Crooked Kingdom

by Leigh Bardugo

  They walked down to the boathouse. But before Wylan entered, he bent and plucked a red tulip from its bed. They all followed suit and silently filed inside. One by one, they knelt by Nina and rested a flower upon Matthias’ chest, then stood, surrounding his body, as if now that it was too late, they might protect him.

  Kuwei was the last. There were tears in his golden eyes, and Jesper was glad he’d joined their circle. Matthias was the reason Kuwei and Jesper had survived the ambush on Black Veil; he was one of the reasons Kuwei would have a chance to truly live as a Grisha in Ravka.

  Nina turned her face to the water, looking out at the narrow houses that lined the Geldcanal. Jesper saw that the residents had filled their windows with candles, as if these small gestures might somehow push back the dark. “I’m pretending those lights are for him,” she said. She plucked a stray red petal from Matthias’ chest, sighed, and released his hand, rising slowly. “I know it’s time.”

  Jesper put his arm around her. “He loved you so much, Nina. Loving you made him better.”

  “Did it make a difference in the end?”

  “Of course it did,” said Inej. “Matthias and I didn’t pray to the same god, but we knew there was something beyond this life. He went easier to the next world knowing he’d done good in this one.”

  “Will you stay in Ravka?” asked Wylan.

  “Only long enough to arrange transport to Fjerda. There are Grisha who can help me preserve his body for the journey. But I can’t go home, I can’t rest until he does. I’ll take him north. To the ice. I’ll bury him near the shore.” She turned to them then, as if seeing them for the first time. “What about all of you?”

  “We’ll have to figure out a way to spend our money,” said Kaz.

  “What money?” said Jesper. “It all got poured into the Shu coffers. Like they needed it.”

  “Did it?”

  Nina’s eyes narrowed and Jesper saw a bit of her spirit return. “Stop playing around, Brekker, or I’ll send my unholy army of the dead after you.”

  Kaz shrugged. “I felt the Shu could manage with forty million.”

  “The thirty million Van Eck owed us—” murmured Jesper.

  “Four million kruge each. I’m giving Per Haskell’s share to Rotty and Specht. It will be laundered through one of the Dregs’ businesses before it passes back through the Gemensbank, but the funds should be in separate accounts for you by the end of the month.” He paused. “Matthias’ share will go to Nina. I know money doesn’t matter to—”

  “It matters,” said Nina. “I’ll find a way to make it matter. What will you do with your shares?”

  “Find a ship,” said Inej. “Put together a crew.”

  “Help run an empire,” said Jesper.

  “Try not to run it into the ground,” said Wylan.

  “And you, Kaz?” Nina asked.

  “Build something new,” he said with a shrug. “Watch it burn.”

  Jesper braced himself and said, “Actually, you should put my share in my father’s name. I don’t think … I don’t think I’m ready for that kind of money just yet.”

  Kaz watched him for a long moment. “That’s the right move, Jes.”

  It was a little like forgiveness.

  Jesper felt sorrow dragging at his heart. He was flush with funds for the first time in years. His father’s farm was safe. But none of it felt right.

  “I thought being rich would make everything better,” he said.

  Wylan glanced back at his father’s mansion. “I could have told you it doesn’t work that way.”

  In the distance, bells began to chime. Jesper went to get his father from the garden. Colm stood near the steps of the house, crumpled hat in his hands.

  “At least now we can afford to get you a new hat,” said Jesper.

  “This one’s comfortable.”

  “I’ll come home, Da. When the city is open again. After Wylan gets settled.”

  “He’s a good lad.” Too good for me, thought Jesper. “I hope you really will come home to visit.” Colm looked down at his big hands. “You should meet your mother’s people. The girl your mother saved all those years ago … I’ve heard she’s very powerful.”

  Jesper didn’t know what to say.

  “I … I’d like that. I’m sorry for all of this. For getting you mixed up in it. For almost losing what you worked so hard to build. I … I guess what I mean is, this action will have no echo.”

  “Pardon?”

  “It sounds better in Suli. I’m going to try, Da.”

  “You’re my son, Jesper. I can’t protect you. Maybe I shouldn’t have tried. But I will be there even when you falter. Every time.”

  Jesper hugged his father tight. Remember this feeling, he told himself. Remember all you have to lose. He didn’t know if he was strong enough to keep to the promises he’d made tonight, but he could try to be.

  They walked back down to the boathouse and joined the others.

  Inej placed her hands on Nina’s shoulders. “We’ll see each other again.”

  “Of course we will. You’ve saved my life. I’ve saved yours.”

  “I think you’re ahead on that count.”

  “No, I don’t mean in the big ways.” Nina’s eyes took them all in. “I mean the little rescues. Laughing at my jokes. Forgiving me when I was foolish. Never trying to make me feel small. It doesn’t matter if it’s next month, or next year, or ten years from now, those will be the things I remember when I see you again.”

  Kaz offered his gloved hand to Nina. “Until then, Zenik.”

  “Count on it, Brekker.” They shook.

  Rotty climbed down into the sickboat. “Ready?”

  Kuwei turned to Jesper. “You should visit me in Ravka. We could learn to use our powers together.”

  “How about I push you in the canal and we see if you know how to swim?” Wylan said with a very passable imitation of Kaz’s glare.

  Jesper shrugged. “I’ve heard he’s one of the richest men in Ketterdam. I wouldn’t cross him.”

  Kuwei gave an affronted sniff and lowered himself onto the floor of the sickboat. He folded his arms neatly over his chest.

  “No,” said Kaz. “No. The bodymen don’t bother to arrange them.”

  Kuwei let his hands flop to his sides. Colm was next, and Jesper instantly wanted to forget the image of his father laid out like a corpse.

  They used the blanket to lift Matthias onto the boat, then slid the fabric from beneath him. Nina took the clutch of tulips from his chest and scattered them on the water. She lay down beside him.

  Rotty pushed the long wooden pole against the sandy bottom of the canal. The barge drifted away from the dock. In the dark, he looked like any other bodyman ferrying his grim cargo through the canals. Only the sickboats could pass freely through the city and out of the harbor, collecting the dead to take to the Reaper’s Barge for burning.

  Rotty would bring them up through the manufacturing district, where the Grisha refugees had fled after the auction, after discarding the blue robes they’d worn to pretend to be the Council of Tides. Kaz had known there was no way to transport that many Grisha without attracting notice. So they’d taken the secret passage from the embassy to the tavern, and then paraded down the street in billowing blue robes, faces shrouded in mist, declaring their power instead of attempting to hide it. Jesper supposed there was a lesson there if he wanted to take it. There were only four real Tidemakers among them, but it had been enough. Of course, there had been the chance the real Council of Tides would show up at the auction, but based on their record, Kaz had thought it was worth the risk.

  The Grisha and Sturmhond would be waiting to board the boat not far from Sweet Reef. Once they were all aboard, Rotty would pole them out past the harbor and then send up a flare where Sturmhond’s ship would come to meet them. It was the only way to get a group of refugee Grisha, a farmer who’d helped con the entire Merchant Council, and the body of a boy who had—until a few hours ago—
been the most wanted hostage in the world, out of the city.

  “You’ll have to be still,” Inej murmured.

  “Still as the grave,” Nina replied.

  The barge slid into the canal, and she lifted her hand in farewell, her palm like a white star, bright against the dark. They stood by the water’s edge long after it had faded.

  At some point, Jesper realized Kaz was gone.

  “Not one for goodbyes, is he?” he muttered.

  “He doesn’t say goodbye,” Inej said. She kept her eyes on the lights of the canal. Somewhere in the garden, a night bird began to sing. “He just lets go.”

  43

  KAZ

  Kaz propped his bad leg on a low stool and listened as Anika gave her report on the earnings at the Crow Club and the status of tourist traffic on East Stave. In the three weeks since Kuwei’s auction and the plague panic, Kaz had taken over Per Haskell’s office on the ground floor of the Slat. He still slept on the top floor, but it was easier to do business from Haskell’s lair. He didn’t miss the extra trips up and down the stairs, and his old office felt empty now. Whenever he sat down to try to get some work done, he’d find his eyes straying to the window ledge.

  The city still hadn’t returned to normal, but that had created some interesting opportunities. Prices on the Staves had dropped as people prepared for a long plague outbreak, and Kaz was quick to take advantage. He bought the building next to the Crow Club so that they could expand, and he even managed to acquire a small property on the Lid. When the panic was over and tourism resumed, Kaz was looking forward to fleecing a far higher class of pigeon. He’d also bought out Per Haskell’s shares in the Crow Club for a reasonable price. He could have had them for nothing, given the trouble in the Barrel, but he didn’t want anyone feeling too sorry for the old man.

  When Pekka Rollins returned to the city, Kaz would find a way to cut him out of the business. The last thing he wanted was for the proceeds of his hard work to go into Rollins’ coffers.

  Once Anika finished her recital, Pim gave the details he’d gathered on Van Eck’s trial. The mysterious Johannus Rietveld had not been found, but once Van Eck’s accounts had been laid bare, it had quickly become clear he’d been using the information he’d learned on the Merchant Council to buy up jurda farms. Beyond swindling his friends, tampering with an auction, and kidnapping his own son, there were even suggestions that he’d hired a team to break into a Fjerdan government building and possibly sabotage his own sugar silos. Van Eck was not out on bail. In fact, it didn’t look like he’d be out of jail anytime soon. Though his son had provided a small fund for his legal representation, it could be described as moderate at best.

  Wylan had chosen to use a portion of his newfound wealth to restore his home. He’d given Jesper a small allowance to speculate in the markets, and he’d brought his mother home as well. People in the Geldstraat were shocked to see Marya Hendriks sitting in the park with her son or being rowed down the canal by one of their servants. Sometimes they could be glimpsed from the water, standing before their easels in the Van Eck garden.

  Alys had stayed with them for a time, but eventually she and her terrier had chosen to escape the city and its gossip. She would finish her confinement in the Hendriks lake house, and was said to be making dubious progress in her singing lessons. Kaz was just glad he didn’t live next door.

  “That’s good work,” Kaz said when Pim had finished. He hadn’t thought Pim had much talent for gathering intelligence.

  “Roeder put together the report,” Pim said. “Think he’s gunning for a place as your new spider.”

  “I don’t need a new spider,” said Kaz.

  Pim shrugged. “Wraith’s been scarce. People talk.”

  Kaz dismissed Anika and Pim and sat for a long moment in the quiet office. He’d barely slept in the past few weeks. He’d been waiting nearly half his life for this moment to become a reality, and he was afraid that if he let himself sleep, it might all vanish. Pekka Rollins had fled the city and hadn’t returned. Word was he’d holed up with his son in a country house surrounded by armed men at all times. Between the quarantines at the Emerald Palace, the Kaelish Prince, and the Sweet Shop, and the fact that he wasn’t around to put things to rights, Pekka Rollins’ businesses were on the brink of collapse. There was even talk of mutiny within the Dime Lions. Their boss was gone, and the deal he’d made with Van Eck had made them look no better than a rich man’s henchmen. They might as well be stadwatch.

  Brick by brick. Eventually, Rollins would dig himself out of the rubble. Kaz would have to be ready.

  A knock sounded at the door. The one problem with being on the ground floor was that people were a lot more likely to bother you.

  “Letter came,” Anika said, and tossed it on his desk. “Looks like you’re keeping fast company, Brekker,” she said with a sly smile.

  Kaz let his glance at the door do the talking. He wasn’t interested in watching Anika bat her yellow lashes.

  “Right,” she said, and vanished, closing the door behind her.

  Kaz held the letter up to the light. The seal was pale blue wax, marked with a golden double eagle. He slit open the envelope, read the letter’s contents, and burned both. Then he wrote a note of his own and sealed it in black wax.

  Kaz knew Inej had been staying at Wylan’s house. Occasionally, he’d find a scrawled note on his desk—some bit of information about Pekka or the doings at the Stadhall—and he’d know she’d been here in his office. He slipped on his coat, took up his hat and cane, and tucked the paper into his pocket. He could have sent a messenger, but he wanted to deliver this note himself.

  Kaz strode past Anika and Pim on the way out of the Slat. “I’ll be back in an hour,” he said, “and I better not still see you podges wasting your time here.”

  “Hardly anyone at the club,” said Pim. “Tourists are too scared of the plague.”

  “Go to the rooming houses where all the frightened pigeons are waiting out the panic. Show them you’re in the pink of health. Make sure they know you just had a fine time playing Three Man Bramble at the Crow Club. If that doesn’t work, get your asses to the harbors and drum up some pigeons from the workers on the boats.”

  “I just came off a shift,” protested Pim.

  Kaz settled his hat on his head and ran a thumb over the brim. “Didn’t ask.”

  * * *

  He cut east through the city. He was tempted to take a detour, just to see for himself how things were proceeding on West Stave. Between the Shu attack and the plague outbreak, the pleasure houses were practically deserted. Several streets had been barricaded to enforce the quarantine surrounding the Sweet Shop and the Menagerie. Rumor had it Heleen Van Houden wasn’t going to make her rent that month. A pity.

  There were no browboats operating, so he had to make the journey up to the financial district on foot. As he wended his way along a small, deserted canal, he saw a thick mist rising off the water. Only a few steps later, it was so dense he could barely see. The mist clung to his coat, wet and heavy, thoroughly out of place on a warm spring day. Kaz paused on the low bridge that spanned the canal, waiting, cane at the ready. A moment later, three hooded figures emerged to his left. Three more appeared to his right, their blue cloaks moving sinuously through the air, though there was no breeze. That much Kaz had gotten right, but their masks weren’t made of mist. Instead, the real Council of Tides—or a very convincing set of pretenders—wore something that gave the impression of looking into a starry night sky. Nice effect.

  “Kaz Brekker,” said the lead Tidemaker. “Where is Kuwei Yul-Bo?”

  “Dead and gone. Burnt to ashes on the Reaper’s Barge.”

  “Where is the real Kuwei Yul-Bo?”

  Kaz shrugged. “A church full of people saw him get shot. A medik pronounced him dead. Beyond that, I can’t help you.”

  “You do not want the Council of Tides as an enemy, young man. None of your shipments will ever leave port again. We will flood
Fifth Harbor.”

  “By all means, do. I don’t own shares in Fifth Harbor anymore. You want to stop my shipments, you’ll have to stop every boat coming in and out of the harbor. I’m not a merch. I don’t charter ships and register trade manifests. I’m a thief and a smuggler. Try to catch hold of me and you’ll find you’re trying to hold air.”

  “Do you know how easy it is to drown?” asked the Tidemaker. He lifted a hand. “It can happen anywhere.”

  Suddenly Kaz felt his lungs filling with water. He coughed, spat seawater, and bent double, gasping.

  “Tell us what we want to know,” said the Tidemaker.

  Kaz drew a stuttering breath. “I don’t know where Kuwei Yul-Bo is. You can drown me where I stand and nothing will change that.”

  “Then maybe we’ll find your friends and drown them in their beds.”

  Kaz coughed and spat again. “And maybe you’ll find the obelisk towers under plague quarantine.” The Tides shifted uneasily, the mists moving with them. “I made those sirens sound. I created this plague, and I control it.”

  “A bluff,” said the Tidemaker, his sleeve gliding through the mist.

  “Try me. I’ll spread sickness around every one of your towers. They’ll become epicenters of disease. You think the Merchant Council won’t lock you all down? Demand you finally register your identities? They’d probably be happy for the excuse.”

  “They wouldn’t dare. This country would sink were it not for us.”

  “They won’t have a choice. The public will clamor for action. They’ll burn the towers from the ground up.”

  “Monstrous boy.”

  “Ketterdam is made of monsters. I just happen to have the longest teeth.”

  “The secret of jurda parem can never be revealed to the world. No Grisha would ever be safe again. Not here. Not anywhere.”

  “Then it’s lucky for you it died with that poor Shu kid.”

  “We won’t forget this, Kaz Brekker. One day you’ll regret your insolence.”

  “Tell you what,” said Kaz. “When that day comes, mark it on your calendars. I can think of a lot of people who’ll want to throw a party.”