Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

𓅫JESPER 𓅫

Jesper did not knew how he got there. It was actually a pretty normal occurrence considering his brain, but this time it was on another level.
He felt like he was in a dream:

He sat on a seat in a fancy theater, his head did not hurt, but his vision was a bit blurry, which was a really weird feeling.
His mind played a lot of tricks on him, but that was something else. Because in the seats surrounding him sat people that he knew: Crows, dregs, council members - even his father!

There was no way that Jesper could remember them all with such detail so it wasn't a dream. Probably. You can never be sure.
Next thing the boy registered was the fact that he did not had his guns. Jesper tried to touch them to slow his fast beating heart, but he felt nothing. So he did the first thing he could think of.

He shouted in rage.

If he was in a trap, he would be able to free himself with his bare hands. Or die trying.

But in the middle of his scream the air got knocked out of his lungs, and he heard a calming voice somewhere in front of him.

- I understand that you are all distressed, but listen to me okay? - Said a person standing on the stage. They were like a word at the end of your tongue, something that you want to focus on, but you just can't. He could not say anything about them, he forgot everything right away. It was weird, but he felt hypnotized like he watched an actual show. He could not interrupt- it would break the charm of a spectacle. It felt unnatural, but dazing.

- I brought you here, because I want you to read something. - In their hands appeared two books. - In these you will find a story of the past, and the future. You need to read them. -The person put the two volumes on the floor beside their feet - All of you appear somewhere in these. You could be just mentioned or be one of the main characters, but you are somewhere there. Now I would like you to introduce yourselves. - They smiled warmly - oh and I took you from different times so don't be too confused.

He felt like the spell-y thing slowly disappeared, and he could try to process what the poor excuse of a wraith said. What did they meant by “from different times”? - he thought in utter confusion, but then again it all was confusing so it made no difference.

- From left to right, say your first and last name, titles and generally who you are. - They ordered pointing one of their fingers to Jan Van Eck sitting right over the left edge of the row. He cleared his throat and with all his aristocratic manner he introduced himself.

- I am Jan Van Eck, and I am a respected merchant from Ketterdam, member of the merchant council. - The crows exchanged a side look between themselves - especially Wylan with Jesper. That man was definitely from the past. The crows, and his father seemed to be from the same time - they all looked exactly like when he last saw them, so that was a partial relief. A bit of familiarity in a very unfamiliar place.

- I am Per Haskell and I am the boss of the dregs. - Said Jespers ex-boss who was sitting next to Van Eck. Or his boss if you looked from the man's perspective. “It doesn't even matter” thought Jesper “he hardly was a boss even then.”

- Big Bolliger. - Said the spy sitting next to the gray haired man. A great sight really if one's not considering the fact that he was dead in Fahey's “timeline”. It was all so weird, and unrealistic that Jesper considered the option of it being a dream once more.

- Specht. - Said the man sitting next to Big Bol. Next were Rotty, Roeder, Pim and Anika with their hello’s. After them went Inej.

- Inej Ghafa known as the wraith. - She said, and as an after thought she added - And as far as i see everyone before me are from the past relative to me.

- Kaz Brekker lieutenant to the dregs or Dirtyhands. As you will. - At that some looks were exchanged between older people in the crew. “The bastard of the barrel was this young?” They seemed to ask themselves. Jesper smiled a little at that. - And continuing wraith's thoughts, I think that she, me and the next five people are from furthest in the future.

- Matthias Helvar. - That one got an interested look from the last person in the row, but did not receive any questions.

- I am Nina Zenik. - The girl sitting next to Matthias said as she laid her head on his shoulder.

- Zenik? - Said Zoya Nazynalenski trying to hide her shock.

-Hi Zoya.- answered Nina with a nostalgic expression.

-You were supposed to be dead. - The woman said, staring at her. - What happened?

- I'll tell you later. It's a bit of.. a long story.

-Mhm. - The older one looked at the stage. - I am glad that you are alive then.

- You won't get rid of me that easily. - Nina said softly as an answer, smiling at her people. Genya gave her a little wave, and a smile back.

- So um.. I am Wylan. Wylan Hendriks. - Said the boy with curls next to him, sounding very awkward. Jan van Eck made a disapproving sound, but otherwise kept quiet. “Good for him,” Thought Jesper. “ If he said one bad word to Wy i swear i would find a way to shoot him even without my guns.”

- Jesper Fahey! - He introduced himself with a bright smile, looking at his father who sat next to him.

- I am Colm Fahey. That is my son. - the man said, nodding his head a bit in the form of a greeting. Jesper showed thumbs up to his dad, and looked at the next person in the row.

Cornelis Smeet said his greeting, then Alys Van Eck did the same, and her teacher Adem Bajam right after her.

- I am Kuwei yul-Bo. - When the boy that was next in line introduced himself, Jan Van Ecks head shot up a bit. Jesper smirked to himself. “You won't ever get him bastard, ” he thought as he went through their plan for the auction.

- I am Zoya Nazynalenski, a member of the Grisha Triumvate. - said the woman sitting next to Kuwei. Then went Stormhold, Genya Safin, and a dude named Emil Retvenko. After them were Three Merchant Councils members: Hoede, Karl Dryden, and Naten Boreg.

- I am Pekka Rollins . The leader of dime lions, and The king of the barrel. - At that Jesper noticed that Kaz tensed a bit. Those two definitely had something going on beside their “jobs”, and Jesper wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what.

Then went that one guy named Geels: The lieutenant of black tips, and that bitch Heleen van Houden. Jesper felt bad for Inej: She had to be in that room with the source of her nightmares for only saints knew how long.

- I am Jarl Brum, the commander of the drüskelle. - said the last person in the row as Matthias found the floor very interesting all of sudden.
Jesper felt bad for him too. And for Nina. And for all Grishas in that room.

- Okay now that you all know each other I have some last words to say to you. - Said their weird host - You don't have your weapons, and you can't harm or manipulate anyone in here. In case of disturbance, emergency or complete chaos I will appear. Otherwise you are all to yourself. Toilets are on the left and the food is on the right. I want Jesper to read first, and then you all can decide. Change it every chapter for your throat's sake. Use it all wisely. - Jesper thought that the person smiled before they disappeared.

♡♤♢♧

After a bit of chaos he finally could sit down on the scene with one of the books in hand. That one had like a big number one on the cover so the zemni boy assumed that it was the first book. He cleared his throat waiting until everyone would shut up, and then started reading the first page.

Chapter Text

𓅫Nina 𓅫

Nina was stressed out. It's not like she had anything to be stressed about, but she had a feeling that this book will reveal her deepest secrets. She wasn’t dumb - considering the fact that she was one of the people from furthest in the future, she understood she probably was a meaningful part of the story. It did not meant that she was happy about it.
- Chapter one: Joost.
Nina furrowed her brows. - Do any of you know a person named Joost? - She asked.
- He is not here therefore I assume that he is not one of the main characters. Probably he was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and saw something that he shouldn't. - Said Kaz, and Nina had to agree with him.

Joost had two problems: the moon and his mustache.

- If those are all of his problems then I want to be him. - Nina heard Wylan mutter.

He was supposed to be making his rounds at the Hoede house,

Some heads turned to the mentioned man.

but for the last fifteen minutes, he’d been hovering around the south-east wall of the gardens, trying to think of something clever and romantic to say to
Anya.

Nina smirked at that. Love is such a beautiful thing.

If only Anya’s eyes were blue like the sea or green like an emerald.
Instead, her eyes were brown – lovely, dreamy ... melted chocolate brown?
Rabbit fur brown?

- Poor soul that can't flirt - Said Jesper interputting himself, and dramatically wiping a non-existent tear from his eye. It got a few smiles from people in the room. Jesper really would make a great actor.

“Just tell her she’s got skin like moonlight,” his friend Pieter had said.
“Girls love that.”

- If you ever say something like that to me ever i will call you a babink to the end of your life. - Nina said to Matthias watching as hope disappeared from his eyes. She smirked at him, hugging him tighter.

A perfect solution, but the Ketterdam weather was not cooperating.

- When does it? - Inej asked silently.

There’d been no breeze off the harbour that day, and a grey milk fog had
wreathed the city’s canals and crooked alleys in damp. Even here among
the mansions of the Geldstraat, the air hung thick with the smell of fish
and bilge water, and smoke from the refineries on the city’s outer islands
had smeared the night sky in a briny haze. The full moon looked less like a
jewel than a yellowy blister in need of lancing.

- It can be charming if you look the right way at it. - Said Jesper.
- When you look at the floor that is - Wylan answered without missing a beat. Jesper did a sad puppy face at him but kept reading.

Maybe he could compliment Anya’s laugh? Except he’d never heard her
laugh. He wasn’t very good with jokes.

- Poor boy - said Genya, frowning a little.

Joost glanced at his reflection in one of the glass panels set into the
double doors that led from the house to the side garden. His mother was
right. Even in his new uniform, he still looked like a baby. Gently, he
brushed his finger along his upper lip. If only his moustache would come
in. It definitely felt thicker than yesterday.

That one got a few smiles, and smirks, but Nina got worried again. Something was not right. Why were they reading a book about some dude falling in love? That guy wasn't even in the room! Something really bad was about to happen to him. She could sense it.

He’d been a guard in the stadwatch less than six weeks, and it wasn’t
nearly as exciting as he’d hoped. He thought he’d be running down thieves
in the Barrel or patrolling the harbours, getting first look at cargo coming
in on the docks.

- Maybe if you were more focused on the job you could have a promotion - Hoede grumbled. It seemed that he was not very happy about the love story happening at his mansion.

But ever since the assassination of that ambassador at the
town hall, the Merchant Council had been grumbling about security, so
where was he? Stuck walking in circles at some lucky mercher’s house.
Not just any mercher, though. Councilman Hoede was about as high placed
in Ketterdam government as a man could be. The kind of man who could
make a career.

Now the merchant looked pleased with that description. The man named Emil that sat next to him made a disgusted face.

Joost adjusted the set of his coat and rifle, then patted the weighted
baton at his hip. Maybe Hoede would take a liking to him. Sharp eyed and
quick with the cudgel, Hoede would say. That fellow deserves a promotion.
“Sergeant JoostVan Poel,” he whispered, savouring the sound of the
words. “Captain JoostVan Poel.”

- Pfff. - Nina couldn't keep her giggle, same with some others. It was a fair reaction really. Even Kaz Brekker looked amused. Or he was just thinking how to use that information as blackmail against the guy.

“Stop gawking at yourself.”
Joost whirled, cheeks going hot as Henk and Rutger strode into the side
garden.

Matthias' eyes rolled at that. Nina smiled a bit at him.

They were both older, bigger, and broader of shoulder than Joost,
and they were house guards, private servants of Councilman Hoede.
That meant they wore his pale green livery, carried fancy rifles from Novyi
Zem, and never let Joost forget he was a lowly grunt from the city watch.
- They are good at their job at least. - Muttered Hoede. “Unlike you.” Went unsaid.
“Petting that bit of fuzz isn’t going to make it grow any faster,” Rutger
said with a loud laugh.

Jesper rolled his eyes when he read the part.

Joost tried to summon some dignity. “I need to finish my rounds.”
Rutger elbowed Henk. “That means he’s going to go stick his head in
the Grisha workshop to get a look at his girl.”

Zoya raised a brow. - The girl is a grisha? Interesting.
Emil Retvenko nodded to her. - I worked with her.
- Like in a past tense? - Stormhold asked. The man only shrugged his shoulders.

“Oh, Anya, won’t you use your Grisha magic to make my moustache
grow?” Henk mocked.
Joost turned on his heel, cheeks burning, and strode down the eastern
side of the house. They’d been teasing him ever since he’d arrived. If it
hadn’t been for Anya, he probably would have pleaded with his captain for
a reassignment.

- Love is stupid and blinding. - Said Kaz. - And really good to exploit.
Inej looked at him with a raised brow.

He and Anya only ever exchanged a few words on his
rounds, but she was always the best part of his night.

- That is cute, but also a bit creepy. - Said Nina. “Why would he fall so hard for someone he barely knows?” She asked herself.

And he had to admit, he liked Hoede’s house, too, the few peeks he’d
managed through the windows. Hoede had one of the grandest mansions
on the Geldstraat – floors set with gleaming squares of black and white
stone, shining dark wood walls lit by blown-glass chandeliers that floated
like jellyfish near the coffered ceilings. Sometimes Joost liked to pretend
that it was his house, that he was a rich mercher just out for a stroll
through his fine garden.

Hoede made a disgusted sound. He looked fine with compliments of any sort, but the thought of someone else wanting it was suddenly not so appealing to him.

Before he rounded the corner, Joost took a deep breath. Anya, your eyes
are brown like ... tree bark?

- Tree bark? really? - Anika said, raising her brows.

He’d think of something. He was better off
being spontaneous anyway.

- You better be because it will be sad to read otherwise. - Jesper mumbled.
- You aren't better, son. - Said Colm, making a small smile. Jesper flushed and started reading again.

He was surprised to see the glass-panelled doors to the Grisha
workshop open. More than the hand-painted blue tiles in the kitchen or the
mantels laden with potted tulips, this workshop was a testimony to
Hoede’s wealth. Grisha indentures didn’t come cheap, and Hoede had three
of them.

Ravkans made a disgusted face at that.

But Yuri wasn’t seated at the long worktable, and Anya was nowhere to
be seen.

- Something is about to go down. - Mumbled Nina worriedly. Matthias looked at her with a frown so she gave a little anxious smile. He hugged her closer, and looked again at Jesper. Her smile immediately fell.

Only Retvenko was there, sprawled out on a chair in dark blue
robes, eyes shut, a book open on his chest.

Hoede looked at the man disapprovingly.

Joost hovered in the doorway, then cleared his throat. “These doors
should be shut and locked at night.”
“House is like furnace,” Retvenko drawled without opening his eyes,
his Ravkan accent thick and rolling. “Tell Hoede I stop sweating, I close
doors.”

Everyone that ever met Emil rolled their eyes.

Retvenko was a Squaller, older than the other Grisha indentures, his
hair shot through with silver. There were rumours he’d fought for the
losing side in Ravka’s civil war and had fled to Kerch after the fighting.
“I’d be happy to present your complaints to Councilman Hoede,” Joost
lied. The house was always overheated, as if Hoede were under obligation
to burn coal, but Joost wasn’t going to be the one to mention it.

- Stupid wasting Merchants. - Someone mumbled in the crowd. All the rich people in the room looked uncomfortable.

“Until then—”
“You bring news of Yuri?” Retvenko interrupted, finally opening his
heavily hooded eyes.
Joost glanced uneasily at the bowls of red grapes and heaps of burgundy
velvet on the worktable.

- I got a bad feeling about that - Said Inej, and Nina had to agree with her friend.

Yuri had been working on bleeding colour from the fruit into curtains for Mistress Hoede, but he’d fallen badly ill a few days ago, and Joost hadn’t seen him since. Dust had begun to gather on the velvet, and the grapes were going bad.

Retvenko sighed sadly.

“I haven’t heard anything.”
“Of course you hear nothing. Too busy strutting around in stupid purple
uniform.”
What was wrong with his uniform? And why did Retvenko even have to
be here? He was Hoede’s personal Squaller and often travelled with the
merchant’s most precious cargos, guaranteeing favourable winds to bring
the ships safely and quickly to harbour. Why couldn’t he be away at sea
now?

- I wished I was really. - The man in question said bitterly.

“I think Yuri may be quarantined.”
“So helpful,” Retvenko said with a sneer. “You can stop craning neck
like hopeful goose,” he added. “Anya is gone.”
Joost felt his face heat again. “Where is she?” he asked, trying to sound
authoritative. “She should be in after dark.”

- Is she like a sheep? - Asked Nina. - Is that why she can't go out after dark?
- She is an investment. I can't let her get hurt. - Said Hoede gaining himself death glares from a lot of people around the room. Nina thought that she saw Kaz moving his head uncomfortably. Why he did that she did not knew, but it felt like he avoided Inej's look.

“One hour ago, Hoede takes her. Same as night he came for Yuri.”
“What do you mean, ‘he came for Yuri’? Yuri fell ill.”
“Hoede comes for Yuri, Yuri comes back sick. Two days later, Yuri
vanishes for good. Now Anya.”
For good?

- It's fishy as fuck. - Said Wylan, and Jesper gasped at his use of words.

“Maybe there was an emergency. If someone needed to be healed—”
“First Yuri, now Anya. I will be next, and no one will notice except
poor little Officer Joost. Go now.”
“If Councilman Hoede—”

- It's sad to see someone believing in the government. - Said Pim, gaining a lot of stares from government members.

Retvenko raised an arm and a gust of air slammed Joost backwards.
Joost scrambled to keep his footing, grabbing for the doorframe.
“I said now.” Retvenko etched a circle in the air, and the door slammed
shut. Joost let go just in time to avoid having his fingers smashed, and
toppled into the side garden.

- Meanie. - Said Kuwei, their one word guy.

He got to his feet as quickly as he could, wiping muck from his
uniform, shame squirming in his belly. One of the glass panes in the door
had cracked from the force. Through it, he saw the Squaller smirking.
“That’s counting against your indenture,” Joost said, pointing to the
ruined pane. He hated how small and petty his voice sounded.

- Confidence is the key. - Mumbled Emil.

Retvenko waved his hand, and the doors trembled on their hinges.
Without meaning to, Joost took a step back.
“Go and make your rounds, little watchdog,” Retvenko called.
“That went well,” snickered Rutger, leaning against the garden wall.
How long had he been standing there? “Don’t you have something
better to do than follow me around?” Joost asked.

- Maybe he has a crush on him and is jealous? - Nina wondered partially to soothe her mind.
- We will never know - answered Jesper, and continued reading.

“All guards are to report to the boathouse. Even you. Or are you too
busy making friends?”
“I was asking him to shut the door.”

Rutger shook his head. “You don’t ask. You tell. They’re servants. Not
honoured guests.”

- Now he is giving him tips. They definitely have something like enemies to lovers going on. - Said Wylan continuing the thoughts from earlier.
- They remind me of you two. - Said Matthias looking at Jesper and Wylan. At that Jesper fastly started reading again, while Nina's boyfriend looked smug.

Joost fell into step beside him, insides still churning with humiliation.
The worst part was that Rutger was right. Retvenko had no business
talking to him that way. But what was Joost supposed to do? Even if he’d
had the courage to get into a fight with a Squaller, it would be like
brawling with an expensive vase. The Grisha weren’t just servants; they
were Hoede’s treasured possessions.

The grishas in the room either rolled their eyes or made disgusted sounds. Nina did both.

What had Retvenko meant about Yuri and Anya being taken anyway?
Had he been covering for Anya? Grisha indentures were kept to the house
for good reason. To walk the streets without protection was to risk getting
plucked up by a slaver and never seen again.

Jesper's voice trembled a little when he read that part. Nina looked at the floor, and Matthias looked very guilty. It was not easy to be a grisha in ketterdam - Nina so often wished that she could be in her home again - or any place that would be safe for her. But it was good that she did not leave - she thought to herself. Now she had Matthias, and Inej, and Jesper, and Wylan, and even gooddam Kaz Brekker! She had them, and with that she felt like she found her home. Her peace. They were her friends, her family. She loved them all, and honestly? All the pain and the fear was awful, but worth it. Worth them.

Maybe she’s meeting someone, Joost speculated miserably.

- She's probably dead. - Said Brekker kazually.

His thoughts were interrupted by the blaze of light and activity down by
the boathouse that faced the canal. Across the water he could see other fine
mercher houses, tall and slender, the tidy gables of their rooftops making a
dark silhouette against the night sky, their gardens and boathouses lit by
glowing lanterns.

- That actually sounds nice. - Said Wylan deep it thought. Jesper looked at him funny, but otherwise did not said a word, and kept reading.

A few weeks before, Joost had been told that Hoede’s boathouse would
be undergoing improvements and to strike it from his rounds. But when he
and Rutger entered, he saw no paint or scaffolding. The gondels and oars
had been pushed up against the walls. The other house guards were there in
their sea-green livery, and Joost recognised two stadwatch guards in
purple. But most of the interior was taken up by a huge box – a kind of
freestanding cell that looked as if it was made from reinforced steel, its
seams thick with rivets, a huge window embedded in one of its walls. The
glass had a wavy bent, and through it, Joost could see a girl seated at a table, clutching her red silks tight around her. Behind her, a stadwatch
guard stood at attention.

- That sounds bad - said Kuwei.“Oh you don't want to know how much," Nina thought. She knew now that it all had to do something with pareem, and she did not liked that.

Anya, Joost realised with a start. Her brown eyes were wide and
frightened, her skin pale. The little boy sitting across from her looked
doubly terrified. His hair was sleep-tousled and his legs dangled from the
chair, kicking nervously at the air.

- She is not dead. - Said Kaz sounding mildly surprised. - Yet.

“Why all the guards?” asked Joost. There had to be more than ten of
them crowded into the boathouse. Councilman Hoede was there, too, along
with another merchant Joost didn’t know, both of them dressed in mercher
black. Joost stood up straighter when he saw they were talking to the
captain of the stadwatch. He hoped he’d got all the garden mud off his
uniform. “What is this?”
Rutger shrugged. “Who cares? It’s a break in the routine.” Joost looked
back through the glass.

- Matthias was right. - Said Inej looking at Wylan and Jesper. - They do sound like you guys.

Anya was staring out at him, her gaze unfocused.
The day he’d arrived at Hoede house, she’d healed a bruise on his cheek. It
had been nothing, the yellow-green remnants of a crack he’d taken to the
face during a training exercise, but apparently Hoede had caught sight of it
and didn’t like his guards looking like thugs.

- That is sweet. - Said Nina. She hoped for these two that they actually could be together, but deep down she knew that it was impossible.

Joost had been sent to the Grisha workshop, and Anya had sat him down in a bright square of late
winter sunlight. Her cool fingers had passed over his skin, and though the
itch had been terrible, bare seconds later it was as if the bruise had never
been.
When Joost thanked her, Anya had smiled and Joost was lost. He knew
his cause was hopeless.

- It is hopeless. - said Hoede, and received himself a few “booo”, and “shhh”.

Even if she’d had any interest in him, he could
never afford to buy her indenture from Hoede, and she would never marry
unless Hoede decreed it. But it hadn’t stopped him from dropping by to
say hello or to bring her little gifts. She’d liked the map of Kerch best, a
whimsical drawing of their island nation, surrounded by mermaids
swimming in the True Sea and ships blown along by winds depicted as fat-
cheeked men. It was a cheap souvenir, the kind tourists bought along East
Stave, but it had seemed to please her.

- In a better word.. - Nina muttered to herself, and Inej sighed. She of all people in the room knew how it was to feel like in a trap under a rich person.

Now he risked raising a hand in greeting. Anya showed no reaction.
“She can’t see you, moron,” laughed Rutger. “The glass is mirrored on
the other side.”
Joost’s cheeks pinked. “How was I to know that?”
“Open your eyes and pay attention for once."
First Yuri, now Anya. “Why do they need a Grisha Healer? Is that boy
injured?”

- These two are cute too.. - Said Nina. Why did love had to be so wholesome and so sad and hard at the same time?

“He looks fine to me.”
The captain and Hoede seemed to reach some kind of agreement.

- That never means good news. - Said Geels from the other side of the room.

Through the glass, Joost saw Hoede enter the cell and give the boy an
encouraging pat. There must have been vents in the cell because he heard
Hoede say, “Be a brave lad, and there’s a few kruge in it for you.” Then he
grabbed Anya’s chin with a liver-spotted hand. She tensed, and Joost’s gut
tightened. Hoede gave Anya’s head a little shake. “Do as you’re told, and
this will soon be over, ja?”

Inej shivered at that and Nina could not blame her. That sounded awful.

She gave a small, tight smile. “Of course, Onkle.”
Hoede whispered a few words to the guard behind Anya, then stepped
out. The door shut with a loud clang, and Hoede slid a heavy lock into
place.

- For what? - Asked Rotty, sounding really confused. - It's just a girl.
Nina sighed. That probably won't even keep her away. They will all die along with her.

Hoede and the other merchant took positions almost directly in front of
Joost and Rutger.
The merchant Joost didn’t know said, “You’re sure this is wise? This
girl is a Corporalnik. After what happened to your Fabrikator—”

Zoya, and Genya exchanged really worried looks.

“If it was Retvenko, I’d be worried. But Anya has a sweet disposition.
She’s a Healer. Not prone to aggression.”
“And you’ve lowered the dose?”

- So they are using drugs? - Asked Stormhold, and Nina nodded. The tension in the room could be cut with a knife.

“Yes, but we’re agreed that if we have the same results as the
Fabrikator, the Council will compensate me? I can’t be asked to bear that
expense.”
When the merchant nodded, Hoede signalled to the captain. “Proceed.”
The same results as the Fabrikator. Retvenko claimed Yuri had
vanished. Was that what he’d meant?

Nina hugged Matthias tighter.

“Sergeant,” said the captain, “are you ready?”
The guard inside the cell replied, “Yes, sir.” He drew a knife.
Joost swallowed hard.
“First test,” said the captain.

“It's starting” Nina thought. She was not ready to hear about pareem so early. She started panicking. She knew that it would come,but she could not think straight as the memories flooded back. She did not wanted to hear about it. Matthias started petting her hair while mumbling some soothing fierdan words, and Nina held her breath. She will do it. She had to do it. Her heart was still fast, but Matthias was really helpful with grounding her. She focused on listening to Jespers voice.

The guard bent forwards and told the boy to roll up his sleeve. The boy
obeyed and stuck out his arm, popping the thumb of his other hand into his
mouth. Too old for that, thought Joost. But the boy must be very scared.
Joost had slept with a sock bear until he was nearly fourteen, a fact his
older brothers had mocked mercilessly.

- Well that definitely sounds like Wylan. - Jesper said weakly. No one laughed.

“This will sting just a bit,” said the guard.
The boy kept his thumb in his mouth and nodded, eyes round.
“This really isn’t necessary—” said Anya.
“Quiet, please,” said Hoede.

- Such good manners for a pig. - Muttered Matthias. Nina would smile if not for the tension in her chest.

The guard gave the boy a pat then slashed a bright red cut across his
forearm. The boy started crying immediately.
Anya tried to rise from her chair, but the guard placed a stern hand on
her shoulder.
“It’s alright, sergeant,” said Hoede. “Let her heal him.”
Anya leaned forwards, taking the boy’s hand gently. “Shhhh,” she said
softly. “Let me help.”
“Will it hurt?” the boy gulped.
She smiled. “Not at all. Just a little itch. Try to hold still for me?”

- She sounds like a good person. - Said ]Genya silently. Everyone in the room could feel that these two people are not going out of this alive.

Joost found himself leaning closer. He’d never actually seen Anya heal
someone.
Anya removed a handkerchief from her sleeve and wiped away the
excess blood. Then her fingers brushed carefully over the boy’s wound.
Joost watched in astonishment as the skin slowly seemed to re-form and
knit together.

- It is beautiful to watch. - Said Matthias to her ear. She smiled sadly. It was true, and Matt admitting it was something so special for her.

A few minutes later, the boy grinned and held out his arm. It looked a
bit red, but was otherwise smooth and unmarked. “Was that magic?”
Anya tapped him on the nose. “Of a sort. The same magic your own
body works when given time and a bit of bandage.”
The boy looked almost disappointed.
“Good, good,” Hoede said impatiently. “Now the parem.”

Nina felt her heart skipping a beat. Matthias gently started rubbing circles on her back.
- Pareem? - Asked Stormhold, but no one answered his question. Everyone was too distressed about what will happen.

Joost frowned. He’d never heard that word.
The captain signalled to his sergeant. “Second sequence.”
“Put out your arm,” the sergeant said to the boy once again.
The boy shook his head. “I don’t like that part.”
“Do it.”
The boy’s lower lip quivered, but he put out his arm. The guard cut him
once more.

- Poor boy. - Wylan muttered next to her. She shut her eyes wanting it all to go away.

Then he placed a small wax paper envelope on the table in
front of Anya.
“Swallow the contents of the packet,” Hoede instructed Anya.
“What is it?” she asked, voice trembling.
“That isn’t your concern.”

- How is it not her concern? - Asked Genya tensely. - It's her life and health on the line!
But everyone in the room already knew the answer to that. She was more of a thing to these men.

“What is it?” she repeated.
“It’s not going to kill you.

- Right, and I am a saint. - muttered Kaz. He actually sounded angry at what they were hearing. Nina would be surprised if she had the strength.

We’re going to ask you to perform some
simple tasks to judge the drug’s effects. The sergeant is there to make sure
you do only what you’re told and no more, understood?”
Her jaw set, but she nodded.

Nina wanted to cry, but she instead hid her face in Matthias' chest.

“No one will harm you,” said Hoede. “But remember, if you hurt the
sergeant, you have no way out of that cell. The doors are locked from the
outside.”
“What is that stuff?” whispered Joost.
“Don’t know,” said Rutger.
“What do you know?” he muttered.
“Enough to keep my trap shut.”
Joost scowled.
With shaking hands, Anya lifted the little wax envelope and opened the
flap.
“Go on,” said Hoede.

The man shrinked in himself under the weight of stares he received.

She tipped her head back and swallowed the powder. For a moment she
sat, waiting, lips pressed together.
“Is it just jurda?” she asked hopefully. Joost found himself hoping, too.

A lot of people around the room made confused faces. “If only.” Nina thought.

Jurda was nothing to fear, a stimulant everyone in the stadwatch chewed
to stay awake on late watches.
“What does it taste like?” Hoede asked.
“Like jurda but sweeter, it—”
Anya inhaled sharply. Her hands seized the table, her pupils dilating
enough that her eyes looked nearly black. “Ohhh,” she said, sighing. It was
nearly a purr.

“I can't cry” Nina thought “I won't cry.” She repeated it like a mantra in her head.

The guard tightened his grip on her shoulder.
“How do you feel?”
She stared at the mirror and smiled. Her tongue peeked through her
white teeth, stained like rust. Joost felt suddenly cold.
“Just as it was with the Fabrikator,” murmured the merchant.
“Heal the boy,” Hoede commanded.
She waved her hand through the air, the gesture almost dismissive, and
the cut on the boy’s arm sealed instantly.

- What? - Asked Zoya loudly. She exchanged worried looks with her grisha companions. That sounded very bad. A drug that made grisha stronger? This could not be good, especially in kerch hands.

The blood lifted briefly from his
skin in droplets of red then vanished. His skin looked perfectly smooth, all
trace of blood or redness gone. The boy beamed. “That was definitely
magic.”
“It feels like magic,” Anya said with that same eerie smile.

- She sounds creepy. - Muttered Wylan. “Was i like that too?" Nina asked herself.

“She didn’t touch him,” marvelled the captain.
“Anya,” said Hoede. “Listen closely. We’re going to tell the guard to
perform the next test now.”
“Mmm,” hummed Anya.
“Sergeant,” said Hoede. “Cut off the boy’s thumb.”

A lot of gasps were heard throughout the room.

The boy howled and started to cry again. He shoved his hands beneath
his legs to protect them.
I should stop this, Joost thought. I should find a way to protect her, both
of them. But what then? He was a nobody, new to the stadwatch, new to
this house. Besides, he discovered in a burst of shame, I want to keep my
job.

- Coward. - Kaz said.

Anya merely smiled and tilted her head back so she was looking at the
sergeant. “Shoot the glass.”

Beside Jespers voice the room was dead silent. Everyone waited in anticipation for what the sergeant would do, and it could be felt in the air that they knew it wouldn't be good.

“What did she say?” asked the merchant.
“Sergeant!” the captain barked out.
“Shoot the glass,” Anya repeated. The sergeant’s face went slack. He
cocked his head to one side as if listening to a distant melody, then
unslung his rifle and aimed at the observation window.

Nina squeezed her dress between her fingers hoping that the feeling of dread would go away.

“Get down!” someone yelled.
Joost threw himself to the ground, covering his head as the rapid
hammer of gunfire filled his ears and bits of glass rained down on his
hands and back. His thoughts were a panicked clamour. His mind tried to
deny it, but he knew what he’d just seen. Anya had commanded the
sergeant to shoot the glass. She’d made him do it. But that couldn’t be.
Grisha Corporalki specialised in the human body. They could stop your
heart, slow your breathing, snap your bones. They couldn’t get inside your
head.

Some terrified muttering could be heard throughout the room while Nina tried to stabilize her breathing. It should not be that hard, damn it!

For a moment there was silence. Then Joost was on his feet with
everyone else, reaching for his rifle. Hoede and the captain shouted at the
same time.
“Subdue her!”
“Shoot her!”

- You are all dead. - Said Kaz darkly. He sounded tense, but Nina was glad that he sounded so much like himself.

“Do you know how much money she’s worth?” Hoede retorted.
“Someone restrain her! Do not shoot!”
Anya raised her hands, red sleeves spread wide. “Wait,” she said.

- Oh no. - Nina mumbled. She could only assume what would happen, but she had a good idea how bad it could be.

Joost’s panic vanished. He knew he’d been frightened, but his fear was
a distant thing. He was filled with expectation. He wasn’t sure what was
coming, or when, only that it would arrive and that it was essential he be
ready to meet it. It might be bad or good. He didn’t really care. His heart
was free of worry and desire. He longed for nothing, wanted for nothing,
his mind silent, his breath steady. He only needed to wait.

Someone in the audience gasped. Someone muttered “oh shit”.

He saw Anya rise and pick up the little boy. He heard her crooning
tenderly to him, some Ravkan lullaby.
“Open the door and come in, Hoede,” she said. Joost heard the words,
understood them, forgot them.
Hoede walked to the door and slid the bolt free. He entered the steel
cell.

- No! - The now pale man shouted. Nina could not sympathize with him. He deserved whatever was coming for him.

“Do as you’re told, and this will soon be over, ja?” Anya murmured
with a smile. Her eyes were black and bottomless pools. Her skin was
alight, glowing, incandescent. A thought flickered through Joost’s mind –
beautiful as the moon.

Nina shivered at the repeated phrase from earlier.

Anya shifted the boy’s weight in her arms. “Don’t look,” she murmured
against his hair. “Now,” she said to Hoede. “Pick up the knife."

- It's the end. - said Jesper.
Nina thanked the saints for that.She took a big breath, unwrapped herself from matthias' hug and fastly stood up. Then she went over to the now very pale Hoede, and slapped him across the face.

Chapter Text

𓅫Inej 𓅫

When Nina Zenik was furious, no one could stop her. Inej knew that so she just watched the chaos happening before her.

After punching Hoede Nina went back to her seat. Some people were mad - those were mostly the rich people of kerch. Some clapped and cheered her on, and some tried to calm down the now red all over the face merchant that screeched like a little cat.

- Why can't you just shut up? - Asked Wylan irritated. He had all the right to - they sat there for a while just listening to the man. Hoede stopped in his tracks - he seemed to ask himself why did that child even spoke to him.

Using the second of silence Inej started talking.

- Who is going to read next? - At that everyone went silent, likely realising what they were there for.

- I will. - Said Nina. She looked angry, but still a bit sick from the chapter with pareem. Inej gave her a worried look.

- Are you sure you want to? - She asked and Nina smiled.

- Of course. I really need a distraction. - She said, already walking over to the scene. She took the book from Jespers hands, shoed him out of the seat, made herself comfortable in the new place and opened the book.

- Chapter two: Inej.

At that the Suli girl froze. She was one of the main characters? And they were going to read her thoughts?

- Oh Ghenzen, it's gonna be fun. - Said Jesper, and Inej could not disagree with him more.

Kaz Brekker didn’t need a reason.

Kaz raised one of his brows, while side eyeing her, and she blushed a little. Nina was grinning like an idiot at them.
- I actually always need a reason. Some people just don't understand them sometimes. - Kaz said, turning his face to the stage. Inej rolled her eyes at him, but smiled fondly.

Those were the words whispered on the streets of Ketterdam, in the taverns and coffeehouses, in the dark and bleeding alleys of the pleasure district known as the Barrel.
Colm looked at Jesper disapprovingly. She knew that he already knew, but it was cute looking at Jesper making himself smaller in his seat, and smiling nervously at his father.
The boy they called Dirtyhands didn’t need a reason any more than he needed permission – to break a leg, sever an alliance, or change a man’s fortunes with the turn of a card.

- It's funny that your chapter starts with the description of Brekker. - Said Matthias, side eyeing her. She blushed more, and looked at the floor. Meanwhile some of the adults in the audience looked worried. What brought one to being like Brekker at such a young age? Just misfortune? Or something else?

Of course they were wrong,

- And of course you know that. You know everything about him. - Mumbled Jesper.

Inej considered as she crossed the bridge over the black waters of the Beurscanal to the deserted main square that fronted the Exchange. Every act of violence was deliberate, and every favour came with enough strings attached to stage a puppet show. Kaz always had his reasons.

- That is true. - Said Kaz. - I do not see any sense in doing something for nothing.
The five teenagers that had to deal with him grumbled.

Inej could just never be sure they were good ones. Especially tonight. Inej checked her knives, silently reciting their names as she always did when she thought there might be trouble. It was a practical habit, but a comfort, too.

- I do the same with my guns. - said Jesper smiling at her.

The blades were her companions. She liked knowing they were ready for whatever the night might bring. She saw Kaz and the others gathered near the great stone arch that marked the eastern entrance to the Exchange. Three words had been carved into the rock above them: Enjent, Voorhent, Almhent. Industry, Integrity, Prosperity.

Everyone that lived in the barrel rolled their eyes at that.

She kept close to the shuttered shop fronts that lined the square, avoiding the pockets of flickering gaslight cast by the streetlamps. As she moved, she inventoried the crew Kaz had brought with him: Dirix, Rotty, Muzzen and Keeg, Anika and Pim, and his chosen seconds for tonight’s parley, Jesper and Big Bolliger.

- Oh! That is supposed to happen tomorrow! - Said Pim. - At least for me. - He added after a secound.

They jostled and bumped each other, laughing, stamping their feet against the cold snap that had surprised the city this week, the last gasp of winter before spring began in earnest. They were all bruisers and brawlers, culled from the younger members of the Dregs, the people Kaz trusted most.

- He trusts no one, but nice to hear that you think that we are somehow special in his dark, dead heart. - Said Anika. Inej noticed that Jesper made a face at that.

- I trust that you are more capable of doing your job than the other members. - Kaz said in his lovely manner. Well for him it was almost like reciting a poem about love. Inej noted the glint of knives tucked into their belts, lead pipes, weighted chains, axe handles studded with rusty nails, and here and there, the oily gleam of a gun barrel.

- It's sad that we have to always carry around weapons. - Said Nina looking way older than she actually was for a moment.

- It is wrong, but we can't change something that was decided before we were even born. - Said Wylan looking at his father. It was people like Jan Van Eck that made the rules for younger generations after all.

She slipped silently into their ranks, scanning the shadows near the Exchange for signs of Black Tip spies. “Three ships!” Jesper was saying. “The Shu sent them. They were just sitting in First Harbour, cannons out, red flags flying, stuffed to the sails with gold.” Big Bolliger gave a low whistle. “Would have liked to see that.”

“Well you won't get the chance.” Inej thought.

“Would have liked to steal that,” replied Jesper. “Half the Merchant Council was down there flapping and squawking, trying to figure out what to do.”

Colm again glared at his son.

“Don’t they want the Shu paying their debts?” Big Bolliger asked. Kaz shook his head, dark hair glinting in the lamplight. He was a collection of hard lines and tailored edges – sharp jaw, lean build, wool coat snug across his shoulders.

- mmm - Nina mumbled moving her brows seductively. - That is a nice description, right Brekker?
She looked at Kaz but he only sent a death stare at her.

“Yes and no,” he said in his rocksalt rasp. “It’s always good to have a country in debt to you. Makes for friendlier negotiations.”

Stormhold looked at Kaz with a raised brow. He seemed rather judging, but then he smirked. Inej wondered if he was similar to Kaz. If so then they all will die.

“Maybe the Shu are done being friendly,” said Jesper. “They didn’t have to send all that treasure at once. You think they stuck that trade ambassador?” Kaz’s eyes found Inej unerringly in the crowd.

- Ah the sexual tension. - Said Jesper smirking. He stopped when Kaz glared at him.

Ketterdam had been buzzing about the assassination of the ambassador for weeks. It had nearly destroyed Kerch-Zemeni relations and sent the Merchant Council into an uproar. The Zemeni blamed the Kerch. The Kerch suspected the Shu. Kaz didn’t care who was responsible; the murder fascinated him because he couldn’t figure out how it had been accomplished.

- I can bet that it was either the drug or the demni himself. - Said Matthias.

- No one's gonna take that bet Matty. - Jesper told him. Per Haskell furrowed his brows.

- Who is the demni? - At that Inej, Nina, Matthias, Jesper and Wylan pointed at Kaz in unison.

- Ah, I should have known. - Their boss muttered to himself.

In one of the busiest corridors of the Stadhall, in full view of more than a dozen government officials, the Zemeni trade ambassador had stepped into a washroom. No one else had entered or left, but when his aide knocked on the door a few minutes later, there had been no answer. When they’d broken down the door, they’d found the ambassador facedown on the white tiles, a knife in his back, the taps still running.

- Imagine what would happen if he was just shitting loudly, and couldn't hear. - Said Jesper, gaining himself a blow from Wylan. He really had no filter.

Kaz had sent Inej to investigate the premises after hours. The washroom had no other entrance, no windows or vents, and even Inej hadn’t mastered the art of squeezing herself through the plumbing.

- I would not be weirded out if you had. - Said Colm. Inej smiled at him politely.

Yet the Zemeni ambassador was dead. Kaz hated a puzzle he couldn’t solve, and he and Inej had concocted a hundred theories to account for the murder – none of which satisfied.

- Well to be fair there isn't a lot that he can't figure out. - Said Wylan. People that didn't really knew kaz's reputation made doubtful expressions. “Oh you just have to wait a bit,” Inej thought, smiling to herself.

But they had more pressing problems tonight. She saw him signal to Jesper and Big Bolliger to divest themselves of weapons.

- Why? - asked Karl Dryden - the most junior member of the Merchant council. He got some unimpressed looks as an answer.

Street law dictated that for a parley of this kind each lieutenant be seconded by two of his foot soldiers and that they all be unarmed. Parley. The word felt like a deception – strangely prim, an antique. No matter what street law decreed, this night smelled like violence.

- Nah it's just Kaz. - Said Jes grinning.

- Or you haven't washed yourself. - retorted Kaz. - Again.

Inej gave them both an unimpressed look.

“Go on, give those guns over,” Dirix said to Jesper. With a great sigh, Jesper removed the gunbelts at his hips. She had to admit he looked less himself without them. The Zemeni sharpshooter was long-limbed, brown-skinned, constantly in motion.

- Why didn't you describe me as finely, lovely, dovely as Kaz? - Jesper made a mocking sad face at her. - I thought that you loved me!
She showed him her favorite finger.

He pressed his lips to the pearl handles of his prized revolvers, bestowing each with a mournful kiss.

Wylan side eyed him making a “ really?” face.

“Take good care of my babies,” Jesper said as he handed them over to Dirix. “If I see a single scratch or nick on those, I’ll spell forgive me on your chest in bullet holes.”

- Jesper! - Said Colm in a disapproving manner. Wylan and Nina smirked at Jesper like siblings saying “boosted.” Inej rolled her eyes with a smile. She was sure that she will be doing that way more often in the next few days.

“You wouldn’t waste the ammo.” “And he’d be dead halfway through forgive,” Big Bolliger said as he dropped a hatchet, a switchblade, and his preferred weapon – a thick chain weighted with a heavy padlock – into Rotty’s expectant hands. Jesper rolled his eyes. “It’s about sending a message. What’s the point of a dead guy with forg written on his chest?” “Compromise,” Kaz said. “I’m sorry does the trick and uses fewer bullets.”

That got a few smiles, and a glare from Colm.

Dirix laughed, but Inej noted that he cradled Jesper ’s revolvers very gently.

Jesper smirked a little with pride.

“What about that?” Jesper asked, gesturing to Kaz’s walking stick. Kaz’s laugh was low and humourless.

- I am weirded out that he even can laugh. - Said Retvenko from the other side of the room.

“Who’d deny a poor cripple his cane?”

For some reason Inej thought for a moment that it was sad that he called himself a slur. Then she remembered that it was Kaz.

“If the cripple is you, then any man with sense.” “Then it’s a good thing we’re meeting Geels.” Kaz drew a watch from his vest pocket. “It’s almost midnight.”

- What did that supposed to mean? - The mentioned man asked. He got a few funny looks that got him to shut up.

Inej turned her gaze to the Exchange. It was little more than a large rectangular courtyard surrounded by warehouses and shipping offices. But during the day, it was the heart of Ketterdam, bustling with wealthy merchers buying and selling shares in the trade voyages that passed through the city’s ports. Now it was nearly twelve bells, and the Exchange was deserted but for the guards who patrolled the perimeter and the rooftop. They’d been bribed to look the other way during tonight’s parley.

The Merching council members either sighed or mumbled something.

The Exchange was one of the few remaining parts of the city that hadn’t been divvied up and claimed in the ceaseless skirmishes between Ketterdam’s rival gangs. It was supposed to be neutral territory. But it didn’t feel neutral to Inej. It felt like the hush of the woods before the snare yanks tight and the rabbit starts to scream. It felt like a trap.

- Don't worry. No one worth keeping will die. - Kaz said sharply, and made the reading group even more uneasy than they already were. Especially one big guy.

“This is a mistake,” she said. Big Bolliger started; he hadn’t known she was standing there. Inej heard the name the Dregs preferred for her whispered among their ranks – the Wraith.

- It suits you. - Said Rotty to her. She smiled a little at him.

“Geels is up to something.” “Of course he is,” said Kaz.

- Yes of course. - Said Jesper in a mocking manner. - Everyone knew that.

His voice had the rough, abraded texture of stone against stone. Inej always wondered if he’d sounded that way as a little boy. If he’d ever been a little boy.

- No. I was a little girl. - Said Kaz rolling his eyes, and Inej raised an eyebrow.

- But really what is up with your voice? - Asked Nina of course to not receive an answer.

“Then why come here tonight?” “Because this is the way Per Haskell wants it.” Old man, old ways, Inej thought but didn’t say, and she suspected the other Dregs were thinking the same thing.

Per Haskell mumbled something about not being old, and kids not respecting the more experienced.

“He’s going to get us all killed,” she said. Jesper stretched his long arms overhead and grinned, his teeth white against his dark skin. He had yet to give up his rifle, and the silhouette of it across his back made him resemble a gawky, long-limbed bird. “Statistically, he’ll probably only get some of us killed.” “It’s not something to joke about,” she replied. The look Kaz cast her was amused. She knew how she sounded – stern, fussy, like an old crone making dire pronouncements from her porch.

- Sounds about right. - Said Pim choosing to ignore her stare.

She didn’t like it, but she also knew she was right. Besides, old women must know something, or they wouldn’t live to gather wrinkles and yell from their front steps.

- I actually admire old women. - Said Jesper.

“Jesper isn’t making a joke, Inej,” said Kaz. “He’s figuring the odds.” Big Bolliger cracked his huge knuckles. “Well, I’ve got lager and a skillet of eggs waiting for me at the Kooperom, so I can’t be the one to die tonight.”

Kaz glared at him. Inej saw the moment when Big Bolliger realised that he won't be able to eat his eggs ever again.

“Care to place a wager?” Jesper asked. “I’m not going to bet on my own death.”

- Too bad. - said Jesper dryly. Bolliger looked at the floor with terror in his eyes.

Kaz flipped his hat onto his head and ran his gloved fingers along the brim in a quick salute. “Why not, Bolliger? We do it every day.” He was right. Inej’s debt to Per Haskell meant she gambled her life every time she took on a new job or assignment, every time she left her room at the Slat.

- Those are kids sir. - Said Colm to Per Haskell. Not one of them liked to be called kids, but no one dared to fight with an angry father either.

- Then their parents should have taken better care of them. - Answered Haskell urging Nina to read with a hand. Colm gave him a cold stare, but didn’t say anything when the girl started reading.

Tonight was no different. Kaz struck his walking stick against the cobblestones as the bells from the Church of Barter began to chime. The group fell silent. The time for talk was done. “Geels isn’t smart, but he’s just bright enough to be trouble,” said Kaz.

Geels made an angry sound at that.

“No matter what you hear, you don’t join the fray unless I give the command. Stay sharp.” Then he gave Inej a brief nod. “And stay hidden.” “No mourners,” Jesper said as he tossed his rifle to Rotty. “No funerals,” the rest of the Dregs murmured in reply.

- It means “ good luck” - Explained Inej before anyone could have asked a question.

Among them, it passed for ‘good luck’. Before Inej could melt into the shadows, Kaz tapped her arm with his crow’s head cane. “Keep a watch on the rooftop guards. Geels may have them in his pocket.”
“Then—” Inej began, but Kaz was already gone.

- Of course. - she mumbled. She hated when he did that.

Inej threw up her hands in frustration. She had a hundred questions, but as usual, Kaz was keeping a stranglehold on the answers.

- Why can't you just tell us your plans? - Jesper asked, and immediately knew that it was a mistake. Kaz glared at him so he turned his head with a little “sorry” coming out of his
mouth.

She jogged towards the canal-facing wall of the Exchange. Only the lieutenants and their seconds were allowed to enter during the parley. But just in case the Black Tips got any ideas, the other Dregs would be waiting right outside the eastern arch with weapons at the ready. She knew Geels would have his crew of heavily armed Black Tips gathered at the western entrance. Inej would find her own way in.

- Of course she would. - Mumbled Geels.

The rules of fair play among the gangs were from Per Haskell’s time. Besides, she was the Wraith – the only law that applied to her was gravity, and some days she defied that, too.

- You are great Inej. - Said Jesper, smiling at her. - Incredible even.
She smiled back at her friend. Jesper was like a brother to her in so many ways that she couldn't even count.

The lower level of the Exchange was dedicated to windowless warehouses, so Inej located a drainpipe to shin up. Something made her hesitate before she wrapped her hand around it. She drew a bonelight from her pocket and gave it a shake, casting a pale green glow over the pipe. It was slick with oil. She followed the wall, seeking another option, and found a stone cornice bearing a statue of Kerch’s three flying fishes within reach. She stood on her toes and tentatively felt along the top of the cornice. It had been covered in ground glass.

- That won't stop her. Instead of preventing her from getting there you should hire someone to keep an eye on her. - Said Zoya. Inej felt proud as in any spider’s book that would count as a big compilmant.

I am expected, she thought with grim pleasure. She’d joined up with the Dregs less than two years ago, just days after her fifteenth birthday.

Colm looked at her. - I am sorry that you had to go through this at such a young age.

She smiled at him. It was hard, but she was strong, and she knew it. Everyone in the room knew it, and that was what mattered.

It had been a matter of survival, but it gratified her to know that, in such a short time, she’d become someone to take precautions against. Though, if the Black Tips thought tricks like this would keep the Wraith from her goal, they were sadly mistaken.

- Or just dumb. - Suggested Jesper.

She drew two climbing spikes from the pockets of her quilted vest and wedged first one then the other between the bricks of the wall as she hoisted herself higher, her questing feet finding the smallest holds and ridges in the stone. As a child learning the highwire, she’d gone barefoot.

- That is adorable. - Said Nina, and Inej flushed again.

But the streets of Ketterdam were too cold and wet for that. After a few bad spills, she’d paid a Grisha Fabrikator working in secret out of a gin shop on the Wijnstraat to make her a pair of leather slippers with nubbly rubber soles. They were perfectly fitted to her feet and gripped any surface with surety.

- I always wondered about those. - Said Pim. - They look nice.

On the second story of the Exchange, she hoisted herself onto a window ledge just wide enough to perch on. Kaz had done his best to teach her, but she didn’t quite have his way with breaking and entering, and it took her a few tries to finesse the lock.

Jesper looked at her with an expression that she could not quite read. She thought that it was jealousy for a second but why would he be jealous? She dismissed the thought and he turned his head back to Nina.

Finally she heard a satisfying click, and the window swung open on a deserted office, its walls covered in maps marked with trade routes, and chalkboards listing share prices and the names of ships. She ducked inside, refastened the latch, and picked her way past the empty desks with their neat stacks of orders and tallies.

The rich people of Ketterdam looked at her with worry. “Was she ever in my office?” they seemed to ask themselves. She smirked.

She crossed to a slender set of doors and stepped onto a balcony that overlooked the central courtyard of the Exchange. Each of the shipping offices had one. From here, callers announced new voyages and arrivals of inventory, or hung the black flag that indicated that a ship had been lost at sea with all its cargo. The floor of the Exchange would erupt into a flurry of trades, runners would spread the word throughout the city, and the price of goods, futures, and shares in outgoing voyages would rise or fall. But tonight all was silence.

- It's weird to read about Ketterdam like that. - Said Nina. Everyone that lived in the barrel knew the city rather as an all the time loud place. Well, except Inej. She often worked in silence - Either in sleeping houses or the high roofs where the sound of people wasn't more than a distant rustle of grass in a forest.

A wind came in off the harbour, bringing the smell of the sea, ruffling the stray hairs that had escaped the braided coil at the nape of Inej’s neck. Down in the square, she saw the sway of lamplight and heard the thump of Kaz’s cane on the stones as he and his seconds made their way across the square.

- Silence before the storm. - Mumbled Specht to himself.

On the opposite side, she glimpsed another set of lanterns heading towards them. The Black Tips had arrived. Inej raised her hood. She pulled herself onto the railing and leaped soundlessly to the neighbouring balcony, then the next, tracking Kaz and the others around the square, staying as close as she could. His dark coat rippled in the salt breeze, his limp more pronounced tonight, as it always was when the weather turned cold.

- It's nice to know that you noticed that. You had to stare at him a lot. - Teased Jesper.

- Staring at people is my job, Jesper.

- And I am just saying that you are very good at it! - Jesper protected himself. Inej shook her head at him, hiding a little found smile.

She could hear Jesper keeping up a lively stream of conversation, and Big Bolliger ’s low, rumbling chuckle. As she drew nearer to the other side of the square, Inej saw that Geels had chosen to bring Elzinger and Oomen – exactly as she had predicted. Inej knew the strengths and weaknesses of every member of the Black Tips, not to mention Harley’s Pointers, the Liddies, the Razorgulls, the Dime Lions, and every other gang working the streets of Ketterdam.

The two gang bosses in the room raised their brows. Per Haskell was such a bullshit of a boss that Inej wasn’t even surprised that he did not knew that. A little annoyed, yes, but not suprised.

It was her job to know that Geels trusted Elzinger because they’d come up through the ranks of the Black Tips together, and because Elzinger was built like a stack of boulders – nearly seven feet tall, dense with muscle, his wide, mashed-in face jammed low on a neck thick as a pylon.

Geels made a weird sound. Something between a gasp and a mumble.

She was suddenly glad Big Bolliger was with Kaz. That Kaz had chosen Jesper to be one of his seconds was no surprise. Twitchy as Jesper was, with or without his revolvers, he was at his best in a fight, and she knew he’d do anything for Kaz.

The Zemeni boy sighed, not aware that Kaz did the same. She felt sad for them - she couldn’t fully understand both sides, and did not want to have to choose between them. She could only hope that they will sort this out.

She’d been less sure when Kaz had insisted on Big Bolliger as well. Big Bol was a bouncer at the Crow Club, perfectly suited to tossing out drunks and wasters, but too heavy on his feet to be much use when it came to a real tussle.

Big Bolliger gasped in offence, and Inej cringed. She was just stating facts.

Still, at least he was tall enough to look Elzinger in the eye. Inej didn’t want to think too much on Geels’ other second. Oomen made her nervous.

Inej saw with the corner of her eye that Geels smiled.

He wasn’t as physically intimidating as Elzinger. In fact, Oomen was made like a scarecrow – not scrawny, but as if beneath his clothes, his body had been put together at wrong angles. Word was he’d once crushed a man’s skull with his bare hands, wiped his palms clean on his shirtfront, and kept right on drinking.

- Is he Brekker's lost brother or something? - Matthias asked. Kaz glared at him.

Inej tried to quiet the unease roiling through her, and listened as Geels and Kaz made small talk in the square while their seconds patted each of them down to make sure no one was carrying. “Naughty,” Jesper said as he removed a tiny knife from Elzinger ’s sleeve and tossed it across the square.

Wylan got red in the face all of sudden. Inej wondered why.

“Clear,” declared Big Bolliger as he finished patting down Geels and moved on to Oomen.
Kaz and Geels discussed the weather, the suspicion that the Kooperom was serving watered-down drinks now that the rent had been raised – dancing around the real reason they’d come here tonight.

- Sounds like a family gathering or something. - Said Wylan, still red in the face. Inej smiled.

In theory, they would chat, make their apologies, agree to respect the boundaries of Fifth Harbour, then all head out to find a drink together – at least that’s what Per Haskell had insisted.

- That is just dumb - Zoya said.

But what does Per Haskell know? Inej thought as she looked for the guards patrolling the roof above, trying to pick out their shapes in the dark.

- More than you, child. - Everyone looked at Haskell weirdly when he said that.

Haskell ran the Dregs, but these days, he preferred to sit in the warmth of his room, drinking lukewarm lager, building model ships, and telling long stories of his exploits to anyone who would listen. He seemed to think territory wars could be settled as they once had been: with a short scuffle and a friendly handshake.

The man got red in the face, and glared at her, but said nothing.

But every one of Inej’s senses told her that was not how this was going to play out. Her father would have said the shadows were about their own business tonight. Something bad was going to happen here.

- When it doesn't? - Asked Jesper.

- We for sure should hope that tomorrow. - Kaz answered. Inej almost forgot that they planned the scam-auction. Maybe it would be shown in the books? Only time could say.

Kaz stood with both gloved hands resting on the carved crow’s head of his cane. He looked totally at ease, his narrow face obscured by the brim of his hat. Most gang members in the Barrel loved flash: gaudy waistcoats, watch fobs studded with false gems, trousers in every print and pattern imaginable.

Some people made degustated faces at that. “You should see the menagerie" she thought, and paled. Would the book talk about that? Heleen was there so yes, probably. She gritted her teeth. She won't let the woman win.

Kaz was the exception – the picture of restraint, his dark vests and trousers simply cut and tailored along severe lines. At first, she’d thought it was a matter of taste, but she’d come to understand that it was a joke he played on the upstanding merchers. He enjoyed looking like one of them.

- I.. never thought of it that way. - Said Jesper looking at Kaz. He smirked.

“I’m a business man,” he’d told her. “No more, no less.” “You’re a thief, Kaz.” “Isn’t that what I just said?”

- Whole kaz. - Said Nina as some people in the audience smiled.

Now he looked like some kind of priest come to preach to a group of circus performers.

At that someone laughed silently.

A young priest, she thought with another pang of unease.

- Too young. - Said Colm. Kaz ignored him.

Kaz had called Geels old and washed up, but he certainly didn’t seem that way tonight. The Black Tips’ lieutenant might have wrinkles creasing the corners of his eyes and burgeoning jowls beneath his sideburns, but he looked confident, experienced.

- Because I am. - He said with pride.

Next to him Kaz looked … well, seventeen.

- Wait. - Said Adem. - You are seventeen?

- How old do I look to you? - Kaz answered with raised eyebrows, and a dangerous look in his eye. He did not liked to talk about his age.
The man did not answered, and instead looked at the floor.

“Let’s be fair, ja? All we want is a bit more scrub,” Geels said, tapping the mirrored buttons of his lime-green waistcoat. “It’s not fair for you to cull every spend-happy tourist stepping off a pleasure boat at Fifth Harbour.” “Fifth Harbour is ours, Geels,” Kaz replied. “The Dregs get first crack at the pigeons who come looking for a little fun.” Geels shook his head. “You’re a young one, Brekker,”

Every younger member of any gang rolled their eyes at that.

he said with an indulgent laugh. “Maybe you don’t understand how these things work. The harbours belong to the city, and we have as much right to them as anyone. We’ve all got a living to make.” Technically, that was true. But Fifth Harbour had been useless and all but abandoned by the city when Kaz had taken it over. He’d had it dredged, and then built out the docks and the quay, and he’d had to mortgage the Crow Club to do it. Per Haskell had railed at him and called him a fool for the expense, but eventually he’d relented. According to Kaz, the old man’s exact words had been, “Take all that rope and hang yourself.”

- You wouldn't like that, hm? - Said Kaz, smirking at Per Haskell. The man rolled his eyes mumbling something about “ stupid children these days, and their stupid risks”

But the endeavour had paid for itself in less than a year.

Stormhold looked at Kaz with something around respect on his face.

Now Fifth Harbour offered berths to mercher ships, as well as boats from all over the world carrying tourists and soldiers eager to see the sights and sample the pleasures of Ketterdam. The Dregs got first try at all of them, steering them – and their wallets – into brothels, taverns, and gambling dens owned by the gang. Fifth Harbour had made the old man very rich, and cemented the Dregs as real players in the Barrel in a way that not even the success of the Crow Club had.

Kaz looked very smug.

But with profit came unwanted attention. Geels and the Black Tips had been making trouble for the Dregs all year, encroaching on Fifth Harbour, picking off pigeons that weren’t rightfully theirs.

All the dregs sideyed Geels.

“Fifth Harbour is ours,” Kaz repeated. “It isn’t up for negotiation. You’re cutting into our traffic from the docks, and you intercepted a shipment of jurda that should have docked two nights ago. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.” “I know it comes easy, Geels, but try not to play dumb with me.”

- Burn. - Murmured Jesper with a little smile.

Geels took a step forwards. Jesper and Big Bolliger tensed. “Quit flexing, boy,” Geels said. “We all know the old man doesn’t have the stomach for a real brawl.” Kaz’s laugh was dry as the rustle of dead leaves.

“But I’m the one at your table, Geels, and I’m not here for a taste. You want a war, I’ll make sure you eat your fill.” “And what if you’re not around, Brekker? Everyone knows you’re the spine of Haskell’s operation – snap it and the Dregs collapse.”

- You really need a seventeen year old to play your games? - Asked Colm. - You are pathetic.
Per Heskell glared at the man.

Jesper snorted. “Stomach, spine. What’s next, spleen?” “Shut it,” Oomen snarled. The rules of parley dictated that only the lieutenants could speak once negotiations had begun.

- Then why did you took Jesper? - Asked Wylan with raised brows. The Zemeni boy punched him playfully in his arm.

- Well you like when i talk, don't you? - He smirked. - I overheard you say that my voice is sexy.

Wylan got red all over the face and motioned to Nina to start reading. Jespers smirk did not left his mouth.

Jesper mouthed “sorry” and elaborately pantomimed locking his lips shut. “I’m fairly sure you’re threatening me, Geels,”

- No! Why would you think that? - Asked Jesper now seemingly in a great mood.

Kaz said. “But I want to be certain before I decide what to do about it.” “Sure of yourself, aren’t you, Brekker?”

- Isn't he always? - Asked Matthias. “No.” Thought Inej, but kept quiet.

“Myself and nothing else.” Geels burst out laughing and elbowed Oomen. “Listen to this cocky little piece of crap. Brekker, you don’t own these streets. Kids like you are fleas. A new crop of you turns up every few years to annoy your betters until a big dog decides to scratch. And let me tell you, I’m about tired of the itch.”

- Do you know who you are dealing with? - Asked Pim in disbelief. Geels rolled his eyes, but still looked a bit uncertain.

He crossed his arms, pleasure rolling off him in smug waves. “What if I told you there are two guards with city-issue rifles pointed at you and your boys right now?”

- You would waste your energy on telling me something I already know sir. - Said Kaz, and Geels paled so suddenly that Inej thought he could pass out.

Inej’s stomach dropped. Was that what Kaz had meant when he said Geels might have the guards in his pocket? Kaz glanced up at the roof. “Hiring city guards to do your killing? I’d say that’s an expensive proposition for a gang like the Black Tips. I’m not sure I believe your coffers could support it.”
Inej climbed onto the railing and launched herself from the safety of the balcony, heading for the roof. If they survived the night, she was going to kill Kaz.

- You need help? - Asked Nina.

- I can hold him. - Said Matthias.

- I can intoxicate him. - Added Wylan.

- Do you need two more hands? - Asked Jesper.

Kaz glared at them, and they all smirked.

There were always two guards from the stadwatch posted on the roof of the Exchange. A few kruge from the Dregs and the Black Tips had ensured they wouldn’t interfere with the parley, a common enough transaction. But Geels was implying something very different. Had he really managed to bribe city guards to play sniper for him? If so, the Dregs’ odds of surviving this night had just dwindled to a knife’s point.

- Well we had Kaz so.. - Said Jesper.

- You believe in him too much. - scolded Nina playfully.

- She is right, Jesper. - Said Kaz himself. - Trust no one. Especially yourself.

- You give me no other choice darling. You make me trust you with all of your jobs.

- It's not really my fault that you always accept it. - Answered Kaz with a bit of foundnes in his eyes. Jesper rolled his eyes, but genuinely smiled under his nose.

Like most of the buildings in Ketterdam, the Exchange had a sharply gabled roof to keep off heavy rain, so the guards patrolled the rooftop via a narrow walkway that overlooked the courtyard. Inej ignored it.

- Of course you did. - Mumbled Wylan.

It was easier going but would leave her too exposed. Instead she scaled halfway up the slick roof tiles and started crawling, her body tilted at a precarious angle, moving like a spider as she kept one eye on the guards’ walkway and one ear on the conversation below. Maybe Geels was bluffing. Or maybe two guards were hunched over the railing right now with Kaz or Jesper or Big Bolliger in their sights.

- It's better to assume that they were there. - Said Genya.

“Took some doing,” Geels admitted. “We’re a small operation right now, and city guards don’t come cheap. But it’ll be worth it for the prize.” “That being me?” “That being you.”
Jesper started giggling a little.
“I’m flattered.” “The Dregs won’t last a week without you.” “I’d give them a month on sheer momentum.”

- Thanks? - Anika asked.

- My pleasure. - Answered Kaz.

The thought rattled noisily around in Inej’s head. If Kaz was gone, would I stay? Or would I skip out on my debt? Take my chances with Per Haskell’s enforcers? If she didn’t move faster, she might well find out. “Smug little slum rat.” Geels laughed. “I can’t wait to wipe that look off your face.”

- We all still wait. - Said Jesper. At this point everyone knew who would go with their head raised out this one so the now relaxed dregs laughed a little.

“So do it,” Kaz said. Inej risked a look down. His voice had changed, all humour gone. “Should I have them put a bullet in your good leg, Brekker?” Where are the guards? Inej thought, picking up her pace. She raced across the steep pitch of the gable. The Exchange stretched nearly the length of a city block. There was too much territory to cover.

- Small legs have to be awful sometimes. - Jesper teased her with a bright smile. Inej rolled her eyes at him.

“Stop talking, Geels. Tell them to shoot.” “Kaz—” said Jesper nervously. “Go on. Find your balls and give the order.” What game was Kaz playing? Had he expected this? Had he just assumed Inej would find her way to the guards in time?

- The answer is Yes. - said Jesper.

She glanced down again. Geels radiated anticipation. He took a deep breath, puffing out his chest. Inej’s steps faltered, and she had to fight not to go sliding straight off the edge of the roof. He’s going to do it. I’m going to watch Kaz die. “Fire!” Geels shouted.

The place got silent. Everyone looked at Kaz as if checking if he was still alive.

- No, I was not shot. - He said, rolling his eyes.

A gunshot split the air. Big Bolliger let loose a cry and crumpled to the ground.

The man paled violently.

“Damn it!” shouted Jesper, dropping to one knee beside Bolliger and pressing his hand to the bullet wound as the big man moaned. “You worthless podge!” he yelled at Geels. “You just violated neutral territory.” “Nothing to say you didn’t shoot first,” Geels replied. “And who’s going to know? None of you are walking out of here.”

- I will crawl then. - Said Jesper.

Geels’ voice sounded too high. He was trying to maintain his composure, but Inej could hear panic pulsing against his words, the startled wingbeat of a frightened bird.
The man blushed.
Why? Moments before he’d been all bluster. That was when Inej saw Kaz still hadn’t moved. “You don’t look well, Geels.”

- Sassy and classy. I respect that. - Said Nina interputting herself for a moment.

“I’m just fine,” he said. But he wasn’t.

- Liar! - Shouted Jesper. He looked very amused with the whole situation, talking way more than he should.

He looked pale and shaky. His eyes were darting right and left as if searching the shadowed walkway of the roof. “Are you?” Kaz asked conversationally. “Things aren’t going quite as planned, are they?” “Kaz,” Jesper said. “Bolliger ’s bleeding bad—” “Good,” Kaz said ignoring him.

- He is a traitor isn't he? - Asked Specht completely ignoring the man that sat next to him.

- Unfortunately for him. - Answered Kaz. All the dregs shot Big Bolliger a nasty look.

“Kaz, he needs a medik!” Kaz spared the wounded man the barest glance. “What he needs to do is stop his bellyaching and be glad I didn’t have Holst take him down with a headshot.” Even from above, Inej saw Geels flinch. “That’s the guard’s name, isn’t it?” Kaz asked. “Willem Holst and Bert Van Daal – the two city guards on duty tonight. The ones you emptied the Black Tips’ coffers to bribe?”

Anika smirked.

Geels said nothing. “Willem Holst,” Kaz said loudly, his voice floating up to the roof,

- A time for a bit of manipulation isn't it? - Asked Wylan. Colm sighed at that.

“likes to gamble almost as much as Jesper does, so your money held a lot of appeal. But Holst has much bigger problems – let’s call them urges. I won’t go into detail. A secret’s not like coin. It doesn’t keep its value in the spending. You’ll just have to trust me when I say this one would turn even your stomach. Isn’t that right, Holst?”

- Damn, now I want to know. - Mumbled Nina.

The response was another gunshot. It struck the cobblestones near Geels’ feet. Geels released a shocked bleat and sprang back.

- You are all pathetic men. - Said Jan Van Eck. The crows made a sour expression at him.

This time Inej had a better chance to track the origin of the gunfire. The shot had come from somewhere near the west side of the building. If Holst was there, that meant the other guard – Bert Van Daal – would be on the east side. Had Kaz managed to neutralise him, too? Or was he counting on her? She sped over the gables.

- It would be easier if you told me. - Inej said accusingly to Kaz. He just shrugged.

“Just shoot him, Holst!” Geels bellowed, desperation sawing at his voice. “Shoot him in the head!” Kaz snorted in disgust. “Do you really think that secret would die with me? Go on, Holst,” he called. “Put a bullet in my skull. There will be messengers sprinting to your wife and your watch captain’s door before I hit the ground.” No shot came.

The dregs looked pleased. They were winning yet again.

“How?” Geels said bitterly. “How did you even know who would be on duty tonight? I had to pay through the gills to get that roster. You couldn’t have outbid me.” “Let’s say my currency carries more sway.” “Money is money.” “I trade in information, Geels, the things men do when they think no one is looking. Shame holds more value than coin ever can.”

- I think that I need to start a journal with your quotes. - Said Jesper. - Like really, how do you always sound so dramatic?

- It's just the truth, Jesper. And maybe you should. You would finally learn something. - Answered Kaz.

- I'll write that down. - Jesper said, smirking.

He was grandstanding, Inej saw that, buying her time as she leaped over the slate shingles. “Are you worrying about the second guard? Good old Bert Van Daal?” Kaz asked. “Maybe he’s up there right now, wondering what he should do. Shoot me? Shoot Holst? Or maybe I got to him, too, and he’s getting ready to blow a hole in your chest, Geels.” He leaned in as if he and Geels were sharing a great secret. “Why not give Van Daal the order and find out?”

- If Inej was your only hope then I am really worried for your mental health. - Noted Wylan.

Geels opened and closed his mouth like a carp, then bellowed, “Van Daal!” Just as Van Daal parted his lips to answer, Inej slipped up behind him and placed a blade to his throat. She’d barely had time to pick out his shadow and slide down the rooftiles. Saints, Kaz liked to cut it close.

- You realise that only now? - Matthias continued Kaz slender.

“Shhhh,” she whispered in Van Daal’s ear. She gave him a tiny jab in the side so that he could feel the point of her second dagger pressed against his kidney. “Please,” he moaned. “I—” “I like it when men beg,” she said.

That got a few laughs, and “ are you serious” looks.

“But this isn’t the time for it.” Below, she could see Geels’ chest rising and falling with panicked breaths. “Van Daal!” he shouted again. There was rage on his face when he turned back to Kaz. “Always one step ahead, aren’t you?” “Geels, when it comes to you, I’d say I have a running start.”

-Sassy Brekker. - Nina said smiling.

But Geels just smiled – a tiny smile, tight and satisfied. A victor’s smile, Inej realised with fresh fear. “The race isn’t over yet.” Geels reached into his jacket and pulled out a heavy black pistol. “Finally,” Kaz said. “The big reveal. Now Jesper can stop keening over Bolliger like a wet-eyed woman.”

- Saints Kaz - Jesper said between laughs. It was very funny now, but then it was really a terrifying situation. Thanks to the book they could enjoy that part of Kaz without being scared for their lives.

Jesper stared at the gun with stunned, furious eyes. “Bolliger searched him. He… Oh, Big Bol, you idiot,” he groaned. Inej couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The guard in her arms released a tiny squeak. In her anger and surprise, she’d accidentally tightened her grip. “Relax,”

- Said the woman holding a knife to his throat. - Pointed out mister Cornelis Smeet with a bit of disgust on his face.

she said, easing her hold. But, all Saints, she wanted to put a knife through something. Big Bolliger had been the one to pat down Geels. There was no way he could have missed the pistol. He’d betrayed them. Was that why Kaz had insisted on bringing Big Bolliger here tonight – so he’d have public confirmation that Bolliger had gone over to the Black Tips?

- Yes. - Kaz confirmed.

It was certainly why he’d let Holst put a bullet in Bolliger ’s gut. But so what? Now everyone knew Big Bol was a traitor. Kaz still had a gun pointed at his chest.

- You got something for that too, didn't you. - Asked Matthias.

- Of course he does. - Answered Jesper.

- Demni - The blonde muttered under his breath.

Geels smirked. “Kaz Brekker, the great escape artist. How are you going to wriggle your way out of this one?” “Going out the same way I came in.” Kaz ignored the pistol, turning his attention to the big man lying on the ground.

-You are so dumb for such a smart person. - Said Nina to Kaz. Inej couldn't agree more, really. Maybe Jesper should write that down.

“Do you know what your problem is, Bolliger?” He jabbed at the wound in Big Bol’s stomach with the tip of his cane.

- Uuuu.. that had to hurt. - Said Wylan grimacing a little. Inej looked at Big Bol. He tried to make himself the smallest he could with all of his weight.

“That wasn’t a rhetorical question. Do you know what your biggest problem is?” Bolliger mewled. “Noooo …” “Give me a guess,” Kaz hissed.

“Kat”. Thought Inej to herself, and smirked.

Big Bol said nothing, just released another trembling whimper. “All right, I’ll tell you. You’re lazy. I know it. Everyone knows it. So I had to ask myself why my laziest bouncer was getting up early twice a week to walk two extra miles to Cilla’s Fry for breakfast, especially when the eggs are so much better at the Kooperom.

- Hey! That is your personal opinion! Keep it to yourself! - Shouted Jesper. Everyone that ever had to choose between the two restaurants looked at him weirdly.

Big Bol becomes an early riser, the Black Tips start throwing their weight around Fifth Harbour and then intercept our biggest shipment of jurda. It wasn’t a tough connection to make.” He sighed and said to Geels, “This is what happens when stupid people start making big plans, ja?
“Doesn’t matter much now, does it?” replied Geels. “This gets ugly, I’m shooting from close range. Maybe your guards get me or my guys, but no way you’re going to dodge this bullet.”

- He is an expert in those. - Mumbled Inej. “I wonder when he won't be able to dodge one.” She thought. She found herself wanting it to be as far away as it could.

Kaz stepped into the barrel of the gun so that it was pressed directly against his chest. “No way at all, Geels.” “You think I won’t do it?” “Oh, I think you’d do it gladly, with a song in your black heart. But you won’t. Not tonight.” Geels’ finger twitched on the trigger. “Kaz,” Jesper said. “This whole ‘shoot me’ thing is starting to concern me.”

- You are not the only one. - Said the older Fahey.

Oomen didn’t bother to object to Jesper mouthing off this time. One man was down. Neutral territory had been violated. The sharp tang of gunpowder already hung in the air – and along with it a question, unspoken in the quiet, as if the Reaper himself awaited the answer: How much blood will be shed tonight? In the distance a siren wailed. “Nineteen Burstraat,” Kaz said.

Geels in the audience violently went pale. Very pale.

- Don't you dare! - He shouted at Kaz, but he ignored the man.

Geels had been shifting slightly from foot to foot; now he went very still. “That’s your girl’s address, isn’t it, Geels?” Geels swallowed. “Don’t have a girl.” “Oh yes, you do,” crooned Kaz. “She’s pretty, too. Well, pretty enough for a fink like you. Seems sweet. You love her, don’t you?” Even from the rooftop, Inej could see the sheen of sweat on Geels’ waxen face. “Of course you do. No one that fine should ever have looked twice at Barrel scum like you, but she’s different. She finds you charming. Sure sign of madness if you ask me, but love is strange that way.

- I'll write that down. - Said Jesper ignoring Kaz's death stare.

Does she like to rest her pretty head on your shoulder? Listen to you talk about your day?”

Geels looked furious, but also very worried.

- If you will touch her Brekker then- He started, but got fastly cut off.

- Then what? - Kaz asked with a raised brow. - You cannot hurt me here. I will go to my time so you will attack the younger me. Then why would you threaten me now, hm? Just shut up for once, and let Zenik read the fucking book.

Geels still looked mad, but sat down anyway. Inej needed to ask Pim or Anika to tell Kaz that Geels will go for his head when they come back.

Geels looked at Kaz as if he was finally seeing him for the first time. The boy he’d been talking to had been cocky, reckless, easily amused, but not frightening – not really. Now the monster was here, dead-eyed and unafraid. Kaz Brekker was gone, and Dirtyhands had come to see the rough work done.

The feeling of unease could be felt in the air.

“She lives at Nineteen Burstraat,” Kaz said in his gravelly rasp. “Three floors up, geraniums in the windowboxes. There are two Dregs waiting outside her door right now, and if I don’t walk out of here whole and feeling righteous, they will set that place alight from floor to rooftop. It will go up in seconds, burning from both ends with poor Elise trapped in the middle. Her blonde hair will catch first. Like the wick of a candle.”

Saints.. - Mumbled Colm.

“You’re bluffing,” said Geels, but his pistol hand was trembling. Kaz lifted his head and inhaled deeply. “Getting late now. You heard the siren. I smell the harbour on the wind, sea and salt, and maybe – is that smoke I smell, too?” There was pleasure in his voice. Oh, Saints, Kaz, Inej thought miserably. What have you done now?

Said boy looked at her with raised brows. “ What did you expect?' His eyes seemed to ask, and Inej did not knew the answer. Maybe she expected him to change into a good man all of sudden. Or she just couldn’t get used to the fact that he will never be one.

Again, Geels’ finger twitched on the trigger, and Inej tensed. “I know, Geels. I know,” Kaz said sympathetically. “All that planning and scheming and bribing for nothing. That’s what you’re thinking right now. How bad it will feel to walk home knowing what you’ve lost. How angry your boss is going to be when you show up empty-handed and that much poorer for it. How satisfying it would be to put a bullet in my heart. You can do it. Pull the trigger. We can all go down together. They can take our bodies out to the Reaper ’s Barge for burning, like all paupers go. Or you can take the blow to your pride, go back to Burstraat, lay your head in your girl’s lap, fall asleep still breathing, and dream of revenge. It’s up to you, Geels. Do we get to go home tonight?”

The whole place got really silent beside Nina's voice. The unwanted chills went through all the enemies of Dirtyhands in the audience.

Geels searched Kaz’s gaze, and whatever he saw there made his shoulders sag. Inej was surprised to feel a pang of pity for him. He’d walked into this place buoyed on bravado, a survivor, a champion of the Barrel. He’d leave as another victim of Kaz Brekker. “You’ll get what’s coming to you some day, Brekker.” “I will,” said Kaz, “if there’s any justice in the world. And we all know how likely that is.”

- That is definitely going into the journal. - Said Jesper actually pulling a notebook out of somewhere.

Geels let his arm drop. The pistol hung uselessly by his side. Kaz stepped back, brushing the front of his shirt where the gun barrel had rested. “Go and tell your general to keep the Black Tips out of Fifth Harbour and that we expect him to make amends for the shipment of jurda we lost, plus five percent for drawing steel on neutral ground and five per cent more for being such a spectacular bunch of asses.” Then Kaz’s cane swung in a sudden sharp arc. Geels screamed as his wrist bones shattered. The gun clattered to the paving stones.

- Really Brekker? - Nina asked with a raised brow.

“I stood down!” cried Geels, cradling his hand. “I stood down!” “You draw on me again, I’ll break both your wrists, and you’ll have to hire someone to help you take a piss.”
Jesper bursted out laughing as he probably forgot that Kaz said that. He tried to say “ I will write that down” but he couldn't.

Kaz tipped the brim of his hat up with the head of his cane. “Or maybe you can get the lovely Elise to do it for you.” Kaz crouched down beside Bolliger. The big man whimpered. “Look at me, Bolliger. Assuming you don’t bleed to death tonight, you have until sunset tomorrow to get out of Ketterdam. I hear you’re anywhere near the city limits, and they’ll find you stuffed in a keg at Cilla’s Fry.”

The man sitting in the room made a distressed sound. It would be sad if it wasn't so pathetic.

Then he looked at Geels. “You help Bolliger, or I find out he’s running with the Black Tips, don’t think I won’t come after you.” “Please, Kaz,” moaned Bolliger. “You had a home, and you put a wrecking ball through the front door, Bolliger. Don’t look for sympathy from me.”

- Never mess with Kaz's loyalty. - Mumbled Jesper and looked down.

- Well you should write that down for sure. - Kaz answered him with a cold stare although Inej could see the sadness in his face.

He rose and checked his pocket watch. “I didn’t expect this to go on so long. I’d best be on my way or poor Elise will be getting a trifle warm.” Geels shook his head. “There’s something wrong with you, Brekker. I don’t know what you are, but you’re not made right.” Kaz cocked his head to one side. “You’re from the suburbs, aren’t you, Geels? Came to the city to try your luck?” He smoothed his lapel with one gloved hand. “Well, I’m the kind of bastard they only manufacture in the Barrel.”

Inej noticed the little tilt of Kaz’s lips at that.

Despite the loaded gun at the Black Tips’ feet, Kaz turned his back on them and limped across the cobblestones towards the eastern arch.

- Sure of yourself aren't you demni? - Asked Matthias with a sigh.

- Quoting our friend Retvenko “ Confidence is the key”. - Kaz answered.

Jesper squatted down next to Bolliger and gave him a gentle pat on the cheek. “Idiot,” he said sadly, and followed Kaz out of the Exchange. From the roof, Inej continued to watch as Oomen picked up and holstered Geels’ gun and the Black Tips said a few quiet words to each other. “Don’t leave,” Big Bolliger begged. “Don’t leave me.” He tried to cling to the cuff of Geels’ trousers.

Inej looked down. She really would want to help him, but life was harsh. Everyone learned it their own way, sometimes dying along the way.

Geels shook him off. They left him curled on his side, leaking blood onto the cobblestones. Inej plucked Van Daal’s rifle from his hands before she released him. “Go home,” she told the guard. He cast a single terrified glance over his shoulder and sprinted off down the walkway.

- Coward. - Said Kaz.

Far below, Big Bol had started trying to drag himself across the floor of the Exchange. He might be stupid enough to cross Kaz Brekker, but he’d survived this long in the Barrel, and that took will. He might make it. Help him, a voice inside her said.

He looked at her with hope in his eyes.

Until a few moments ago, he’d been her brother in arms. It seemed wrong to leave him alone. She could go to him, offer to put him out of his misery quickly, hold his hand as he passed. She could fetch a medik to save him. Instead, she spoke a quick prayer in the language of her Saints and began the steep climb down the outer wall.

She watched the hope die down with a bit of guilt in her.

Inej pitied the boy who might die alone with no one to comfort him in his last hours or who might live and spend his life as an exile. But the night’s work wasn’t yet over, and the Wraith didn’t have time for traitors.

- That is the end of the chapter. - Said Nina looking up at everyone.

Chapter Text

𓅫JESPER 𓅫

Jesper could not keep still. 

It honestly was pretty normal for him, but the thought that he will have to sit there, and read the goddamn book for another who knows how much made him want to shoot himself. Oh wait. He couldn't do that either. 

Wylan looked at him scribbling furiously in the quote book, and touched his arm in an affectionate way. They smiled at each other, and Wy looked at Inej who was seating herself on the stage with the book in hands. Jesper had to miss when she said that she wanted to read.

- Maybe we can have a break? - Asked the redhead. - Just like ten minutes to piss, eat, and stretch our legs?

- That actually is a good idea. - The suli girl replied, and got nods from around the room. 

Jesper thankfully smiled at the boy sitting next to him, and jumped up from his seat. It won’t do much, but it was better than sitting like a tree for the next few hours.

- You need a hand? - He asked Wylan. The boy looked at him with his head tilted to one side, and smiled a little.” Oh god he’s cute” Thought Jesper getting a little red in the face. Only a little. Jesper Fahey did not blush on cute boys, they blushed at him. Well maybe this particular one could be an exception.

- I already have two, so no thanks. - The shorter said standing up, and hiding his tiny smile. Then he started walking in the general way of the room with food. 

Jesper joined him noticing only now that other people were doing the same. Some went to the bathrooms, but no one stayed in the reading hall.

♡♤♢♧

Turns out that the room with food was way bigger than Jesper anticipated. 

Beside food of course, It had a lot of weird stuff in it that had labels and instructions of use. It was mostly white, except the floor that had a beautiful dark cyan color with black crow patterns on it. There were a lot of seat pouffes, chairs, sofas, and even some mattreses. Weirdly there was a garden outside a door-like hole in one of the walls.

 Jesper decided he wanted to go there, but then his eye caught a sight of some very colorful things on one of the shelves in that room.

He decided to investigate what those things were - he loved things that were colorful, and beside there had to be a reason that those were there.

Those being a pile of very weird looking objects that is. They had labels, so he picked one of them to read. 

“A fidget cube. 

A stress fidget toy to keep yourself busy.”

- Hmm. - He murmured while examining the toy. It had a nice yellow colour, and many buttons on the sides. He looked at the rest of the things on the shelf, and noticed that they all were just some weird toys. 

- What’d you got there? - Someone suddenly asked from his side.

It was Wylan holding two cups of something , and a plate of bread sticks. He gave him a cup, and layed the plate on the shelf. 

- Some toys I think. - He answered while playing a little with the fidget cube. Wylan raised his eyebrows, but reached for a thing that was laying right beside his plate. It was a cube made of cubes. He spinned it in his hands, and muttered “interesting” to himself.

♡♤♢♧

After around fifteen minutes they all were again in the theater. Jesper held his cube in hands, and played with it. It was dumb, and weird, but isn't that just Jesper?

Inej in fact got picked by Nina to read, but she held no objections whatsoever so she sat on the scene chair, and opened the book.

- Chapter three: Kaz.

-  Oh, that is going to be very interesting. - Nina mumbled. Kaz rolled his eyes at her, but Jesper noticed the tension in his posture. 

Cheers greeted Kaz as he emerged from the eastern arch, Jesper trailing behind him and, if Kaz was any judge, already working himself into a sulk. 

- Hey! - Jes shouted in mock offence, as he knew that it was probably the truth.

Dirix, Rotty, and the others charged at them, whooping and shouting, Jesper ’s revolvers held aloft. The crew had got the barest glimpse of the proceedings with Geels, but they’d heard most of it. Now they were chanting, “The Burstraat is on fire! The Dregs don’t have no water!” 

- Children. - Murmured Per Haskell.

“I can’t believe he just turned tail!” jeered Rotty. “He had a loaded pistol in his hand!”

“Tell us what you had on the guard,” Dirix begged. “Can’t be the usual stuff.”

“I heard about a guy in Sloken who liked to roll around in apple syrup and then get two—”

The audience made a lot of disgusted sounds. 

 “I’m not talking,” said Kaz. 

Nina rolled her eyes.

- Of course you aren’t. You never do.

- That is because I actually think before I speak. In difference to you Zenik. - He answered without even looking at her. Pity. He missed Nina sticking out her tongue at him.

“Holst could prove useful in the future.”

The mood was jittery, and their laughter had the frantic serration that came with near disaster. 

-We love that feeling. - Jesper said grinning wildly.

-You mean that YOU love that feeling, right? - Asked Wylan. 

-Oh be honest Wy. You love that drill of emotion when you almost die along my side. - He answered petting the boy’s head.

-I would prefer to safely watch you die. Preferably with some tea and biscuits. - The redhead said looking at Jesper's Chest. 

-You do not mean that merchling. You love my beautiful face, admit it. - The boy blushed, and looked away.

Yet Jes still could notice the little smile that showed on his face so he counted that one as a win.

Some of them had expected a fight and were still itching for one.

But Kaz knew there was more to it, and he hadn’t missed the fact that no one had mentioned Big Bolliger ’s name.

They’d been badly shaken by his betrayal – both the revelation and the way Kaz had delivered punishment.

Beneath all that jostling and whooping, there was fear. Good. 

- Seriously Kaz? - Asked Inej looking at the boy. It looked like they had a silent talk between themselves. She sighed when he looked away, and started reading again. 

Kaz relied on the fact that the Dregs were all murderers, thieves, and liars. He just had to make sure they didn’t make a habit of lying to him.

Kaz dispatched two of them to keep an eye on Big Bol and to make sure that if he made it to his feet, he left the city. 

- Of course you did. - Matthias mumbled. 

The rest could return to the Slat and the Crow Club to drink off their worry, make some trouble, and spread word of the night’s events.

They’d tell what they’d seen, embroider the rest, and with every retelling, Dirtyhands would get crazier and more ruthless. 

- I heard that you killed all the guards with just one shot that night. - Said Anika. - I really don’t understand rumors.

-It’s a mind tool like every other. - Kaz explained. - You need to learn how to use it, and then you can control the general mob. You can make them fear you, love you, make them avoid you or contrary - make them come straight to you. 

Jesper was about to say “I’ll write that down,” but one look from Kaz shut him up.

But Kaz had business to attend to, and his first stop would be Fifth Harbour.

Jesper stepped into his path. “You should have let me know about Big Bolliger,” he said in a furious whisper.

“Don’t tell me my business, Jes.” 

 All of the crows, and the younger dregs rolled their eyes. How many times they heard that phrase, no one could count anymore. 

“You think I’m dirty, too?”

“If I thought you were dirty, you’d be holding your guts in 

on the floor of the Exchange like Big Bol, so stop running your mouth.” 

“Yet I am still alive,” He thought, looking at Kaz. He always knew how hard it was for Kaz to trust someone, but he still decided to give away information.

His mouth made a straight line. He will regret doing that for the rest of his life, it seemed.

Jesper shook his head and rested his hands on the revolvers he’d reclaimed from Dirix.

Whenever he got cranky, he liked to lay hands on a gun, like a child seeking the comfort of a favoured doll.

- Hey! You do the same with your cane! - He said loudly only half mocking his anger. It sometimes was really tiring when everyone thought of him as a big child . At least he made a few people laugh. 

 It would have been easy enough to make peace.

Kaz could have told Jesper that he knew he wasn’t dirty,

reminded him that he’d trusted him enough to make him his only real second in a fight that could have gone badly wrong tonight.

- Oh. - Jes murmured, realizing something.

He always thought that Kaz never really trusted him - he only used him as a good asset in his plans. He always thought that their supposed friendship was one sided. Maybe Kaz really trusted him for some time, but did not want to admit it to keep his “ Bastard of the barrel” Persona? It seemed quiet obvious now, but still it hurt realising how much he messed up.

Maybe he actually hurt Kaz somehow personally? That would explain so much. He did not wanted to think about that anymore.

 Instead, he said, “Go on, Jesper. There’s a line of credit waiting for you at the Crow Club. Play till morning or your luck runs out, whichever comes first.” 

- So is our Kaz a bit softer inside? - Nina said with a little teasing smile. - Imagine how he will talk about Inej. 

The girl reading the book suddenly looked terrified at her lecture and Jesper smirked. Embarrassing his friends was beautiful even if someone else did it. But when he looked at Kaz, the guy looked more.. In thought. Then he suddenly spoke.

- I guess that I shouldn't have done that. - That took everyone by surprise. Kaz looked very uncomfortable, but he seemingly took the occasion to confess all his sins.

Maybe he thought that it was an irrelevant dream? Well, maybe it was Jesper's sweet dream in which he could hear everything that he ever wanted? - I feed your unhealthy habit.

- I would find a way anyway. - He answered, smiling softly, and giving away the occasion to tease Kaz about apologizing. For now.

Jesper scowled, but he couldn’t keep the hungry gleam from his eye. 

His Pa sighed. Jesper himself looked guilty at the floor.

“Another bribe?”

“I’m a creature of habit.”

“Lucky for you, I am, too.”

He hesitated long enough to say, “You don’t want us with you? Geels’ with you? Geels’ boys are gonna be riled after that.”

“Let them come,” Kaz said, and turned down Nemstraat without another word.

If you couldn’t walk by yourself through Ketterdam after dark, then you might as well just hang a sign that read ‘soft’ around your neck and lie down for a beating. 

- Sad, but true. - Said Wylan. All of the Barrel garbage nodded or made a knowing look. The other parts of the city either did not react or at least had the dignity to look a bit guilty. 

He could feel the Dregs’ eyes on his back as he headed over the bridge.

He didn’t need to hear their whispers to know what they would say.

They wanted to drink with him, hear him explain how he’d known Big Bolliger had gone over to the Black Tips, listen to him describe the look in Geels’ eyes when he’d dropped his pistol.

- We all really hoped that you would do that one day. - Said Jesper. - But then “It’s Kaz. You know him” look would not make so much sense anymore and that would be a bummer.

Kaz looked at him with raised eyebrows.

 But they’d never get it from Kaz, and if they didn’t like it, they could find another crew to run with. No matter what they thought of him, they’d walk a little taller tonight. It was why they stayed, why they gave their best approximation of loyalty for him.

- Why do I feel called out? - Sighed Pim, and Jesper had to agree with him. Kaz had that in himself that everyone wanted to be on his better side. 

 When he’d officially become a member of the Dregs, he’d been twelve 

Kaz rolled his eyes at all the weirded out looks that he got.

Jesper understood - many of the gangs members were there since they were kids or teens. If you were alone on the streets at such an age that was really one of your only options. Sad, but true. Yet Fahey still wanted to know what brought Kaz to the streets in the first place. Maybe he will have the occasion soon.

and the gang had been a laughing stock, street kids and washed-up cadgers running shell games and penny-poor cons out of a run-down house in the worst part of the Barrel. But he hadn’t needed a great gang, just one he could make great – one that needed him. 

- Ego much. - Mumbled Kuwei that apparently was not half bad at kerch.

- It's actually the truth. - Said Jes, and looked eloquently at the very uncomfortable Haskell.

Now they had their own territory, their own gambling hall, and that run-down house had become the Slat, a dry, warm place to get a hot meal or hole up when you were wounded. Now the Dregs were feared. Kaz had given them that. He didn’t owe them small talk on top of it.

- Is literally everything a balance of cons and pros in your mind? - Asked Genya. 

- That is how I stay at the top. - Said the black haired boy with a raised chin, only a bit defensively. 

 Besides, Jesper would smoothe it all over.

A few drinks in and a few hands up and the sharpshooter ’s good nature would return.

He held a grudge about as well as he held his liquor, and he had a gift for making Kaz’s victories sound like they belonged to everyone. 

- Its called empathy Kaz. - Said Nina. 

- How would the demni know it? - Asked Matthias. - They don't teach that in hell.

As Kaz headed down one of the little canals that would take him past Fifth Harbour, he realised he felt – Saints, he almost felt hopeful.

Maybe he should see a medik. 

The theatre filled with laughter. To Kaz's credit he looked only slightly embarrassed.

- Who would have thought you would be so.. self - aware? - Said Nina still trying to keep her laughter at bay.

Inej that was only smiling, proceeded to start reading again.

The Black Tips had been nipping at his heels for weeks, and now he’d forced them to play their hand.

His leg wasn’t too bad either, despite the winter chill. The ache was always there, but tonight it was just a dull throb.

- I actually did not knew that it hurt you all the time. - Said Wylan frowning a little.

Jesper did not knew that either - He thought that it was more like a bruise - Hurt only when he stepped harder or something.

 Still, a part of him wondered if the parlay was some sort of test Per Haskell had set for him. 

 Inej sighed. - You never stop scheming, do you? -She asked, but did not received an answer.

It felt a bit sad that he would never allow himself to rest his mind, but Jesper had to admit that it suited his character.

Haskell was perfectly capable of convincing himself that he was the genius making the Dregs prosper, especially if one of his cronies was whispering in his ear. 

The man looked very angrily at Kaz, but the boy gave him one of his unimpressed looks.

Haskell formed a thin line with his mouth and looked a bit up, almost like he wanted to say “I am above those children that don’t know anything about the world”.

That idea didn’t sit easy, but Kaz could worry about Per Haskell tomorrow. For now, he’d make sure everything was running on schedule at the harbour and then head home to the Slat for some much-needed sleep.

- Kaz and sleep? - Mumbled Wylan. - Sounds like either hell or haven.

 He knew Inej was shadowing him. She’d been with him all the way from the Exchange.

- I really believe that he has a sixth sense only for finding  Inej. - Teased Nina.

- Or maybe I am just aware of my surroundings? - Suggested Kaz. - It really is not that hard to just notice what is happening around you, Zenik. You should try it, really.

 He didn’t call out to her. She would make herself visible when she was good and ready. 

- That is actually cute. - Whispered Jesper. Wylan looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

Usually he liked the quiet; in fact, he would have happily sewn most people’s lips shut. But when she wanted to, Inej had a way of making you feel her silence.

It tugged at your edges. 

- I am not even weirded out that your mind rants about Inej. I should have expected it, really.  - Said Jesper.

He forced down a sight of longing. He was over that phase of weird Jealousy of Inej and Kaz. Now he was interested in someone else. He looked at Wylan and smiled to himself a bit. Now he could be finally happy for his two friends. 

Kaz managed to endure it all the way past the iron railings of Zentzbridge, the grating covered in little bits of rope tied in elaborate knots, sailors’ prayers for safe return from sea. Superstitious rot. Finally he gave in and said, “Spit it out already, Wraith.” Her voice came from the dark. “You didn’t send anyone to Burstraat.”

- Oh. - Said Nina. - I should have realised that you lied.

 “Why would I?” “If Geels doesn’t get there in time—”

“No one’s setting fires at Nineteen Burstraat.”

“I heard the siren …”

“A happy accident. I take inspiration where I find it.”

- So it was not the plan? - Jesper asked, suddenly terrified.

Kaz did not knew that this was how it would play out? The thought made no sense now, but Jesper somehow assumed that Kaz always knew everything. Coincidence was not something that suited Kaz, at least in Feheys mind.

 “You were bluffing, then. She was never in danger.” Kaz shrugged, unwilling to give her an answer. Inej was always trying to wring little bits of decency from him.

- Because you are not the monster that you make yourself out to be. - Said Inej protecting her beliefs.

Kaz sighed and grabbed his temple, not bothering to answer. It seemed that they had this talk many times.

 “When everyone knows you’re a monster, you needn’t waste time doing every monstrous thing.”

- You should write that down. - Whispered Wylan in a very theatrical way so everyone could hear.

- I should agree with your words Mister. Thus shall be my destiny from now on. - He answered in a dramatic tone. Laughing about Kaz's philosophies was always fun. 

“Why did you even agree to the meet if you knew it was a set-up?”

She was somewhere to the right of him, moving without a sound. He’d heard other members of the gang say she moved like a cat, but he suspected cats would sit attentively at her feet to learn her methods.

“I’d call the night a success,” he said. “Wouldn’t you?”

“You were nearly killed. So was Jesper.”

“Geels emptied the Black Tips’ coffers paying useless bribes. We’ve outed a traitor, re-established our claim on Fifth Harbour, and I don’t have a scratch on me. It was a good night.” 

- It is very concerning what you consider a good night. - Said Jespers father looking genuinely upset.

Jes almost laughed, because his father was concerned for The Kaz Brekker, but then again why wouldn't he? No matter how much they all wanted to be adults - Jes, Kaz, Inej, Wylan, and the rest, were children in the eyes of people like his father.

Kaz would be considered a young soul that only now starts his journey at his home - He should be cute around girls or boys or others, go to parties and to university, he should still be someone to pinch the cheek of. Jesper frowned. Just how crooked was their view of the word?

“How long have you known about Big Bolliger?”

“Weeks. We’re going to be short-staffed. That reminds me, let Rojakke go.”

“Why? There’s no one like him at the tables.”

“Lots of sobs know their way around a deck of cards. Rojakke is a little too quick. He’s skimming.”

- You always can sense people of your kind huh? - Asked Nina.

- If I was as bad as Rojakke you would already be dead. - Kaz answered without missing a beat.

 “He’s a good dealer, and he has a family to provide for. You could give him a warning, take a finger.”

“Then he wouldn’t be a good dealer any more, would he?”

When a dealer was caught skimming money from a gambling hall, the floor boss would cut off one of his pinkie fingers.

It was one of those ridiculous punishments that had somehow become codified in the gangs.

It threw off the skimmer ’s balance, forced him to relearn his shuffle, and showed any future employer that he had to be watched. 

- That’s harsh. - Frowned Adem Bajam.

- But necessary - Answered Anika.

But it also made him clumsy at the tables.

It meant he was focusing on simple things like the mechanics of the deal instead of watching the players.

Kaz couldn’t see Inej’s face in the dark, but he sensed her disapproval.

- I feel like you had this talk a lot of times - Mumbled Pim.

“Greed is your god, Kaz.” He almost laughed at that.

“No, Inej. Greed bows to me. It is my servant and my lever.”

- Greed is a tool like every other. - Murmured Kaz sighing. Jesper sometimes wondered if it was lonely being the only smart person in every room he visits.

“And what god do you serve, then?”

“Whichever will grant me good fortune.”

- I would say that this is a very interesting way to look at things. - Said Stormhold looking amused.

“I don’t think gods work that way.”

“I don’t think I care.” She blew out an exasperated breath.

Despite everything she’d been through, Inej still believed her Suli Saints were watching over her.

Kaz knew it, and for some reason he loved to rile her. He wished he could read her expression now.

There was always something so satisfying about the little furrow between her black brows.

- You look at her a lot if there is an expression that you specifically like. - Said Rotty smugly. Kaz frowned at him.

“How did you know I would get to Van Daal in time?” she asked.

“Because you always do.”

“You should have given me more warning.”

“I thought your Saints would appreciate the challenge.” For a while she said nothing, then from somewhere behind him he heard her.

“Men mock the gods until they need them, Kaz.”

- Beliefs are just a way to manipulate yourself into thinking that there is something more about your life. - Said Kaz. - if someone settles in one belief it's only for the reason of not wanting to actually acknowledge who they are to the word and how little their life means. They need to lie to themselves to survive. I do not have the plesure of being able to believe in any form of greater good.

He didn’t see her go, only sensed her absence. Kaz gave an irritated shake of his head.

To say he trusted Inej would be stretching the point, but he could admit to himself that he’d come to rely on her.

- It seems that the truth is very hard to admit for you. - Said Alys absently. She did not mocked him, she acknowledged a fact, and that was the funniest part for Jesper.

It had been a gut decision to pay off her indenture with the Menagerie, and it had cost the Dregs sorely.

Per Haskell had needed convincing, but Inej was one of the best investments Kaz had ever made.

Inej voice turned sharp and cold when she read that part.

That she was so very good at remaining unseen made her an excellent thief of secrets, the best in the Barrel.

But the fact that she could simply erase herself bothered him. She didn’t even have a scent. All people carried scents,

Suddenly, Wylan started laughing. After a few tries to gain a breath he mumbled out a sentence.

- I just imagined Kaz sniffing people that he just met. - At that Jesper had to admit that the sight was laughable. It took a moment to calm them down, and Kaz looked very irritated with them.

and those scents told stories – the hint of carbolic on a woman’s fingers or woodsmoke in her hair, the wet wool of a man’s suit, or the tinge of gunpowder lingering in his shirt cuffs.

- Oh saints. - Jesper said with an acted out terrified face. - You have been right. He did sniffed people.

Wylan looked like he was really close to bursting out laughing again.

But not Inej. She’d somehow mastered invisibility. She was a valuable asset. So why couldn’t she just do her job and spare him her moods?

- Its called emotions Kaz. - Said Inej in a flat voice. The boy shrugged.

Suddenly, Kaz knew he wasn’t alone.

He paused, listening.

He’d cut through a tight alley split by a murky canal

. There were no streetlamps here and little foot traffic, nothing but the bright moon and the small boats bumping against their moorings.

He’d dropped his guard, let his mind give in to distraction.

A man’s dark shape appeared at the head of the alley.

“What business?” Kaz asked. The shape lunged at him.

- Of course. - Kaz grimaced.

- It sums up Ketterdam perfectly. - said Jesper. - You let your guard down for a second and someone attack you on the spot.

Colm gave him a worried look, but Jesper just shrugged his arms. It was true, and they both knew it.

Kaz swung his cane in a low arc. It should have made direct contact with his attacker ’s legs, but instead it sailed through empty space.

Everyone that did not knew how parrem infected tidemakers looked either wary or surprised.

Jesper looked at Kaz with a raised brow. He did not knew that it happened.

Kaz stumbled, thrown off balance by the force of his swing.

Then, somehow, the man was standing right in front of him.

A fist connected with Kaz’s jaw. Kaz shook off the stars that rocketed through his head.

He spun back around and swung again. But no one was there.

The dregs looked specially distressed by the scene. No one snuck up on Kaz Brekker, and then overpowered him in a fight.

The weighted head of Kaz’s walking stick whooshed through nothing and cracked against the wall.

Kaz felt the cane torn from his hands by someone on his right.

Was there more than one of them? And then a man stepped through the wall.

Stormhold exchanged worried looks with Genya, and Zoya.

“Poor grisha” Thought Jesper, and flinched at the thought that it could have been him.

He looked worriedly at Nina. She was curled up in Matthias side, trying to make herself smaller.

Kaz’s mind stuttered and reeled, trying to explain what he was seeing as a cluster of mist became a cloak, boots, the pale flash of a face.

Ghosts, Kaz thought. A boy’s fear, but it came with absolute surety. Jordie had come for his vengeance at last.

At that Inej stopped reading and looked firstly on Kaz, and then on Jesper. He himself swallowed.

- ... Jordie? - He asked gently.- Was it the same one as..

- Yes. - Kaz's gaze clenched to the floor. He did not wanted to look at him. Or couldn't.

Other people in the room looked completely confused, beside of course the rest of the crows. They all looked uncertain.

“Maybe they will got to know who Jordie was?” Thought Jesper. But then again he did not knew if he wanted to know.

It’s time to pay your debts, Kaz. You never get something for nothing.

The thought passed through Kaz’s mind in a humiliating, gibbering wave of panic, then the phantom was upon him, and he felt the sharp jab of a needle in his neck.

A ghost with a syringe? Fool, he thought.

- We love Kaz roasting himself. - Said Nina trying to lighten the mood. Jesper smiled although a bit falsely.

And then he was in the dark. Kaz woke to the sharp scent of ammonia.

His head jerked back as he returned fully to consciousness.

The old man in front of him wore the robes of a university medik.

He had a bottle of wuftsalts in his hand that he was waving beneath Kaz’s nose.

The stink was nearly unbearable. “Get away from me,” Kaz rasped.

- Ah yes, our lovely Kaz. - mumbled Wylan.

The medik eyed him dispassionately, returning the wuftsalts to their leather pouch.

Kaz flexed his fingers, but that was all he could do.

He’d been shackled to a chair with his arms behind his back.

Whatever they’d injected him with had left him groggy.

The medik moved aside, and Kaz blinked twice, trying to clear his vision and make sense of the absurd luxury of his surroundings.

- It's so unpractical. - Murmured Kaz under his nose.

- I guess that the barrel rats never have seen too much wealth, huh? - Said Jan van eck in exalting tone.

- I believe that I stole something three times as expensive as that room once. - Answered Kaz looking at the man with a blank expression.

Jan van eck made an unhappy face at that, and his son smirked.

He’d expected to wake in the den of the Black Tips or some other rival gang.

But this wasn’t cheap Barrel flash. A squat decked out like this took real money – mahogany panels dense with carvings of frothing waves and flying fish,

shelves lined with books, leaded windows, and he was fairly sure that was a real DeKappel.

Wylan closed his eyes at the decription.  Jesper hugged him from the side, and started doing circles on the boys back.

One of those demure oil portraits of a lady with a book open in her lap and a lamb lying at her feet.

The man observing him from behind a broad desk had the prosperous look of a mercher.

But if this was his house, why were there armed members of the stadwatch guarding the door? Damn it, Kaz thought, am I under arrest?

- Were you ever arrested? - Asked Specht. Kaz raised his eyebrows at him but nodded  once.

If so, this merch was in for a surprise.

Thanks to Inej, he had information on every judge, bailiff, and high councilman in Kerch.

He’d be out of his cell before sunrise.

Except he wasn’t in a cell, he was chained to a chair, so what the hell was going on?

- Confused Kaz is such a precious thing to me. - Said Nina dramatically.

The man was in his forties with a gaunt but handsome face

Nina, and Jesper send Kaz knowing looks. He pretended he couldn't see them.

and a hairline making a determined retreat from his forehead.

When Kaz met his gaze, the man cleared his throat and pressed his fingers together.

“Mister Brekker, I hope you’re not feeling too poorly.”

“Get this old canker away from me. I feel fine.”

- Nice as always. - Mumbled Jesper.

- Try being nice when someone just captured you. - Answered Kaz with a raised eyebrow.

- I was nice when we meet! - He pretested.

- You punched me in the face. - Kaz said looking at him unimpressed.

- Wait. - Started Wylan. - How exactly did you two meet?

- Long story. - They both answered at the same time. Wylan looked like he was about to 

protest, but Inej thankfully started reading again.

The merch gave a nod to the medik.

“You may go. Please send me your bill. And I would, of course, appreciate your discretion in this matter.”

The medik secured his bag and exited the room. As he did, the mercher rose and picked up a sheaf of papers from his desk.

He wore the perfectly cut frock coat and vest of all Kerch merchants – dark, refined, deliberately staid.

But the pocket watch and tie pin told Kaz all he needed to know: Heavy links of laurel leaves made up the watch’s gold fob, and the pin was a massive, perfect ruby.

- Wylan. - Came the voice of Kaz suddenly. The called boy turned his head to him just in time to catch an object that flew in the air.

After a moment of confusion Wy's face lit up, and he smirked at Kaz that looked incredibly smug.

Jesper leaned over Wylan's shoulder to see what was the thing of interest, and frowned.

It was the pin.

But that wasn't right. Kaz gave it away with the note to Van Eck. Unless...

Jesper looked closely at the man in question, and when he indeed did not found the pin on him he also smirked.

It did not surprise him at all. Kaz probably had his pockets full of jewelry from everyone in the room at this point.

I’m going to pry that fat jewel from its setting and jab the pin right through your mercher neck for chaining me to a chair, Kaz thought. But all he said was, “Van Eck.”

- The promise is still up. - Said Dirtyhands darkly. Jan Van Eck only put his chin higher at that, but sill the lower lip of his trembled.

The man nodded.

No bow, of course. Merchants didn’t bow to scum from the Barrel.

“You know me, then?” Kaz knew the symbols and jewels of all the Kerch merchant houses.

Van Eck’s crest was the red laurel. It didn’t take a professor to make the connection.

- You are smarter that half the scholars in this saints forbidden city, anyway. - Said Emil Retvenko purring himself a shot of kvas like there was no tomorrow.

“I know you,” he said. “You’re one of those merch crusaders always trying to clean up the Barrel.”

Van Eck gave another small nod. “I try to find men honest work.” Kaz laughed.

- Say Kaz.. - Started Nina, prolonging the letter z. - If you could, would you take a honest job?

The man raised his eyebrow at her, doing the “disgusted uncle” face.

- depends if the pay would be honest. - He answered.

- If yes? - Nina drilled.

- Then no. - He said, ending the conversation.

“What’s the difference between wagering at the Crow Club and speculating on the floor of the Exchange?”

“One is theft and the other is commerce.”

“When a man loses his money, he may have trouble telling them apart.”

- I will write that down. - Said Jesper while dramatically opening his notebook.

“The Barrel is a den of filth, vice, violence—”

“How many of the ships you send sailing out of the Ketterdam harbours never return?”

“That doesn’t—”

“One out of five, Van Eck. One out of every five vessels you send seeking coffee and jurda and bolts of silk sinks to the bottom of the sea, crashes on the rocks, falls prey to pirates. One out of five crews dead, their bodies lost to foreign waters, food for deep sea fishes. Let’s not speak of violence.”

- Kaz brekker giving moral advice? - Asked Haskell frowning.

“I won’t argue ethics with a stripling from the Barrel.”

Kaz didn’t really expect him to. He was just stalling for time as he tested the tightness of the cuffs around his wrists.

- That explains it. - The man said looking smoother. Maybe he was scared that his most valuable asset is getting soft?

He let his fingers feel along the length of chain as far as they were able, still puzzling over where Van Eck had brought him.

Though Kaz had never met the man himself, he’d had cause to learn the layout of Van Eck’s house inside and out.

Jan van Eck looked at Kaz. He only grinned.

Wherever they were, it wasn’t the mercher ’s mansion.

“Since you didn’t bring me  here to philosophise, what business?”

It was the question spoken at the opening of any meeting. A greeting from a peer, not a plea from a prisoner.

- You do not have him captured. He has you. - Said Jesper grinning.

“I have a proposition for you. Rather, the Council does.”

The council members in the audience exchanged looks.

Kaz hid his surprise. “Does the Merchant Council begin all negotiations with a beating?”

- No, it's specially you Kazie. - Said Nina. He sideyed her when she said the nickname. Jesper had to use it more often if it annoyed Kaz, he noted in his head.

“Consider it a warning. And a demonstration.” Kaz remembered the shape from the alley, the way it had appeared and disappeared like a ghost.

Jordie. He gave himself an internal shake. Not Jordie, you podge. Focus.

They’d nabbed him because he’d been flush off a victory and distracted.

This was his punishment, and it wasn’t a mistake he’d make again.

- Don't be so harsh on yourself. - Colm said like the most normal thing in the world. Kaz looked at him weirded out.

- If I was any less I would be long gone. - He answered harshly. Jesper's Da sighed.

That doesn’t explain the phantom. For now, he pushed the thought aside.

“What possible use would the Merchant Council have for me?” Van Eck thumbed through the papers in his hand.

“You were first arrested at ten,” he said, scanning the page.

- It gets worse and worse. - Mumbled the older Fahey.

“Everyone remembers his first time.”

Nina, and Jesper both moved their brows suggestively.

“Twice again that year, twice at eleven. You were picked up when the stadwatch rousted a gambling hall when you were fourteen, but you haven’t served any time since.”

It was true. No one had managed a pinch on Kaz in three years.

“I cleaned up,” Kaz said. “Found honest work, live a life of industry and prayer.”

Half of the audience laughed at that.

- I definitely have to write that down. - Said Jes very amused.

“Don’t blaspheme,” Van Eck said mildly, but his eyes flashed briefly with anger. A man of faith,

Wylan rolled his eyes at that sentence.

Kaz noted, as his mind sorted through everything he knew about Van Eck – prosperous, pious, a widower recently remarried to a bride not much older than Kaz himself.

- That's me! - Said Alys smiling softly.

And, of course, there was the mystery of Van Eck’s son.

Wy made the best poker face that he could manage. Jesper hugged him from the side.

Van Eck continued paging through the file.

“You run book on prize fights, horses, and your own games of chance. You’ve been floor boss at the Crow Club for more than two years. You’re the youngest to ever run a betting shop, and you’ve doubled its profits in that time. You’re a blackmailer —”

“I broker information.”

“A con artist—”

“I create opportunity.”

“A bawd and a murderer—”

“I don’t run whores, and I kill for a cause.”

- Arguing with a wall would be easier, really. - Said Matthias rolling his eyes.

“And what cause is that?”

“Same as yours, merch. Profit.”

- Your father is your cause? - Asked Wylan. That got the crows to laugh, Kaz to shot him one of his death glares and left the rest of the room confused.

“How do you get your information, Mister Brekker?”

“You might say I’m a lockpick.”

“You must be a very gifted one.”

“I am indeed.” Kaz leaned back slightly. “I am indeed.” Kaz leaned back slightly.

“You see, every man is a safe, a vault of secrets and longings. Now, there are those who take the brute’s way, but I prefer a gentler approach – the right pressure applied at the right moment, in the right place. It’s a delicate thing.”

- Wait a second! - shouted Jesper. - I need time to write that down!

“Do you always speak in metaphors, Mister Brekker?” Kaz smiled.

- You would be surprised - Said Nina. - He is a very dramatic ass.

“It’s not a metaphor.” He was out of his chair before his chains hit the ground.

Jesper smirked. He wondered when the real action will set in.

He leaped the desk, snatching a letter opener from its surface in one hand, and catching hold of the front of Van Eck’s shirt with the other.

The fine fabric bunched as he pressed the blade to Van Eck’s throat.

Kaz was dizzy, and his limbs felt creaky from being trapped in the chair, but everything seemed sunnier with a weapon in his hand.

Jesper would laugh if couldn't relate so much to that. He found big comfort in his guns after all.

Van Eck’s guards were facing him, all with guns and swords drawn.

He could feel the merch’s heart pounding beneath the wool of his suit.

“I don’t think I need to waste breath on threats,” Kaz said. “Tell me how to get to the door or I’m taking you through the window with me.”

- Please do. - Mumbled Wylan.

“I think I can change your mind.” Kaz gave him a little jostle. “I don’t care who you are or how big that ruby is.

Nina giggled at that.

You don’t take me from my own streets. And you don’t try to make a deal with me while I’m in chains.”

“Mikka,” Van Eck called. And then it happened again. A boy walked through the library wall.

He was pale as a corpse and wore an embroidered blue Grisha Tidemaker ’s coat with a redand-gold ribbon at the lapel indicating his association with Van Eck’s house.

 The audience got uneasy again at that.

But not even Grisha could just stroll through a wall.

Drugged, Kaz thought, trying not to panic. I’ve been drugged.

Or it was some kind of illusion, the kind they performed in the theatres off East Stave – a girl cut in half, doves from a teapot.

Kaz sounded so much like a child in that part, that Jesper huffed in surprise.

He definitely thought that Kaz's mind would be more.. organized? Strategical? Not like one of a seventeen year old?

“What the hell is this?” he growled.

“Let me go and I’ll explain.”

“You can explain right where you are.” Van Eck huffed a short, shaky breath.

“What you’re seeing are the effects of jurda parem.”

“Jurda is just a stimulant.” The little dried blossoms were grown in Novyi Zem and sold in shops all over Ketterdam. In his early days in the Dregs, Kaz had chewed them to stay alert during stakeouts. It had stained his teeth orange for days after.

Somehow, I can't really imagine you eating jurda. - said Wylan deep in thought. 

- Did you ever eat jurda? - Asked him Jesper. It was not really unpopular around the richer parts of the city, but also not something that people gave their children.

- They fed us some portions at my old work place. - He mumbled. - We could work longer that way.

- You would look awful with stained teeth. - Announced Jesper. - Although maybe it would distract people from your ugly face.

Wylan went red in embarrassment. The Zemeni boy smirked. It was so easy.

- Even jurda wouldn't help you. - Wylan retorted, and Jesper gasped in offence. 

- I am handsome and you know it! - He shouted with disbelief on his face.

The other boy looked at him with his beautiful eyes. Then he smiled amused, still red in the face, and Jesper felt his heart bang harder. 

- It won't help you with your sight either. - Said Wy, but still leaned on Jesper's shoulder. In exchange Jes started petting his hair and then leaned to the redhead's ear.

- I think that you are pretty, but you look better with an embarrassed blush on your face. - He whispered, and happily noticed that Wy's check got even redder.

“It’s harmless,” he said. “Jurda parem is something completely different, and it is most definitely not harmless.”

“So you did drug me.”

“Not you, Mister Brekker. Mikka.” Kaz took in the sickly pallor of the Grisha’s face.

He had dark hollows beneath his eyes, and the fragile, trembling build of someone who had missed several meals and didn’t seem to care.

There were a lot of worried looks exacted throughout the hall, especially between grishas.

“Jurda parem is a cousin to ordinary jurda,” Van Eck continued.

“It comes from the same plant. We’re not sure of the process by which the drug is made, but a sample of it was sent to the Kerch Merchant Council by a scientist named Bo Yul-Bayur.”

Kuwei's head perked up a little at the mention of his father.

"Was the man already dead in the guy's timeline?" Jesper wondered. Then he found that he couldn't care less.

“Shu?”

“Yes. He wished to defect, so he sent us a sample to convince us of his claims regarding the drug’s extraordinary effects. Please, Mister Brekker, this is a most uncomfortable position. If you’d like, I will give you a pistol, and we can sit and discuss this in more civilised fashion.”

Colm gave a look at that. 

“A pistol and my cane.”

- Actually I was wondering. - Pim started. - You still have your cane even if there is the no weapons' rule here.

Jesper looked at his young boss, and yes, in fact he had his cane beside him. 

- It's a different cane. - Kaz answered. - It may look similar, but its lighter, and definitely would be easier to break. 

Pim made an "oh" sound at the explanation.

Jesper was honestly doubtful if Kaz couldn't still use the cane as a weapon. Seriously, you could gave this man a pen and he would successfully kill three people with it.

Van Eck gestured to one of his guards, who exited the room and returned a moment later with Kaz’s walking stick – Kaz was just glad he used the damn door.

Someone (definitely not Jesper) laughed at that gaining themselves a death stare .

“Pistol first,” Kaz said. “Slowly.”

The guard unholstered his weapon and handed it to Kaz by the grip.

Kaz grabbed and cocked it in one quick movement, then released Van Eck, tossed the letter opener on to the desk, and snatched his cane from the guard’s hand.

The pistol was more useful, but the cane brought Kaz a relief he didn’t care to quantify.

- As you see I am not the only one with a weird attachment to my weapon. - Said Jesper referring to the earlier laughs at his love for the pistols.

- The cane also help me walk Jes. - Said Kaz, and Fahey forced down a comment about the nickname.

- In Ketterdam, so do my pistols! - He protested, but his friend only rolled his eyes at him.

Van Eck took a few steps backwards, putting distance between himself and Kaz’s loaded gun.

He didn’t seem eager to sit. Neither was Kaz, so he kept close to the window, ready to bolt if need be.

Van Eck took a deep breath and tried to set his suit to rights.

“That cane is quite a piece of hardware, Mister Brekker. Is it Fabrikator made?”

It was, in fact, the work of a Grisha Fabrikator, lead-lined and perfectly weighted for breaking bones.

Some murmurs were heard in the crowd, and Kaz locked his fingers on the cane looking ready to fight.

To be fair he looked like that most of the time so a lot did not change.

“None of your business. Get talking, Van Eck.” The mercher cleared his throat.

“When Bo Yul-Bayur sent us the sample of jurda parem, we fed it to three Grisha, one from each Order.”

“Happy volunteers?”

- Sasseker? sarKazm? Sassaz?- Mumbled Nina to herself, and Jesper send an amused look her way.

“Indentures,” Van Eck conceded.

“The first two were a Fabrikator and a Healer indentured to Councilman Hoede. Mikka is a Tidemaker. He’s mine. You’ve seen what he can do using the drug.”

- That explains somethings. - Mumbled Anika shifting in her seat. Kuwei grasped his head in his hands.

Hoede. Why did that name ring a bell?

“I don’t know what I’ve seen,” Kaz said as he glanced at Mikka.

The boy’s gaze was focused intently on Van Eck as if awaiting his next command.

Or maybe another fix.

Nina grimaced. - Why does your head have to be so perceptive? - she asked in forced lightheartedness.

“An ordinary Tidemaker can control currents, summon water or moisture from the air or a nearby source.

They manage the tides in our harbour. But under the influence of jurda parem, a Tidemaker can alter his own state from solid to liquid to gas and back again,

and do the same with other objects. Even a wall.”

- How is this getting worse, and worse? - Muttered Zoya sighing.

Kaz was tempted to deny it, but he couldn’t explain what he’d just seen any any other way. “How?” “It’s hard to say. You’re aware of the amplifiers some Grisha wear?” “I’ve seen them,” Kaz said. Animal bones, teeth, scales.

“I hear they’re hard to come by.”

“Very. But they only increase a Grisha’s power. Jurda parem alters a Grisha’s perception.”

Zoya ran her hand through her hair in an irritated manner.

“So?”

“Grisha manipulate matter at its most fundamental levels. They call it the Small Science. Under the influence of parem, those manipulations become faster and far more precise. In theory, jurda parem is just a stimulant like its ordinary cousin. But it seems to sharpen and hone a Grisha’s senses. They can make connections with extraordinary speed. Things become possible that simply shouldn’t be.” 

“What does it do to sorry sobs like you and me?” Van Eck seemed to bristle slightly at being lumped in with Kaz, but he said, “It’s lethal. An ordinary mind cannot tolerate parem in even the lowest doses.”

- I could actually take a bet that Kaz would survive it. - Said Jesper to no one in particular.

-You could take a bet on almost everything, Jes - Answered him Kaz with a raised brow. 

-Touché.

 “You said you gave it to three Grisha. What can the others do?” 

“Here,” Van Eck said, reaching for a drawer in his desk. Kat lifted his pistol. “Easy.” 

“Shoot him please,” Thought Jesper.

With exaggerated slowness, Van Eck slid his hand into the desk drawer and pulled out a lump of gold.

 “This started as lead.”

Jesper rubbed his temple.

If he eat paarem would he be able to do the same? The question struck him, but he found an answer pretty quickly. He probably wouldn’t. He had very little practice with his.. Gift? Curse? Power? With his power. 

He looked at the grishas in the room - all of them were so powerful.. Maybe he could ask them for advice? Maybe he would be able to accept these powers more if he learned how to actually use them? Maybe he could try to practice them here?

Wy could help him too. He smiled, hiding his face in the red locks of his boyfriend.

 “Like hell it did.” Van Eck shrugged.

 “I can only tell you what I saw. The Fabrikator took a piece of lead in his hands, and moments later we had this.”

 “How do you even know it’s real?” asked Kaz. 

“It has the same melting point as gold, the same weight and malleability. If it’s not identical to gold in every way, the difference has eluded us. Have it tested if you like.” 

- Steal it please. - Said Wylan silently under Jesper’s head.

Kaz tucked his cane under his arm and took the heavy lump from Van Eck’s hand. 

He slipped it into his pocket. 

Jes and Wy both cheered at that, gaining a disapproving look from Colm, and an disgusted one from Van Eck.

Whether it was real or just a convincing imitation, a chunk of yellow that big could buy plenty on the streets of the Barrel. 

- Did you have time to sell it? - Asked Nina. Kaz smirked. 

- I put it as a paper holder in my office. - Jesper rolled his eyes. Of course he did. 

“You could have got that anywhere,” Kaz pointed out. 

“I would bring Hoede’s Fabrikator here to show you himself, but he isn’t well.” 

Retvenko sighed, yet again drinking kvas - this time straight from the bottle.

Kaz’s gaze flicked to Mikka’s sickly face and damp brow.

 The drug clearly came with a price. 

Jesper noticed with the corner of his eye that Nina shivered. He felt really bad for her. He had to find a way to make her feel happier later.

“Let’s say this is all true and not cheap, coin-trick magic. What does it have to do with me?”

 “Perhaps you heard of the Shu paying off the entirety of their debt to Kerch with a sudden influx of gold? The assassination of the trade ambassador from Novyi Zem? The theft of documents from a military base in Ravka?”

- Well, that is explained at least. - Muttered Rotty. If Jesper had to be honest he totally forgot about the assassination, but who could judge him? So much happened since he got there that it was easy to forget such things. 

 So that was the secret behind the murder of the ambassador in the washroom. And the gold in those three Shu ships must have been Fabrikator made.

Stormold brought his brow up, and leaned to Zoya whispering something.

Zoya shook her head, and answered him in a similar silent voice.

They had an agreement of some sort, because they both nodded to each other. 

“ Interesting.” Thought Jesper. “Well not really” He turned his gaze to Inej again.

 Kaz hadn’t heard anything about Ravkan documents, but he nodded anyway. 

“We believe all these occurrences are the work of Grisha under the control of the Shu government and under the influence of jurda parem.”

Genya made an annoyed sound at that.

Van Eck scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “Mister Brekker, I want you to think for a moment about what I’m telling you. Men who can walk through walls – no vault or fortress will ever be safe again. People who can make gold from lead, or anything else for that matter, who can alter the very material of the world – financial markets would be thrown into chaos. The world economy would collapse.” 

- It’s not that you care, really. - Said Wylan. The other council members in the room exchanged looks at that, but no one dared to say anything. 

“Very exciting. What is it you want from me, Van Eck? You want me to steal a shipment? The formula?” 

“No, I want you to steal the man.”

Kuwei gasped at that. Jesper could not really really say if it was in fear or in hope. Kaz on the other hand got a few interested looks from around the room.

 “Kidnap Bo Yul-Bayur?” 

“Save him. A month ago we received a message from Yul-Bayur begging for asylum. He was concerned about his government’s plans for jurda parem, and we agreed to help him defect. We set up a rendezvous, but there was a skirmish at the drop point.” 

- So you hired a criminal to do it for you? - Asked stormhold. - It doesn’t really sound like something that the council would do. 

He sent a suspicious look to Jan Van Eck. The man shrugged, and the other merchants in the room made some uneasy faces.

“With the Shu?”

 “No, with Fjerdans.” Kaz frowned.

As did half of the room. Especially Jarl Brum.

 The Fjerdans must have spies deep in Shu Han or Kerch if they had learned about the drug and Bo Yul-Bayur ’s plans so quickly. 

“So send some of your agents after him.” 

- Aren’t you giving up a job? - Asked Nina confused.

- I don't really want to be involved in the political stuff. - Answered Kaz with a sigh. At the end he still got involved. 

“The diplomatic situation is somewhat delicate. It is essential that our government not be tied to Yul-Bayur in any way.” 

- Bullshit. - Mumbled Wy.

“You have to know he’s probably dead. The Fjerdans hate Grisha. There’s no way they’d let knowledge of this drug get out.”

- That is true. - Frowned Genya. Kuwei shrugged at that.

- They kept us alive for some reason. 

- Yeah I wonder why. - Answered the woman flatly, giving Brum a look. 

 “Our sources say he is very much alive and that he is awaiting trial.” Van Eck cleared his throat. 

- Yeah right. A trial. - Said Nina with venom in her voice.

“At the Ice Court.” 

At that most of the audience looked at Jan, and Kaz in disbelief.

Jesper smirked. He wondered what would be their reaction at the fact that Kaz not only accepted it, but they pulled it off successfully.

Kaz stared at Van Eck for a long minute, then burst out laughing.

- Fair reaction, really. - Mumbled Stormhold, still looking shocked, but also thoughtful.

“Well, it’s been a pleasure being knocked unconscious and taken captive by you, Van Eck. You can be sure your hospitality will be repaid when the time is right. Now have one of your lackeys show me to the door.”

- I never got the chance to appreciate your sarcasm as much as I do now, Kaz. - Said Wylan with a mischievous glint in his eye. 

 “We’re prepared to offer you five million kruge.”

 Kaz pocketed the pistol. He wasn’t afraid for his life now, just irritated that this fink had wasted his time. 

Van Eck looked very offended at that. Jesper smirked yet again.

“This may come as a surprise to you, Van Eck, but we canal rats value our lives just as much as you do yours.”

 “Ten million.” 

Most of the “canal rats” rolled their eyes at that. 

“There’s no point to a fortune I won’t be alive to spend. Where’s my hat – did your Tidemaker leave it behind in the alley?” 

Jesper chuckled at that. Kaz was wonderfully funny when he wanted to.

“Twenty.”

Per Haskell raised his brow at that in interest.  Jesper rolled his eyes. That man couldn't even rob a nine year old.

“ He would use one of us,” Jesper thought, grimacing.

 Kaz paused. 

- You aren’t considering it, right? - Asked Pim with raised brows. Kaz smirked at him.

He had the eerie sense that the carved fish on the walls had halted mid-leap to listen.

“Twenty million kruge?” Van Eck nodded. 

- Saints you are considering it. - Pim said, rubbing his temple. Jesper looked around the room and mostly found judging or not believing looks. Well, stormhold looked interested.

He didn’t look happy.

- Good. - Said Wylan.

 “I’d need to convince a team to walk into a suicide mission. That won’t come cheap.” 

That wasn’t entirely true. Despite what he’d said to Van Eck, there were plenty of people in the Barrel who didn’t have much to live for.

“Us for instance.” Thought Jesper sorrowfully. Colm looked at all six of them with worry, and sadness in his eyes.

 “Twenty million kruge is hardly cheap,” Van Eck snapped.

 “The Ice Court has never been breached.”

“Now it was,” Jesper thought with a little bit of satisfaction.

 “That’s why we need you, Mister Brekker. It’s possible Bo Yul-Bayur is already dead or that he’s given up all his secrets to the Fjerdans, but we think we have at least a little time to act before the secret of jurda parem is put into play.”

- That is really little information - Said Zoya. 

 “If the Shu have the formula—”

 “Yul-Bayur claimed he’d managed to mislead his superiors and keep the specifics of the formula secret. 

- Good. - Mumbled Genya. 

We think they’re operating from whatever limited supply Yul-Bayur left behind.”

Greed bows to me. Maybe Kaz had been a bit too cocky on that front.

- Ya think? - Asked Matthias with sarcasm. Kaz frowned at him.

 Now greed was doing Van Eck’s bidding. The lever was at work, overcoming Kaz’s resistance, moving him into place. 

“Yet you still manage to turn the table so it will come out in your favor” Thought Jesper. “How do you do that, Kaz?”

Twenty million kruge. What kind of job would this be?

- One that you should not go on. - Said Anika.

- You almost sound like you're worried about my well being. - Answered Kaz with a blank expression. Anika showed him the finger in return.

 Kaz didn’t know anything about espionage or government squabbles, but why should stealing Bo Yul-Bayur from the Ice Court be any different from liberating valuables from a mercher ’s safe?

The dregs rolled their eyes at him.

 The most well-protected safe in the world, he reminded himself. 

He’d need a very specialised team, a desperate team that wouldn’t balk at the real possibility that they’d never come back from this job. 

“Well, then he chose the right people '' Thought Jesper, petting Wylan’s head.

And he wouldn’t be able to just pull from the Dregs. He didn’t have the talent he’d need in their ranks. 

That got a bit of raised brows from the mentioned crew. 

That meant he’d have to watch his back more than usual.

But if they managed it, even after Per Haskell got his cut, Kaz’s share of the scrub would be enough to change everything, to finally put into motion the dream he’d had since he’d first crawled out of a cold harbour with revenge burning a hole in his heart. 

- Dramatic ass. - Jesper heard Nina mumble, and smirked. 

His debt to Jordie would be paid at last.

Jesper send Kaz a worried look.

What happened between Kaz and this Jordie to Kaz making his whole life about him?

Jesper yet again found himself doubtful if he really wanted to know that.

 There would be other benefits, too. The Kerch Council would owe him, to say nothing of what this particular heist would do for his reputation. To infiltrate the impenetrable Ice Court and snatch a prize from the bastion of Fjerdan nobility and military might? 

- I actually love how he isn’t really doubtful that he can pull this off. - Said Anika. 

With a job like this under his belt and that kind of scrub at his fingertips, he wouldn’t need Per Haskell any more. He could start his own operation. But something was off.

- A lot is off about this, actually. - Said Wylan.- But you of course will decide to ignore it.

 “Why me? Why the Dregs? There are more experienced crews out there.”

Mikka started to cough, and Kaz saw blood on his sleeve.

“Poor soul,” Thought Jesper. “May he rest in peace.”

“Sit,” Van Eck instructed gently, helping Mikka into a chair and offering the Grisha his handkerchief.

He signalled to a guard. 

“Some water.”

Wylan rolled his eyes.

- send a boy to his death, and then act nice to him. Hypocrisy. - He said with a sour expression.

 “Well?” prodded Kaz.

 “How old are you, Mister Brekker?”

 “Seventeen.” 

- Yep. He is about to agree to the job. - Said Rotty. Kaz did not tell his age to people that he was not interested in, and all the dregs knew it.

“You haven’t been arrested since you were fourteen, and since I know you are not an honest man any more than you were an honest boy, I can only assume you have the quality I most need in a criminal: You don’t get caught. ”

Van Eck smiled slightly then. “There’s also the matter of my DeKappel.”

Jesper smirked alongside Kaz, and Inej .

 “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”

 “Six months ago, a DeKappel oil worth nearly one hundred thousand kruge disappeared from my home.” 

“Quite a loss.”

 “It was, especially since I had been assured that my gallery was impenetrable and that the locks on its doors were foolproof.”

- It's good that I am not a fool. - Said Kaz with stoic expression. Wylan raised his brows at him.

 “I do seem to remember reading about that.”

 “Yes,” admitted Van Eck with a small sigh.

 “Pride is a perilous thing. I was eager to show off my acquisition and the lengths I’d gone to in order to protect it. And yet, despite all my safeguards, despite dogs and alarms and the most loyal staff in all of Ketterdam, my painting is gone.”

 “My condolences.” 

- Do not trust him when he is a gentleman. - Said Nina. - He is either on a job, or he wants to kill you.

“It has yet to surface anywhere on the world market.”

- Because, you would know. - Grumped Matthias.

 “Maybe your thief already had a buyer lined up.” 

“A possibility, of course. But I’m inclined to believe that the thief took it for a different reason.” 

“What would that be?” 

“Just to prove that he could.” 

- Well isn’t that just Kaz? - Mumbled Nina. 

“Seems like a stupid risk to me.” 

Most people in the theatre rolled their eyes.

“Well, who can guess at the motives of thieves?” 

“Not me, certainly.”

-  Certainly. Why would someone even think that? - Said Jesper with his best imitation of innocence.

 “From what I know of the Ice Court, whoever stole my DeKappel is exactly who I need for this job.”

- Very sure of yourself. - Mumbled Matthias. Well the man was right at the end, but that was not the point.

 “Then you’d be better off hiring him. Or her.” 

“Indeed. But I’ll have to settle for you.”

- What a loss. - Said Nina grinning. 

 Van Eck held Kaz’s gaze as if he hoped to find a confession written between his eyes. At last, Van Eck asked, “We have a deal then?” 

“Not so fast. What about the Healer?” 

Jesper suddenly felt very confused.

Van Eck looked baffled. “Who?”

 “You said you gave the drug to a Grisha from each Order. Mikka’s a Tidemaker – he’s your Etherealnik. The Fabrikator who mocked up that gold was a Materialnik. So what happened to the Corporalnik? The Healer?” 

- Maybe we will find out what happened to Joost...- Speculated Nina in a low voice.

Van Eck winced slightly,

- He definitely underestimated Kaz. - Mumbled Wylan. - Good. His pride will be more damaged. 

Jesper raised his eyebrow at him.

 but simply said, “Will you accompany me, Mister Brekker?” Warily, keeping one eye on Mikka and the guards, Kaz followed Van Eck out of the library and down the hall. The house dripped mercher wealth – walls panelled in dark wood, floors tiled in clean black and white, all in good taste, all perfectly restrained and impeccably crafted. 

- It’s Hoedes house. - Murmured Wylan to Jesper. - I’ve been there once. With him. 

Jesper hugged him from the side again.

But it had the feel of a graveyard. 

The man that this house belonged to, made a distressed sound at that.

“Ah yes. I forgot.” Thought Jesper. “ He died in the first chapter.”

He could almost feel bad for the man, but then again the death was of his own making so Jes really couldn't care less.

The rooms were deserted, the curtains drawn, the furniture covered in white sheets so that each shadowy chamber they passed looked like some kind of forgotten seascape cluttered with icebergs. 

Hoede. 

Now the name clicked into place. 

- So it is kind of a graveyard. - Stated Nina. Jesper shivered at the thought. 

There’d been some kind of incident at Hoede’s mansion on the Geldstraat last week. 

The whole place had been cordoned off and crawling with stadwatch.

Kaz had heard rumours of a firepox outbreak, but even Inej hadn’t been able to learn more. 

The girl grumped at that. 

“This is Councilman Hoede’s house,” Kaz said, skin crawling. 

- Kaz, and skin crawling? That is weird. - Jesper said, getting himself a side eye from said guy. 

It still was a little weird. Kaz shouldn't be bothered by a Merchant's death or some disease.

It was dirtyhands for saints sake! So what was it?

He wanted no part of a plague, but the merch and his guards didn’t seem remotely concerned. 

Wylan raised his eyebrow in a confused manner. He too seemed interested in why Kaz would be afraid of a plague.

“I thought this place was under quarantine.”

 “What happened here is no danger to us. And if you do your job, Mister Brekker, it never will be.” Van Eck led him through a door and into a manicured garden, thick with the new nectar scent of early crocuses.

- How would you know the scent? - Asked Nina with raised brows. Kaz only rolled his eyes.

 The smell hit Kaz like a blow to the jaw. 

Jesper frowned with the other crows. Kaz sighed.

Memories of Jordie were already too fresh in his mind, and for a moment, Kaz wasn’t walking through the canal-side garden of a rich merch, he was knee-deep in spring grasses, hot sun beating down on his cheeks, his brother ’s voice calling him home. 

Inej stopped reading at that. Everyone that heard Jesper’s, and Kazes dispute looked at the second with questioning looks.

- Jordie.. - Jes started not being able to form a sentence for a good two seconds. - Was your brother?

Kaz locked his eyes, and tilted his head, jaw clenched. 

The idea of Kaz calling Jesper his brother’s name was devastating enough, but the question of what happened to Jordie was even worse. 

What kind of death could someone have in order for their brother to turn into.. Well dirtyhands?

What happened between them that haunted Kaz this much? 

- Unfortunately for him. - Answered Kaz silently, looking at Inej with a form of a plea so she would start reading again. She did.

Kaz gave himself a shake. I need a mug of the darkest, bitterest coffee I can find, he thought. 

Or maybe a real punch to the jaw. 

Jesper smirked nervously at that. It was such a Kaz thing to say about a flashback.

Then the few previous parts really start to sink in, and Jes started wondering where the hell Kaz found knee deep spring grasses in Ketterdam?

Van Eck was leading him to a boathouse that faced the canal.

Jesper, and Wylan exchanged tense looks.

 The light filtering out between its shuttered windows cast patterns on the garden path. A single city guard stood at attention beside the door as Van Eck slid a key from his pocket and into the heavy lock

. Kaz put his sleeve up to his mouth as the stink from the closed-up room reached him – urine, excrement. 

There were a lot of confused looks, and frowns around the hall.

Now Jesper really was not sure if he wanted to know what happened to Hoede, Joost, Anya, and that one mean guy.

So much for spring crocuses. 

Jes weakly smiled at that.

The room was lit by two glass lanterns on the wall.

A group of guards stood facing a large iron box, shattered glass littering the floor at their feet.

Some wore the purple uniform of the stadwatch, others the sea green livery of the Hoede house.

The realization sinked in, and Jesper felt the need to puke the bread sticks that he ate earlier. “Please do not describe it in detail” He prayed. 

 Through what Kaz now understood had been an observation window, he saw another city guard standing in front of an empty table and two overturned chairs.

 Like the others, the guard stood with his arms loose at his sides, face blank, eyes forwards, gazing at nothing. Van Eck turned up the light on one of the lanterns, and Kaz saw a body in a purple uniform slumped on the floor, eyes closed. 

- One of them died. - Muttered NIna. 

Van Eck sighed and crouched down to turn the body over. 

“We’ve lost another,” he said. 

The boy was young, the bare scraps of a moustache on his upper lip.

- So that is what happened to Joost. - said Wylan in a weak voice.

It felt wrong to read about someone dying in such an horrendous manner when they tried to confess their stupid young love a few chapters earlier.

Jesper saw that Nina shuddered in Matthias’ arms. “ I hope that she is okay” He thought with worry for his friend.

 Van Eck gave orders to the guard who had let them in, and with help from one of Van Eck’s retinue they lifted the corpse and took it from the room. The other guards didn’t react, just continued to stare ahead.

 Kaz recognised one of them – Henrik Dahlman, the captain of the stadwatch. 

Everyone that knew the man sighed at that. It was way easier to pretend that those were some unnamed victims, really. 

“Dahlman?” he queried, but the man made no response. 

Kaz waved a hand in front of the captain’s face, then gave him a hard flick on the ear. Nothing but a slow, disinterested blink.

 Kaz raised his pistol and aimed it directly at the captain’s forehead. 

“I wonder if they are able to tell what is happening,” Thought Jesper. He really hoped that no. He hoped so much that their brains were dead or something, because the other option was way more terrifying that Jesper could handle.

 “A gift” Yeah right. Gift his ass. It all was one big curse, and Jesper did not knew why he ever thought otherwise.

He cocked the hammer. 

The captain didn’t flinch, didn’t react. 

His pupils didn’t contract. 

“He’s as good as dead,” said Van Eck. “Shoot. Blow his brains out. He won’t protest and the others won’t react.” 

“ Maybe it would be better for the man to shoot him,” Jesper found himself thinking.

Kaz lowered his weapon, a chill settling deep into his bones.

 “What is this? What happened to them?”

 “The Grisha was a Corporalnik serving her indenture with Councilman Hoede’s household. He thought because she was a Healer and not a Heartrender, he was making the safe choice to test the parem.” 

- It was the wrong decision to test this pareem in the first place. - Zoya growled. 

Seemed smart enough.

- Not really, but go on. - Grumped Nina.

 Kaz had seen Heartrenders at work.

 They could rupture your cells, burst your heart in your chest, steal the breath from your lungs, or lower your pulse so that you dropped into a coma, all while never laying a finger on you.

 If even part of what Van Eck said was true, the idea of one of them dosed with jurda parem was a daunting proposition.

Nina flinched at that. Kaz sighed, looking at her in an almost apologetic manner.

 So the merchers had tried the drug on a Healer instead. But apparently things hadn’t gone according to plan. 

“You gave her the drug, and she killed her master?” 

Jesper shot Hoede a glance. The man looked pale, and tense as if he was already dead.

“Good,” He thought. Hoede deserved what he got. Some of the guards probably too. 

“Not exactly,” Van Eck said, clearing his throat.

 “They had her in that observation cell. Within seconds of consuming the parem, she took control of the guard inside the chamber—”

 “How?”

Jesper found himself not really wanting the answer to that.

 “We don’t know exactly. But whatever method she used, it allowed her to subdue these guards as well.” 

“That’s not possible.”

 “Isn’t it? The brain is just one more organ, a cluster of cells and impulses. Why shouldn’t a Grisha under the influence of jurda parem be able to manipulate those impulses?” Kaz’s disbelief must have shown.

Jesper suddenly found himself wondering if Kaz knew that the brain was in fact, an organ. He cringed.

He once had a discussion with one of the dregs about if the earth is flat. Living on the streets since a young age does that to you, but still.. Kaz seemed too smart for that. Right?

 “Look at these people,” Van Eck insisted. “She told them to wait. And that’s exactly what they’ve done – that’s all they’ve done since.” 

Inej's voice trembled slightly at that.

Kaz studied the silent group more closely. Their eyes weren’t blank or dead, their bodies weren’t quite at rest. 

They were expectant.

 He suppressed a shiver. 

Jes found himself doing the same.

He’d seen peculiar things, extraordinary things, but nothing like what he’d witnessed tonight.

 “What happened to Hoede?”

 “She commanded him to open the door, and when he did, she ordered him to cut the thumb from his hand. We only know how it all happened because a kitchen boy was present. The Grisha girl left him untouched, but he claims Hoede carved away his own thumb, smiling all the while.” 

The man abruptly stood up and rushed to the toilet. The sound of vomiting made Jesper want to puke even more, but he suppressed that. He had seen worse. 

When the man came back trembling, and green on his face Inej started to slowly read again.

Kaz didn’t like the idea of some Grisha moving things around in his head. 

But he wouldn’t be surprised if Hoede deserved whatever he’d got. 

- Well I was right. - Kaz said coldly, side-eying all the council members.

During Ravka’s civil war, a lot of Grisha had fled the fighting and paid their way to Kerch by becoming indentures without realising that they’d essentially sold themselves into slavery.

Retvenko sighed loudly, drinking what was left of his bottle of Kvas.

Jesper found himself wanting one too. Maybe it would help with what was in the books.

 “The merch is dead?”

 “Councilman Hoede lost a great deal of blood, but he’s in the same state as these men. He’s been removed to the country with his family and the staff from his house.” 

“Did the Grisha Healer go back to Ravka?” Kaz asked.

Jesper sighed at that. “Anya,” He remembered. “Her name was Anya.”

 Van Eck gestured Kaz out of the eerie boathouse and locked the door behind them. “She may have attempted it,” he said as they retraced their steps through the garden and along the side of the house. 

“We know she secured a small craft, and we suspect she was headed to Ravka, but we found her body washed up two days ago near Third Harbour. We think she drowned trying to get back into the city.” 

Jes heard Nina sighing in a distressed manner.

“Why would she come back here?” 

“For more jurda parem.” 

Kaz thought of Mikka’s glittering eyes and waxy skin. 

“It’s that addictive?” 

“It seems to take only one dose. Once the drug has run its course, it leaves the Grisha’s body weakened and the craving is intense. It’s quite debilitating.” 

Jes suddenly found himself very proud of Nina.

He knew how addiction felt even if his was way easier, and now hearing what she had to go through.. He had to hug her later.

Quite debilitating seemed like a bit of an understatement. The Council of Tides controlled entry to the Ketterdam harbours. If the drugged Healer had tried to return at night in a small boat, she wouldn’t have had much of a chance against the current. 

Jesper silently promised himself that he will never forget Anya. She did not deserved any that.

Kaz thought of Mikka’s gaunt face, the way his clothes hung from his body.

The drug had done that to him. He’d been high on jurda parem and already greedy for the next dose.

He’d also looked ready to keel over.

How long could a Grisha go on that way? It was an interesting question, but not relevant to the matter at hand.

They’d arrived at the front gate.

“Thirty million kruge,” Kaz said.

- Of course. - sighed Van Eck, annoyed.  Kaz smiled at him without any happiness evident on his face.

“We said twenty!” sputtered Van Eck.

- Well.. you said that, if we want to exact. - Said Wylan smirking a little.

He was still a bit green, but the idea of humilitating his father even further seemed to help him.

“You said twenty. It’s clear you’re desperate.”

Looking at Wy's satisfied face Jesper found himself thankful for Kaz's Greed for once.

Kaz glanced back in the direction of the boathouse, where a room full of men simply waited to die.

“And now I see why.”

“The Council will have my head.”

Kaz shrugged inspecting the tips of his gloves.

- Not my circus, not my monkeys. - He said looking up a little at the council members.

- Literally. - He added after a second, looking back down, and ignoring the offended gasps.

“They’ll sing your praises once you have Bo Yul-Bayur safely hidden away wherever you intend to keep him.”

“Novyi Zem.”

That took Jes by surprise, but he did not commented on it.

Kaz shrugged. “You can put him in a coffeepot for all I care.”

Kuwei made an offended sound at that. Everyone ignored him.

Van Eck’s gaze locked on his.

“You’ve seen what this drug can do. I assure you it is just the beginning. If jurda parem is unleashed on the world, war is inevitable. Our trade lines will be destroyed, and our markets will collapse. Kerch will not survive it. Our hopes rest with you, Mister Brekker. If you fail, all the world will suffer for it.”

Matthias rolled his eyes. - You think that he cares? 

Jan's mouth made a very thin line.

“Oh, it’s worse than that, Van Eck. If I fail, I don’t get paid.”

Kaz rolled his eyes at the looks he received.

Jesper grinned. He sometimes hated himself for liking that proudness in Kaz, but not when he made a fool of Wylan's father.

Anyone who did that was worthy in jes's eyes. Except of course Van Eck himself - the man seemed to make a fool out of himself very frequently.

The look of disgust on the merch’s face was something that deserved its own DeKappel oil to commemorate it.

- Definitely writing that down. - Jesper stated, tilting his head to the side while pulling out the notebook.

“Don’t look so disappointed. Just think how miserable you would have been to discover this canal rat had a patriotic streak. You might actually have had to uncurl that lip and treat me with something closer to respect.”

“Thank you for sparing me that discomfort,” Van Eck said disdainfully.

- You are welcome. - Said Kaz with a sour expression. 

He opened the door, then paused. “I do wonder what a boy of your intelligence might have amounted to under different circumstances.”

- I do not think that any of us wants to know. - Jesper said grimacing. He imagined what would happened if Kaz was a sun summoner for an instance. The world would be damned.

Ask Jordie, Kaz thought with a bitter pang.

And in that moment any form of amusement left Jesper's soul.

"Why did Kaz thought about his brother every other second for saints sake?!" Thought Jesper, and sighed a little.

He got a feeling that he will know that soon enough, and that he will not like it.

But he simply shrugged. “I’d just be stealing from a better class of sucker. Thirty million kruge.”

- Oh djel, imagine him being some monarch. - Said Matthias terrified. - No other country would stand a chance.

Jesper got a glimpse of Stormhold making a non-convinced face. He will understand soon enough.

Van Eck nodded. “Thirty. The deal is the deal.”

“The deal is the deal,” Kaz said.

They shook.

As Van Eck’s neatly manicured hand clasped Kaz’s leather-clad fingers, the merch narrowed his eyes.

“Why do you wear the gloves, Mister Brekker?”

- And why would you be interested? - Asked Wylan sourly. - I thought that you cared only about cruge, begetting an capable offspring, and getting rid of Street rats.

The boys father send him an unimpressed look, but turned away when he saw six teens looking at him with death stares.

Kaz raised a brow. “I’m sure you’ve heard the stories.” 

“Each more grotesque than the last.”

- Peoples imagination is..

- A tool like every other? - Asked Jesper, interrupting his pale friend. Kaz send him an annoyed look, and Jes answered with a smirk.

They battelled un-verbally for a minute, and then Inej started reading again.

Kaz had heard them, too.

Brekker ’s hands were stained with blood.

Brekker ’s hands were covered in scars.

Brekker had claws and not fingers because he was part demon.

Brekker ’s touch burned like brimstone – a single brush of his bare skin caused your flesh to wither and die.

- I still stand by the claws one. - Said Nina, even if she knew it was not true.

- A demni always stays a demni. - Added Matty, and Kaz send them both an unimpressed look.

“Pick one,”

Kaz said as he vanished into the night, thoughts already turning to thirty million kruge and the crew he’d need to help him get it.

“They’re all true enough.”  

- Dramatic motherfucker. - Said Nina rolling her eyes. Kaz decided to ignore her this time.

- Okay, I am reading next. - Said Jes raising from his seat, and smiling brightly.

Chapter Text

𓅫Matthias𓅫

Matthias was hiding.

Well, as much as he could, what wasn’t a lot. 

But he was hiding, now mostly from Brum’s gaze. When there was a break he was hiding more literally. In the bathroom. With Nina. 

Anyway, now the break was over, and Brum seemingly did not knew that Nina was a grisha. He looked interested in her, like an uncle in his nephew’s girlfriend. And it was sickening. 

It also meant that the man was from before the memorable storm. Which was good - Matthias hoped that he maybe could explain his point of view, with the help of the book. 

He hoped. 

Then again Jarl Brum was the manwhore so the chances were really low. 

“We will see,” He thought as Jesper started reading.

- Chapter four: Inej.

Inej knew the moment Kaz entered the Slat.

The reading boy rolled his eyes. - Of course you did. - he said. 

 Inej frowned at him, so Jesper started reading again.

 His presence reverberated through the cramped rooms and crooked hallways as every thug, thief, dealer, conman, and steerer came a little more awake.

Matthias was very close to rolling his eyes. He did that a lot latly, which was probably the fault of Nina, and young Fahey.

 Per Haskell’s favoured lieutenant was home.

The Slat wasn’t much, just another house in the worst part of the Barrel, three storeys stacked tight on top of each other, crowned with an attic and a gabled roof. 

Nina told him that she actually started liking Ketterdam - it may be dirty, and generally awful, but she found something even a bit homey in the maze of houses, little alleys, and crumbling bridges. 

Maybe she was just being romantic or simply joking, but it got Matthias to think.

He was not sure if it was the fault of his childhood, but he hated how little place was in this city. He felt crumpled everywhere he went so much that he sometimes got a bit sick over it. 

Most of the buildings in this part of the city had been built without foundations, many on swampy land where the canals were haphazardly dug.

- Is that safe? - Asked Kuwei seemingly confused. 

- Not really - Answered Inej. - But no one cares about that. 

- More accurately our government doesn’t care. - Added Wylan with a sour face. - Now shut up.

 They leaned against each other like tipsy friends gathered at a bar, tilting at drowsy angles. 

The room suddenly filled with a clapping sound. 

- Oh my saints, this is the best description of these houses I've ever heard. - Said the source, Jesper in a very dramatic tone. Inej rolled her eyes, and Honestly Matt was very close to doing that too. 

Inej had visited plenty of them on errands for the Dregs, and they weren’t much better on the inside – cold and damp, plaster sliding from the walls,

gaps in the windows wide enough to let in the rain and snow. 

- The “beautiful harbour city" my ass. - Whisperer Kaz said probably referring to something that Matthias had no idea about. To be fair, Matt had seemingly no idea about a lot of things, so he just ignored it for his own sake.

Kaz had spent his own money to have the Slat’s drafts shorn up and its walls insulated. 

- And here I thought that money was Kaz’s true love. - Sighed Wylan. 

- I trade everything that is valuable merchling. - Kaz answered. - Money too, but mostly respect, secrets, freedom. 

Matthias rolled his eyes together with the crows, and most of the dregs. 

It was ugly, crooked, and crowded, but the Slat was gloriously dry.

Inej’s room was on the third floor, a skinny slice of space barely big enough for a cot and a trunk,

but with a window that looked out over the peaked roofs and jumbled chimneys of the Barrel. 

Matt almost shivered at the thought of living in such a little room. He always could adapt, but that still didn’t mean that he felt comfortable in small spaces, and Ketterdam was, as he previously established, full of small spaces.

When the wind came through and cleared away the haze of coal smoke that hung over the city, she could even make out a blue pocket of harbour.

Though dawn was just a few hours away, the Slat was wide awake.

The girl from the dregs (Anike or something like that) grinned. 

- It always is. - She said a bit longingly even.

 At first it was weird to Matthias, that these guys found comfort in such an unordinary place, but then again, he definitely shouldn't be the one to judge in this field. 

 The only time the house was ever really quiet was in the slow hours of the afternoon,

and tonight everyone was buzzing with the news of the showdown at the Exchange, Big Bolliger ’s fate, and now poor Rojakke’s dismissal. 

- I actually liked that dumbass. - Muttered Rotty angirly.

Inej had gone straight from her conversation with Kaz to seek out the card dealer at the Crow Club.

He’d been at the tables dealing Three Man Bramble for Jesper

At that Mr. Fahey shot Jesper a glace.

Matthias knew that it was supposed to scold the boy, but he could see the sad undertone in the man's expression.

How the wrinkles around his eyes twitched, and how he silently sighed.

 and a couple of Ravkan tourists.

When he’d finished the hand, Inej had suggested they speak in one of the private gaming parlours to spare him the embarrassment of being fired in front of his friends,

but Rojakke wasn’t having it. 

- He literally agreed to the rules. - Kaz grumped angrily. - If we find out he was cheating, he goes out. Is it that hard to follow? 

 Matthias yet again rolled his eyes at him.

“It’s not fair,” he’d bellowed when she’d told him Kaz’s orders. “I ain’t no cheat!” 

Now it was Kaz's turn to roll his eyes.

“Take it up with Kaz,” Inej had replied quietly.

“And keep your voice down,” Jesper added, glancing at the tourists and sailors seated at the neighbouring tables.

Fights were common in the Barrel, but not on the floor of the Crow Club. 

The fjerdan boy saw Pekka Rollins make a sour expression at that, and for some reason he couldn’t stop himself from smirking.

If you had a gripe, you settled it outside, where you didn’t risk interrupting the hallowed practice of separating pigeons from their money.

“Where’s Brekker?” growled Rojakke.

- He could have talked to me. - Said Per Haskell sounding like an angry child.

 Matthias grumped. He hated weak men like this one. 

 “I don’t know.” 

“You always know everything about everything,” Rojakke sneered, ghin, the stink of lager and onions on his breath.

Some people made disgusted sounds at that.

 “Isn’t that what Dirtyhands pays you for?” 

Inej and Kaz both made the "seriously??" Face at that.

“I don’t know where he is or when he’s getting back. But I do know you won’t want to be here when he does.”

- Yeahh. Never demand something from Kaz. - Said Jesper, with a nervous laugh, sounding like he had some bad experience with doing that. Matt wouldn’t be surprised if he did. 

 “Give me my cheque. I’m owed for my last shift.” 

Kaz sighed, annoyed.

“Brekker doesn’t owe you anything.” 

“He can’t even face me? Sends a little girl to give me the boot? Maybe I’ll just shake a few coins out of you.”

- Bad move. - Said all the younger dregs. Matthias had to admit that he thought the exact same. 

Inej smiled a little at them.

 He’d reached to grab her by the collar of her shirt, but she’d dodged him easily.

He fumbled for her again.

Out of the corner of her eye, Inej saw Jesper rise from his seat, but she waved him off and slipped her fingers into the brass knuckles she kept in her right hip pocket. 

- Good to know. - Mumbled Rotty.

She gave Rojakke a swift crack across the left cheek. His hand flew up to his face.

“Hey,” he said. “I didn’t hurt you none. It was just words.”

- Words sometimes can hurt more than punches. - Said the suli girl, and Matthias had to agree. He could take practically any punch, but he would break if the right person said the right thing.

 People were watching now, so she hit him again.

- That makes no sense? - mumbled Wylan sounding confused. 

- I had to fight for respect. If I broke a rule I could go all the way at least. - Said Inej, and the merchilng made an “oh” sound.

To be honest Matthias was practically one hundred percent sure that she could get away with it from Kaz. 

She was too valuable for the business of course.

 Regardless of the Crow Club rules, this took precedence.

When Kaz had brought her to the Slat, he’d warned her that he wouldn’t be able to watch out for her, that she’d have to fend for herself, and she had. 

- And you got yourself a bit of a reputation along the way. - Said Nina casually.

- Yeah no big deal. - Continued Wylan. - Only the deadliest women in kerch. Who hasn't done that?

- Shut up you two. - Inej said, glaring at them. The two smirked, but did in fact shut up.

It would have been easy enough to turn away when they called her names or sidled up to ask for a cuddle, but do that and soon it was a hand up your blouse or a try at you against a wall. 

Matthias made a disgusted sound at that, his almost good mood gone. 

In Fjerda people treated women with respect, especially older women. The way how people treated them here was disgusting, and because of it they had to fight harder.

It was even worse if they were of another ethnicity, or grisha. Women were so much stronger 

So she’d let no insult or innuendo slide.

She’d always struck first and struck hard. Sometimes she even cut them up a bit.

It was fatiguing, but nothing was sacred to the Kerch except trade, so she’d gone out of her way to make the risk much higher than the reward when it came to disrespecting her.

- Go girl! You are wonderful honestly. - Shouted Jesper with a big smile on his face. Inej held herself straighter, and her head higher as if people in the hall judged her. And maybe they did. 

- I agree, you are great! - Said Nina with an ice melting smile.

- You could beat half of the people in this hall. - Added Wylan. - And be amazing doing it.

- Thanks guys. I am glad that I could get the effect. - Said Inej looking actually somehow relaxed and happy. 

Matthias heard a sneer from over the hall , and looking at the source he found Heleen van houden. He shot her a death glare, and she shutted up. Matthias turned back to Inej with a bit of a smile, for the good moment that his friend(?) had. 

 Rojakke touched his fingers to the ugly bruise forming on his cheek, looking surprised and a bit betrayed.

“I thought we was friendly,” he protested.

- Said the guy that just threatened her. - mumbled Anika rolling her eyes.

 The sad part was that they were. Inej liked Rojakke.

But right now, he was just a frightened man looking to feel bigger than someone.

- How fast the night changes. - Murmured Wylan, sighing.

 “Rojakke,” she’d said. “I’ve seen you work a deck of cards. You can get a job in almost any den.

Go home and be grateful Kaz doesn’t take what you owe him out of your hide, hmmm?”

- I am almost sure that Kaz went soft on him. - Said Pim while grinning.  Then he caught Kaz's unimpressed, and threatening gaze.

 - Ya know what? Never mind.- He added looking at Jesper pointedly. 

 He’d gone, a bit wobbly on his feet, still clutching his cheek like a stunned toddler, and Jesper had sauntered over.

“He’s right, you know. Kaz shouldn’t send you to do his dirty work.” 

That got a raised brow from Kaz, and an squeak from Jesper. Matthias had no idea why, but he found it funnily familiar. 

He almost felt nostalgic. 

But he had no reason to.

 Even if his gut told him that something bad was about to happen, and he should make memories while he could. 

There was no reason.

“It’s all dirty work.”

“But we do it just the same,” he said with a sigh. “You look exhausted. Will you sleep at all tonight?” 

- I am glad that you both had someone to care for you. - Said Wylan silently, looking at Jesper from under his eyelashes.

The pair of friends smiled sligtly.

- Yeah, Inej is a sister that i never had. - Said Jesper smiling fondly at the suli girl. Then as an afterthought he added: 

- Kaz too. 

Kaz again brought his brow up, but this time with something like a warm look in his eye. 

- You are actually my favourite sister, man. - Said Jes when he noticed it. 

The look disappeared from Kaz's eyes immediately, and Matt suppressed a smirk.

Jesper just winked. “Not while the cards are hot. Stay and play a bit. Kaz will stake you.” 

- Really Jesper? - Said five crows in unison. The sixth, Jes, decided to very maturely show them his tongue. 

“Really, Jesper?”

- Oh seriously!?- Asked the guy in question after reading the part, what got a few laughs.

she’d said, pulling up her hood. “If I want to watch men dig holes to fall into, I’ll find myself a cemetery.”

Half the room bursted out laughing. 

 “Come on, Inej,” he’d called after her as she passed through the big double doors onto the street. “You’re good luck!” 

- Right. - Muttered Inej bitterly, her good mood gone like the sun in time of a sunset.

 To be honest no one from the crows could talk about luck. In their own case, anyway. 

Saints, she’d thought, if he believes that, he really must be desperate. 

- I was desperate. - mumbled Jesper, and Wylan looked at him unimpressed. The two guys seemingly had a gaze discussion between themselves, because after a bit of staring at each other Jes looked back at the book, with a hint of red on his cheeks.

She’d left her luck behind in a Suli camp on the shores of West Ravka. She doubted she’d see either again. 

The girl sighed, setting a dark undertone to the room's mood. 

Now Inej left her tiny chamber in the Slat and headed downstairs by way of the banisters.

There was no reason to cloak her movements here, but silence was a habit, and the stairs tended to squeak like mating mice. 

- Yeah, I hate em. - Admitted Anika. - You cannot really sneak past anyone, not even starting on taking someone by surprise.

 All the dregs made a face of knowing, at that. Matthias was really close to doing one himself, which was a bit concerning.

When she reached the second floor landing and saw the crowd milling below, she hung back.

Kaz had been gone longer than anyone had expected,

- I wonder why, - Murmured Wylan bitterly, while looking at his father.

 He took every occasion to shoot some sour words at the man, and Matt couldn’t really blame him.

 and as soon as he’d entered the shadowy foyer, he’d been waylaid by people looking to congratulate him on his routing of Geels and asking for news of the Black Tips. 

Kaz rolled his eyes at that. 

“Rumour has it Geels is already putting together a mob to move on us,” said Anika.

 “Let him!” rumbled Dirix. “I’ve got an axe handle with his name on it.” 

- Good ol’ Dirix. - mumbled Pim. - Wonder why he isn’t here.

- Why? Do you miss your boyfriend? - Asked Anika provocatively, and well it worked as the man turned crimson red. 

Matthias watched closely. He needed to learn how to embarrass others. Revenge was a sweet dream after all.

“Geels won’t act for a while,” said Kaz as he moved down the hall.

“He doesn’t have the numbers to face us in the streets, and his coffers are too empty to hire on more hands. Shouldn’t you be on your way to the Crow Club?”

The raised eyebrow was enough to send Anika scurrying away, Dirix on her heels. 

- So he basically bullies you into listening? - Asked Zoia, and the dregs laughed at that.

- That is one way to say it, yes. - Answered her Nina, smirking.

- It doesn't really take much to get you to listen. - Kaz shot back with a raised brow, and it actually made someone in the audience blush a little. (It may or may not have been Jesper.)

Others came to offer congratulations or make threats against the Black Tips.

No one went so far as to pat Kaz on the back, though – that was a good way to lose a hand. 

- Dramatic. - Said Genya.

- But it's true. - Answered almost half of the people in the hall.

Inej knew Kaz would stop to speak to Per Haskell, 

- Of course you knew. - Slipped through Matthias’ mouth. Inej went a little red, but rolled her eyes. He smirked at that.

so instead of descending the final flight of stairs, she moved down the hallway.

There was a closet here, full of odds and ends, old chairs with broken backs, paint-spattered canvas sheeting.

Inej moved aside a bucket full of cleaning supplies that she’d placed there precisely because she knew no one in the Slat would ever touch it.

The room burst with laughter, and it kept going for a good two minutes until someone got a hold of themselves enough to speak. 

- Ohhhh, you know us so well, ‘nej.  - Said Jesper while wiping away an actual tear from his eye. 

Matthias did not knew what was so funny about that part, maybe everyone just needed anything to laugh at, or it was the way that Jesper read it. He did not knew so he was glad when everyone silenced themselves.

 The grate beneath it offered a perfect view of Per Haskell’s office. 

The man gasped a little at that.

She felt slightly guilty for eavesdropping on Kaz, 

Haskell mumbled something to himself.

but he was the one who had turned her into a spy. You couldn’t train a falcon, then expect it not to hunt. 

- Fair. - said the guy in question, with a really small, but honest smile. Matthias smirked. “He fell long but really hard for her, huh?” He thought as the two lovecrows exchanged looks.

Through the grate she heard Kaz’s knock on Per Haskell’s door and the sound of his greeting.

“Back and still breathing?” the old man inquired.

- Unfortunately. - Mumbled Kaz, seemingly not happy about his talk with the man shown to the public.

“ It’s gonna be fun,” Matthias thought. He usually did not see Kaz answering to someone higher than him.

 She could just see him seated in his favourite chair, fiddling with a model ship he’d been building for the better part of a year, a pint of lager within arm’s reach, as always.

- As always. - Repeated all the dreg in a bored or disgusted voice with a roll of the eyes or a hand move through the face. 

Per again started mumbling something like a little kid.

 “We won’t have a problem with Fifth Harbour again.” Haskell grunted and returned to his model ship. “Close the door.”

Jesper moved his eyebrows suggestively at that, causing Kaz to make his “ are you serious” face.

 Inej heard it shut, muffling the sounds from the hallway. She could see the top of Kaz’s head. His dark hair was damp. It must have started raining.

“You should have asked permission from me to deal with Bolliger,” said Haskell.

Matthias rolled his eyes. This man was really a big child with a lot of money and a big- nevermind. 

 “If I had talked to you first, word might have got out—” “You think I’d let that happen?”

Matt couldn't stop himself from smirking.

 Kaz’s shoulders lifted. “This place is like anything in Ketterdam. It leaks.” Inej could have sworn he looked directly at the vent when he said it.

- I did. You need to find better hiding spots. - He said with a pleased face. Inej and Jesper rolled their eyes at him in unision. 

 “I don’t like it, boy. Big Bolliger was my soldier, not yours.”

“Of course,” Kaz said, but they both knew it was a lie.

Haskell rolled his eyes with a mocking expresion. 

 Haskell’s Dregs were old guard, conmen and crooks from another time.

Bolliger had been one of Kaz’s crew – new blood, young and unafraid. Maybe too unafraid.

- I can fix almost everything, but not people's dumbness. - Said Kaz, and Jesper smirked.

- Nina, could you write that down? - He asked with a saintly expression. 

- On my way. - Answered the girl with a smirk. Kaz rolled his eyes at them both. 

 “You’re smart, Brekker, but you need to learn patience.” “Yes, sir.”

That got a few mocking raised eyebrows.

 The old man barked a laugh. “Yes, sir. No, sir,” he mocked. “I know you’re up to something when you start getting polite. 

Matthias smirked. The man had his moments.

 Well, everyone could be funny if they mocked Kaz to be honest.

Just what have you got brewing?” “A job,” Kaz said. “I may need to be gone for a spell.” “Big money?” “Very.” “Big risk?” “That, too. 

- Oh that is like, by the way. No one cares. - Said Jes grinning.

- Oh but you care. - Answered Kaz. - If it was not dangerous then you wouldn't come.

- touché . 

But you’ll get your twenty percent.”

“You don’t make any major moves without my say-so, understood?”

Kaz must have nodded because Per Haskell leaned back in his chair and took a sip of lager.

“Are we to be very rich?” 

- Not you. - Muttered Matthias under his nose.

“Rich as Saints in crowns of gold.” The old man snorted. “Long as I don’t have to live like one.” 

- Well saints aren’t actually known for having big fortunes so.. - Said Anika grinning.

Per looked at smirking Kaz accusingly, finally catching on to the fact that he may not be in the power anymore.

“I’ll talk to Pim,” Kaz said. “He can pick up the slack while I’m gone.” 

- Really? - Pim asked with a big ass grin on his face. 

- Don’t wet yourself dumbass. - Answered Anika with a roll of her eyes.

Inej frowned. Just where was Kaz going? He hadn’t mentioned any big job to her. And why Pim?

He looked at Inej with a raised brow.

 The thought shamed her a bit. She could almost hear her father ’s voice: So eager to be Queen of the Thieves, Inej?

- OOh are you jealous? - Asked Pim doing a face close to a gremlins one. Anika rolled her eyes yet again.

- It’s obvious that he is taking her ON the Job. - She said, and it was Pim’s turn to roll his eyes.

- I know, but that is not the point! - He said, pointing at the red in the face Inej. Anika looked at him unimpressed, and Inej looked away.

- Yeah it’s obvious. - She muttered silently, sounding embarrassed.

 It was one thing to do her job and do it well. It was quite another to want to succeed at it.

She didn’t want a permanent place with the Dregs.

She wanted to pay off her debts and be free of Ketterdam forever, so why should she care if Kaz chose Pim to run the gang in his absence?

- Because you want his attention. - Said Nina with a smirk. Then she changed to an overly dramatic tone. - Ohhhh young love! How the times change!

She leaned on Matthias with a hand raised to her forehead in an actorly way. Matthias rolled his eyes at her antics, but smirked when he noticed that the two avoided each other's gazes. 

 Because I’m smarter than Pim. 

The guy made an offensive sound at Inej that now hid her face in her hands.

Because Kaz trusts me more.

- Well that is true - admitted Pim.

 But maybe he didn’t trust the crew to follow a girl like her, only two years out of the brothels, not even seventeen years old.

Anika rolled her eyes at the Suli girl. - He trusts you more than himself. 

Inej sent her a look from above her hands.

 She wore her sleeves long and the sheath of her knife mostly hid the scar on the inside of her left forearm where the Menagerie tattoo had once been, but they all knew it was there. 

- No one judges you on that ‘nej. - Said Jesper softly. The girl just looked away. 

Kaz exited Haskell’s room, and Inej left her perch to wait for him as he limped his way up the stairs.

“Rojakke?” he asked as he passed her and started up the second flight. 

- Hello to you too Kaz. - Inej said, gaining a little of her dignity back. He rolled his eyes at her.

“Gone,” she said, falling in behind him.

“He put up much of a fight?”

“Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

- You can handle a lot so it doesn't really say much. - Said Wylan. Inej looked at him with a little smile.He flushed, and looked away. 

 “Not what I asked.”

“He was angry. He may come back around looking for trouble.”

“Never a shortage of that to hand out,” Kaz said as they reached the top floor.

The attic rooms had been converted into his office and bedroom. 

- No one wants to climb the stairs. - Explained Rotty. - Except for our own lovely cripple. 

Kaz glared at him, but did not throw a comeback. 

She knew all those flights of stairs were brutal on his bad leg, but he seemed to like having the whole floor to himself. 

- The feeling of being in power is good for his ego. - Said Jesper. Kaz completely ignored him. 

He entered the office and without looking back at her said,

“Shut the door.”

The room was mostly taken up by a makeshift desk – an old warehouse door atop stacked fruit crates 

Haskell raised his brow at that in surprise, seemingly not being in the room like ever.

-  Though that for your ego you would have something more.. fancy. - Said Stormhold, eyeing Brekker.

- He goes by practicality over comfort. - Explained Inej and Kaz made absolutely no reaction to that either. Matt looked at him closer. He seemed rather.. Distant. 

He locked his eyes with those of Inej but she shook her head. Matthias shrugged.

Maybe Brekker was thinking of a business plan for the next ten years or something like that.

 piled high with papers.

Some of the floor bosses had started using adding machines, clanking things crowded with stiff brass buttons and spools of paper,

but Kaz did the Crow Club tallies in his head.

The blond rolled his eyes. - Of course he did. - He mumbled. - Freaking Demni. 

- More of a smartass honestly.- Answered Jesper.

 He kept books, but only for the sake of the old man and so that he had something to point to when he called someone out for cheating or when he was looking for new investors. 

Haskell's mouth was a very thin line . 

That was one of the big changes Kaz had brought to the gang. He’d given ordinary shopkeepers and legitimate businessmen the chance to buy shares in the Crow Club.

The merchers in the room actually looked intrigued at the boy but he yet again showed zero reaction.

At first they’d been skeptical, sure it was some kind of swindle,

but he’d brought them in with tiny stakes and managed to gather enough capital to purchase the dilapidated old building,

spruce it up, and get it running.

The hall flooded with the newfound respect for the young barrel rat. People won't dismiss him that easily now. Matthias was not really sure if that was a good thing or not.

 It had paid back big for those early investors.

Or so the story went.

Inej could never be sure which stories about Kaz were true and which were rumours he’d planted to serve his own ends. 

- I am still not sure. - Inej said Side eyeing Kaz. He still seemed somehow out of it, but he looked at her back. His face seemed like he tried to smirk, but the expression lacked his usual snarkiness.

 Matthias brushed it off. It was not his problem what was happening in the demni’s head.

For all she knew, he’d conned some poor honest trader out of his life savings to make the Crow Club thrive. 

Colm looked at Kaz disapprovingly. 

- You cannot steal from an honest man. - The boy answered flatly, not even looking at the man. He only sighed showing the tiredness on his face. 

“I’ve got a job for you,” Kaz said as he flipped through the previous day’s figures.

Each sheet would go into his memory with barely a glance. 

People in the theatre yet again, for some reason, looked impressed. Matt rolled his eyes. 

“What would you say to four million kruge?”

“Money like that is more curse than gift.” 

- Especially in some hands. - Said Wylan looking at Jesper. The Zemeni boy rolled his eyes, but still avoided the redhead's eyes. 

“My little Suli idealist. All you need is a full belly and an open road?”

he said, the mockery clear in his voice.

“And an easy heart, Kaz.”

That was the difficult part. Now he laughed outright as he walked through the door to his tiny bedroom.

The girl rolled her eyes, mumbling something under her breath.

 Kaz smirked looking at her, so she answered with the middle finger.

 “No hopes of that. I’d rather have the cash. 

- Of course. - Said someone in the audience.

Do you want the money or not?”

“You’re not in the business of giving gifts. What’s the job?”

“An impossible job, near certain death, terrible odds, but should we scrape it …”

The six crows suddenly looked very lively, smirking and all. 

 He paused, fingers on the buttons of his waistcoat, his look distant, almost dreamy.

It was rare that she heard such excitement in his raspy voice.

- I never heard it. - Mumbled Jesper sounding almost jealous. 

 “Should we scrape it?” she prompted.

He grinned at her, his smile sudden and jarring as a thunderclap, his eyes the near-black of bitter coffee.

- Never knew he was capable of smiling in any way. - Said Pim. Anika elbowed him.

 “We’ll be kings and queens, Inej. Kings and queens.”

“Hmm,” she said noncommittally, pretending to examine one of her knives, determined to ignore that grin. 

Nina smirked at the girl, and Matthias copied her expression. She showed them her tongue with a roll of her eyes.

Kaz was not a giddy boy smiling and making future plans with her.

He was a dangerous player who was always working an angle.

 - Or a little bit of both. - Murmured Colm, with a sad, but knowing smile on his face. Matthias yet again felt like he missed something.

 Always, she reminded herself firmly.

Inej kept her eyes averted,  as Kaz stripped out of his vest and shirt.

That got a lot of raised brows and smirks. Inej went red, but Kaz again totally ignored everyone.

 She wasn’t sure if she was flattered or insulted that he didn’t seem to give a second thought to her presence.

“How long will we be gone?”

she asked, darting a glance at him through the open doorway.

He was corded muscle, scars,

A major part of the hall blushed at the description.

 but only two tattoos – the Dregs’ crow and cup on his forearm and above it, a black R on his bicep.

- Still confused about that one. - Said Jesper sounding actually honest, and in thought. Maybe he was ill.

 She’d never asked him what it meant.

It was his hands that drew her attention as he shucked off his leather gloves and dipped a cloth in the wash basin. 

Some curious looks have been shot through the hall.

He only ever removed them in these chambers, and as far as she knew, only in front of her. 

Jes raised his brow at that. 

Whatever affliction he might be hiding, she could see no sign of it,

only slender lockpick’s fingers, and a shiny rope of scar tissue from some long ago street fight. 

- That's it? - Asked Anika, sounding disapointed. Kaz rolled his eyes at her, tucking his gloves further on his hands. Pim made a disappointed sound, but shut up as Inej glared at him.

Pekka Rollins smirked, seemingly glad that he now knew the secret of “Dirtyhands”.

“A few weeks, maybe a month,”

he said as he ran the wet cloth under his arms and the hard planes of his chest, water trickling down his torso. 

Matthias flushed at the description. He desperately wanted to say that it was because of the audacity of washing himself in front of a girl, but then he would lie. 

For Saints’ sake, Inej thought as her cheeks heated.

She’d lost most of her modesty during her time with the Menagerie, but really, there were limits. 

Nina was smirking so hard that Matt was sure her cheeks would fall off in the near future.

What would Kaz say if she suddenly stripped down and started washing herself in front of him?

He’d probably tell me not to drip on the desk, she thought with a scowl. 

 - Sounds about right. - Said Jes, still blushing.

“A month?” she said.

“Are you sure you should be leaving with the Black Tips so riled up?”

“This is the right gamble. Speaking of which, round up Jesper and Muzzen. I want them here by dawn.

And I’ll need Wylan waiting at the Crow Club tomorrow night.”

- Wooho i am finally mentioned! - said Wylan. Then he scowled and added - Although I do not think that it’s a good thing to be mentioned in this book.

 “Wylan? If this is for a big job—” 

- Thanks? - The guy asked, still scowling a little. Inej sent an apologetic look his way.

“Just do it.”

Inej crossed her arms.

One minute he made her blush and the next he made her want to commit murder. 

- Isn’t that just Kaz? - Asked Jesper with a little laugh.

Matthias raised a brow at him, and when the boy noticed, he stopped laughing, and started reading again. 

“Are you going to explain any of this?”

“When we all meet.”

- You still explained like… one thirtieth of the plan to us. - Said Nina, and well Matthias had to agree.

He did not really knew the plan until he looked through it all after. 

Kaz Brekker really was something. Matthias just wasn't sure if it was good.

 He shrugged on a fresh shirt, then hesitated as he fastened the collar.

“This isn’t an assignment, Inej. It’s a job for you to take or leave as you see fit.”

- He wants to keep you safe. - Said Anika. - In his own weird way.

Inej smiled at her. 

 -  I know. - she said, as she looked over at Kaz. He looked at her too, and they just .. stared at each other. 

Jesper started reading again.

 An alarm bell rang inside her.

She endangered herself every day on the streets of the Barrel.

She’d murdered for the Dregs, stolen, brought down bad men and good,

and Kaz had never hinted that any of the assignments were less than a command to be obeyed.

- Well this IS a suicide mission so I am not weirded out that he doesn't particularly want the girl he likes on it. - Said Specht, shrugging.

Inej glared at him, but Kaz looked away from her. The man may just hit the spot.

 This was the price she’d agreed to when Per Haskell had purchased her contract and liberated her from the Menagerie.

So what was different about this job? 

- Everything. - Inej murmured. 

Kaz finished with his buttons, pulled on a charcoal waistcoat, and tossed her something.

It flashed in the air, and she caught it with one hand.

When she opened her fist, she saw a massive ruby tie pin circled by golden laurel leaves. 

Jan Van Eck sent Kaz a look of disgust at that. The boy just grinned in this dangerous, and not-happy-at-all way.

“Fence it,” Kaz said.

“Whose is it?”

“Ours now.”

Matthias smirked against his better judgement.

 “Whose was it?” Kaz stayed quiet.

He picked up his coat, using a brush to clean the dried mud from it.

  “Someone who should have thought better before he had me jumped.”

The man in question rolled his eyes.

 “Jumped?”

“You heard me.”

- Can’t even admit it twice? - Asked Van Eck with highness in his voice.

- I, in difference to you, have a reputation to uphold. - Kaz answered venomously.

The two men held a gaze war, until the older looked away. No one could win with the cold stare of the devil in Kaz's eyes.

 “Someone got the drop on you?”

He looked at her and nodded once.

Unease snaked through her and twisted into an anxious, rustling coil. 

Jan made a “really?” face at Inej. Good. he underestimated Kaz Brekker.

No one got the better of Kaz.

He was the toughest, scariest thing walking the alleys of the Barrel.

- Right. - Said Pekka Rollins flatly. Inej just shrugged at that. She held her beliefs, and Matthias knew it. 

 She relied on it. So did he. 

Geels dared to make a mocking sound, and Kaz sent him a death stare. Not the little funny one, when he scolded the crows or the dregs, after they made fun of him.

Oh no.

The actual Death stare full of coldness, and a form of wildness that just waited to be let out.

Geels unwillingly shivered, and Matthias found himself feeling pleased with that fact. The newfound satisfaction of seeing fear in someone's eyes, made him feel… weird.

“It won’t happen again,” he promised.

Kaz pulled on a clean pair of gloves, snapped up his walking stick, and headed out the door. 

- Too many emotions for Kazzle dazzle. - Said Jesper with a smirk, trying to break the tension from earlier. 

Kaz glared at him with a raised brow. - who? - He asked coldly. 

Jesper swallowed, and fastly started reading again.

Kaz just shook his head with an eyeroll.

“I’ll be back in a few hours. Move the DeKappel we lifted from Van Eck’s house to the vault. 

- So it was you! - Shouted Pim.

Matthias finally catched on to the fact that the guy was not really the brightest of this lot. 

- Duh, dumbass. - Said Anika rolling her eyes. Pim showed her his tongue, but then turned to Kaz with adoration in his eyes.

I think it’s rolled up under my bed.

Kaz got a few raised brows at that.

Oh, and put in an order for a new hat.” 

- You are such a gentleman Kazzle Dazzle. - Said Nina sarcastically, picking up on the new nickname. Kaz showed her his middle finger.

“Please.” Kaz heaved a sigh as he braced himself for three painful flights of stairs. He looked over his shoulder and said, “Please, my darling Inej, treasure of my heart, won’t you do me the honour of acquiring me a new hat?”

- Oh and a poet too! I am impressed. Kazzle Dazzle. - Nina continued, and Kaz rubbed his temple in annoyance.

 Inej cast a meaningful glance at his cane.

“Have a long trip down,”

she said, then leaped onto the banister, sliding from one flight to the next, slick as butter in a pan.

- Yees! - Shouted Jesper while grinning like a fool.

Matthias smiled too when he looked at Kaz’s Face. T he guy started mumbling something, then he stood up, and walked away in the direction of the toilets.

Matthias watched him, and when Kaz disappeared around the corner he looked back at the confused crowd.

- I think that means a break. - He said, standing up.