Six of Crows

by Leigh Bardugo

A thousand questions crowded into Jesper’s head, but he didn’t stop to ask them. He swung out over the coals and started to climb. Rain was still falling in a light patter from above, and he felt the rope tremble as Kaz took hold beneath him. When Jesper looked down, he saw Kaz bracing himself to sling the incinerator doors closed behind them.

  Jesper put hand over hand, pulling himself up from knot to knot, his arms beginning to ache, the rope cutting into his palms, bracing his feet against the wall of the incinerator when he needed to, then recoiling at the heat of the bricks. How had Inej made this climb with nothing to hold on to?

  High above, the Elderclock’s alarm bells still clanged like a drawer full of angry pots and pans. What had gone wrong? Why had Kaz and Nina been separated? And how were they going to get out of this?

  Jesper shook his head, trying to blink the rain from his eyes, muscles bunching in his back as he rose higher.

  “Thank the Saints,” he gasped when Matthias and Wylan grabbed his shoulders and hauled him up the last few feet. He tumbled over the lip of the chimney and onto the roof, drenched and trembling like a half-drowned kitten. “Kaz is on the rope.”

  Matthias and Wylan seized the rope to pull him up. Jesper wasn’t sure how much Wylan was actually helping, but he was certainly working hard. They dragged Kaz out of the shaft. He flopped onto his back, gulping air. “Where’s Inej?” he panted. “Where’s Nina?”

  “Already on the embassy roof,” said Matthias.

  “Leave this rope and take the rest,” Kaz said. “Let’s move.”

  Matthias and Wylan tossed the incinerator rope into a grimy heap and grabbed two clean coils. Jesper took one and forced himself to his feet. He followed Kaz to the lip of the roof where Inej had secured a tether that ran from the top of the prison to the embassy sector roof below. Someone had rigged up a sling for those without the Wraith’s particular gift for flouting gravity.

  “Thank the Saints, Djel, and your Aunt Eva,” Jesper said gratefully, and slid down the rope, followed by the others.

  The roof of the embassy was curved, probably to keep the snow off, but it was a bit like walking on the humped back of an enormous whale. It was also decidedly more … porous than the prison roof. It was pocked with multiple points of entry—vents, chimneys, small glass domes designed to let in the light. Nina and Inej were tucked up against the base of the biggest dome, a filigreed skylight that overlooked the embassy’s entry rotunda. It didn’t offer much shelter from the dwindling rain, but should any of the guards on the ringwall turn their attention away from the approach road and onto the rooftops of the Court, the crew would be hidden from view.

  Nina had Inej’s feet in her lap.

  “I can’t get all the rubber off her heels,” she said, as she saw them approaching.

  “Help her,” said Kaz.

  “Me?” Jesper said. “You don’t mean—”

  “Do it.”

  Jesper crawled over to get a better look at Inej’s blistered feet, keenly aware of Kaz tracking his movements. Kaz’s reaction the last time Inej was injured had been more than a little disturbing, though this wasn’t nearly as bad as a stab wound—and this time Kaz didn’t have the Black Tips to blame. Jesper focused on the particles of rubber, trying to draw them away from Inej’s flesh the same way he’d extracted ore from the prison bars.

  Inej knew his secret, but Nina was gaping at him. “You’re a Fabrikator?”

  “Would you believe me if I said no?”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You never asked?” he said lamely.

  “Jesper—”

  “Just leave it alone, Nina.” She pressed her lips together, but he knew this wasn’t the last he’d hear of it. He made himself refocus on Inej’s feet. “Saints,” he said.

  Inej grimaced. “That bad?”

  “No, you just have really ugly feet.”

  “Ugly feet that got you on this roof.”

  “But are we stuck here?” asked Nina. The Elderclock ceased its ringing, and in the silence that followed, she shut her eyes in relief. “Finally.”

  “What happened at the prison?” Wylan said, that panicked crackle back in his voice. “What triggered the alarm?”

  “I ran into two guards,” said Nina.

  Jesper glanced up from his work. “You didn’t put them down?”

  “I did. But one of them got off a few shots. Another guard came running. That was when the bells started.”

  “Damn. So that’s what set off the alarm?”

  “Maybe,” said Nina. “Where were you, Kaz? I wouldn’t have been in the stairwell if I hadn’t wasted time looking for you. Why didn’t you meet me on the landing?”

  Kaz was peering down through the glass of the dome. “I decided to search the cells on the fifth floor, too.”

  They all stared at him. Jesper felt his temper beginning to fray.

  “What the hell is this?” he said. “You take off before Matthias and I get back, then you just decide to expand your search and leave Nina thinking you’re in trouble?”

  “There was something I needed to take care of.”

  “Not good enough.”

  “I had a hunch,” Kaz said. “I followed it.”

  Nina’s expression was pure disbelief. “A hunch?”

  “I made a mistake,” growled Kaz. “All right?”

  “No,” said Inej calmly. “You owe us an explanation.”

  After a moment, Kaz said, “I went looking for Pekka Rollins.” A look passed between Kaz and Inej that Jesper didn’t understand; there was knowledge in it that he’d been locked out of.

  “For Saints’ sake, why?” asked Nina.

  “I wanted to know who in the Dregs leaked information to him.”

  Jesper waited. “And?”

  “I couldn’t find him.”

  “What about the blood on your shirt?” Matthias asked.

  “Run-in with a guard.”

  Jesper didn’t believe it.

  Kaz ran a hand over his eyes. “I screwed up. I made a bad call, and I deserve the blame for it. But that doesn’t change our situation.”

  “What is our situation?” Nina asked Matthias. “What will they do now?”

  “The alarm was Yellow Protocol, a sector disturbance.”

  Jesper pushed at his temples. “I don’t remember what that means.”

  “My guess is that they think someone’s attempting a prison break. That sector is already sealed off from the rest of the Ice Court, so they’ll authorize a search, probably try to figure out who’s missing from the cells.”

  “They’ll find the people we knocked out in the women’s and men’s holding areas,” said Wylan. “We need to get out of here. Forget Bo Yul-Bayur.”

  Matthias cut a dismissive hand through the air. “It’s too late. If the guards think there’s a prison break in progress, the checkpoints will be on high alert. They’re not going to let anyone just walk through.”

  “We could still try,” said Jesper. “We get Inej’s feet patched up—”

  She flexed them, then stood, testing her bare soles on the gravel. “They feel all right. My calluses are gone, though.”

  “I’ll give you an address where you can mail your complaints,” Nina said with a wink.

  “Okay, the Wraith is ambulatory,” Jesper said, rubbing a sleeve over his damp face. The rain had faded away to a light mist. “We find a cozy room to bash some partygoers on the head and waltz out of this place decked in their finest.”

  “Past the embassy gate and two checkpoints?” Matthias said skeptically.

  “They don’t know anyone escaped the prison sector. They saw Nina and Kaz so they know people are out of their cells, but the guards at the checkpoints are going to be looking for hoodlums in prison clothes, not sweet-smelling diplos in fancy dress. We have to do this before they get wise to the fact that six people are on the loose in the outer circle.”

  “Forget it,” said Nina. “I came here to find Bo Yul-Bayur, and I’m n
ot leaving without him.”

  “What’s the point?” said Wylan. “Even if you manage to get to the White Island and find Yul-Bayur, we’ll have no way out. Jesper’s right: We should go now while we still have a chance.”

  Nina folded her arms. “If I have to cross to the White Island alone, I will.”

  “That may not be an option,” said Matthias. “Look.”

  They gathered around the base of the glass dome. The rotunda below was a mass of people, drinking, laughing, greeting each other, a kind of raucous party before the celebrations on the White Island.

  As they watched, a group of new guards pushed into the room, trying to form the crowd into lines.

  “They’re adding another checkpoint,” Matthias said. “They’re going to review everyone’s identification again before they allow people access to the glass bridge.”

  “Because of Yellow Protocol?” asked Jesper.

  “Probably. A precaution.”

  It was like seeing the last bit of their luck drain from a glass.

  “Then that decides it,” said Jesper. “We cut our losses and try to get out now.”

  “I know a way,” Inej said quietly. They all turned to look at her. The yellow light from the dome pooled in her dark eyes. “We can get through that checkpoint and onto the White Island.” She pointed below to where two groups of people had entered the rotunda from the gatehouse courtyard and were shaking the mist from their clothes. The girls from the House of the Blue Iris were easily identified by the color of their gowns and the flowers displayed in their hair and at their necklines. And no one could mistake the men of the Anvil—extensive tattoos on proud display, arms bare despite the chilly weather. “The West Stave delegations have started to arrive. We can get in.”

  “Inej—” said Kaz.

  “Nina and I can get inside,” she continued. Her back was straight, her tone steady. She looked like someone facing the firing squad and saying damn the blindfolds. “We enter with the Menagerie.”

  28

  INEJ

  EIGHT BELLS AND HALF CHIME

  Kaz was watching her intently, his bitter coffee eyes glittering in the light from the dome.

  “You know those costumes,” she said. “Heavy cloaks, hoods. That’s all the Fjerdans will see. A Zemeni fawn. A Kaelish mare.” She swallowed and forced the next words past her lips. “A Suli lynx.” Not people, not even really girls, just lovely objects to be collected. I’ve always wanted to tumble a Zemeni girl, a customer would whisper. A Kaelish girl with red hair. A Suli girl with burnt caramel skin.

  “It’s a risk,” said Kaz.

  “What job isn’t?”

  “Kaz, how are you and Matthias going to get through?” asked Nina. “We might need you for locks, and if things go bad on the island, I don’t want to be stranded. I doubt you can pass yourselves off as members of the Menagerie.”

  “That shouldn’t be a problem,” said Kaz. “Helvar’s been holding out on us.”

  “Have you?” asked Inej.

  “It’s not—” Matthias dragged a hand over his cropped hair. “How do you know these things, demjin?” he growled at Kaz.

  “Logic. The whole Ice Court is a masterpiece of fail-safes and doubled systems. That glass bridge is impressive, but in an emergency, there would have to be another way to get reinforcements to the White Island and get the royal family out.”

  “Yes,” said Matthias in exasperation. “There’s another way to the White Island. But it’s messy.” He glanced at Nina. “And it certainly can’t be done in a gown.”

  “Hold on,” Jesper interrupted. “Who cares if you can all get onto the White Island? Let’s say Nina sparkles Yul-Bayur’s location out of some Fjerdan higher-up, and you get him back here. We’ll be trapped. By then, the prison guards will have completed their search and are going to know six inmates got out of the sector somehow. Any chance we have of making it through the embassy gates and the checkpoints will be gone.”

  Kaz peered past the dome to the embassy’s open courtyard and the ringwall gatehouse beyond.

  “Wylan, how hard would it be to disable one of these gates?”

  “To get it open?”

  “No, to keep it closed.”

  “You mean break it?” Wylan shrugged. “I don’t think it would be too difficult. I couldn’t see the mechanism when we entered the prison gate, but from the layout, I’m guessing it’s pretty standard.”

  “Pulleys, cogs, some really big screws?”

  “Well, yes, and a sizable winch. The cables wrap around it like a big spool, and the guards just turn it with some kind of handle or wheel.”

  “I know how a winch works. Can you take one apart?”

  “I think so, but it’s the alarm system the cables are attached to that’s complicated. I doubt I could do it without triggering Black Protocol.”

  “Good,” said Kaz. “Then that’s what we’ll do.”

  Jesper held up a hand. “I’m sorry, isn’t Black Protocol the thing we want to avoid at all costs?”

  “I do seem to remember something about certain doom,” said Nina.

  “Not if we use it against them. Tonight, most of the Court’s security is concentrated on the White Island and right here at the embassy. When Black Protocol sounds, the glass bridge will shut down, trapping all those guards on the island along with the guests.”

  “But what about Matthias’ route off the island?” asked Nina.

  “They can’t move a major force that way,” Matthias conceded. “At least not quickly.”

  Kaz gazed out at the White Island, head tilted, eyes slightly unfocused.

  “Scheming face,” Inej murmured.

  Jesper nodded. “Definitely.”

  She was going to miss that look.

  “Three gates in the ringwall,” Kaz said. “The prison gate is already locked up tight because of Yellow Protocol. The embassy gate is a bottleneck crammed with guests—the Fjerdans aren’t going to get troops through there. Jesper, that just leaves the gate in the drüskelle sector for you and Wylan to handle. You use it to engage Black Protocol, then wreck it. Break it badly enough that any guards who manage to mobilize can’t get out to follow us.”

  “I’m all for locking the Fjerdans in their own fortress,” said Jesper. “Truly. But how do we get out? Once we trigger Black Protocol, you guys will be trapped on that island, and we’ll be trapped in the outer circle. We have no weapons and no demo materials.”

  Kaz’s grin was sharp as a razor. “Thank goodness we’re proper thieves. We’re going to do a little shopping—and it’s all going on Fjerda’s tab. Inej,” he said, “let’s start with something shiny.”

  * * *

  Beside the big glass dome, Kaz laid out the details of what he had in mind. If the old plan had been daring, it had at least been built on stealth. The new plan was audacious, maybe even mad. They wouldn’t just be announcing their presence to the Fjerdans, they’d be trumpeting it. Again, the crew would be separated, and again, they would time their movements to the chiming of the Elderclock, but now there would be even less room for error.

  Inej searched her heart, expecting to find caution there, fear. But all she felt was ready. This wasn’t a job she was performing to pay off her debt to Per Haskell. It wasn’t a task to be accomplished for Kaz or the Dregs. She wanted this—the money, the dream it would help to secure.

  While Kaz explained and Jesper used the laundry shears to portion out pieces of rope, Wylan helped Inej and Nina prepare. To pass as members of the Menagerie, they would need tattoos. They started with Nina. Using one of Kaz’s lockpicks and copper pyrite Jesper had extracted from the roof, Wylan traced his best imitation of the Menagerie feather on Nina’s arm, following Inej’s description and making corrections as needed. Then Nina sank the ink into her own flesh. A Corporalnik didn’t need a tattoo needle. Nina did her best to smooth the scars on Inej’s forearm. The work wasn’t perfect, but they were short on time and Nina’s calling wasn’t as a Tailor. Wylan sketch
ed a second peacock feather over Inej’s skin.

  Nina paused, “You’re sure?”

  Inej took a deep breath. “It’s war paint,” she said, both to Nina and herself. “It’s my mark to take.”

  “It’s also temporary,” Nina promised. “I’ll remove it as soon as we’re in the harbor.”

  The harbor. Inej thought of the Ferolind with its cheerful flags, and tried to hold that image in her head as she watched the peacock feather sink into her skin.

  The finished tattoos wouldn’t bear up under any kind of close scrutiny, but hopefully they would do.

  Finally, they stood. Inej had predicted that the Menagerie would arrive late—Tante Heleen loved to make an entrance—but they still needed to be in position and ready to move when the time came.

  And yet, they hesitated. The knowledge that they might never see each other again, that some of them—maybe all of them—might not survive this night hung heavy in the air. A gambler, a convict, a wayward son, a lost Grisha, a Suli girl who had become a killer, a boy from the Barrel who had become something worse.

  Inej looked at her strange crew, barefoot and shivering in their soot-stained prison uniforms, their features limned by the golden light of the dome, softened by the mist that hung in the air.

  What bound them together? Greed? Desperation? Was it just the knowledge that if one or all of them disappeared tonight, no one would come looking? Inej’s mother and father might still shed tears for the daughter they’d lost, but if Inej died tonight, there would be no one to grieve for the girl she was now. She had no family, no parents or siblings, only people to fight beside. Maybe that was something to be grateful for, too.

  It was Jesper who spoke first. “No mourners,” he said with a grin.

  “No funerals,” they replied in unison. Even Matthias muttered the words softly.

  “If any of you survive, make sure I have an open casket,” Jesper said as he hefted two slender coils of rope over his shoulder and signaled for Wylan to follow him across the roof. “The world deserves a few more moments with this face.”

  Inej was only slightly surprised to see the intensity of the look that passed between Matthias and Nina. Something had changed between them after the battle with the Shu, but Inej couldn’t be sure what.