Page 70 of Six of Crows (Dregs 1)
“Maybe we could find a quiet corner?” Nina suggested.
Brum preened, his chest puffing out. “This way, dirre,” he said using the Kaelish word for sweetheart.
He led her down a deserted hall, unlocking the door with his circular key.
“This should do,” he said with a bow. “A bit of privacy and a bit of charm.”
Nina winked and sashayed past him. She’d expected some kind of office or retiring room for the guards. But there was no desk, no cot. The room was completely bare—except for the drain at the center of the floor.
She whirled in time to see the cell door slam shut.
“No!” she shouted, hands scrabbling over the surface of the door. It had no handle.
Brum’s face appeared in the window. His expression was smug, his eyes cold. “I may have exaggerated the charm, but there is plenty of privacy, Nina.”
She recoiled.
“That is your name, isn’t it?” he said. “Did you really think I wouldn’t recognize you? I remember your stubborn little face from the slaving ship, and we have files on every one of Ravka’s active Grisha. I make it my business to know them all—even the ones I hope have been swallowed by the sea.”
Nina lifted her hands.
“Go ahead,” he said. “Burst my eyes in their sockets. Crush my heart in my chest. That door won’t unlock, and in the time it takes you to tamper with my pulse, I’ll press this button.” She couldn’t see the brass button, but she could imagine his finger hovering over it. “Do you know what it does? You’ve seen the effects of jurda parem. Would you like to feel them, too? It is effective as a powder, but even more so as a gas.”
Nina froze.
“Smart girl.” His grin lifted the hair on her arms. I will not beg, she told herself. But she knew she would. Once the drug was in her system, she wouldn’t be able to stop it. She took a breath of clean air. A futile gesture, even childish, but she was determined to hold it as long as she could.
Then Brum paused. “No. This vengeance is not mine to take. There is someone else who owes you so much more.” He vanished from the window and a moment later, Matthias’ face filled the glass. He looked back at her, his eyes hard.
“How?” Nina whispered, not even sure if they could hear her through the door.
“Did you really believe I’d turn against my nation?” Matthias’ voice was thick with disgust. “That I’d give up the cause I devoted my life to? I came to warn Brum as soon as I could.”
“But you said—”
“Country before self, Zenik. It’s something you’ve never understood.”
Nina pressed a hand to her mouth.
“I may never be drüskelle again,” he said. “I may live always with the charge of ‘slaver’ around my neck, but I’ll find another way to serve Fjerda. And I’ll get to see you dosed with jurda parem. I’ll get to see you mow down your own kind and beg for the next fix. I’ll get to see you betray the people you love as you asked me to betray my own.”
“Matthias—”
He slammed his fist against the window. “Do not speak my name.” Then he smiled, a smile as cold and unforgiving as the northern sea. “Welcome to the Ice Court, Nina Zenik. Now our debt is paid.”
From somewhere outside, the bells of Black Protocol began to ring.
35
MATTHIAS
ELEVEN BELLS
“She’s beautiful,” Brum said, “in an exaggerated way. You were strong not to be lured by her.”
I was lured, though, thought Matthias. And it wasn’t just her beauty.
“The alarm—” Matthias said.
“Her compatriots, no doubt.”
“But—”
“Matthias, my men will take care of it. The Ice Court is secure.” He glanced back at Nina’s cell. “We could press the button right now.”
“Won’t she be a threat?”
“We’ve combined the jurda parem with a sedative that makes them more biddable. We’re still working out the correct ratios, but we’ll get there. Besides, by the second dose, the addiction does the work of controlling them.”
“Not the first dose?”
“Depends on the Grisha.”
“How many times have you done this?”
Brum laughed. “I haven’t counted. But trust me, she’ll be so desperate for more jurda parem, she won’t dare act against us. It’s a remarkable transformation. I think you’ll enjoy it.”
Matthias’ stomach clenched. “You’ve kept the scientist alive then?”
“He’s done his best to replicate the process of creating the drug, but it’s a complicated thing. Some batches work; others are no better than dust. As long as he can be of service, he lives.” Brum placed his hand on Matthias’ shoulder, his harsh gaze softening. “I can scarcely believe you’re really here, alive, standing before me. I thought you were dead.”
“I believed the same of you.”
“When I saw you in that ballroom, I barely recognized you, even in that uniform. You are so changed—”
“I had to let the witch tailor me.”
Brum’s revulsion was obvious. “You allowed her to—”
Somehow, seeing that response in someone else made Matthias ashamed of the way he’d reacted to Nina.
“It had to be done,” he said. “I needed her to believe I was committed to her cause.”
“That’s all over now, Matthias. You are finally safe and among your own kind.” Brum frowned. “Something is troubling you.”
Matthias looked into the cell next to Nina’s, then another, and another, moving down the hall as Brum followed. Some of the captive Grisha were agitated, pacing. Others had their faces pressed up against the glass. Others simply lay on the floor. “You can’t have known about parem for more than a month. How long has this facility been here?”
“I had it built almost fifteen years ago with the blessing of the king and his council.”
Matthias drew up short. “Fifteen years? Why?”
“We needed someplace to put the Grisha after the trials.”
“After? When Grisha are found guilty, they’re sentenced to death.”
Brum shrugged. “It is still a death sentence, just one a little longer in the making. We discovered long ago that the Grisha could prove a useful resource.”
A resource. “You told me they were to be eradicated. That they were a blight on the natural world.”
“And they are—when they attempt to masquerade as men. They aren’t capable of right thinking, of human morality. They are meant to be controlled.”
“That’s why you wanted parem?” Matthias asked incredulously.
“We have tried our own methods for years with limited success.”
“But you’ve seen what jurda parem can do, what Grisha can do when in its grip—”
“A gun is not evil. Nor is a blade. Jurda parem ensures obedience. It makes Grisha what they were always meant to be.”
“A Second Army?” Matthias asked, his voice thick with scorn.
“An army is made of soldiers. These creatures were born to be weapons. They were born to serve the soldiers of Djel.” Brum squeezed his shoulder. “Ah, Matthias, how I’ve missed you. Your faith was always so pure. I’m glad you’re reluctant to embrace this measure, but this is our chance to strike a deathblow. Do you know why Grisha are so hard to kill? Because they’re not of this world. But they are very good at killing each other. They call it ‘like calls to like.’ Wait until you see all we’ve achieved, the weapons their Fabrikators have helped us develop.”
Matthias looked back down the hall. “Nina Zenik spent a year in Kerch trying to bargain for my freedom. I’m not sure those are the actions of a monster.”
“Can a viper lie still before it strikes? Can a wild dog lick your hand before it snaps at your neck? A Grisha may be capable of kindness, but that does not change her fundamental nature.”
