CHAPTER 3

Price of a Future

     Kaz hated groveling at the feet of other men who weren't nearly as powerful as he, but if he wanted Brynn back, he would do anything it took. And that just so happened acting like a scared, clumsy puppy in front of Cornelis Smeet.

Smeet tipped, losing his footing, hit hat sliding off of his nearly bald head. Kaz stepped forward meekly, offering his assistance. He kept his eyes averted, his manner flustered, his chin tucked into his collar as if hopelessly embarrassed. Wylan and Sasha hovered behind him, Wylan shrunken deeply into his coat and Sasha still red-faced from the threats he had given to Smeet's five-year-old daughter back at the house.

"Watch where you're going!" Smeet barked indignantly, resettling the hat on his head.

"Terribly sorry, sir," Kaz said, brushing the shoulders of Smeet's jacket. "Curse my clumsiness!" He bent to the cobblestones. "Oh, dear, I think you dropped your wallet."

"So I did!" exclaimed Smeet in surprise. "Thank you. Thank you very much." Then, not much to Kaz's own surprise, Smeet opened his billfold and drew out a crip five-kruge bill. "There you are, young man. Pays to be honest."

Honest. Kaz nearly snorted. But instead, he kept his head down and conveyed humble appreciation as he murmured, "Too kind, sir. Too kind. May Ghezen be as generous."

The lawyer went happily on his way, whistling a little tune under his breath, completely obvious to the fact that he had just run directly into the card dealer who had sat across from him for two hours in Club Cumulus. Smeet arrived at his door and pulled a chain from his shirt, then frantically patted his waistcoat, searching for his whistle. Kaz, Wylan, and Sasha joined Matthias in the dark doorway that he'd been at before.

"You didn't put it on the chain?" asked the Fjerdan.

"Didn't bother."

Smeet rooted around in his shirt, then fished out the whistle and unlocked the door, whistling once more. Matthias looked bewildered, Sasha with her head slightly tilted to the side. Kaz knew she was trying to figure out how he made the switch. An inquisitive little thing.

Kaz fixed up his hair with his fingers and handed the five kruge to Sasha. "Don't spend it all in one place. Let's move."

Matthias ushered them along to the narrow side canal where he'd moored the rowboat. He tossed Kaz his cane and Kaz took a moment to appreciate the familiarity of the Fabrikator-made object, before clambering down into the boat.

As the boat slid along the dark waters of the canal, Matthias asked, "Well?"

"Hold your tongue, Helvar. Words like to ride the water. Put yourself to use and help work the oars." Kaz saw Matthias clench his jaw, but said nothing as he did as he was told.

Sasha refused to look at Kaz while he and Matthias rowed. Her face had returned to pale, near-perfection, freckles dotted all over her cheeks and nose. The resemblance between Brynn and Sasha was uncanny. But Brynn was a few years Sasha's senior, her jawline a little sharper, her eyes grey, more freckles on her face. She was also a much better actress than her younger sister.

Kaz had promised himself that he'd do what it took to get Brynn back, and he was doing just that. If he had to threaten little girls and grovel at the feet of worthless men, he would do just that. He could care less about what others thought of his methods.

Finally, they guided the boat into the shallows of Black Veil Island. They tucked the boat behind the dropping limbs of a white willow and then picked their way up through the graves that dotted the steep bank. Using a cemetery as a hiding place wasn't preferable, but there weren't many other places to choose from, and the cemetery provided safety and no normal person would go anywhere near the island after a plague outbreak more than a hundred years ago.

When they got closer to the tomb where they had chosen as their hideout, they could hear Nina and Jesper arguing at the top of their lungs. If anyone was anywhere near, they'd be compromised, and then they'd have nowhere else to hide.

"I don't think you're showing proper appreciation for what I just went through," they heard Jesper grumble as he stomped through the cemetery.

"You spent a night at the tables losing someone else's money," Nina shot back. "Isn't that essentially a holiday for you?"

Kaz knocked his cane hard against a gravestone and they both went quiet, moving swiftly into fighting stances. Nina relaxed as soon as she caught sight of the four of them in the shadows.

"Oh, it's you," she breathed.

"Yes, it's us," he replied, using his cane to herd them both toward the center of the island. "And you would have heard us if you hadn't been busy shouting at each other. Stop gawking like you've never seen a girl in a dress before, Matthias."

The Fjerdan cleared his throat, averting his eyes from Nina. "I wasn't gawking."

"Be quiet, Brekker," Nina said, taking the arm Matthias offered and leaning on him slightly as they made their way over the uneven terrain. "I like it when he gawks."

"How did the mission go?" Matthias asked.

"It's not a mission; it's a job," corrected Nina. "And it went splendidly."

Jesper pursed his lips. "Yeah. Splendidly. Except that my revolvers are currently collecting dust in the Club Cumulus safe. Smeet was afraid to walk home with him, the hopeless podge. Just thinking of my babies in his sweaty hands—"

"No one told you to wager them," said Kaz, his patience withering.

"You dealt me into a corner. How else was I supposed to get Smeet to stay at the tables?"

Kuwei poked his head out of the huge stone tomb as they approached. Irritance flashed through Kaz.

"What did I tell you?" he growled, pointing his cane at the Shu boy.

"My Kerch isn't very good," protested Kuwei.

"Don't run game on me, kid. It's good enough. Stay in the tomb."

Kuwei hung his head. "Stay in the tomb," he repeated glumly as he turned around to walk back into the tomb.

They followed him inside. The tomb was constructed to look like an ancient cargo ship, its interior carved into a vast stone hull. It even had stained-glass portholes that cast rainbows on the crypt floor in the late afternoon. Inej was sitting at the table they'd set in the middle of the room, sharpening her knives. She glared at them as she walked in.

Nina pulled the pins from her hair, shucked off the blonde wig, and tossed it on the table they'd set in the middle of the tomb. She slumped into a chair, rubbing her fingers along her scalp. "So much better," she said with a happy sigh.

"How'd it go?" asked Inej. Clearly she was still not very happy with her role in the job: babysitter to Kuwei.

"Everything went according to plan," Kaz replied.

Sasha crossed her arms and sat on the floor, sulking. "For you, maybe." Inej sent her an inquisitive look, but the girl didn't offer much more of an explanation.

"Guess what we saw on our way out of the Lid?" asked Nina, slouched in her chair, her eyes half-shut.

Jesper started digging through their food stores. "Two Shu warships sitting in the harbor."

She threw a hairpin at him. "I was going to make them guess."

"Shu?" asked Kuwei, returning to his notebooks sprawled over the table.

Nina nodded. "Cannons out, red flags flying."

"I talked to Specht earlier," said Kaz, examining what was left of his team. "The embassies are full up with diplomats and soldiers. Zemeni, Kaelish, Ravkan."

"You think they know about Kuwei?" Jesper asked.

"I think they know about parem," Kaz said. "Rumors, at least. And there were plenty of interested parties at the Ice Court to pick up gossip about Kuwei's... liberation." Sasha snorted, her eyes closed with her head leaned on the wall behind her. Kaz ignored her, instead turning to Matthias. "The Fjerdans are here too. They've got a whole contingent of drüskelle with them."

Sasha stood up, walking over to Kuwei at the table. She'd picked up Kerch very quickly, and apparently had been learning Shu, as well. When Kuwei sighed, she nudged his shoulder, looking up from the notebooks that she'd been studying. "Isn't it nice to be wanted?" she asked him jokingly.

"This is good for us," said Kaz. "The Shu and the Fjerdans don't know where to start looking for Kuwei, and all those diplos making trouble at the Stadhall are going to create some nice noise to distract Van Eck." Hopefully just enough to sneak a certain someone right out from under his nose.

"What happened at Smeet's office?" Nina asked. "Did you find out where Van Eck is keeping Brynn?"

"I have a pretty good idea. We strike tomorrow at midnight."

"Is that enough time to prepare?" asked Wylan.

"It's all the time we have. We're not going to wait for an engraved invitation. What's your progress on the weevil?"

Jesper's brows shot up. "The weevil?"

Wylan removed a small vial from his coat and set it down on the table. Matthias bent to peer at it. "That's a weevil?"

"Not a real weevil," said Wylan. "It's a chemical weevil. It doesn't really have a name yet."

"You've got to give it a name," said Jesper. "How else will you call it to dinner?"

"Forget what it's called," Kaz said. "What matters is that this little vial is going to eat Van Eck's bank accounts and his reputation."

Wylan cleared his throat. "Possibly. The chemistry is complicated. I was hoping Kuwei would help."

While Nina said something to Kuwei in Shu, Sasha scoffed indignantly. "Excuse you. What am I, chop liver?" She crossed her arms.

Kaz raised his eyebrows. "Perhaps. What do you know about the science at work in the weevil?"

"More than you, probably," she said. At Kaz's glare, she looked down and swallowed. "I know plenty. Numbers and equations, my ma was the best at them, and then she passed on her skills to me."

"I'm pretty sure that's not how skills work," said Jesper.

She raised an eyebrow, shoving him playfully. "And how would you know? Your only skill is shooting, and now you don't have your lucky guns to do that for you, do you?"

His eyes narrowed, but a small smirk was on his face. "That was all skill, baby. I don't know what you're talking about."

Wylan scowled, turning to Kuwei. "Well?" he prodded, obviously eager to change the subject.

"I have other interests," Kuwei replied.

Kaz pinned the boy under his sharp glare. "I suggest rethinking your priorities."

Sasha sighed, giving him another nudge. "That's Kaz's way of saying, 'Help Wylan or I'll seal you up in one of these tombs and see how that suits your interests.'"

Kuwei swallowed and nodded grudgingly, convinced by fear.

"The power of negotiation," Jesper said, and shoved a cracker in his mouth.

"Wylan—and the obliging Kuwei—will get the weevil working," Kaz continued. "Once we have Brynn, we can move on Van Eck's silos.

Nina rolled her eyes. "Good thing this is all about getting our money and not about saving Brynn. Definitely not about that."

"If you don't care about money, Nina dear, call it by its other names."

"Kruge? Scrub? Kaz's one true love?"

Kaz scowled a little harder. "Freedom, security, retribution."

"You can't put a price on those things."

"No? I bet Jesper can. It's the price of the lien on his father's farm." The sharpshooter looked at the toes of his boots. "What about you, Wylan? Can you put a price on the chance to walk away from Ketterdam and live your own life? And Nina, I suspect you and your Fjerdan may want something more to subsist on than patriotism and longing glances. Inej? I'm willing to bet you're not going to want to stay with the Dregs any longer. I'm sure Brynn might have a number in mind too. It's the price of a future, and it's Van Eck's turn to pay."

a/n— Sooo, what's going on? I'm currently dying (not actually, though, lol) because of soccer. It'll be over soon though, and hopefully I'll have a bit more time. Right now I'm just going through drafts that I already made while I write furiously. Hope school isn't the thing that actually kills me! :)