Yeaaah!” Widget said slowly. “Gaddy was playing backup for Oilcan when she picked you up. He…he was on a secret mission. At least, I think it was secret. I’ll explain later—it’s not important for you to know now. Anyhoo, there was a big fight there and afterward, everyone—but you—ended up at Sacred Heart. I think.”

“Is there any way you can confirm that?” Usagi said.

“Um,” Widget thought a moment. “Let me play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.”

“Play what?” Law said. “Kevin who?”

“I’ll explain,” Usagi said.

“I’ll call you back,” Widget said.

Usagi had just finished explaining that it meant finding common links between scattered people to create a chain of relationships when Widget called back.

“Okay, Bow-Wow called Gin Blossom, who says that Briar Rose told her that Bare Snow is definitely at Sacred Heart,” Widget said. “Apparently someone got the news to Briar Rose that you’re going to be fine, so Bare Snow crashed in a borrowed bed there.”

“Are you sure she’s safe?” Law said. “Doesn’t Oilcan have a dozen sekasha camping at his place?”

“One of the sekasha is ‘standing as champion,’ which is some weird thing that means no one can hurt her without going through him…so…I think so?”

* * *

Law’s grandmother had graduated from Sacred Heart High School during the last century. She used to bemoan the fact that her alma mater had closed a decade before Law could have attended. Law suspected she and the nuns would have gotten on like gasoline and a lit match. Even her public school teachers called Law “incorrigible.” She had thought a lot about her grandmother’s nostalgia as she’d waded through the abandoned building shortly after the Wyverns had cleared it of oni. It had been a garbage-filled pigsty, riddled with bullet holes and covered with blood. Law couldn’t decide if it was sad or ironic that the school known for ironhanded nuns had been taken over by animalistic lesser bloods. Any secret information that the dead oni warriors had on the Skin Clan was lost under the filth.

In the days following Oilcan’s takeover of Sacred Heart, Law had rarely spotted people moving about the place. It wasn’t too surprising as it was a large three-story building meant for several hundred students. Then suddenly, as if overnight, massive limestone walls had sprung up around the school, matching the height and width of the walls around the elf-made enclaves across the street.

As Usagi pulled into the parking lot between the Rim and Pittsburgh, there was a line of ants moving their nest into Sacred Heart. Not actual ants. A small mountain of household goods had been unloaded outside the new gate. Tables and chairs. Couches and love seats. Desks and bookcases. Bedframes and headboards. Even seven blazing white twin mattresses stacked up on blankets. The “ants” were people carrying furniture into the old schoolhouse. All four races were represented in the progression of goods: humans, elves, tengu, and one little doglike half-oni.

Usagi rarely got out of the house, so she hadn’t seen the defensive walls going up around the new enclave. “Wow, this place sure has changed in a few weeks’ time!”

Law nodded. “That ironwood gate is new to me too.”

Said gate was painted Wind Clan Blue despite the fact that many of the elves helping to unload the big truck were wearing Stone Clan Black.

The half-oni claimed a tall floor lamp to carry in. The humans paired off to handle the mattresses. The elves carefully lifted boxes of dishes off the back of the pickup. Four of the tengu picked up a dainty pink love seat and a tufted white settee. The line of ants marched into Sacred Heart. Law and Usagi followed.

The walls of the cavernous foyer had been cleaned, repaired, and painted a warm butter yellow. The floors had been scrubbed until they gleamed. The place smelled of roasting meat, fresh-baked bread, and lavender-scented cleaner. It was a stunning transformation since Law last saw the area.

A young female elf was directing the flow of traffic. She had the brown hair and dusky skin of the Stone Clan elves. She was even smaller than Usagi. She seemed to be only a tween but that could have been her braided pigtails, blue dress, rainbow leggings, and pink tennis shoes.

She eyed the tengu’s load and pointed up the stairs. “Third floor.”

“Of course! Our favorite floor!” one of the tengu quipped.

The female quacked nervously. “The pink settee goes in my room! Baby Duck’s room. The white one goes into the little domis’ room.”

“‘Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!’” the tengu quoted as they climbed the stairs. “‘In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility.’”

“The mighty hero appears!” Briar Rose called as she came down the steps. “Nicadae, Law! Nicadae, Usagi Sensei!”

“Nicadae!” Usagi bowed in greeting. “Where did they get all the furniture?”

“Once More With Feeling,” Carl Moser said as he jogged down the steps. “Oilcan bought out the store just before the fighting started. He and the kids were getting ice cream when they were attacked and had to leave everything behind. Good to see you upright, Law.”

Moser continued out the door, leaving Briar Rose to explain the rest.

“Oilcan and Geoffrey have made three runs each to the South Side already,” Briar Rose said. “Most of the big pieces had to go to the third floor, so we called in backup. Oilcan’s other kids are upstairs making sure everything gets to the right rooms.”

Four big wooden tables were carried in by another team of tengu.

“Cafeteria?” one of the males asked hopefully.

Baby Duck quacked, shaking her head. “Sorry, third floor. One for Cattail Reeds, one for Merry, one for Rustle, and one for the little domis.”

“Third floor it is!” The tengu headed upstairs at a jog. Judging by the speed at which they were moving, the tengu were insanely strong.

Law hadn’t expected the enclave to be so crowded. “I’m looking for Bare Snow.”

“She’s in the gym!” Moser passed them again, this time carrying a set of lamps. “None of the furniture is going in there, so it seemed the best place for her.”

* * *

The Scared Heart gym reminded Law of the one at her high school—the gleaming hardwood floors, the high ceiling, the painted lines of the basketball court, and the wooden bleachers folded against the outer wall. Unlike Brashear High, one wall was a large stage. Rumors had it that Oilcan was going to turn it into a dance club with local bands performing on the weekends.

Moser and his people had fled their home for the safety of the Sacred Heart’s newly constructed magical defenses. They’d arrived with their instruments, sleeping bags, and little else. They’d set up in an orderly fashion within the gym, but it still looked like a refugee camp.

In the far corner, Bare Snow sat holding the elfhound puppy she had rescued, once upon a time.

As Law approached, she was startled to see a tear trickling down Bare Snow’s face.

“Bare? What’s wrong?” Law said.

“Law!” Bare Snow stumbled to her. It was as if a dam had burst; tears started to stream down the female’s face. “Law!”

“It’s okay. I’m here. It’s—ow, ow, ow!” This was because Bare Snow had hugged her tightly, hitting half a dozen wounds at once.

“Easy, Bare Snow!” Usagi said. “She’s too hurt for that.”

“I’m fine,” Law lied. “What’s wrong, Bare?”

“Moon Dog is gaolata me.”

“He’s what?”

Gaolata me! He is going to try and force Wraith Arrow to abrogate the death warrant. I’m…I’m…I do not know what I am! I think I might be terrified.”

Usagi gave Law a look that cried “What death warrant?” but said nothing.

“Cancelling the death warrant would be good?” Law said. “Wouldn’t it?”

“Yyyeeesss!” Bare Snow sobbed. “My father’s household knew nothing of my mother’s sin. They threw me out simply because of my cursed name. That my mother was Wind Clan was merely an easy excuse. They were Water Clan; they had no obligation to care for a cursed child of another clan. They gave me coin enough to get to Court, telling me to find a Wind Clan household there to take me. Even if I failed, they said, I could go to the clan head and seek orphan rights. They did not know what it was that they asked of me! A child is fr…fr…free to choose a new household at a certain age. They did not know that the Wind Clan wanted me dead! I could not tell them—my shame was too great. And what would it have gained me? They already did not want me!”

Law understood the pain. Her parents had handed her over to her grandparents after they divorced, neither one wanting to have to act as single parent as they rebuilt their life. Before being bitterly angry about it, she’d been wounded to her soul.

I want you,” Law said.

“We all want you,” Usagi said.

“I want to be able to say yes to the Bunnies!” Bare Snow said. “After I was turned down again and again in Summer Court, I just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. I had forever alone before me with no hope of ever being part of a household. I thought I would never be part of a family again. It is why I came to Pittsburgh—I had no hope. I sensed it was a trap even before I started to go from enclave to enclave, seeking a household that would take me. But I wanted so badly to be accepted that I was willing to risk everything.”

“It’s okay, baby,” Usagi crooned. “We don’t care about your clan or your name or anything your mother has done.”

“I could not risk the babies!” Bare Snow sobbed. “I wanted so badly to say yes but I knew that it would put them in danger. And then…then…Moon Dog…”

And then she started a loud terrible ugly cry with tears pouring down her face as she made keening noises.

Law traced back through the conversation. Who was Moon Dog? What was he doing again? “He is going to force Wraith Arrow to abrogate the warrant?”

“I do not know if he can!” Bare Snow sobbed. “I want this so badly but I do not know if he can! He is temple born and he trained under Tempered Steel—the holiest of holy—but he is barely out of his doubles. He is only a few years older than me. To abrogate the warrant, he has to tell Wraith Arrow about me. Wraith Arrow! Howling’s First. The killer of King Boar Bristle! Loser to only Cinder during the tournament that decided which Hand would lead us out of the Clan Wars. If Moon Dog can not force Wraith Arrow to back down, then the First of the Westernland’s Wind Clan will know I exist and that I am here in Pittsburgh! He might tear the city apart to find me!”

“He’s in the middle of a war right now,” Law said.

“Today. Tomorrow. Next year. It does not matter. He will find me. I should have never told Moon Dog about my history. He guessed who I was and asked me kindly if I was well, and…and I was so alone without you! I could not help but worry about the day that you are not there for me. That if something happened to you, there is no one among the humans who so loves the edge as much as you. Once again, there would be no one, and I would be for…for…forever alone.”

“Wraith Arrow hasn’t said yes or no yet?” Law asked.

“Moon Dog went to find him,” Bare Snow sniffed. “I do not know how long it will take him to get an answer. He might not even get an audience with the First. It is the not knowing that made me cry.”

“Maybe we should leave—just in case he says no?” Law asked.

“I cannot abandon Moon Dog when he has put his life on the line to help me.” Bare Snow wiped at her face. “I must wait to see the outcome.”

“Okay. I need to fall down now,” Law said as the world threatened to go dark again. She carefully lowered herself to the ground. “I’ll wait with you.”

There was literally nothing else she could do. The elfhound puppy eyed Law with concern as if it could tell that she wasn’t well.

Law tried to pet the puppy but failed to lift her arm. Yup, literally nothing else she could do. “Usagi, I’ll call you.”

Usagi’s face started to crumble as her desire to stay warred with the knowledge that she had to do what was best for her children. No matter how much she wanted to stay, she needed to keep a safe distance from whatever might happen. Tears started to stream down her face. “I-I-I shouldn’t just…”

“Yes, you should,” Law said. “If for no other reason than it might be days until he comes back. You need to go home.”

“Law!” Bare Snow’s voice quivered. “I am too frightened to be brave enough to tell you to go. I do not want to be alone if Wraith Arrow comes for me. I do not want to be alone for the end.”

“You won’t be alone,” Law said. “You don’t have to be afraid for me. Wraith Arrow had no reason to harm me and I cannot do anything but be here with you—to whatever end that comes.”



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