CHAPTER 21
No Mourners
Vellgeluk was silent and dark, the small island well outside of Ketterdam's harbor watch. Brynn changed out of her nightgown as soon as she woke up and got out of her hammock. She'd found a new appreciation for blouses and suspenders, a noticeable lack of gloves in the compartment she shared with Sasha.
She tried visiting Nina after she woke, but Matthias told her it would be best if she let the girl rest. Brynn didn't think that was the complete reason why, but she didn't argue with love.
Sasha would stay with Specht, Wylan, and Nina, safely far away from Vellgeluk. Their goodbye was cut short by Kaz, telling them that they needed to get going if they were going to get their money.
The rest of them rowed out from the Ferolind with Rotty on the longboat. "Where's the other longboat?" asked Jesper.
"Repairs," replied Kaz.
When their longboat made it to shore, Brynn jumped down and helped the others pull it onto the sand. Brynn saw Jesper check his revolvers, Inej touching each of her knives, lips moving, Matthias adjusting the rifle strapped to his back and rolling his enormous shoulders. Brynn silently checked the rings on her bare fingers. Anything could happen, so she'd need to be prepared for anything. Brynn met gazes with Kaz, but he quickly looked away.
"All right," he said. "Let's go get rich."
"No mourners," called Rotty from the longboat.
"No funerals," they replied.
Brynn knew it was Van Eck before she got close to see his face properly. He wore mercher's black, accompanied by a tall Shu man with his dark hair bound at the nape of his neck, and followed by a group of stadwatch in their purple coats, all carrying batons and rifles. Two men lugged a heavy trunk between them, staggering slightly at the weight.
"So that's what forty million kruge looks like," said Kaz.
Jesper whistled. "Hopefully, the longboat won't sink."
"Just you, Van Eck?" Kaz asked the mercher. "The rest of the Council couldn't be bothered?"
Now that they were closer, Brynn could see the resemblance between Jan Van Eck and Wylan Van Eck. Immediately, Brynn didn't like Jan Van Eck.
"The Council felt I was best suited to this task, as we've had dealing before."
Kaz glanced at the ruby pin stuck to Van Eck's tie. "Nice pin. Not as nice as the other one, though."
Van Eck's lips pursed. "The other was an heirloom." Brynn suspected the thief from Ketterdam had stolen the first pin from the mercher. "Well?" asked the Shu man beside him.
"That's Kuwei Yul-Bo. It's been a year since I've seen him. He's quite a bit taller now, but he's the spitting image of his father." Brynn nearly laughed, but kept it to herself. "It is good to see you again, Kuwei. I apologize about your father." The Shu man bowed to Kuwei.
The boy glanced at Kaz, before returning the bow. There was a sheen of sweat on his brow.
Van Eck smiled. "I will confess I am surprised, Mister Brekker. Surprised but delighted."
"You didn't think we'd succeed."
"Let's say I thought you were a long shot."
"Is that why you hedged your bets?"
"Ah, so you've spoken to Pekka Rollins."
"He's quite a talker when you get him in the right frame of mind." Brynn remembered the blood on Kaz's shirt at the prison and nearly shivered. Kaz continued. "He said you contracted him and the Dime Lions to go after Yul-Bayur for the Merchant Council as well."
Van Eck shrugged. "It was best to be safe."
"And why should you care if a bunch of canal rats blow each other to bits in pursuit of a prize?"
"We knew the odds of either team succeeding were small," explained Van Eck. "As a gambler, I hope you can understand." But Kaz was no gambler. He never left anything up to chance.
"Forty million kruge will soothe my hurt feelings," said Kaz emotionlessly.
Van Eck gestured to the guards behind him and they set the trunk down in front of Kaz. He nodded at Brynn and she crouched down beside it to open the lid. Stacks coupons stacks of bills in the palest Kerch purple, emblazoned with the three flying fish bound in paper bands sealed with wax.
Inej drew in a breath and Jesper whistled again.
"Even your money is a peculiar color," said Matthias.
"I think my mouth just watered," Jesper breathed.
Brynn picked up one of the stacks, running her fingers over the bills, before reaching down another layer to make sure Van Eck hadn't tried to bunk them. She was a little surprised that Kaz had trusted her with this job, but she did it without question.
"It's all there," she said finally. Brynn stood up as Kaz looked over his shoulder and waved Kuwei forward. The boy crossed over and onto the heavily armed and guarded side of the island. Van Eck gestured him over to his side and gave him a pat on the back.
Brynn took her spot next to Kaz again. "Well, Van Eck. I'd like to say it's been a pleasure, but I'm not that good a liar. We'll take our leave."
Van Eck stepped in front of Kuwei and said, "I'm afraid I can't allow that, Mister Brekker."
Kaz leaned on his cane, watching Van Eck with interest. "Is there a problem?"
"I count several right in front of me. And there's no way any of you are getting off this island."
Van Eck pulled a whistle from his pocket and blew a shrill note on it as his servants drew their weapons and an unnatural, howling wind came out of nowhere, whirling around the island as the sea began to rise. Brynn glimpsed the sailors by the mercher's longboat on the other side of the island lift their arms, waves gathering behind them.
"Tidemakers," growled Matthias as he reached for his rifles.
Two more figures launched themselves from the deck of the mercher's ship far off in the distance.
"Squallers!" Jesper shouted. "They're using parem!"
The Squallers circled in the sky, wind whipping Brynn's hair every which way. She stepped into a fighting stance, her hands ready to make sparks with the rings on her fingers at a moments' notice.
"You kept part of the stash Yul-Bayur sent to the Council," said Kaz, his dark eyes narrowed at the mercher.
The wind shrieked around them, the Squallers keeping themselves afloat in the air easily. Brynn really hoped Kaz had planned for Grisha on parem.
"The deal is the deal, Van Eck," called Kaz over the wailing winds. "If the Merchant Council fails to honor its end of this bargain, no one from the Barrel will ever traffic with any of you again. Your word will be meaningless."
"That would be a problem, Mister Brekker, if the Council knew anything about this deal."
Understanding dawned on Brynn. "They were never involved," she breathed. They'd survived the Ice Court, just to be duped by some mercher from Ketterdam.
"You wanted Yul-Bayur," said Kaz. "You wanted the formula for parem."
Van Eck admitted the truth with a single nod. "Neutrality is a luxury Kerch has too long enjoyed. The members of the Council think that their wealth protects them, that they can sit back and count their money while the world squabbles."
"And you know better?" asked Kaz.
"Indeed, I do. Jurda parem is not a secret that can be kept or quashed or stashed in a cabin on the Zemeni frontier."
"So all your talk of trade lines and markets collapsing—"
"Oh, it will all happen just as I predicted, Mister Brekker. I'm counting on it. As soon as the Council received Bo Yul-Bayur's message, I began buying up jurda fields in Novyi Zem. When parem is unleashed on the world, every country, every government will be clamoring for a ready supply of it to use on their Grisha."
"Chaos," said Matthias.
"Yes," conceded Van Eck. "Chaos will come, and I will be its master. Its very wealthy master."
"You will be ensuring slavery and death for Grisha everywhere," said Brynn.
"Ah, the Inferni I've heard so much about. How old are you, girl? Sixteen, seventeen? I do wonder what parem might do to someone like you." Brynn saw Kaz clench his cane tighter. "Nations rise and fall. Markets are made and unmade. When power shifts, someone always suffers."
"When profit shifts," Jesper shot back.
"Aren't they one and the same?"
"When the Council finds out—" Inej began.
"The Council will never hear of this," Van Eck said. "Why do you think I chose scum from the Barrel as my champions? Oh, you are resourceful and far more clever than any mercenaries, I give you that. But more important, you will not be missed."
Van Eck lifted his hand. The Tidemakers spun their arms and they turned as they heard a yell. A coil of water loomed over Rotty, just barely missing him as he dove for cover and smashing their longboat to bits.
"None of you will leave this island, Mister Brekker. All of you will vanish and nobody will care." He raised his hand again, the Tidemakers spinning their arms again, and a massive wave made its way to the Ferolind.
"No!" cried Jesper.
"Van Eck!" Kaz shouted. "Your son is on that ship."
Van Eck's gaze snapped to Kaz. He blew his whistle again and the Tidemakers froze, waiting for his instructions. Van Eck dropped his hand reluctantly. The wave fell back into the ocean harmlessly.
"My son?" Van Eck asked.
"Wylan Van Eck."
"Mister Brekker, surely you must know that I sent my son packing months ago."
"I know you've written to Wylan every week since he left your household, begging him to return. Those are not the actions of a man who doesn't care for his only son and heir."
Van Eck began to laugh, humorless and full of bitterness. "Let me tell you about my son." He spat the word onto the sand beneath their feet. "He was meant to be heir to one of the greatest fortunes in all of Kerch, an empire with shipping lines that reach all over the globe, one built by my father, and my father's father. But my son, the boy meant to rule this great empire, cannot do what a child of seven years can. He can solve an equation. He can paint and play the flute most prettily. What my son cannot do, Mister Brekker, is read. He cannot write. I have hired the best tutors from every corner of the world. I've tried specialists, tonics, beatings, hypnotism. But he refused to be taught. I finally had to accept that Ghezen saw fit to curse me with a moron for a child. Wylan is a boy who will never grow to be a man. He is a disgrace to my house."
"The letters..." Jesper said, and Brynn could see the anger in his face as his brain processed the information. "You weren't pleading with him to come back. You were mocking him. He's your son."
Brynn had heard the others talk about what might have made the boy leave his home, about the letters his father had sent him, begging him to come home. The boy was nothing but sweet to her and everyone else, intelligent in many ways Brynn could never imagine.
"No, he is a mistake. One soon to be corrected. My lovely young wife is carrying a child, and be it a boy or girl or creature with horns, that child will be my heir, not some soft-pated idiot who cannot read a hymnal, let alone a ledger, not some fool who would make the Van Eck name a laughingstock."
"You're the fool," snarled Jesper. "He;s smarter than most of us put together, and he deserves a better father than you."
"Deserved," amended Van Eck. He blew the whistle twice.
Before anyone could stop them, the Tidemakers shot two huge walls of water at the Ferolind. The ship was crushed between the two waves of water with a loud boom, sending debris flying everywhere.
Jesper screamed in rage and raised his guns.
"Jesper!" Kaz said. "Stand down!"
"He killed them," Jesper argued. "He killed Wylan and Nina."
Matthias laid a hand on his arm. "Jesper. Be still," he said calmly.
Jesper looked between the reckages of the ship and his crew. "I don't... I don't understand."
And he shouldn't have. Matthias came to Brynn with Kaz's plan, and she thought it was a great idea. Every last bit of it. Their friends were safely stashed somewhere else.
"I confess to being a bit shocked, too, Mister Brekker," said Van Eck. "No tears? No righteous protests for your lost crew? They raise you cold in the Barrel."
"Cold and cautious," said Kaz.
"Not cautious enough, it seems. At least you won't live to regret your mistakes."
"Tell me, Van Eck. Will you do penance? Ghezen frowns on broken contracts."
Van Eck's eyes narrowed. "What have you given to the world, Mister Brekker? Have you created wealth? Prosperity? No. You take from honest men and women and serve only yourself. Ghezen shows his favor to those who are deserving, to those who build cities, not the rats who eat away at their foundations. He had blessed me and my dealings. You will perish, and I will prosper. That is Ghezen's will."
Man, this mercher really likes to talk a lot, thought Brynn
"There's just one problem, Van Eck," said Kaz. "You'll need Kuwei Yul-Bo to do it."
"A sorry bluff at best."
"I'm not big on bluffing, am I, Brynn?"
She shrugged. "Not as a rule."
Van Eck's lip curled. "And why is that?"
"Because he'd rather cheat," said the boy who was not Kuwei Yul-Bo in perfect Kerch, no accent in his voice. He held out his hand. "Pay up, Kaz."
Kaz sighed in defeat. "I do hate to lose a wager. You see, Van Eck, Wulan bet me that you would have no qualms about ending his life. Call me sentimental, but I didn't believe a father could be so callous."
Van Eck stared at Kuwei-not-Kuwei. Brynn watched as he struggled with the reality of Wylan's voice coming from Kuwei's mouth. Brynn felt a little bad at Jesper's incredulous expression, but Kaz told them not to tell him.
"It's not possible," said Van Eck.
Brynn admitted the first time she'd seen Wylan tailored as Kuwei, she believed it, too. Even though they had differences in height and face shape, both boys were nearly identical in body shape. The perfect plan.
She crossed her arms, looking at the mercher. "I've learned that you should never say something is impossible, because it's happened right in front of my own eyes more times than I could count."