The Phoenix Summoner (ON HOLD)

13

Mean while on the other of the fold...

Kaz, Inej, and the Conductor the man who smuggles Grisha across the fold from the Little Palace stood in front of the fold. The conductor, named Arken as they discovered, trudged across the open area in front of the fold.

Both Crows began to follow until they saw the sign warning them of landmines.

"We'll wait." The young leader announces "follow the path you carve." The conductor stops and looks over his shoulder to see them looking at the sign.

"Oh, that sign was my idea to keep people away. Can't be to careful." He laughs before proceeding closer to the fold. The crows share a look before following Arken.

"It's one thing hearing about it but this is..." Inej says trailing off as she stares at the black wall of mass in front of her.

"Nothing compared to what lies within." Arken states "it's hard to believe the General sends anyone in there."

"General Kirigan sends Grisha through. Aren't they sacred to them?" Inej asks in disbelief.

"Oh yes but the First Army cannot travel alone through the fold, so they send Inferni, Heartrenders, and Healers aboard to protect them. I heard he sent his top advisor as well on the last exhibition." Arken said with a tone of surprise.

"Why is that surprising?" Inej asked curiosity laced in her voice.

"I've heard from the Grisha I've helped escape that he never lets her out of his sight. Something about her powers being different from rest. He's had her on a tight leash ever since they found her. I believe they said she was twelve."

Kaz snaps his head up interested in what Arken had just said. He thinks back to his early years before he became who he was. Thinking about the girl who he thought to have been dead.

'Perhaps she still is.' He thinks. Years after she disappeared, he had held onto the hope that she was alive and well somewhere just trying to figure out a way to get back to Ketterdam. Back to him. Slowly his hope had diminished, he stopped hoping for her return when he turned sixteen years old. He moved on, pushing Anya Djar to the back of his mind.

He looked down unbuttoning the top of his jacket taking out a pendant around his neck. He held it in his gloved palm examining it.  He thought back to when he got it for herself and him. They were children then but he knew he loved her and wanted to give her something to signify it. So he paid someone to make two crow pendants and gave one to her whilst he kept the other one.

'No matter where we go we each have a piece of each other' That's what he had said to her when he gave it to her. She always said they would be together always. He thought himself delusional for believing in such a childish dream. 

"So goat, jurda.... Now we're just waiting on..."

"Wait for me!" Jesper's voice echos throughout the area. Gunshots rang all around with a large crowd chasing after Jesper.

"They can't see the train." Arken panics hurriedly packing the train with the essentials to get across the fold.

"Jesper, get here now!" Kaz yells.

"LANDMINES!" Jesper yells hysterically. More gunshots rang behind Jesper and he dropped the lantern quickly running over to the train.

Jesper jumped into the train and Inej slammed the door behind them quickly.

"Please tell me you have the 20 pounds of alabaster coal!" Arken pleads.

"Slight snag in the plan, turns out the kid who was helping me buy the coal didn't exactly know how to, uh, buy coal." Jesper spun trying to hide the truth, though Kaz saw right through him.

"We know you gambled it away." Kaz says looking Jesper straight in the eye causing said boy to recoil slightly.

"I lost a little bit of the money." Kaz gives him a deadly glare. "Okay I lost all of the money, but I managed to steal 20 pounds of alabaster coal.

"No, no, theres 16 pounds." Arken stated.

"16 pounds of alabaster coal." Jesper reiterated.

"Can we do it on 16?!" Kaz says panic starting to sink on.

"Never been done before." More gunshots. Arken grands Inej by the shoulder's sitting her down, then doing the same thing to Jesper. Before he could do the same thing to Kaz, he sat down.

"Never shift your weight." He demands. 

"You've crossed that many times." Inej says seeing the tally mark scares on his arm.

"It's a numbers game, cross this often and you get nightmares."

Suddenly there was an explosion and the men that were outside screamed. Kaz looked at Arken with a deadly expression.

"I thought you said they weren't real." Kaz hissed.

"I said nothing of the sort." Arken replied innocently "I just said I put the sign up myself."

Kaz let out a sigh of frustration before grasping the pendant around his neck again. Hopefully the job wasn't some wild goose chase and they risked their lives for nothing. But it being real meant Kaz would come face to faced with the ghost of his past.

It meant he would reunite with the love of his life and possible all powerful Grisha keeping her under tight lock and key.

Should be a piece of cake.