Thick as Thieves

By Dixxy Mouri

Chapter Nineteen: Twin Sparkles of Hope

It wasn’t until the day they got back to Ridgefield’s manor that Norris was allowed to see the girls again. They were brought into his workshop, now much better dressed than what that Mystic slave trader had kept them, and even looked a little healthier. Well, I guess that’s one thing that’s gone better for them – even if Ridgefield thinks he owns them, it looks like he might be treating them better here.

With them, the girls had brought his lunch and a number of things to add to his “to repair” list. Norris thanked them and invited them to sit down. The sisters looked at each other for a few seconds, then turned back to him and nodded, taking seats from various workstations. Norris sat down in his favorite chair, crossing his legs and putting his lunch in his lap.

“I wanted to apologize for my role in your purchase last week,” Norris said, looking between the girls apologetically. They kept their hands neatly in their laps, matching frowns on their identical faces. “There was nothing else I could do for you – there wasn’t any way I could-.”

“You did the best thing you could have done, given the circumstances. Tia and I talked it over – we’re pretty sure that the next possible buyer would have had us separated anyways,” said the pigtailed sister, shaking her head. “You kept us together. It’s true that we’re still in this awful situation, but if we had been separated we may have never seen each other again.”

“Orlha and I have never been apart – at least, not for a long time,” said her sister. She gripped the skirt of his dress, biting her bottom lip. “We’re a little bit grateful, especially since that awful Ridgefield is going to make you do something later because of it. You didn’t have to do that for us.”

The other sister gasped. “Unless you expect us to repay you!”

Her sister moaned. “Oh no!”

Norris held up his hands. “No, no, no! Ridgefield only wants you girls to help me do what I’m here to do and fetch meals and the like – I’m not allowed outside of these rooms for the most part, and the less time I spend running around getting food, the better in his mind. And I’m not going to make you do any more than that – I don’t even want to make you do anything in the first place. I don’t WANT slaves.”

“So then what made you decide to help us?” asked the pigtailed twin.

“Actually, didn’t he say he was a slave, too?” asked her sister.

Norris nodded. “For a whole year – well, maybe four, kind of – it’s a long story. See, when I fled Porre, I ended up on a ship bound for Medina. My friends and I were sold into the trade and we escaped a year later, then we ended up being enslaved by a master of a different kind. And now I’m here, and it’s basically even more slavery.” He sighed. “It’s been around five years since I betrayed Porre and I’ve spent more than four of them working against my will for one master or another.”

“So you sympathize with us.”

“Yes . . . Orlha, right?”

Orlha nodded. “Yes. And this is my sister, Tia.”

Norris nodded. “Glad we have that established.”

“And you’re Normund,” said Tia.

“Close – my name is Norris.”

Orlha sighed. “The world’s youngest traitor. What a claim to fame.”

“As I said in Medina, I stand by my decision.”

Tia cocked her head to the side. “What exactly did you do to deserve that?”

Norris sighed and told the twins his story, leaving out the exact details of how close he and Karsh had grown over the years they spent together. But he explained why he committed treason at such a young age and what had become of him and his friends from the day they left Porre to the day he left Karsh – Glenn’s death, Dario’s anger, and the few months of peace he and Karsh had together before everything fell apart.

Orlha and Tia listened to Norris intently, their eyes widening and adding in little comments such as “wow” and “oh my” where they were surprised or shocked or whatever they wanted to call it.

“The Deva’s children . . . so that’s what happened!” said Orlha, her eyes wide. She leaned forward, her hands on her knees. “Tia and I are also from El Nido. We were young when it happened but we remember hearing the adults talk about it.”

“What!?” asked Norris, skidding his chair backwards in surprise. “How?!”

Tia sighed, hanging her head. “It was before the gates closed, but after rumors had started that General Viper was considering doing something ‘drastic’ to protect El Nido, and there was news that the Dragoons found a Porre spy,” she said. “Our father was worried about his mother being by herself on the Mainland, so he took us to Patika to try and convince her to go back to Guldove with us.”

“But by the time we got to Patika, she had passed away from natural causes and we received word that the port had closed – he couldn’t exactly give warning for it, and he can’t let anyone out or in – you know, so that if any other spies did manage to get inside the islands they couldn’t leave to report back to Porre.”

“And it was fine for a while – it was sad that Grandma was gone, but at least we were together as a family,” said Tia. She sniffled. “But then a gang of bandits came to town and our parents were killed during the raid, and we were alone. About a month ago that Mystic man found us and kidnapped us to Medina.”

Norris closed his eyes, crossing his arms and his legs. “So that’s what happened. Viper really didn’t have much of a choice, did he?” he said. He sighed. “If they were sending the Black Wind into El Nido, then they meant serious business. He had to do something like that to protect his country.”

“Doesn’t make it suck any less for people like us who got locked out,” said Orlha, turning her nose up. “We’re slaves, the Deva kids didn’t exactly land on their feet and who knows who else got stuck out here?” She bit her bottom lip. “I just want to go home.” Tia got up from her seat, walked over, and hugged her sister. They both started to sob.

Norris got up from his seat and put his arms around the girls. “It’s okay. I’ll protect you the best I can,” he said softly. They looked up at him with teary eyes, pulling the only person in the whole world who wanted to help them into their embrace.

For the first time in a long time, Norris felt warm.

The new routine with the twins settled in a couple of days. They took turns helping Norris, although Orlha said that Ridgefield was working on modifying one of the floors in the manor to be a much larger suite of rooms, including rooms for Norris, the girls and full functioning kitchen.

“Why a kitchen?” asked Norris. It was about a month after the twins arrived at the manor, and today was Orlha’s turn to work. The two of them were working on a lightweight machine gun to be affixed to the end of a boat – Orlha was holding the gun steady so Norris could weld it to a plate that would later be attached to the boat in question. Norris guessed the thing wasn’t for catching large fish, but he didn’t dare disobey Ridgefield – his “special favor” scared him too much. “So we can make snacks?”

“No, they want to keep us here for longer periods of time – it’s so Tia and I can make meals. Ridgefield is going to arrange for food deliveries every so often – things like milk and meat will be coming more often, and grains will come less often,” she said. “Ridgefield thinks it will increase productivity.”

“Off the record? Ridgefield can kiss my ass.”

“Off the record? Ridgefield can take a long walk off a short dock.”

Norris grinned, flipping up his face shield. “Ridgefield can drink sodium water.”

Orlha scratched her head. “Salt water?”
He shook his head. “No, sodium – you’re thinking of sodium chloride, the kind of salt you find in the sea or on kitchen tables – it’s made of two other things, sodium and chlorine. Chlorine is a poisonous gas, and sodium ignites when exposed to water,” said Norris.

“So it’s fiery water?”

“Yeah, basically,” said Norris. “Ridgefield asked me to come up with a way to light water trails on fire without oil, so I’m trying to work on a rig that will drop pure sodium into the water and make a big enough reaction that’ll give him the effect he wants.”

Orlha stared at him blankly. “How do you know all this stuff?”

Norris shrugged. “I used to read a lot of science textbooks in school, and when I was sharing the apartment with Karsh I read a lot of other books in my spare time.” He laughed. “Karsh used to tease me about it – he tried calling me his little bookworm once, so I made him sleep on the couch.”

She gently laid the contraption they had just built down. “But why would you kick him out of his own bed?” she asked. “I mean that’s something my mom used to threaten my dad with – she never actually did it, mind you – but that only worked because they were sleeping in the . . . same . . . bed . . . YOU WERE SLEEPING WITH HIM!?”

Norris’ eyes widened as his erroneous statement flew through his head. SHIT!

Orlha worked her way around to stare at him in the eyes. “BY THE BLUE DRAGON! You WERE sleeping with him!” she said. She put her hands over her mouth and stared at him in horror. “I don’t believe this! You were LOVERS!? You were SLEEPING with him!” She continued to babble on as Norris watched in a panic.

“I didn’t mean to say that!”

“HE CALLED YOU ‘HIS LITTLE BOOKWORM’!?”

“I’m sorry – it’s not like we planned that – it was just – I’m sorry!”

The twin softened, looking at him in surprise and worry. “What are you sorry for?!” she asked. Orlha embraced him, resting her head against his. “I knew you and Karsh were close but . . . that’s just awful! He was your lover, you must miss him so much! Oh Norris, hon, what am I saying? You poor thing . . . you must be so lonely . . .”

Needless to say, this was not the reaction Norris was expecting. Considering the last time he and Karsh had been forced out of the closet resulted in Glenn dying and Dario hating them, telling people about it wasn’t one of his favorite things to do or even talk about. But here, an innocent slip of the tongue resulted in . . . pity?

Norris returned her embrace. “Yeah. I do miss him. Every day.”

“Why didn’t he go with you?” she asked.

“I left him a Dear John letter – I didn’t want him to have to deal with the trouble.”

Orlha stayed quiet. “You were protecting him.”

“Yeah. I was. But I still wish he was with me. Not here but . . . with me.”

“You still love him,” Orlha said.

“It hurts,” he said. “I can’t . . . I’ve tried to not think about him but at night I dream about him.” He clung to her tighter. “I dream about the two of us together and then I wake up and it hurts every time.” He clenched his eyes shut. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m sharing all this with you, but I can’t talk about this with Ridgefield.”

“It’s fine,” said Orlha. “You saved us; the least we can do is listen.”

“He’s GAY!?” Tia asked, her hands over her mouth. The twins were in their current room (a small, barely big enough for two twin beds – no pun intended – and a dresser with a few changes of clothing for each other) that evening after bed time. Tia fell back onto her bed. “So that means Norris like to-”

Orlha frowned. “It’s not that funny!” she hissed. Tia tried to calm down, but Orlha could scarcely see she was still wearing a playful grin on her face. “He had a boyfriend – Karsh, Master Smith Zappa’s son. That’s why they failed to bring anything home the day Grandmaster Garai’s son Glenn was murdered – Karsh kissed Norris and a gang saw that and beat them up. Dario stepped in to help, but he didn’t do much to save anybody. Norris got badly hurt in the fight and they were running out of time, so they brought him back to Red Beard to get him help, and then Red Beard killed Glenn. That’s why Dario hates them now.”

Tia frowned. “Now I feel bad.”

“Worse, this wasn’t just some kind of little fling – Norris still loves him, I think.”

“Hmm?”

Orlha crawled under the covers of her bed. “He left Karsh after he found out he was a wanted man because he didn’t want Karsh to get in trouble. Otherwise he would still be with him right now.” She sat up and glared at Tia. “And about that ‘butt sex’ comment? They didn’t do it. And it’s none of your business!”

“Well how do you know they didn’t? Did you ask?”

“I didn’t – he got really moody and just started babbling on about how much he missed him and one of the things he said was that they never got a chance to make love,” said Orlha. She pulled her knees to her chest. “He got scared off because of that crazy man they met in the Heckran Cave.”

Tia frowned. “I knew Norris hated being here but I didn’t think he was that miserable,” she said. “I miss Mom and Dad and Grandma, but at least I’ve still got you. Norris lost . . . everyone. His dad is hunting him like some kind of animal, his friends are gone, he was forced to leave the man he loved . . . I feel so bad!”

“We have to do something,” said Orlha.

“Like what? Thanks to Ridgefield we’re already doing a lot to take care of him – what else is there left to do?” asked Tia. She pouted. “We’re slaves here, and everyone but Norris treats us like it, too. I can’t WAIT for us to get those private quarters – then we won’t have to deal with stupid Ridgefield anymore.”

“Shh! He might hear you!” Orlha hissed. She laid back down in her bed. “And what I mean by help him is . . . well . . . I don’t know. Norris still loves him. I think it hurts him that he can’t be with his lover. A lot.” She felt a pit in her stomach. “Maybe that’s why he did what he did. He’s hurting because he was taken away from his most precious person, and even though we’re slaves . . . we’re still together. Norris is miserable here, too, but he’s here alone.”

“But . . . what can we do?” Tia said. “We’re here, he’s out there somewhere.”

Orlha sighed. “I wish there was something we could do . . .”

Author’s Notes

I was going to add another scene to lead into what Ridgefield’s “favor” will be (and this “favor” is fairly set in stone), so next we’ll be going to. . . well . . . you’ll see ;)

Also, for those of you wondering what Glenn’s doing, I promise you he’s okay for now – I’m just really not sure what he would be doing of interest right now. He’s helping Lucca take care of kids. He’s in a very safe, low-conflict environment.

Right now, this story is about the problems facing Dario, Karsh, and Norris and how they cope with them – basically, they’re more interesting to write about right now because they’re the ones who have the more immediate problems to deal with – Dario’s marriage and fatherhood, Karsh’s quest for Norris, and Norris’ problems . . . well, you’ll see.

Dixxy