Flower of the North [Kaz Brekker; Six of Crows]

chapter 22

Cecilia stared at Inej worriedly. She could hear the anxiety and defeat in her voice. The Suli girl had spent so much time running and hiding from the Menagerie and Cecilia could only imagine how it must feel to have to play the part of being with them again.

"You know those costumes. Heavy cloaks, hoods. That's all the Fjerdans will see. A Zemeni fawn. A Kaelish mare. A Suli lynx," she forced out every word like it was a struggle.

"Inej, are you sure?" Cecilia whispered.

Suddenly the mission had pushed itself to the back of her mind. She didn't want Inej to hurt like this. Nothing was worth this pain.

"It's a risk," Kaz said.

"What job isn't?"

"Kaz, how are you and Matthias going to get through?" Nina asked, "We might need you for locks, and if things go bad on the island, I don't want to be stranded. I doubt you can pass yourselves off as members of the Menagerie."

"That shouldn't be a problem. Helvar's been holding out on us," Kaz gave Matthias a pointed look.

Inej rose a brow at him, "Have you?"

Valan scoffed, almost laughing, "Of course he has. You know how he got all those muscles? Secrets. Filled with them."

"It's not-" Matthias ran a hand through his hair, "How do you know these things, demjin?"

Cecilia's sleeve barely covered the sly and proud smile on her lips as she turned to Kaz. He was smart. He was more than just a thief for material objects. He stole secrets as if they were golden treasures and spotted lies like they were marked in red on a map. She adored his intelligence and, more so than that, how he used it.

Kaz's eyes glinted with mirth as he caught her amusement, "Logic. The whole Ice Court is a masterpiece of fail-safes and doubled systems. That glass bridge is impressive, but in an emergency, there would have to be another way to get reinforcements to the White Island and get the royal family out."

Matthias was exasperated, "Yes. There's another way to the White Island. But it's messy. And it certainly can't be done in a gown."

"Hold on," Jesper interjected, "Who cares if you can all get onto the White Island? Let's say Nina sparkles Yul-Bayur's location out of some Fjerdan higher up, and you get him back here. We'll be trapped. By then, the prison guards will have completed their search and are going to know eight inmates got out of the sector somehow. Any chance we have of making it through the embassy gates and the checkpoints will be gone."

Kaz looked past the dome towards the courtyard in thought, "Wylan, how hard would it be to disable one of these gates?"

"To get it open?"

"No, to keep it closed."

Cecilia's eyes narrowed as she realized where his train of thought was going. He wanted to lock everyone in. Use their own system to imprison them and secure their escape. Though how they would escape wasn't clear in her mind, she was sure it was in Kaz's.

"You mean break it? I don't think it would be too difficult. I couldn't see the mechanism when we entered the prison gate, but from the layout, I'm guessing it's pretty standard," Wylan shrugged.

"Pulleys, cogs, some really big screws?"

"Well, yes, and a sizable winch. The cables wrap around it like a big spool, and the guards just turn it with some kind of handle or wheel," Wylan explained.

"I know how a winch works. Can you take one apart?" Kaz asked.

"I think so, but it's the alarm system the cables are attached to that's complicated. I doubt I could do it without triggering Black Protocol."