ASRA WASN'T USED TO WORRYING ABOUT PEOPLE. It wasn't a pleasant feeling. But it kept coming back. Inej had steeled herself, back straight and voice steady, but even so. Asra knew the torture she'd endured at the Menagerie, and as she spoke, Asra had the oddest urge to reach out and comfort her. Horrible.
"You know those costumes. Heavy cloaks, hoods, that's all the Fjerdans will see. A Zemeni fawn. A Kaelish mare. A Ravkan fox." She swallowed. "A Suli lynx."
"It's a risk." Kaz said.
"What job isn't?"
And that was that. Nina and Inej would enter with the Menagerie. Matthias had some mysterious secret entrance to the White Island. Jesper and Wylan and Asra would head to the gate to break it.
"No," Kaz said to her. "You'll be with Inej and Nina. I want as many people as possible looking for Yul-Bayur."
Asra nodded. The thought of it didn't really bother her. West Stave had always been her Plan B. She'd been owned and used all her life, and sex was never something she particularly despised.
Asra, Inej, Nina and Wylan sat down on the roof together. Wylan sketched the feather tattoo of Menagerie indentures onto their wrists and Nina Tailored the ink into their skin.
She moved over Inej's wrist. "You're sure?"
Inej's took a breath. "It's war paint. My mark to take."
"It's also temporary." Nina promised. "I'll remove it as soon as we're in the harbour."
Inej nodded. Nina moved on to do Asra's.
"You should probably do a few of my scars too." Asra said as Nina worked on her wrist.
Nina nodded. "Can I ask why you have so many? It's almost like you get them on purpose."
Asra shrugged. "I did. They remind me, I don't know, the fights I've won, the fact I'm still here. They're kinda my thing." The Scarred One, that's what they used to call her. She'd come to love the name.
"One day, Asra Behandelar, I'm going to understand what comes out of your mouth."
Asra laughed. "Nina my dear, I'd rather die."
Nina rolled her eyes. She finished up Asra's wrist and got to work on a few of her scars. She was stalling, Asra knew it. They all were. This wasn't like any other job they'd done. This might not work. Even Asra knew it, deep down. They knew they might not survive the night. And they knew if they didn't, no one would care.
"No mourners," Jesper said, grinning.
"No funerals." They finished.
Jesper slung the ropes over his shoulders. "If any of you survive, make sure I have an open casket. The world deserves a few more moments with this face."
Jesper and Wylan headed across the roof. Nina and Matthias slipped away for a private word. Inej uttered a soft prayer. Asra found herself picking up Kaz's gloves and walking over to him.
"Here." She held them out to him. "We found them in a clothes bin. Inej used them in her climb."
Kaz took them without thanks or word. He held them a moment, bare hands closed around leather.
"Your scars are gone." He muttered.
Asra looked away. "I had Nina do it. I get the feeling battle scars aren't what Fjerdans look for in whores. It's temporary."
Nina had taken care of the scar along Asra's lower lip, the one running through her brow. Kaz was still without his gloves. Small things, temporary, but they still somehow felt wrong without them. Exposed, naked. Scars, gloves, it was armour all the same. What were they without it? Scared, vulnerable children? They had no right to such titles, not after everything.
"Don't die." She said, because that was the best they could really hope for. She turned away.
Kaz gripped her wrist.
Asra froze. She felt Kaz start to shake, an almost imperceptible tremor. Still, she'd spent her life looking for weakness and cracks. She'd grown too good at it all.
His hands were bare, cold yet clammy against her wrist. Kaz's fingers moved to rest over her pulse.
"Asra," he said. "If we don't make it out -"
"We will." She said, looking at him over her shoulder. I always do. She was like a cockroach. She just wouldn't die. She turned back to Kaz, staring up into his face. The terror was back, dilated pupils and shaking breath. She always made it out. And she refused to let him fall behind.
"Either way," Kaz said. "I want you to know..."
She stared, waiting, hopeful despite herself. She waited for him to find the words, whatever there was between growing thicker and thicker by the second until Asra felt she might choke. She wanted to touch him, squeeze his hand, cup his face, see what it was like to be totally helpless with a monster who was just as bad as her. But she couldn't. She knew she couldn't. She offered him a smile instead.
"Tell me on the Ferolind." She said, then left. He'd have to tell her. He'd have to live. It was a promise she made for him to herself. Pathetic really but Kaz had a habit of drawing out her worst parts.
She didn't want to look back as Kaz walked away, but she did. Again, she found him looking back.
Asra, Inej and Nina huddled around the edge of the domed skylight to watch. Below, the awaiting guests were being searched for weapons. Soon enough, the Menagerie girls entered, gowns gleaming, cloaks hiding their faces. The Suli lynx, Kaelish mare, Ravkan rox, Zemeni fawn, Shu serpant, Southen leopard, raven, ermine, and lastly, shimmering in teal and diamonds, the Peacock, Heleen Van Houden. Her dress was gleaming satin, her head of golden hair framed by peacock feathers, diamond necklace tight around her throat.
"Subtle." Nina noted.
"Subtle doesn't sell in the Barrel." Inej said. She whistled, high and trilling. Across the roof, Jesper whistled back.
Nina squinted down at Heleen. "How does she keep from collapsing under the weight of those diamonds? They can't possibly be real."
"Oh, they're real." Inej said. She pointed at a group of girls moving to be seatched. "Them."
The Suli lynx, Kaelish mare, Ravkan fox.
Inej opened a vent and slipped inside. Nina crammed in behind her. Asra went last, crawling behind Nina.
They stopped, Asra assumed, near a grate overlooking the girls' room. She couldn't see a thing past Nina, but just made out the guards within giving the girls five minutes to get ready.
"Go." Inej whispered to Nina.
"I need you to move."
"Why?"
"Because I need a clear line of sight and right now all I can see is your ass."
Asra snorted. Inej must've moved, Asra couldn't hear or see her, and Nina shuffled forward. Asra heard bodies hit the floor, the grate being forced open, and watched Nina tumble down into the room. Asra stuck her head out to survey the heap Nina had become. Inej was already inside, on her feet and smiling.
"You're very graceful in battle, just not when you're plummeting." She said.
"Missed that day in school."
"Clearly." Asra said. "Move."
Nina got to her feet. She and Inej got to work stripping the Kaelish and Suli girls. Asra slipped from the vent, landing on her feet with a skight stumble, and started on the Ravkan fox. Sly, cunning, lying. She could be a fox.
The girls were bound and gagged in strips torn from the curtains and shoved in the wardrobe. Nina bleeded the red of the Kaelish's hair into her own. Asra found a small makeup powder to hide her scars with.
The fox's outfit was a redish orange. Her arms were covered in loose and light sleeves. She shoulders were bare. Two thin strips of silk ran along her body, crossing over her otherwise bare back, just keeping her concealed. The skirt faded into white and barely passed half her thighs. It was pleated into a tail at the back. The slippers were flimsy and horrible. Asra looked at herself in the mirror and checked for any too noticeable beamishes to her skin.
The lynx was all loose purple silk. It was too big on Inej, the girl she stole it from a whole different shape. Bells sat around her ankles, painted spots her bare shoulders and face. She swept her cloak over her shoulders.
The mare was... not a mare.
"What the hell am I supposed to be?" Nina asked, looking down at her shining blue-green dress. It was made of scales, far too small, too low in the neck and high in the skirt.
"Maybe a mermaid? Or a wave?" Inej suggested.
"I thought I was a horse."
"Well they weren't going to put you in a dress of hooves." Inej said.
"Then they shouldn't call it a horse." Asra said, pulling her cloak on.
Nina ran a hand over her dress. "I'm about to be very popular."
"I wonder what Matthias would say about that outfit." Inej said, smirking slightly.
"He wouldn't approve." Nina said.
"He doesn't approve of anything about you. But when he sees you he spirngs up like a tulip in fresh water." Inej said.
Nina snorted. "Matthias the tulip."
"The big, brooding, yellow tulip." Inej said.
Nina pulled her hood low over her face. "Are you ready?"
"Yes." Inej said. It was the truth.
Asra pulled her hood up. "Let's go flirt."
Nina snorted. "I'll flirt, you can try not to kill anyone."
"I can flirt." Asra said indignantly. "I just don't do it with you lot. It'd be awkward."
Nina nodded. "Prove it."
Asra laughed a laugh she hadn't laughed in a good while. Her voice was a purr as she leaned closer to Nina. "Darling, I can do everything."
Nina blinked. "Well, I stand corrected."
"You ever get sick of that Fjerdan, come see me." She grinned.
"We'll need a distraction." Inej said. "They're going to notice four girls going in and only three coming out."
"Leave it to me." Nina said. "And watch your hem."
They stepped out. Nina flexed her fingers. One guard's nose started to bleed excessively. The other double over, slightly green.
"Your hem." Nina repeated, voice calm, just as the one guard vomited.
They all skitted in disgust and moved away. Then Asra smirked at Nina. "You enjoyed that, didn't you?"
She shrugged. "Perhaps."
They filed into the rotunda, keeping as far from the actual Menagerie girls as possible. They joined the quickest moving line and, after some eye batting and honeyed words, Nina and Asra made it through. Inej didn't have as much luck.
A captain wandered over to see to the hold up. "What is it?"
"She's Suli, for sure, and she has the Menagerie tattoo, but it doesn't look quite right." The guard said.
"I got a bad burn as a child." Inej said.
The captain waved Inej over to a different line. "Anyone suspicious goes over there. Put her with them and we'll have her taken back to the checkpoint to have her papers reviewed."
"I'll miss the party." Inej protested.
She was ignored, and the guard dragged her off towards the other line. She set Asra and Nina a look over her shoulder, the message clear. Go.
Asra and Nina shared a glance, nod, turned and headed across the glass bridge. It was completely transparent, the ice moat still below them. It was odd, but Asra rather liked the illusion of flight. She and Nina were silent as they crossed, and that gave Asra time to fully shift into the Ravkan fox the people around her saw.
She stood tall, smiled and smirked at whoever caught her eye, moved with playfulness Asra would never allow. By the time they reached the White Island, the fox was ready.
They entered the palace, a grand building of white marble similar to the Ice Court. In the bustling ballroom, great ice statues of wolves chased each other about the room. Almost everyone inside was some dignitary or general or higher up. Asra and Nina shared a nod and split up. They needed someone who'd know where Yul-Bayur was, some drüskelle or guard. The fox prowled along the edge of the room, scouring the security's face for someone she could use.
She almost faltered when she spotted Kaz staring at her. Almost. Then she smirked.
He wore a guards uniform. Matthias was nowhere to be seen with him. The fox sent him a smirk, stood with her hands laced behind her back and her head cocked to the side. She was teasing. Something flickered in Kaz's face, but he quickly righted himself. Asra laughed slightly to herself and headed over.
"Kerch, yes?" She said, adding an accent to her Fjerdan. Kaz just nodded. The fox's smiled widely and bounced to stand beside him, hand laced behind her back and body thrown forward. "It seems I've caught your eye, good sir."
Kaz smirked back. "It seems you have."
She hasn't expected him to indulge her. The smile suddenly came easier.
"Perhaps you'd know of a place we can... slip away?" She didn't know his plan, how far along they were. Had Nina found someone who could lead her to Yul-Bayur? Or was she talking to Matthias? She could stall if she needed to. Flirting with Kaz was oddly fun.
His eyes flickered across the room. Asra followed his gaze and spotted Nina. She was on the arm of some older Fjerdan man, a drüskelle general.
Kaz looked back to the fox. "Wouldn't it be bad manners to slip away with a stranger?" He said. "Tell me something, my darling. Tell me about you."
What game did he think this was? Whatever it was, the fox was happy to play along.
"I've enough stories to keep us up all night. Though," she ran a hand over the buttons of his shirt, fingers featherlight. She couldn't help herself. "I have other ways of keeping us up. Ways I think we'd both prefer."
Kaz was smirking like anything. Asra smirked back.
His eyes flickered across the room, to Nina and the general. He was leading her away. Kaz's face flickered, the smallest slip into who he really was. It was gone in a moment as soon as the fox craned forward into his view.
"You'd rather a mare?" She teased.
Kaz laughed. "No, darling. I'd rather you."
Why did that stir something inside her? "I'm flattered, good sir." How she would've loved to say his name. She stepped closer, raised onto her toes to get whisper in his ear. She was pushing it. She was teetering on an edge they couldn't afford to cross. Somehow that made it so much more fun.
"Let's get out of here, Kaz. Before one of us does something stupid."
She could've sworn he shuddered. She stepped away. Kaz was still smirking, and he wordlessly headed across the room after Nina. The fox followed.
Matthias came into view quickly, trailing after Nina and the general. He led Nina across the White Island to the treasury, Nina flirting as much information out of the drüskelle as possible. They headed inside, Matthias following behind. Kaz and Asra, back to themselves by then, ducked behind an ice statue to watch and wait.
Asra watched the doors of the treasury closely, thankful for her heavy cloak. She only looked away when she heard Kaz gag, just in time to watch him cough up packets of Wylan's root bombs, pouch of chloropellets, and yet another set of lockpicks. She blinked.
"I've been on enough jobs to have done basically everything, but I've never swallowed my gear before."
Kaz grinned. "Amateur."
Asra gave him a dull look. She and Kaz scoped out the treasury, but by the time they were done there was still no sign of Nina and Matthias. Asra and Kaz were just planning how to get inside when the Elderclock chimed Black Protocol. The drüskelle crouched before the sacred ash tree shot up, yelling orders and running about frantically when Nina, Matthias, and a Shu man who must've been Bo Yul-Bayur ran out the treasury. No, not a man. A boy. Asra didn't have time to worry about it. Half the building blew a moment later.
"Did we plan that?" Asra asked.
"No." Kaz said. He shoved the root bombs into Asra's hands. "The ash." He said. Nothing else was needed. She nodded, turned, and ran.
Asra knelt at the sacred ash tree, the voice of Djel, a god. She wasted no time setting up the bombs.
She was hidden in its shadow, one eye on Nina and Matthias and Yul-Bayur as drüskelle surrounded them. She half listened to one recognise Matthias, hurl insults and curses in his face. She half watched as he took out a whip and launched it at the three. Their arms were pinned to their sides, barbs shot from the thong. Yul-Bayur screamed, Matthias grunted, Nina gasped, the drüskelle laughed. Then he yelped, dropped dead with blood pouring from his mouth. Another drüskelle grabbed the whip, one with gloved hands and a crooked gait. Kaz.
The rot bombs sounded with a repeated popping. The ash topped with a groan. The drüskelle screamed. Asra smiled. She'd brought down a god.
Her mother would've been proud.
A roar came from the hole beneath the ash. Asra couldn't see down it.
"This is going to sting a bit." Kaz said. "But if we live you'll thank me for it."
He grabbed the Shu boy, spared Asra a look, and lept down the hole. Nina and Matthias, still caught in the whip, were dragged behind him. Asra laughed to herself, a manic and crazed sound, and lept into the mouth of God.
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Author's note:
I like this ;)