The Shadow Crow (A Shadow and Bone: Season 2 Fanfiction)

Chapter 11: Destination: Morozova's Workshop

Somewhere near the Shadow Fold...

Mal, Alina, Baghra and I galloped on our horses to a forest near the Shadow Fold, where we slowed to a walk. Alina, Baghra and I dismounted and led the horses just behind us, whereas Mal still sat on his horse, riding behind us. 

'I know that look,' Baghra remarked to Alina. 'You plan on killing him.' 

'Genya thinks he's dying already.'

'Yes, polluted with merzost,' I chimed in. 'The price of creating those monsters.' 

'I'd like to speed his end, but he is your son,' Alina said to Baghra. 'And your brother.' 

'My brother is dead to me,' I snarled. 

'I'd like to be clear about my intentions,' Alina continued. 

'You're taking to power well, I see,' Baghra remarked. 

'I won't deny it. I want the Firebird. The power of all three. Tearing down the Fold won't kill Kirigan, but I can't get to him unless I can destroy his nichevo'ya. Nikolai's commissioned a hunt for a blade so sharp that it can cut shadow.'

'The Neshyenyer Blade,' I said. 'Yes?' Alina nodded at me. 'Good,' I added with an approving nod. 

'If I made an army similar to his, only of light, then -' Baghra stopped in her tracks. 

'To create such a thing, you'll have to use merzost. Foolish. Swear to me you'll never use it.'

'I swear.' 

'Mean it, girl,' Baghra said, her voice filled with foreboding. 'Merzost creates matter where there was none before. It is magic; it's not the Small Science. You will not know what price it demands until it is too late.' We kept walking. 

'I need a weapon. If not merzost, then the Cut, but I tried before, and -' 

'You mean to kill him in your tethered space,' Baghra spoke. 

'Only this time I can strike harder. He won't trust me if I go to him, but if he comes to me -' 

'He'll kill you first and the chance to save Ravka will die with you,' I spoke. 

'There's nothing to teach with the Cut. It's already there when you want it,' Baghra said. 'It does require practice, though. After we find the Firebird. Besides... it seems you can do damage enough without it.' The three of us looked back to see Mal, morose and silent, riding just behind us as he had done for several hundred paces now. 

Later that evening... 

'Lucky rabbit was just a rabbit. No power in that bone,' Baghra grumbled, eyeing the bone in her hands as the four of us sat around the fire in the forest, the horses tethered to logs nearby. She tossed the bone into the embers. 'Ridiculous. This notion of amplifiers. If it wasn't for Morozova and his rapacious notions, I might still have my little finger.' She woefully looked down at the stump where her finger once was. She looked at Mal. 'You were very fast catching that rabbit.' 

'Mal can make rabbits out of rocks,' Alina said softly. He eyed her and said nothing. 

'You're very good at tracking things,' Baghra remarked. 'Rabbits... and more miraculous creatures. The Stag. The Sea Whip.' 

'Yeah. I'm not having much luck with the Firebird though, am I?' 

'We'll find it once we reach Morozova's workshop,' Alina spoke, attempting to reassure him. 'I don't know where his amplifier is, but it's strange to think he was a real person, not just a myth.'