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✨✨✨

Broken bottles in the hotel lobby
Seems to me like I'm just scared of never feeling it again
I know it's crazy to believe in silly things
But it's not that easy
I remember it now, it takes me back to when it all first started
But I've only got myself to blame for it, and I accept it now
It's time to let it go, go out and start again
But it's not that easy
But I've got high hopes, it takes me back to when we started
High hopes, when you let it go, go out and start again
High hopes, when it all comes to an end
But the world keeps spinning around
And in my dreams, I meet the ghosts
Of all the people who have come and gone
Memories, they seem to show up so quick
But they leave you far too soon
Naïve I was just staring at the barrel of a gun
And I do believe that, yeah
But I've got high hopes, it takes me back to when we started
High hopes, when you let it go, go out and start again
High hopes, oh, when it all comes to an end
Now the world keeps spinning
Yeah, the world keeps spinning around
Ohh! High hopes, it takes me back to when we started
High hopes, when you let it go, go out and start again
High hopes, oh yeah
And the world keeps spinning
Ooh, yeah, this world keeps spinning
How this world keeps spinning around

✨✨✨

By the time they bid their goodbyes to the ship's
crew, the sky had turned from pink to gold.

Anika's eyes trained on Kaz as he followed Aeolian out of the boat. She felt like she was watching an old friend, vanish into a crowd, and she was powerless to call out.

"See you in Djerholm harbour," Specht called. "No mourners."

"No funerals," the others replied.

Strange people. Matthias thought.

They began the march from the rocky shore up the cliff side. When they reached the top of the cliff, they stopped to catch their breath. The Ferolind was still visible on the horizon, and there were two figures on the deck, unmoved. Anika and Raske.

"We're actually doing this." Aeolian said softly, as she peered at the Ferolind. She looked like a young girl on her first adventure.

"I've spent every minute wishing to be off that ship," said Jesper. "So why do I suddenly miss it?"

Wylan stamped his boots. "Maybe because it already feels like we are going to freeze off."

"When we get our money, you can burn kruge to keep you warm," said Kaz.

He'd left his crow's head cane aboard the Ferolind and substituted a less conspicuous walking stick. Jesper had mournfully left behind his prized revolvers in favour of a pair of unornamented guns, and Aeolian had done the same with her extraordinary set of knives and daggers, keeping only those she could bear to part with when they entered the prison.

Jesper consulted his compass, "I'm going to pay someone to burn my kruge for me."

Kaz stood beside him. "Why don't you pay someone else to pay someone to burn your kruge for you? That's what the big players do."

"You know what the really big bosses do? They pay someone to pay someone to..." Jesper continued.

Their voices trailed off as they tromped ahead, and the others followed after. Each of them cast a final backwards glance at the vanishing Ferolind. The schooner was a piece of home for them, and that last familiar thing was drifting further away with every moment. Except for Matthias.

Matthias felt some small measure of sympathy, but as they trekked through the morning, he enjoyed seeing the canal rats shiver and struggle a bit for once. They thought they knew cold, but the white north was mismatched. Matthias was in the lead, Aeolian trailing behind him, she was the smartest among the crew there was no denial and she knew her way around the ice. In these few days, Matthias has learned that she's a prized asset.

Men went blind this far north; they lost lips, ears, noses, hands, and feet. The land was barren and brutal, and that was all most people saw. But to Matthias it was beautiful. The ice bore the spirit of Djel. It had colour and shape and even a scent if you knew to seek it out.

Matthias pushed ahead, feeling almost at peace. The first day trekking was like a cleansing: little talk, the white hush of the north welcoming Matthias back. He'd expected more complaints, but even Wylan walked hand in hand with Aeolian quietly. They're all survivors, Matthias understood. They adapt. When the sun began to set, they ate their rations of dried beef and hardtack, expect for Aeolian who skipped the dried beef.

When Matthias asked her the reason why, she smiled charmingly and said. "I'm a vegetarian."

He was quite amused, he had never met a vegetarian in his life before. Even though he had heard about them, they were rare. The Fjerdans consume a lot of meat because it gives them strength and helps in keeping the body warm. So he couldn't imagine, how the lithe girl, will survive in the piercing cold without having meat.

The next morning brought an end to the quiet and Matthias fragile sense of peace. Kaz was ready to dig into the details of the plan.

"If we get this right, we're going to be in and out of the Ice Court before the Fjerdans ever know their prize scientist is gone," Kaz said as they shouldered their packs and continued to push south. "When we enter the prison, we'll be taken to the holding area to await charges. Once we're out of the cells, we should have at least six hours to cross to the embassy, locate Yul-Bayur on the White Island, and get him down to the harbour before they realise anyone is missing."

"What about the other prisoners in the holding cells?" Matthias asked.

"We have that covered." Jesper said.

"Once we're out of the cells," Kaz continued, "Helvar and Jesper will secure rope from the stables while Wylan and I get the girls out of the women's holding area. The basement is our meet. That's where the incinerator is, while Lin makes the climb, Wylan and I scour the laundry for anything he can use for demo. And just in case the Fjerdans decided to stash Yul-Bayur in the prison, Nina, Helvar, and Jesper will search the top level cells."

"Helvar and Zenik?" Jesper asked. "Is this really the ideal pairing?"

Matthias bit down on his anger. Jesper was right, but he hated being discussed in this way.

"The Fjerdan knows prison procedure, and Nina can handle any guards without a noisy fight. Your job is to keep them from killing each other." Kaz told Jesper. Then he continued, "We coordinate everything to the chiming of the Elderclock. We're out of the cells right after six bells, we're up the incinerator and on the roof by eight bells. And we cross to the embassy sector roof and get access to the glass bridge through there."

Matthias couldn't help but admire the plan the demon had cooked up. But he kept it to himself.

Wylan frowned. "In prison uniforms?"

"Phase two," said Aeolian. "The fake."

They weren't even surprised that she knew the plan already, she kept Kaz's secrets.

"That's right," said Kaz. "Lin, Nina, Helvar, and I will borrow a change of clothes from one of the delegations and stroll across the glass bridge. We locate Yul-Bayur and get him back to the embassy."

"So what I'm getting from this," said Jesper, "is that I'm stuck with the merchling!"

"Unless you've suddenly acquired an encyclopedic knowledge of the White Island, the ability to pick locks, scale unscalable walls, or flirt confidential information out of high level officials, yes. Besides, I want two sets of hands making bombs." Kaz said.

Nina crossed her arms. "Let's say this all works. How do we get out?"

"We walk," Kaz said. "That's the beauty of this plan. At the embassy gate, all eyes will be focused on guests coming into the Ice Court. People leaving aren't a security risk."

"Then why the bombs?" asked Wylan.

"There are seven miles of road between the Ice Court and the harbour. If someone notices Yul-Bayur is missing, we're going to have to cover that territory fast." He drew a line in the snow with his walking stick. "We blow the bridge, no one can follow."

Matthias put his head in his hands, imagining the havoc these low creatures were about to wreak on his country's capital.

"It's one prisoner, Helvar," said Kaz.

"And a bridge," Wylan put in helpfully.

"And anything we have to blow up in between," added Jesper.

"Everyone shut up," Matthias growled.

"I don't like any of this," said Nina.

Kaz raised a brow. "Well, at least you and Helvar found something to agree on."

➖➖➖➖➖

Further south they travelled, the coast long gone, the ice broken more and more by slashes of forest, glimpses of black earth and animal tracks.

Jesper and Wylan debated which kinds of explosives might be assembled from the prison laundry supplies and if they could get their hands on some gunpowder in the embassy sector. Nina tried to help Aeolian estimate what her pace would have to be to scale the incinerator shaft with enough time to secure the rope and get the others to the top.

Kaz was silent, scheming behind his unreadable face, walking behind the Shu girl or besides her. Matthias noticed that even though, they didn't exchange words, they always walked close proximity to each other. They had been together, besides each other in Ketterdam almost every single day, so maybe this was a force of habit or maybe something more, he couldn't tell. They were complex.

The team were like a maddening chorus of crows, squawking in Matthias ears.

"Yellow Protocol?" Asked Kaz.

"Sector disturbance," said Aeolian.

"Red Protocol?" Asked Nina.

"Sector breach." Replied Wylan.

"Black Protocol?" Asked Aeolian.

"We're all doomed?" said Jesper.

"That about covers it," Matthias said annoyingly. Aeolian had even made him imitate the different patterns of the bells. A necessity, but he'd felt like a fool. He couldn't even believe how, he even agreed to do it. The Shu girl always had her ways around people and it was scary at times.

Matthias told himself to ignore Nina, but his eyes would be seeking her out. It was foolish to pretend that she wasn't in his mind. He and Nina had walked this same territory together. It had started with a storm, and in a way, that storm had never ended. Nina had blown into his life with the wind and set his world spinning. He'd been off balance ever since.

Whatever her reasons, she'd saved his life that night after the shipwreck. That was a blood debt. They found a whaling camp, where Nina had stripped off the rest of her clothes and wrapped herself in one of the grimy reindeer skins.

He knew he was meant to lie down next to her. They would need each other's warmth to get through the night. The drüskelle were a holy order. They were meant to live chastely until they took wives, they weren't going to do anything, just lay besides each other. It shouldn't have concerned him, but he didn't want to be near her.

But the cold was unbearable so he sloughed off his sodden clothes, then strode to the blankets and wriggled in behind her. He'd been close to girls, not many but none of them had been like her. She was indecently round.

She flipped over to face him. "What are you doing?" he asked, pulling back in a panic.

"Relax, drüskelle. This isn't where I have my way with you." She muttered and laid her hands on his chest. He shouldn't let her do this, but as his blood began to flow and his body warmed, the relief and ease that coursed through him felt too good to resist.

Matthias plunged forward, eager to keep some distance between him and Nina. But as he came over the rise, he halted dead in his tracks. He turned around, holding out his arms. "Stop!"

But it was too late. Nina clapped her hands over her mouth. Aeolian made some kind of warding sign in the air, whatever god the Shu girl believes in Matthias didn't know, but she was the only religious person among the group, apart from Matthias. Jesper shook his head, and Wylan gagged. Kaz stood like a stone, his expression inscrutable.

The pyre had been made on a bluff. Three stakes had been driven into the icy ground and three charred bodies were bound to them, their blackened, cracked skin still smouldering.

"Ghezen!" swore Wylan. "What is this?"

Ghezen is the Kerch god of commerce, trade, and the market.

"This is what Fjerdans do to Grisha." Aeolian said, they could hear the disgust in her voice.

Nina whirled on Matthias and shoved his chest hard. "Do you have a different name for killing when you wear a uniform to do it?"

Then they heard a moan, like a creaking wind.

"Saints!" Jesper said. "One of them is alive."

The sound came again, from the black hulk of the body on the far right. Black flakes of skin had peeled away in places, showing raw flesh.

A sob tore from Nina's throat. She turned her tear filled eyes to the others. "Please...someone..."

Jesper moved first. Two shots rang out, and the body fell silent.

"Damn it, Jesper," Kaz growled. "You just announced our presence for miles. You should've let Lin do it."

"I didn't want to do it," Aeolian said quietly. "Thank you, Jes."

Kaz's jaw ticked but he said nothing more. He tends to forget that, it was still hard for Aeolian to take the life of a Grisha. And her first Grisha kill had been back at Os Alta inside a chapel, where she killed to save him.

Aeolian felt as though she and Kaz had become twin soldiers, marching on, pretending they were fine, hiding their wounds and bruises from the rest of the crew. This journey, has brought them to a complicated turning point of their relationship. Something, they both didn't understand.

Nina plunged ahead. She was weeping, stumbling over the terrain. Matthias followed, "Nina, you musn't stray from the group_"

She said harshly. "That's the country you long to serve. Does it make you proud?"

He was silent.

She turned on him. "Why has a Grisha never been found innocent at the end of your supposedly fair trials? Because our crime is existing. Our crime is what we are."

When Matthias spoke he was caught between shame and the need to speak the words, the words he'd been raised on, the words that still rang true for him. "Nina, has it ever occurred to you that maybe...you weren't meant to exist?"

Nina's eyes glinted fire. "Maybe you're the ones who shouldn't exist, Helvar. You worship woodsprites and ice spirits who can't be bothered to show themselves, but you see real power, and you can't wait to stamp it out."

"Don't mock what you don't understand." Matthias muttered, "even Lin believes in the greater power, a power that cannot be seen with the human eye."

She took a step towards him, and he could feel her rage. "That's true Helvar, but she isn't blind and pathetic like you...she believes in Grisha power, and she knows what you people are, she despises the drüskelle as much as we Grisha do."

"Then why didn't you both end me back in Ketterdam," he said. "Or I'd make it easy for you, you can end me right here."

"I want you to have your pardon, Helvar. I want you to be here when the Second Army marches north. I hope they send your friends and your family to the pyre." Her words were venomous.

"They already did, Zenik. My mother, my father, my baby sister. Your precious, persecuted Grisha, burned our village to the ground. I have nothing left to lose." He looked at her.

Nina's laugh was bitter. "Maybe your stay in Hellgate was too short. There's always more to lose."

Wylan and Jesper sat on a rock waiting for Nina and Matthias to return, Kaz and Aeolian stood and watched the Heartrender and the Fjerdan in a hot debate at a distant. Even though they couldn't hear them, they could clearly see that the words they were exchanging were bitter and terrible. Aeolian was thankful that even though she and Kaz has their misunderstandings, they weren't like Nina and Matthias, who fought like cats and dogs.

They both knew how to keep it civil, Aeolian grew up in a palace, so she knew how to be as poised as possible even in the most terrible situation. But Kaz was from the Barrel, it's a raw and cold place to grow up but still he wasn't like the Barrel boys or men. He was different, she knew now that he had a brother, there was more to his life story. But he wanted to keep everyone in the dark about his past, including her, she couldn't blame him. She was doing the same, to him and the others.

"Back there," Kaz finally spoke. "I didn't mean..."

Even though he didn't mention about the Grisha at the pyre, Aeolian understood what he meant to say. "I know," she responded.

"Do you ever think about...that night," he said. "Back at the Little Palace."

The night where she took the life of an Inferni to save Kaz, the night that changed everything for her.

"I do," she nodded. "I did not only kill a Grisha, but obliterated a place of worship."

He turned to her. "You saved my life, Lin." The words didn't come easy when he said. "No Saint ever watched over me. Not like you have."

She looked up at Kaz, and smiled then, her emerald eyes twinkling under the starlight. It was a smile he thought he might die to earn again.

Wylan was watching them, and even though he was locked out of their conversation. He could see the smile on Aeolian's face, and for the first time in his life, Kaz was cherry. Dirtyhands looked like a boy in love. It was almost as if he were peering through a lens at some other, more pleasant reality. Or maybe the north was playing tricks with Wylan's mind.

➖➖➖➖➖

Nina couldn't stop seeing those bodies. Being around Matthias made it easy to forget what he really was, what he really thought of her. She'd tailored him again, grateful for the excuse to be near him. She'd felt his heart race when she'd tipped his head back to work on his eyes. She'd thought about kissing him. She'd wanted to kiss him, and she was pretty sure he'd been thinking the same thing. Or maybe he was thinking about strangling her again.

Three weeks she'd travelled with Matthias after the shipwreck. Every morning he complained that she was impossible to wake.

"It's like trying to raise a corpse."

"The dead request five more minutes," she would say, and bury her head in the furs.

Then one day she finally asked him. "How did you become a drüskelle, anyway?"

"Your friends slaughtered my family in a Grisha raid," he'd said coldly. "Brum took me in and gave me something to fight for."

Nina hadn't wanted to believe that, but she knew it was possible. It was equally disturbing to think of that monster Brum as some kind of father figure. It didn't seem right to argue or to apologise, so she said. "Jer molle pe oonet. Enel mörd je nej afva trohem verretn."

It meant, 'I have been made to protect you. Only in death will I be kept from this oath.'

Matthias had stared at her in shock. That was the drüskelle oath to Fjerda.

On their journey the ice gave way beneath her feet. He grabbed her arm, the grip of his fingers the only thing between her and the dark mouth of the ice. For a moment, looking into his eyes, she was certain he was going to let go.

"Please," she begged, tears sliding over her cheeks.

He dragged her up over the edge, and slowly they crawled onto more solid ground. They lay on their backs, panting.

"I was afraid you were going to let me go," she managed.

He said, "I thought about it. Just for a second."

Nina huffed out a little laugh. He got to his feet and offered her his hand. "I'm Matthias."

"Nina," she said, taking it. "Nice to make your acquaintance."

The shipwreck had been months ago. Part of Nina wanted to go back to the moment before everything had gone wrong. But the more she thought about it, those three weeks were a lie that she and Matthias had built to survive. The truth was the pyre.

When he took her arm, she whirled and clenched her fist, cutting off the air to his throat. An ordinary man would have released her, but Matthias was a trained drüskelle. He seized her other arm and clamped it to her body, bundling her tight to him so she couldn't use her hands.

She struggled against his hold. "Let me go."

"I can't. Not while you're a threat." He said softly.

"I will always be a threat to you, Matthias." She said.

His eyes were almost sorrowful. "I know." Slowly, he released her. "This has to stop."

"He's right. If you two keep fighting, you're going to get us all killed, and I have a lot more card games I need to lose." Jesper said.

The others were standing there. Nina and Matthias were surprised to see them. They had been fighting that, they didn't notice them.

"Stay out of this," Nina snapped at Jesper.

"You must find a way to make peace," said Aeolian. "At least for a while."

"This is not your concern," Matthias growled.

Kaz stepped forward, his expression dangerous. "It is very much our concern. And watch your tone."

Aeolian gestured Kaz to drop it. None of them wanted to see Matthias and him in a brawl.

Matthias threw up his hands. "You've all been taken in by her. We travelled together for three weeks. We saved each other. I was willing to betray everything I believed in for the sake of her safety. She told me, she was my friend, and then betrayed me." He demanded. "Tell them Nina, they should know how you treat your friends."

No one said a word, but they were watching, waiting.

Nina swallowed, then forced herself to meet their gazes. "I told the Kerch that he was a slaver and that he'd taken me prisoner. I was the reason why he ended up in Hellgate."

She couldn't bear to look at them. Kaz knew, of course. She'd had to tell him the charges she'd made when she was begging for his assistance. But Kaz had never probed, never asked why, never chastised her. In a way, telling Kaz had been a comfort. There could be no judgement from a boy known as Dirtyhands.

They didn't know the real reason why Matthias ended up in Hellgate at the first place, not even Aeolian. She always thought that the Kerch merchant put him in prison for the reward of 20,000 kruge. She never expected Nina to be behind it. But now the truth was there for everyone to see.

Aeolian glanced at Kaz and she could tell he knew it, Nina had told him the truth, she wasn't even remotely surprised. But there was more to this story, Nina wouldn't put Matthias in prison for no reason.

Nina made herself face them. She had her reasons, but did they matter? And who were they to judge her? They all did terrible things.

A sudden rumble shook the ground. Nina nearly lost her footing, Kaz brace himself with his walking stick. They exchanged puzzled glances.

"Are there fault lines this far north?" Aeolian asked.

A slab of earth shot up from beneath Matthias' feet, knocking him to the ground. Another erupted to Nina's right, sending her sprawling. All around them, crooked monoliths of earth and ice burst upwards, as if the ground was coming to life.

"What kind of earthquake is this!" cried Jesper.

"No," said Nina, pointing upwards. "We're under attack."

There was someone in the air, hovering in the sky high above them. The Squaller turned in the air, stirring the storm into a frenzy, sending ice flying. They were being corralled, pushed closer together to make a single target.

"I need a distraction!" shouted Jesper.

"Get down," cried Wylan.

A boom sounded overhead, and an explosion lit the sky just to the right of the Squaller. The winds around them dropped as the Squaller was thrown off course and forced to focus on righting himself.

It took the briefest second, but it was enough time for Jesper to aim his rifle and fire. A shot rang out, and the Squaller was hurtling towards the earth.

Another slab of ice slid into place. They were being trapped like animals in a pen, ready for the slaughter. There was another Grisha there, a boy with dark hair. Before Jesper could get off a shot, the Grisha rammed a fist upwards, and Jesper was thrown off his feet by a shaft of earth. He rolled as he fell and fired from the ground.

The boy in the distance cried out and dropped to one knee, but his arms were still raised, and the ground still rumbled and rocked beneath them. Jesper fired again and missed. Nina lifted her hands and tried to focus on the Grisha's heart, but he was well out of her range.

Aeolian signal to Kaz. Without a word, he positioned himself against the nearest slab and cupped his hands at his knee. The ground buckled and swayed, but he held steady as she launched herself from the cradle of his fingers in a graceful arc. She vanished over the slab without a sound. A moment later, the ground went still.

"Always trust Lin," said Jesper.

They stood, dazed, the air strangely hushed after the chaos that had come before.

Kaz gestured to Jesper. "Perimeter. Let's make sure there aren't more surprises." They set off in opposite directions.

Aeolian was standing over the body of the trembling Grisha. She looked heavenwards, unable to look down at the boy. Blood spilled from the bullet wound in his upper thigh, and a knife jutted from the right side of his chest.

Nina kneeled beside him.

"I need a little more parem," the Grisha begged. He grabbed at Nina's hand, and only then did she recognise him. "Nestor, it's me, Nina."

He was a Fabrikator. It didn't make sense. He shouldn't have been capable of what they'd just witnessed.

"I can heal your wound, if you stay still." Nina tried calming him, lowering his pulse, but she was afraid of stopping his heart.

He was screaming now, fighting her. Matthias moved to help, and Nestor threw up his arms. The ground rose in a rippling sheet, thrusting Nina and the others back. He stood up, staggering on his wounded leg, pulling at the knife buried in his chest. He took a wobbling step, then another. He fell face forwards into the snow. He didn't move again.

Aeolian was watching them and when she saw the commotion, she rushed to him and turned him over. He looked so pale it seemed transparent and dead. Nina tried to restore his heartbeat, but it was no good. If he hadn't been ravaged by the drug, he might have survived his wounds. Practising the Small Science made a Grisha healthier, stronger. But the body had limits. It was as if the drug had caused Nestor's power to outpace his body. It had simply used him up.

Kaz and Jesper returned, panting. Aeolian picked up her knife and walked away, the knife that dripped with Nestor's blood. She wiped her knife and sat on the rock gazing at a distance.

Kaz walked upto her and held up a coin emblazoned with a horse on one side and two crossed keys on the other. "This was in the Squaller's pocket," he said as he gently handed it to her.

Her expression changed as she examined the coin, the others joined them as well. She rose up. "It's a Shu wen ye."

They'll looked at her puzzled.

"The Coin of Passage. This is a government mission." She tossed the coin to Jesper.

They were all taken aback.

"How did they find us?" Wylan asked.

"Maybe, Jesper's gunshots drew them," said Kaz.

Jesper bristled and pointed at Nina and Matthias. "Or maybe they heard these two shouting at each other. They could have been following us for miles."

Shu didn't use Grisha as soldiers, and they weren't like the Fjerdans; they didn't see Grisha power as unnatural or repulsive. They were fascinated by it.

Aeolian stared at the group for quite sometime, she knew the words she was going to say were not easy but the truth had to be told. "The Shu government has been capturing and experimenting on Grisha for years in an attempt to locate the source of their power. They would never use Grisha as mercenaries. Or at least that had been the case before. Maybe parem has changed the game."

Everyone of them was shocked, even Kaz couldn't believe what he just heard. What more was Aeolian keeping from them? From him? He had the sudden urge to pull her towards the side and bombard her with questions about the Shu government.

"I don't understand," said Jesper. "If they have jurda parem, why go after Bo Yul-Bayur?"

"It's possible they have a stash of it, but can't reproduce his process," Kaz said. "That's what the Merchant Council seemed to think. Or maybe they just want to make sure Yul-Bayur doesn't give the formula to anyone else."

"Do you think they'll use drugged Grisha to try to break into the Ice Court?" Wylan asked.

"If they have more of them," said Kaz. "That's what I would do."

Matthias shook his head. "If they'd had a Heartrender, we'd all be dead."

Nina looked at Aeolian, the Shu girl protected Grisha. Then why didn't she do anything when the government of her country was experimenting on Grisha's, what was really going on? She just couldn't understand, anything anymore.

"Let's move," Kaz finally said.

"We need to bury them," Nina said. "We can't just leave them for the wolves."

"Do you want to build them a pyre?" Kaz snapped.

"Go to hell, Brekker." She hissed.

"Do your job, Zenik," he shot back. "I didn't bring you to Fjerda to perform funeral rites."

She lifted her hands. "How about I crack your skull open like a robin's egg?"

She took a step forward, but Aeolian moved in front of her. "Stop, Nin's."

Nina stared at her, in moments like these, she just wishes that Aeolian wasn't there to stop her. Because she wanted to teach Dirtyhands a lesson, that he'd not forget.

Matthias said to Nina. "I'll help you dig the grave," and turned to the others. "Head due south from here, we'll make sure we catch up to you by nightfall."

Kaz looked at Matthias steadily. "Just remember that pardon, Helvar."

"Are we sure it's a good idea to leave them alone?" Wylan asked.

"No," replied Jesper.

"We trust them now or we trust them later," Kaz said.

"Are we going to talk about Matthias little revelation about Nina's loyalties?" asked Jesper.

Aeolian turned to them, "I trust her."

The others nodded as they moved down the slope.

The Fjerdans believe all the world is connected through its waters: the seas, the ice, the rivers and streams, the rain and storms. All feed Djel and are fed by him. When they die, they call it taking root. They become as roots of the ash tree, drinking from Djel wherever they are laid.

The ground was hard and unyielding. Every time the pick struck the earth it sent a rattling jolt.

"You said you had no choice at the harbour in Elling. Was it because I was drüskelle, were you planning it all along?" Matthias asked Nina.

"There were Grisha in Elling. One of them recognised you. If they'd captured you, you would have been taken to Ravka, maybe executed. I spotted the Kerch trader. I made the charge. I knew they'd have to take you into custody, and bring us safely to Kerch. I didn't know they'd throw you in Hellgate." Nina finally explained the truth.

Mathias looked at her for a long moment, and said. "Will you betray your friends again, for the sake of the Grisha? You can't tell me you intend to let Bo Yul-Bayur live."

"I can't bear the thought of my people being slaves," she admitted. "But we have a debt to settle. The pardon is my penance, and I won't be the person who keeps you from your freedom again."

"I don't want the pardon." He told her. "If Yul-Bayur lives and the secret of jurda parem becomes known, anything is possible."

What had grown up between them had been something fiercer than affection, an understanding that they were both soldiers, that in another life, they might have been allies instead of enemies.

"It would mean betraying the others," she said. "They won't get their pay from the Merchant Council. And Kaz will kill us both."

"If he learns the truth." Matthias said.

"Have you tried lying to Kaz Brekker?" She arched a brow.

But in the back of her mind, she knew who lied to Kaz Brekker, it was the Shu girl herself. She had kept her identity hidden from him, all these time, she'd been lying about her life.

Matthias shrugged. "Then we die as we lived."

The deal was to take the prisoner back to Ketterdam, get paid and execute him but after seeing what jurda parem could do. Nina had a change of heart, and with this change she's not only betraying Kaz but Aeolian as well.

With a heavy heart she said. "For a cause."

"We are of one mind in this," said Matthias. "Bo Yul-Bayur will not leave the Ice Court alive."

"The deal is the deal," she said in Kerch, the language of trade, a tongue that belonged to neither of them.

"The deal is the deal," he replied.

Kaz was right about one thing at least. She and Matthias had finally found something to agree on.