The shade of the trees brought a strange familiarity to me that I hadn't felt since I had boarded the boat of a mysterious Privateer and left the country. I loved the shadows of the Barrel, but they were different from the natural Ravkan shade.
I sat on one of the middle branches, swarming myself with shadows to keep me invisible as I swung my legs and scanned the area. It was quiet here. Nothing like the busy Ketterdam streets. But when a whistle cut through the gentle silence, I sighed and dropped down from my tree, spotting the Crows and Arken standing in front of the inn. Kaz waved me over, and I jogged the few hundred feet over to them, skidding to a stop in the dirt.
"This seems like a reasonable juncture to abandon this whole Sun Summoner plan," Arken said. Kaz frowned and glared down at him.
"Abandon?" he asked incredulously. He shook his head, looking around at our little group. "We're in this now. I know what a million kruge means to me. What does it mean to you?" Inej answered immediately.
"Freedom." Jesper smirked.
"Fun." He looked down at Arken. "Like, at least a few months." Kaz turned his gaze to me, and I clenched my jaw.
"Revenge." He nodded, and Arken sighed.
"Retirement." The boy with the cane nodded.
"Right," he said, "so we press on. Get us across the Fold and we'll figure out the rest on the other side." Arken sighed and pulled out a small notepad.
"Fine." He turned a few pages and read for a moment. "To cross, I'll need twenty pounds of alabaster coal. A peck of Majdaloun jurda." He held up a hand and shook his head. "Uh, not the kind from Kerch. It's too weak. And, uh..." He looked up at Jesper for a moment before speaking again. "A goat." Jesper frowned, but Arken continued regardless. "Now, we meet in the dead of night. There's a wreckage of a skiff northeast, on the edge of town." He looked around the group. "So... who gets what?" Kaz sighed and looked around.
"Inej, jurda," he said. "I'll get the goat. And Jesper..." He limped forward and held out some money. "Just the coal, no detours. Do I need to send Karlin to supervise?" I groaned.
"Why do I have to be the babysitter?" He shrugged.
"More of a chaperone." Jesper shook his head quickly.
"I'm good, boss," he said. "No detours." Kaz nodded.
"So Karlin with me." He looked around the group and nodded. "Let's go."
🝯
Kaz Brekker with a baby goat under his arm was not a sight I ever thought I needed to see. But walking down the streets of Novokribirsk side by side with him, I had to stop myself from audibly 'aww'-ing. That is, until I spotted a large crowd listening to a familiar First Army general.
"...-need to break away from the old country. Now is the time to form our own country, to keep what we make and what we earn, instead of sending it to the East. For the true Ravka!" The crowd echoed his words, and the man exited the stage only to step up to a tent and greet another familiar face. I gritted my teeth and nudged Kaz. He looked down at me before following my gaze and sighing.
"That slippery little snake," he muttered. He shook his head and grabbed my elbow, pulling me away from the sight and towards the memorial, scattered with names of people who had died attempting to cross the Fold. Standing between the rocks, Inej was scanning the names, and she looked up at us as we walked up the stairs.
"He's adorable," she said, nodding to the goat in Kaz's arms. He glanced down at it and smiled a bit.
"Don't get attached." We walked a bit closer, and he glanced over her before looking up at the wall. "I didn't think I'd have to specify no detours to you." She looked up at him.
"Even if just a few minutes could end a lifetime of questions?" I sighed.
"Inej, your parents are Suli," I told her gently. "They don't cross the Fold. They go around." She sighed.
"I know. I just thought... that if I saw their names on there, I could let the idea of them go." She pulled her small cloth necklace out of her collar and held it up. "This thing? This was all that I had when I was sold to the Menagerie. And if it was worth anything, Heleen would have taken it. But this is just a simple token of faith that my mother stitched." She shook her head. "This is all that I have left of them." She looked up at the wall. "Unless..." Kaz shook his head.
"Hope is dangerous," he said lowly. "It clouds your judgment." He clenched his jaw. "Pray, scream, do whatever you have to do to push this out of your mind and move on." I sighed and nodded.
"We all have debts to pay," I muttered.
YOU ARE READING
Midnight Thoughts ~ Shadow & Bone
Fanfiction"Fear is a phoenix. You can watch it burn a thousand times and still it will return." Karlin Kaye ran. She ran from her home to a place completely unknown. But as a result she found the ones she knew would make sure she never had to run again. No m...
