CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
vol ii — home turf

KAZ TRIED HIS hardest to look away from the large grin that had worked its way into Dinara's face, the picture being engraved into his brain permanently. "I want you focused on what we have to do tomorrow night. After that, you'll get all the information you want.

Nina started tugging at her corset, pollen from the flower having fallen on her shoulder, Dinara catching Matthias eyeing it longingly. "Really?"

"Van Eck promised us thirty million kruge. That's exactly what we're going to take. With another one million for interest, expenses, and just because we can."

Wylan broke his cracker in half at the information, looking up at Kaz with a confused expression. "My father doesn't have thirty million kruge lying around. Even if you took all of his assets together,"

"You should leave, then," Jesper taunted, "we only associate with the disgraced heirs of the very finest fortunes."

"If Van Eck had that kind of money on hand, we would have just robbed him instead of breaking into the Ice Court in the first place," Kaz said, stretching out his bad leg, foot flexing slightly.

"What about that chest full of bills he brought to Vellgeluk?" Jesper asked, his mind bringing him back to the money that was so close to being in his hands, only to be ripped away.

"Bunk. Probably quality counterfeits," Kaz said, disgust written on his face as he pictured the purple bills.

"So then how do we get the money? Rob the city? Rob the Council?" Jesper asked, sitting up taller in his chair, the thought of money making his brain get its fill of serotonin. "But twelve vaults in one night?"

"No. We're going to make like merchers and let the market do the work for us. We're going to take Van Eck's money, and then we're going to take his reputation. We're going to make sure he can never do business in Ketterdam or anywhere in Kerch ever again."

"And what happens to Kuwei?" Nina asked. She had grown a slight attachment to the young boy, always being stuck in the tomb with him, the two having conversations about anything and everything.

"Once the job is done, Kuwei — and any other convicts, Grisha, and disinherited youths who may or may not have prices on their heads — can lie low in the Southern Colonies."

"Where will you be?" Jesper asked, slightly disheartened that the boy he had been with for years wasn't going to be joining them on their voyage.

"Right here. I've still got plenty of business that requires my attention," Kaz said, sending a hopeful glance at Dinara, wanting her to stay with him.

"Well, looks like I'm not going anywhere either," she said, sending a quick wink at the boy, hopeful that they would be able to start something when they stayed behind.

"Wait a minute. I thought Kuwei was going to Ravka?"
"Why would you think that?"

"When you sold your Crow Club shares to Pekka Rollins, you asked him to send a message to the Ravkan capital. We all heard it."

"I thought it was a request for aid, not an invitation to bargain," Matthias said, siding with Nina on the matter,

"It was neither. Let's just hope Rollins is as gullible as you."
"It was a decoy."
"You were just keeping Rollins busy."

"I wanted Pekka Rollins to be preoccupied. Hopefully, he has his people trying to chase down our Ravkan contacts. They should prove difficult to find, given that they don't exist."

"I would prefer to go to Ravka," Kuwei said, hoping that he would be able to persuade Kaz into letting him go there, yet everyone ignored him. "I would prefer to go to Ravka. Why is he looking at me this way?"

Dinara leaned forward in her chair, staring at the Shu boy. "Kaz is wondering if he should keep you alive. Terrible for the nerves. I recommend deep breathing. Maybe a tonic."

"Dinara stop."
"You both need to relax."
"We won't let him out Kuwei in the ground."
"Let's not make any promises just yet."

"Come on, Kaz. We didn't go to all that trouble to save Kuwei just to make him worm food," Jesper argued.

"Why do you want to go to Ravka."
"We never agreed to that."
"Maybe we need to rethink our options."

"It's safer there. For Grisha. For me. I don't want to hide. I want to train," Kuwei said, touching the notebooks in front of him. "Any father's work can help find — an antidote for parem."

"I think Nina may be about to burst into song."
"Let's hope not. That would be bad."
"Oh, hush, Dinara."

"My father brought this drug into the world. Even without me, what I know, it will be made again," Kuwei said solemnly, not happy with the knowledge he knew.

"You're saying someone else is going to solve the riddle of parem?" Matthias asked, wondering when the abomination would be able to be stopped and dug into a deep grave.

"Sometimes scientific discoveries are like that. Once people know something is possible, the pace of new findings increases. After that, it's like trying to get a swarm of hornets back into their nest," Wylan explained.

"Do you really think an antidote is possible."
"I don't know. I'm just an inferni."
"You're our chemist, Wylan. Thoughts?"
"Maybe. Not all poisons have antidotes."
"That's why we call him Wylan Van Sunshine."

Kuwei cleared his throat, hoping that he was saying the correct words and not something entirely wrong. "In Ravka, there are more talented Fabrikators. They could help."

"It's true. Genya Safin knows poisons like no one else, and David Kostyk developed all kinds of new weapons for King Nikolai." She spared a glance at Matthias. "And other things too! Nice things. Very peaceful."

"This isn't a decision to be made lightly."
"I would prefer to go to Ravka."
"See?"
"No, I do not. We can just hand a prize over to Ravka."
"He's a person, not a prize, and he wants to go."
"Do we all get what we want now? I have a list."

There was a long pause after those words left Jesper's lips, everyone staring at Kaz, noticing how he hadn't said a word throughout the entire argument. "Nina, love, translate for me? I want to make sure Kuwei and I understand each other," he said, running a gloved hand through his hair.

"Kaz—" Nina said warningly, but claimed her lips tight, noticing the glares she was getting from Dinara and Kaz.

"I think it's important that you understand the changes in your circumstances. Van Eck knows the first place you'd go for sanctuary would be Ravka, so any ship bound for its shores is going to be searched top to bottom. The only tailors powerful enough to make you look like someone else are in Ravka, unless Nina wants to take another dose of parem." Matthias let out a growl at the thought of that. "Which is unlikely. Now, I assume you don't want me to cart you back to Fjerda or the Shu Han?"

When Nina was done translating each and every word that left Kaz's mouth, Kuwei jumped in his seat, sending a glare at the boy. "No!" he yelped, the thought of going back to then was too painful to bear.

"Then your choices are Novyi Zem and the Southern Colonies, but the Kerch presence in the colonies is far lower. Also, the weather is better, if you're partial to that kind of thing. You are a stolen painting, Kuwei. Too recognizable to sell on the open market, too valuable to leave laying around. You are worthless to me."

"I'm not translating that," Nina snapped. There were limits as to how far she would go when it came to being part of the Crows and apparently, Kaz had found it.

"Then translate this: My sole concern is keeping you away from Jan Van Eck, and if you want me to start exploring more definite options, a bullet is a lot cheaper than putting you on a ship to the Southern Colonies."

Nina hesitated a moment, then translated, trying to keep her laugh under control when she heard what he said. "He said you're cruel."

"I'm pragmatic. If I were cruel, I'd give him a eulogy instead of a conversation. So, Kuwei, you'll go to the Southern Colonies, and when the heat has died down, you can find your way to Ravka or Matthias' grandmother's house for all I care."

"Leave my grandmother out of this," Matthias snapped, but he went unnoticed, everyone too focused on the exchange in front of them.

Kuwei let out a stiff nod, realizing that this plan was a lot better than ending up dead and his body being shoved into the canal. "Now that we're in agreement, you all know what your responsibilities are. There are a lot of things that can go wrong between now and tomorrow night, so talk through the plan and then talk through it again. We only have one shot at this."

"Van Eck will set up a perimeter. He'll have her heavily guarded," Matthias said, glancing down at the map.

"He doesn't want us to find her," Dinara said. "Which I find plenty rude."

"That's right. He had more guns, more men, and more resources. All we have is surprise, and we're not going to squander it."

when this act is done it's basically just domestic life. so what do you want to see in the domestic life of kaz and dinara?