ASRA HATED BEING HUMAN. She'd spent her whole life being told she wasn't, and most the time she actually believed it. She was told, constantly, she was no one and nothing. There was no name for what she was. She was an idea, a concept, an omen, a nightmare.
She was told she was less than human. But she'd always known that was wrong. She was so much more.
A God Complex. That's what the physiatrist called it. She'd seen one after losing a bet with one of her brothers. The doctor called it delusion. Asra called it confidence.
No normal creature, no mere human could go through what she had and live to tell the tale. She'd bled enough flood an empire, and yet there she stood. What could level a nation with nothing but its own pain beside the divine? What could she be other than Beyond?
Most the time, anyway. On a few rare occasions, those so-called delusions fell away and Asra was just a sixteen-year-old girl who'd been through hell, was desperate for a nap, and really worried about her friend.
Because she trusted Inej. Inej had scaled six stories of burning bricks for them. She'd made her life out of silence and secrecy on the rain-slicked rooftops of this wretched city. She'd trained for the highwire since she was a child. She was the Wraith.
And yet...
Nina threw up her hands. "And all this without a net, I suppose?"
Inej looked at Nina like she'd just insulted her mother. "A Ghafa does not perform with a net."
"Does a Ghafa frequently perform twenty stories above cobblestones?"
"There will be a net." Kaz said. "It's in place behind the silo guardhouse already, under a sack of sandbags."
Inej was shocked. "I don't need a net."
"You don't need a safety setting on a gun, but it's nice to know you're not gonna accidentally kill yourself." Asra said, hands on the table.
Kaz glanced at his watch. "We have six hours to sleep and heal up. I'll nab supplys from Cirkus Zirkoa, they're camped on the western outskirts of town. Inej, make a list of what you need. We hit the silos in twenty-four hours."
"Absolutely not." Nina said. "Asra needs to rest."
"I'm fine." Asra said. Then her knees went.
One week. Seven days. She hadn't slept or eaten in seven days. She braced herself for the stone against her knees, maybe her chin against the tabletop if she was unlucky. She was aware of everyone yelling and rushing towards her, but it seemed blurred somehow. She braced herself for the fall, till an arm wrapped itself around her waist and dropped her into the nearest chair.
Asra held up her hand before anyone else could touch her. She blinked a few times, shifting in the chair and looking at no one. "I just need a few hours sleep and proper meal and I'll be good to go. Maybe a strong coffee. I'll be fine. I am fine."
Jesper rolled his eyes. "Right, because collapsing without warning is fine."
"Isn't that how things are done around here?" Wylan said. "We all tell Kaz we're fine and then do something stupid?"
"Are we that predictable?" Inej asked.
"Yes." Wylan, Matthias, and Asra said in unison. They all frowned at her.
"Don't be a hypocrite." Jesper said.
"Who said I was critising?" Asra reached for a cup and the pot of coffee. It was lukewarm, but she was after caffeine more than anything.
"Do you want to beat Van Eck?" Kaz asked them all, now stood. Asra frowned as she realised she was sat in his chair. Then her eyes widened.
Kaz had caught her.
Nina sighed, exasperated. "Of course."
Kaz eyed each of them. "Do you? Do you want your money? The money we fought, and bled, and nearly drowned for? Or do you want Van Eck to be glad he picked a bunch of nobodies in the Barrel to scam? Because no one else is going to get him for us. No one is going to care that he cheated us or that we risked our lives for nothing. No one else is going to make this right. So I'm asking, do you want to beat Van Eck?"
"Yes." Inej said.
"Soundly." Nina nodded.
"Around the ears with Wylan's flute." Jesper chirped.
"I wanna cave his head in with your cane." Asra said flatly into her coffee.
The rest simply nodded.
"The stakes have changed." Kaz went on. "Based on Van Eck's little demonstration today wanted posters with our faces on them are probably already going up all over Ketterdam, and I suspect he'll be offering a handsome reward. He's trading on his credibility, and the sooner we destroy it the better. We're going to take his money, his reputation, and his freedom all in one night. But that means we don't stop. Angry as he is, tonight Van Eck is going to eat a fine dinner and fall off into a fitful sleep in his soft merch bed. Those stadwatch grunts will rest their weary heads until they get to the next shift, wondering if maybe they'll earn a little overtime. But we don't stop. We rest when we're rich. Agreed?"
Another round of nods.
"Nina, there are guards who walk the perimeter of the silos. You'll be the distraction, a distressed Ravkan new to the city, looking for work in the wearhouse district. You need to keep them occupied long enough for the rest of us to get inside and for Inej to scale the first silo. Then -"
"One condition." Nina folded her arms.
"This isn't a negotiation."
"Everything's a negotiation with you, Brekker. You probably bartered your way out of the womb." Nina rolled her eyes. "If I'm going to do this, I want us to get the rest of the Grisha out of the city."
"Forget it." Kaz said. "I'm not running a charity for refugees."
"Then I'm out."
"Fine, you're out. You'll still get your share of the money for your work on the Ice Court job, but I don't need you on this crew."
"No." Inej said quietly. "But you need me."
Kaz rested his cane across his legs. "It seems everyone is forming aliances."
"They're called friendships, Kaz." Inej said.
He turned to Nina. "I don't like being held hostage."
"And I don't like shoes that pinch my shoes, but we must all suffer. Think of it as a challenge for your monstrous brain."
Kaz thought for a minute. "How many people are we talking about?"
"There are less than thirty Grisha in the city that I know of, other than the Council of Tides." Nina said.
"And how would you like to corral them? Hand out pamphlets directing them to a giant raft?"
"There's a tavern near the Ravkan embassy. We use it to leave messages and exchange information. I can get the word out from there, then we just need a ship. Van Eck can't watch all the harbors."
"I think he can." Inej said. "Van Eck has the full power of the city government behind him."
Kaz made his way to the door, staring out into the night. "Van Eck won't have made the choice to involve the city lightly. It's a risk, and he wouldn't take that risk if he didn't intend to capitalise on it to the fullest. He'll have every harbour and watchtower on the coast on full alert with orders to question anyone trying to leave Ketterdam. He'll just claim that he knows Wylan's captors may plan to take him from Kerch."
"Trying to get all of the Grisha out will be extremely dangerous. The last thing we need is for a group of them to fall into Van Eck's hands when he may still have a store of parem." Matthias said.
Jesper drummed his fingers against his guns. "We need a miracle. And possibly a bottle of whisky, helps lubricate the brainpan."
"I wish we had whisky." Asra muttered to herself. She sipped her coffee.
"No." Kaz said, glancing at her. "We need a ship. A ship that couldn't possibly be suspect, that Van Eck and the stadwatch would never have cause to stop. We need one of his ships."
Nina shifted excitedly in her chair. "Van Eck's trading company must have plenty of ships heading to Ravka."
Matthias crossed his arms in thought. "Get the Grisha refugees out on one of Van Eck's own vessels?"
"We'd need a forged manifest and papers of transit."
"Why do you think they kicked Spetch out of the navy? He was forging leave documents and supply orders." Kaz said.
Wylan tugged on his lip. "But it's not just a question of a few documents. Let's say there are thrity Grisha refugees. A ship's captain is going to want to know why thrity people -"
"Thirty-one." Kuwei said.
"Are you actually following all of this?" Jesper said incredulously.
"A ship to Ravka." Kuwei shrugged. "I understand that very well."
Kaz shrugged. "If we're going to steal a boat we might as well put you on it."
"Thirty-one it is." Nina beamed. Next to her, the Fjerdan looked less enthusiastic.
"Okay," Wylan said, toying with the map. "But a ship's captain is going to wonder why there are thrity-one people being added to his manifest."
"Not if he thinks he's in on a secret." Kaz said. "Van Eck will write a passionately worded letter calling upon the captain to use the utmost discression in transporting these valuable political refugees and asking him to keep them hidden from anyone susceptible to Shu bribes, including the stadwatch, at all costs. Van Eck will promise the captain a huge reward when he returns just to make sure he doesn't get any ideas about selling out the Grisha. We already have a sample of Van Eck's handwriting. We just need his seal."
"Where does he keep it?" Jesper asked Wylan.
"In his office. At least that's where it used to be."
"We'll have to get in and out without him noticing. And we'll have to move quickly after that. As soon as Van Eck realises the seal is missing he'll be able to guess what we're up to." Inej said.
"We broke into the Ice Court. I think we can manage a mercher's office." Kaz said.
"Well we did almost die breaking into the Ice Court." Inej said.
"Several times, if memory serves." Jesper added.
"You did die, briefly." Asra reminded Kaz.
He rolled his eyes. "Inej and I lifted a DeKappel from Van Eck. We already know the layout of the house. We'll be fine."
"You didn't have to get into my father's safe." Wylan said, tracing the map with his finger.
Jesper laughed. "Van Eck keeps his seal in a safe? It's almost like he wants us to take it. Kaz is better at making friends with combination locks than with people."
"You've never seen a safe like this." Wylan said. "He had it installed after the DeKapple was stolen. It has a seven digit combination that he resets every day and the locks are built with fake tumblers to confuse safecrackers."
"Then we go around it." Kaz shrugged. "I'll take expediency over finesse."
Wylan shook his head. "The safe walls are made of a unique alloy reinforced with Grisha steel."
"An explosion?" Jesper suggested.
"I suspect Van Eck will notice that." Kaz said flatly.
"A very small explosion?"
Nina snorted. "You just want to blow something up."
"I'm up for partially destroying his house." Asra said. "Just... in case we're taking a vote."
"Actually..." Wylan said, eyes distant and head cocked to the side slightly. "Come morning, there would be no hiding we'd been there, but if we can get the refugees out before my father discovers the theft... I'm not entirely sure where I can get the materials but it just might work..."
"Inej." Jesper whispered.
The two of them peered at Wylan. "Is that a scheming face?" She asked.
"Possibly."
Wylan snapped back to reality. "It is not. But... but I do think I have an idea."
"We're all waiting, merchling." Kaz said.
"The we... Wyvil is basically just a much more stable version of auric acid." Wylan began.
"Yes." Jesper said. "Of course. And that is?"
"A corrosive." Wylan said. "It gives off a minor amount of heat once it starts to react, but it's incredibly powerful and incredibly volatile. It can cut through Grisha steel and just about anything else other than balsa glass."
"Glass?" Kaz said.
"The glass and the sap from the balsa neutralise the corrosive."
"And where does one come by such a thing?"
"We can find one of the ingredients in an ironworks. They use the corrosive to strip oxidation off metals. The other might be tougher to come by. We'd need a quarry with a vein of auris or a similar halide compound."
"The nearest quarry is Olendaal." Kaz said.
"That could work. Once we have both compounds we'll have to be very careful with the transport. Actually, we'll have to be more than careful. After the reaction is completed auric acid is basically harmless, but while it's active... well, it's a good way to lose your hands."
"So." Jesper said. "If we get these ingredients, and manage to transport them separately, and activate the auric acid, and don't lose a limb in the process?"
Wylan tugged a lock of dark hair. "We could burn through the safe door in a matter of minutes."
"Without damaging the contents inside?" Nina asked.
"Hopefully."
"Hopefully." Kaz said, testing the word on his tongue. "I've worked with worse. We'll find out which ships are departing for Ravka tomorrow night and get Specht started on the manifest and papers of transit. Nina, once we've got a chosen vessel, can your little band of refugees make it to the docks on their own or will they need their hands held for that too?"
"I'm not sure how well they know the city." Nina admitted.
Kaz drummed his fingers on the crow's-head of his cane. "Wylan and I can tackle the safe. We can send Jesper to escort the Grisha and we can map a route so Matthias can get Kuwei to the docks. But that only leaves Nina and Asra to distract the guards and work the net for the silos. The net needs at least three people on it for it to be worth anything."
Inej rolled her shoulders, stretching her arms in an almost feline fashion. "I told you, I don't work with a net."
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Author's note:
I love them :]