𝐍𝐎 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐃 // 𝐊𝐚𝐳 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐤𝐤𝐞𝐫

𝐗𝐈𝐈𝐈.

CHAPTER 13

Incinerator

     When Brynn rushed into the laundry room and toward the incinerator with Sasha's hand in her own, Inej was gone. She'd probably already gone up the shaft. Wylan, Matthias, and Jesper waited at the base of the incinerator, each of them expressing their nervousness in separate ways. Wylan was picking at his nails, Matthias kept on glancing around him, and Jesper bounced from foot to foot, always needing to move.

"Where have you been?" he demanded when she hurried into the room. "And who is that?" Jesper pointed at her younger, scarred sister.

"This is my sister," Brynn explained, then switched to Kaelish. "Sasha, this is Wylan, Matthias, and Jesper. We're pulling off an impossible heist that will most likely get us all killed. Inej is up the shaft."

Sasha frowned. "So you're a criminal, now?"

"In the right country, I've always been a criminal."

Jesper blinked. "I thought your sister was dead."

Brynn shrugged, switching back to Kerch to talk to them. "I did, too. Apparently not."

"What happened to her face?" asked Wylan.

"I'm not actually sure," she said, frowning. "But if we make it out of here alive, that's the first thing I want to know. We just really don't have the time right now."

A rope dropped down in the incinerator shaft, then came Inej's voice, "The rope is secured! Climb up!"

After translating to Sasha, Brynn watched Wylan take a coil of rope and climb up first. Next was Matthias, who made progress up the rope much faster than the merchling. While they waited, Jesper turned to her.

"I'm not sure it's such a good idea to bring an extra prisoner along with us, Brynn," he said. "Kaz won't like it, that's for sure."

Brynn rolled her eyes. "He wouldn't like it if I decided to show some kindness to a little old lady trying to cross the street. Not everything he doesn't like is well-justified. And besides, I'm not leaving Sasha again. She doesn't deserve that."

She stepped up to the incinerator and told Sasha to climb. She jumped and grabbed the rope, swinging slightly before beginning the tiring climb. Brynn wrapped her arms around herself.

"She should be thirteen, now," she said. "I missed four years of her life. Four years, she's been locked up in this prison, the only comfort for her being our song that she taught to the other prisoners." Brynn let out a shaky breath. "A long time ago, I promised her I would always be there for her, and I let her rot away in a prison, looking like that."

"I never had siblings," said Jesper after a moment. "But I saw the looks she gave you. You might have missed four years of her life, but she missed four years of yours. You're both nothing like you were before you ran away from the Wandering Isle, Brynn. You can't beat yourself up too much about that."