TROUBLE , kaz brekker

xviii. the trick is to make it look real

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

THREE HOURS LATER, AND they still didn't have eyes on the target.

Jesper had taken up his smug silence and Inej was stealing sleep from between the bumps of the road, which meant Echo got to enjoy some quality conversation with Kaz. Well, as quality as one could get when the other was determined to speak in single syllables.

It hadn't escaped the red-head's notice that they were a man short and so, when Kaz had abandoned his gloomy exterior for a mildly peeved one, she turned to him with a sigh. "Arken?"

"Lynx flush." Echo knew she didn't like him for a reason. That bastard. It was a title usually reserved for the actual Bastard of the Barrel, but this felt like a worthy deviation. "The Darkling's got him now."

Echo wished she could say it was a fate worthy of the Conductor - but she couldn't. No one deserved to choke on the darkness the way countless had before him.

Before long they had pulled into the darkened alley of a nearby town. Close enough as to not rouse suspicion from their apparent stowaway, but also far enough that the Darkling couldn't yet breathe down their necks.

The four jumped from the carriage and walked, side by side, towards the storage at the rear end of their transport. Jesper was watching it with a maniacal sort of grin that made Echo ( just for a moment ) believe the boy had finally gone mad.

But then, the chest shuddered and glowed, as if the sun itself was trapped inside and in a way - Echo laughed to herself - it was.

The mechanics of the lock reddened and melted under the heat. It was ingenious, a clever use of a power that the Darkling had relegated to circus tricks. He always did like to underestimate things, anything that might dare to overshadow his power. That was why he kept her parents coated in a thick layer of honeyed words and phantom importance.

Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.

The Sun Summoner rose to her feet. She looked dishevelled, haunted by some unseen horrors that Echo could only imagine. Her eyes darted from Crow to Crow and for the first time, the red head realised how utterly ridiculous they all looked beyond the shores of Ketterdam.

A cripple sporting a rather ridiculous fedora. A Zemini boy in top hat and tails. Herself, an existence that was ridiculous in it's own right and an acrobat that carried her own body weight in knives.

Perhaps Alina Starkov was right to look slightly concerned. At least the Darkling was colour coordinated.

When Kaz spoke, his voice was low, spun with the tones of the businessmen of the harbour. "We don't want any trouble."

"Neither do I, so I'll just be on my way." Alina muttered back, edging towards a sliver of open air that marked her escape. Echo and Kaz mirrored her movement, breaching the distance between them and the Sun Summoner, as if they could do anything to stop a so-called Saint with nothing but gumption and impressive dress sense.

Echo raised her arms in a delicate surrender. Sure, drawing Alina Starkov's gaze to her was probably not the best idea, given the insight she had gained into the Sun Summoner's unpleasant relationship with her literal identical twin. But, unlike everyone else who knew the Orlova girls, there was no moment of confusion, no brief inability to discern whether to watch your back or watch your purse. The Sun Summoner was the first person to tell the two apart and Echo wasn't entirely sure what to make of that.

"You want out of East Ravka, believe me, so do we. So let's help each other." Echo stepped forward. "We have a secure route through the Fold, you have something we need."