My Name Is Adela Kirigan (A Shadow and Bone Season 1 Fanfiction)

Chapter 27: Following Trails

At the Little Palace... 

Fedyor walked into General Kirigan's quarters. 

'General, I found a lead on her,' he said, stopping in front of the General's desk, removing his cap. 

'And where is my Summoner and my sister?' General Kirigan said, getting up off the chair and walking towards the Heartrender. 

'Oh. Uh... no. Nina Zenik.' General Kirigan was silent, wearing a mask of indifference. 'You asked...'

'Yes. Speak.'

'She was abducted by Fjerdans. Put on a ship with other Grisha captives, headed for the Ice Court.' 

'Someone must have given her up,' General Kirigan mused, walking over to the fireplace. 'Zlatan.' 

'Well, they have a witch hunter in their tracks. Matthias Helvar. He has been clever in tracking Grisha. I want him dead as much as I want him back alive.' 

'What you want is irrelevant,' Kirigan said, turning back to Fedyor. 'Where are they now?'

'They hit a storm front. We... we lost track of the ship after that.' 

'Reach the western coast,' General Kirigan replied, walking back to his desk. 'Go as far north as you can, Arkesk if you can make it. Bring back any Grisha you find, and barring that... bring me one of theirs.' 

'Yes, General,' Fedyor replied, bowing slightly. 'Ivan and I won't fail you.' 

'I need Ivan for a hunt of my own, I'm afraid.' Fedyor walked to the door, turned and spoke. 

'Sir, if she's alive... I'll find her.' 

Somewhere on the ocean... 

The angry seas whipped around the lone board that held the unconscious form of Nina Zenik, the Heartrender. She slipped off the board slowly, making her wake up when the ice cold water hit her face and threatened to drown her. She flailed towards another board again, having lost the one she was previously on to the waves. Crawling onto the large hunk of timber that held the unconscious form of one Matthias Helvar, one of the Druskelle. She pushed him slightly and his body refused to budge. 

'Come on, you miserable hunk of muscle, wake up.' She pushed him again, to no avail. Sitting back on the board, she raised her hands and restarted his heartbeat with her Heartrender skill. He, too, as his eyes snapped open, fell off the board into the icy water. 

'Witch!' he screamed in Fjerdan. 

'It was my power keeping you warm, Druskelle,' she spat. You won't get far out here without it. If you'd rather call me names while you freeze and drown, that's your choice.' 

'Your kind are tricksters!' Matthias spat back. 'Not to be trusted. You intend to kill me.' 

'If I wanted you dead, I would have slowed your heart instead of speeding it up.' 

'Why would you save me?' he said, still treading water pathetically, water flying in his face as he struggled to stay afloat. 

'Because you're human. And despite what you've been taught, Grisha are not monsters.' He paddled up close to her, as close as he could get despite the current. 

'You need my strength to swim to shore,' he said. 

'And you need my power not to freeze to death.' The mood between them was one of silence as they both realised they needed the help of the other to survive - an arrangement neither of them liked. 'So there is a brain inside all that muscle.' He paddled towards the other side of the large piece of wood and attempted to pull himself up. 'I can't swim and keep both our bodies warm.' 

'I'll swim. You... I'll swim.' She used her powers again to help him swim as he held onto the large piece of wood. So, on they went, paddling on a large piece of damp wood into the darkness of the stormy waves. 

It had been a long day for Alina Starkov and Adela Kirigan. First they'd been chased by soldiers, then ran into the woods, and slipped down a hill. In the chaos, the two had unintentionally separated. Adela was on the run - somewhere, and Malyen Oretsev, Alina's best friend, had found Alina hiding in a ditch from soldiers and covered in leaves. He passed a flask to her as the two sat in a clearing. They were safe... for now. 

'Here,' he said. Alina took it and drank, and by the time the young male turned around, she was literally guzzling water from the flask. 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down.' 

'So we're talking now?' she snapped. 

'Should be safe now, yeah.' His back was turned again and she threw the water bottle at his back. He turned abruptly. 'Oi!' She stood to face him, her eyes bright and angry. 

'Where have you been?' she demanded. 

'I've been tracking you since you left the palace since the night of the fete.' 

'So now I have your attention? It's been months, Mal. You couldn't be bothered to reply to a single one of my letters.' 

'What? I never heard a word from you. I wrote to you nearly every single day.' 

'Sure you did. What, long, heartfelt letters about your exploits with gorgeous Squallers?' she bit back. 'Are you still afraid of Grisha women?' 

'Only ones that keep secrets from me,' he snapped back. 'How long have you known?' 

'That I was Grisha? You thought I knew?' 

'You cheated on the test when we were children. You cut your own hand.' 

'Not because I knew I was Grisha!' she exclaimed angrily. 'Because I knew what would happen if I somehow passed their test. They would have taken me away.' 

'To a palace, Alina.' 

'They would have split us up!' Mal breathed deeply, the vapor of his breath coming out like fog in the cold air.

'I've been trying to get back to you this whole time,' Mal said. 'I found the Stag.' She was just near to turning away when she looked up at Mal, hearing him say this. 'Kirigan's orders to track it came from your drawings. I thought you were showing me the way to you.' 

'He stole them from my journal. Baghra was telling the truth,' she said, breathing in resignation and looking away. 'He's been obsessed with finding it. It's the one amplifier that could rival his power, if another Grisha claimed it.' There was a moment of the two pausing. 'You wrote me letters?' she asked quietly. He nodded. She walked forward and hugged him. 'Thank you for finding me.' 

'Always. I'll always find you.' After a few moments, the two pulled apart to look into each others' eyes. He gave her a small smile. 'Let's go and find some shelter,' he offered. She nodded. 

'Yeah.'