Page 77 of Six of Crows (Dregs 1)
“We have a tank and a moat,” said Nina.
“Climb on!” crowed Wylan.
They boosted themselves onto the sides of the tank, clutching at any groove or lip in the metal for dear life, and then they were rolling down the road toward the harbor at top speed.
As they roared past the streetlamps, people emerged from their houses to see what was happening. Nina tried to imagine what their wild crew must look like to these Fjerdans. What did they see as they poked their heads out of windows and doorways? A group of hooting kids clinging to a tank painted with the Fjerdan flag and charging along like some deranged float gone astray from its parade: a girl in purple silk and a boy with red-gold curls poking out from behind the guns; four soaked people holding tight to the sides for dear life—a Shu boy in prison clothes, two bedraggled drüskelle, and Nina, a half-naked girl in shreds of teal chiffon shouting, “We have a moat!”
When they entered the town, Matthias called, “Wylan, tell Jesper to keep to the western streets.”
Wylan ducked down, and the tank veered west.
“It’s the warehouse district,” Matthias explained. “Deserted at night.”
The tank clattered and clanked over the cobblestones, swinging right and left over curbs and back again to avoid the few pedestrians, then sped into the harbor district, past taverns and shops and shipping offices.
Kuwei tilted his head back, his face bright with joy. “I can smell the sea,” he said happily.
Nina could smell it, too. The lighthouse gleamed in the distance. Two more blocks and they’d be at the quay and freedom. Thirty million kruge. With her share and Matthias’ they could go anywhere they wanted, live any life they chose.
“Almost there!” cried Wylan.
They rounded a corner, and Nina’s stomach dropped.
“Stop!” she shouted. “Stop!”
She needn’t have bothered. The tank jolted to a halt, nearly flinging Nina from her perch. The quay lay directly before them, and beyond it the harbor, the flags of a thousand ships snapping in the breeze. The hour was late. The quay should have been empty. Instead, it was crowded with troops, row after row of them in gray uniforms, two hundred soldiers at least—and every barrel of every gun was pointed directly at them.
Nina could still hear the bells of the Elderclock. She looked over her shoulder. The Ice Court loomed over the harbor, perched on the cliff like a sullen gull with feathers ruffled, its white stone walls lit from below, glowing against the night sky.
“What is this?” Wylan asked Matthias. “You never said—”
“They must have changed deployment procedure.”
“Everything else was the same.”
“I’ve never seen Black Protocol engaged,” Matthias growled. “Maybe they always had troops stationed in the harbor. I don’t know.”
“Be quiet,” Inej said. “Just stop.”
Nina jumped as a voice echoed over the crowd. It spoke first in Fjerdan, then Ravkan, then Kerch, and finally Shu. “Release the prisoner Kuwei Yul-Bo. Put down your weapons and step away from the tank.”
“They can’t just open fire,” said Matthias. “They won’t risk hurting Kuwei.”
“They don’t have to,” said Nina. “Look.”
An emaciated prisoner was being led through the rows of soldiers. His hair was matted to his forehead. He wore a ragged red kefta and was clutching the sleeve of the guard closest to him, lips moving feverishly as if imparting some desperate wisdom. Nina knew he was begging for parem.
“A Heartrender,” Matthias said grimly.
“But he’s so far away,” protested Wylan.
Nina shook her head. “It won’t matter.” Had they kept him down here with whatever troops were posted in lower Djerholm? Why not? He was a weapon better than any gun or tank.
“I can see the Ferolind,” murmured Inej. She pointed down the docks, just a little way off. It took Nina a moment, but then she picked out the Kerch flag and the cheery Haanraadt Bay pennant flying beneath it. They were so close.
Jesper could shoot the Heartrender. They could try barreling through the troops with the tank, but they would never make it to the ship. The Fjerdans would gladly risk Kuwei’s life before they ever let him fall into anyone else’s hands.
“Kaz?” called Jesper from inside the tank. “This would be a really good time to say you saw this coming.”
Kaz looked out over the sea of soldiers. “I didn’t see this coming.” He shook his head. “You told me one day I’d run out of tricks, Helvar. Looks like you were right.” The words were for Matthias, but his eyes were on Inej.
“I’ve had my fill of captivity,” she said. “They won’t take me alive.”
“Me neither,” said Wylan.
Jesper snorted from inside the tank. “We really need to get him more suitable friends.”
“Better to go out with fists swinging than let some Fjerdan put me on a pike,” said Kaz.
Matthias nodded. “Then we agree. We end this here.”
“No,” Nina whispered. They all turned to her.
The voice echoed out from the Fjerdan ranks once more. “You have a count of ten to comply. I repeat: Release the prisoner Kuwei Yul-Bo and surrender yourselves. Ten…”
Nina spoke to Kuwei rapidly in Shu.
“You don’t understand,” he replied. “A single dose—”
“I understand,” she said. But the others didn’t. Not until they saw Kuwei produce a little leather pouch from his pocket. Its rim was stained with rust-colored powder.
“No!” Matthias shouted. He grabbed for the parem, but Nina was faster.
The Fjerdan voice droned on: “Seven…”
“Nina, don’t be stupid,” said Inej. “You’ve seen—”
“Some people don’t get addicted after the first dose.”
“It isn’t worth the risk.”
“Six…”
“Kaz is out of tricks.” She plucked open the pouch. “But I’m not.”
“Nina, please,” Matthias begged. She’d seen the same anguish on his face that day in Elling when he thought she’d betrayed him. In a way, she was doing the same thing now, abandoning him once more.
/>
“Five…”
The first dose was the strongest, wasn’t that what they’d said? The high and the power could never be replicated. She’d be chasing it for the rest of her life. Or maybe she’d be stronger than the drug.
“Four…”
She touched Matthias’ cheek briefly. “If it gets bad, find a way to end it, Helvar. I’m trusting you to do the right thing.” She smiled. “Again.”
“Three…”
Then she tossed her head back and poured the parem into her mouth, downing it in a single hard swallow. It had the sweet, burnt taste of the jurda blossoms she knew, but there was another flavor, too, one she couldn’t quite identify.
She stopped thinking.
Her blood began to thrum, and her heart was suddenly pounding. The world broke up into tiny flashes of light. She could see the true color of Matthias’ eyes, pure blue beneath the flecks of gray and brown she’d put there, the moonlight gleaming off every hair on his head. She saw the sweat on Kaz’s brow, the nearly invisible pinpricks of the tattoo on his forearm.
She looked out over the lines of Fjerdan soldiers. She could hear their hearts beating. She could see their neurons firing, feel their impulses forming. Everything made sense. Their bodies were a map of cells, a thousand equations, solved by the second, by the millisecond, and she knew only answers.
“Nina?” Matthias whispered.
“Move,” Nina said, and she saw her voice in the air.
She sensed the Heartrender in the crowd, the movement of his throat as he swallowed his dose. He would be the first.
41
MATTHIAS
“Two … one…”
Matthias saw Nina’s pupils dilate. Her lips parted, and she pushed past him, stepping down from the tank. The air around her seemed to crackle, her skin glowing as if lit from within by something miraculous. As if she’d tapped a vein of Djel directly, and now the god’s power flowed through her.
She went for the Heartrender immediately. Nina flicked her wrist, and his eyes exploded in his head. He crumpled without a sound. “Be free,” she said.
Nina glided toward the soldiers. Matthias moved to protect her as he saw rifles raised. She lifted her hands. “Stop,” she said.
