Six of Crows: Cloaked in Shadow

Chapter 31 - Wylan

The fence surrounding the Goudensbank twisted into black metal spikes, wickedly sharp and very much interested in impaling the feet of any rogue climbers. Its bars iron trees, it stretched up into the fog. But it was no match for the Wraith.

Wylan watched as she slithered up the gate. Feet tip-toed on handholds he couldn't even see, Inej pulled herself up, up and over, leaping from the top of the gate to the wall of the bank. Here Wylan breathed a sigh of relief. The climb was easier there, peppered with crannies and ledges perfect for her grasping hands.

Kaz didn't relax until she was safely on the balcony. Even then, his eyes roamed across the building. Wylan wanted to help, he really did, but he valued his life. Scared animals fought when cornered, and it seemed it was the same for monsters.

"Should I check on Jesper?" Wylan said tentatively.

Kaz didn't look at him. By his side, his bandaged fingers clenched and unclenched. "You go do that," he said in his low rasp, gaze trained on Inej as she began to fix the rope to the balcony rails.

Best to leave him be. Wylan padded across the road until he could see Jesper. The Zemeni sharpshooter didn't lean so much as sprawl across the wall, a position that conveniently blocked the guards' view of Inej and Kaz. And as for the guards – well, Wylan nearly felt sorry for them.

"Slow down," the moustachioed one said in vain.

Jesper only talked faster. "Tafadhali, kuna kitu kimeenda sawa! Rafiki yangu, Kaz... amepotea kabisa! Anaendelea kutabasamu. Nadhani ni mgonjwa!" he explained to the baffled guards. His Zemeni was rather stilted, but from the sheer helplessness on the guards' faces Wylan doubted they realised.

"Look," the second guard pleaded, "do you know Kerch? Kerch."

Moustache Guard threw up his hands. "He's babbling nonsense."

"Ni dharura!" Jesper insisted. Wylan didn't know much Zemeni, but the bits he understood made him grin. It was a good thing the guards had no clue what Jesper was on about.

"Me Stefan," the second guard said slowly, pointing at himself. "You?"

"Ah!" Jesper said happily. "Mimi ndiye mama mbaya kabisa ambaye utawahi kukutana naye!"

Wylan smiled. They'd be there a long time.

Hurrying back to Kaz, he was just in time to see Inej toss the coils of rope from the balcony. It flicked out over the gate and dropped to about a foot above the ground, swaying like the tail of some great hempen cat. Inej and Kaz shared a long look, then Kaz shook himself.

"Alright. Wylan, can you climb that?"

Wylan eyed the rope. "I think so."

"Up you go, then," Kaz said briskly. "We don't have all night."

"Kaz," Wylan tried, "don't you think that with the, well, your hands..."

The glare Kaz gave him was enough to make him start climbing.

Last time Wylan did this was in the Ice Court. He'd been hopeless enough that Kaz had had to fashion him a harness from rope and knots. But since then he'd gotten fitter – harder, as they called it in the Barrel. His hands had lost their softness, grown calluses, and he'd shed some of the curves he'd had before. Yet another way he stood out from the other merchers, but tonight he was glad of it.

The rope burnt his hands raw as he pulled himself up, and by the time he heaved himself over the balcony his thighs and arms were burning. But he'd made it. There was pride in Inej's smile when she pulled him over, and the throbbing in his muscles was nothing compared to the swell of joy in his heart.

Wylan was expecting Kaz to follow quickly, but the dark-haired boy was nowhere to be seen. He peered over the balcony into the fog, and Inej did the same behind him.

"Kaz," she hissed. And – oh. Wylan knew Kaz was injured, but to see him standing frustrated and furious on the pavement below, fumbling with bandaged hands to tie the rope into a harness, was both terrifying and sad.

Kaz growled. "I'm trying. Give me a minute."

Finally, excruciatingly, Kaz tugged the final knot tight on the harness and looked up. "You can pull me up now," he said, a note of defeat in his voice.

They heaved the rope up inch by wobbly inch. Kaz was a lot denser than he looked. The look on the ganglord's face would have been funny if it wasn't so awfully raw; a grey-spun glare, made of painful silences and cruel nights.

And another change: it was Wylan's hands that Inej pressed the lockpicks into, not Kaz's. Wylan drew in a shaky breath. Here it was, the culmination of all those long hours of learning, those torturous sessions where the lockpicks would slip and clatter and break and do everything except from actually pick the damn lock, and Kaz would look on, implacable but yet somehow converying disappointment. And more lessons, reversed this time, where Kaz would force out wobbly tunes and stumble across the piano keys, startlingly clumsy for once in his life.

The lockpicks slipped in. Wrench in the left hand, hold it lightly, that's it. Befriend the lock. Pick in the right, slip it in, good – a wiggle, get a feel of the pins. Loosen the wrench. Slip the pins into alignment – that's right, keep going – one, two, and the third a little stiff. Give it a twist, and – yes, a give. Hold it. The final pin. Back it goes, lie-smooth, and a click and a shudder and the wrench turned, turned all the way round, and the door swung open.

Inej praised him – of course she did – but it was Kaz's rough smile and his soft "Marketable skills, merchling," that made the grin split Wylan's face as it did.

"I'll keep watch on the entrance," Inej said, and slipped away, and then Kaz was turning to Wylan with a dark light in his eyes and a smile that was less an expression of joy than a baring of teeth.

The door swung shut behind them, and they were in.

A/N

Guess who's crawling back to you with the world's most pathetic update? God knows if anyone actually remembers what the everloving hell the plot's become - it would have been halfway decent if I'd actually updated swiftly enough that people'd KNOW WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON---

ghrjkdkf *takes deep breath*

Sorry. Y'all are incredibly patient and I can say with complete honesty that I don't deserve you.

If any of you have watched the Witcher, keep an eye on this space for an upcoming fic that (hopefully?) will be posted on Wattpad as well as Ao3. I've got a solid 10,000 words in, but to avoid a recreation of the nightmare that is Cloaked in Shadow I'm only posting when it's done ;)