CHAPTER I6

Love and War

     After a few moments alone to gather her thoughts—Brynn had told Sasha to go back to the suite with the others while she handled the rest with Kaz—she let Genya back in. And with her was Kaz, who didn't look happy in the least about being there, in the room that smelled of old clay.

Brynn sat on the settee, resting her eyes, as Kaz settled down across from Genya. At first, she had wanted to watch Genya heal his injuries, but decided against it when she saw how Kaz looked at her hands, as if she was getting ready to torture him.

There was only one thing she could do as she waited. Ponder what changes she was going through.

She'd been a Healer. Maybe parem had changed her abilities to go from dealing with the body to dealing with the mind. That must've been how she could see into Genya and Sasha's mind, into the memories they'd kept locked away.

Then what happened to her Inferni abilities? Was she just going to be able to see into peoples' minds for the rest of her life and nothing else?

Get a grip, she told herself. Her parem-influenced abilities could still appear. She just had to be patient.

"Brynn."

She hadn't realized she'd nodded off again until Kaz's voice woke her up. Brynn sat up and opened her eyes. Kaz stood a few feet away from her, Genya was gone. When she stood up, she noticed the changes the Tailor had made to his injuries.

His nose was set, the swelling on his eye had been reduced so he could actually see, and it looked like he wasn't in as much pain as before. But it still looked like she could have done more.

Brynn frowned. "You know she could have—"

"She didn't know when to stop," said Kaz. He checked his watch. "Let's go. It's later than I would have hoped."

Should she tell him? How would he react? Tell her off, say that it's ridiculous?

Wait, why do I care what Kaz Brekker thinks of me? Brynn thought as she stood up and limped with Kaz out of the room. Unless...

This is love and war, Brynn, a second voice told her. And it always has been.

"Brynn?" Kaz asked.

Brynn glanced at him and pushed off from the wall again, shuffling past him. "I'm fine."

"I never asked." The steady rhythm of Kaz's cane against the floor filled the silence until he spoke again. "The Tailor said something happened."

She sighed, but kept going. "She was right."

"Anything else you'd like to tell me?"

This time, Brynn stopped and faced Kaz. But she didn't dare look him in the eyes. "I don't know exactly what happened, but something definitely did. I...saw stuff when I looked into Genya's and Sasha's eyes. And I don't think it's a fluke, either."

Kaz raised an eyebrow. "You saw 'stuff'? What does that mean?"

She ran her hands through her hair. "I don't know, Kaz. Their past, maybe?"

"Like what?"

Brynn frowned at him. "I'm not just going to tell you what I saw in their memories. That's personal."

"And yet you invaded that privacy."

"Not on purpose!"

"Then tell me and we'll say you didn't do it on purpose. No one even has to know."

Typical Kaz. Brynn shook her head and brushed past him, walking back for the lift. "It's funny that you think that you're entitled to information like that."

"I'm not entitled to it," he said. "I just want to understand what you saw."

Brynn laughed. "Right, because that's why." Then she stopped, paused, looked down at the floor. "I honestly don't really know what I saw. I was a little too freaked out to think about it."

"Just think."

When Brynn closed her eyes, she called back what she'd seen through Genya's eyes. A young man that reminded Brynn of personified darkness stood in front of her and Brynn was no longer in the hallway of the hotel baths. Instead, she was on the floor of a ship's deck.

Someone's breathing was loud, right in Brynn's ear, until she realized it was her own. There was a dull pain everywhere, as if she couldn't quite remember how much and where it hurt. Everything was eerily quiet, centered around the young man in a black kefta.

The Darkling, Brynn realized. She'd only learned a little bit about the Ravkan Civil War, but enough that she knew the Darkling was right in the middle of it. But what shocked her was that he didn't look much older than herself.

"I am going to ask you one more time, Genya," he said gently, though there was a dangerous lining to it. "How is it you let my Sun Summoner go?"

Brynn then began speaking, the words forced out of her, the voice she used not her own. "I don't know what you're talking about."

The Darkling sighed, unclasping his hands from behind his back. "You are making this terribly difficult." Only then did Brynn notice the shadowy creatures behind him, not quite human, though not just shadows either. "But you must learn what happens to those who lie and betray me."

He pushed his hands forward, and the shadow creatures surged towards Brynn. They pounced, tearing and ripping Genya's—Brynn's—skin.

It's not my memory. It's not my memory. It's not my memory.

Brynn's eyes popped open. She was back in the hallway with Kaz. The Darkling was gone. The shadow creatures were gone. The ship was gone.

She leaned against the wall behind her, ignoring Kaz's hard stare, probably for her to tell him what she'd just seen. It had just felt so real. Even when she told herself it wasn't really happening, it felt like it was happening. And it had happened—to Genya.

"Are you going to tell me what you just saw or are you going to make me ask?" Kaz said.

Taking a moment to calm herself down, Brynn thought. Should she really tell Kaz about something as personal and haunting as that? To be fair, however, most people probably already knew what had happened to Genya. It wasn't like she tried to cover up her scars.

"I saw how Genya got her scars," Brynn finally said. "The Darkling attacked her with these... shadow monsters. It was like I was there, like I was Genya."

Kaz paused. "Is that why you won't look at me? Because you don't want to go through what I went through."

Brynn shook her head. "No, it's an invasion of privacy, I already told you." She pushed off the wall and kept on walking. "I wanted to talk to you about something, actually."

"Go on."

"I want to be a part of the plan. I want to prove to Van Eck that he can't beat me."

He was silent for a few moments, the sound of their slow footsteps and the thumping of Kaz's cane against the ground filling the silence. When she couldn't take it anymore, Brynn looked back at him. His eyes were silently unfocused, looking at something in front of them.

Scheming face, thought Brynn.

"Fine," he said almost forcibly. "But keep whatever this is to yourself for now."

"I was already planning on it," muttered Brynn. "And Kaz?"

"What?"

"Could you keep this to yourself, too?"

Kaz hesitated. "You shouldn't ask a Barrel thug to keep promises."

Yeah, I've noticed, Brynn thought to herself sourly.

~~~

Soon, the plan was in full motion. The next morning, the announcement of Kuwei's indenture went in all the daily broadsheets, stuck to the columns at the east and west entries of the Exchange, and tacked to the front door of the Stadhall. They'd all helped correctly word the simple announcement, and by the time they'd posted them, the words had been imprinted in Brynn's brain.

Gossip ran through the narrow streets of Ketterdam, the promise of any information Kuwei Yul-Bo might hold as important as a large pile of kruge. The city had already been in an uproar over the curfews, barricades, and blockades. Now it was all anyone could talk about.

And finally, at noon, a man in mercher black approached the eastern entrance to the Exchange with a stack of documents. A horde of people descended on him, tearing the flyers from his hands. Brynn watched with the others on the clock tower, waiting to see if the Merchant Council would support the laws of the city or if they would find some way to deny Kuwei his rights.

"Poor little Karl Dryden," said Kaz. Apparently, he was the most junior member of the Council, so he'd been stuck with this job.

Moments later, Inej burst through the door of the suite clutching a flyer. It was incredible how Brynn had been staring right at the crowd around Dryden and had never even glimpsed her.

"They've validated the auction," she said, and handed the paper to Kaz, who passed it around the group.

All it said was: In accordance with the laws of Kerch, the Merchant Council of Ketterdam agrees to act as representatives to Kuwei Yul-Bo in the legal auction of his indenture. Sacred is Ghezen and in commerce we see His hand.

The rest of the plan came into play later. Colm would be disguised as a farmer named Johannus Rietveld, and a trap already set in motion would draw Van Eck in. Nina would play as his Heartrender escort, as they were the only ones who Van Eck wouldn't recognize, aside from Sasha and Specht.

Brynn still didn't know what had happened back in the clay room with Genya and Sasha. Luckily, her sister hadn't asked her about it, so she didn't need to come up with lame excuses. But every time she was alone, she tried to remember what she'd seen.

It almost felt wrong every time she did, though. Looking into someone else's memories as if they were her own, experiencing everything they experienced.

Once, when she woke up from an especially bad one—one of Genya's bad ones—something was different. The air inside the empty bedroom was frigid, snowflake-like objects floating around her. The floor had frozen solid.

There wasn't much Brynn could do about it but tiptoe back out into the rest of the suite and close the door. She made her way to the bathroom and splashed some cold water on her face, hoping it was just all her mind. But when she went back to check the room out again, it was still the same way it was before.

Then, eventually, it was mere hours from the auction. Sasha couldn't sit still, and Brynn didn't want to, even though everyone told her to lay down and rest up. It was ridiculous. She wasn't weak. Not anymore, at least.

Brynn was taking a bite from a cake that had been put in front of her when Sasha stopped pacing and turned to her. "Are you seriously not going to tell me what happened?"

"Tell you what?" asked Brynn with her mouth full.

Sasha looked at her as if she had asked her what her name was. "The whole 'freaking out' thing? Do you not remember that?"

"I do, but it's a little hard to explain."

Her sister switched to Kaelish. "Are you kidding? I think we're a little past 'hard to explain'."

This was what Brynn was dreading. Explaining her new "powers". She wasn't even completely sure if she understood them herself.

Brynn answered in her native language. "It's nice to hear you speak in Kaelish again."

"Don't change the subject."

She shrugged. "Worth a shot." She took another bite of the cake. "If you really want to know, I think I looked into yours and Genya's memories."

"What?" Sasha asked.

"You heard correctly," said Brynn. "I saw Genya's past, but it wasn't just seeing it. I was looking through Genya's eyes, and yours." She wasn't going to tell anyone about the whole 'freezing an entire bedroom' quite yet.

Sasha frowned. "Is that possible?"

Brynn only shrugged again. "If it happened to me, it's probably possible."

"But are you sure you saw it correctly and your mind isn't making it all up?"

"Sasha, I saw you burning, what it was like to see yourself burn. I almost felt all of your pain. I don't think my mind is that creative."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

Brynn put a hand on her sister's shoulder. "I'm positive. Now all you have to do is sit back, relax, and watch the show."

She wasn't sure if she'd imagined it this time, but as Sasha walked away, Brynn could hear her mutter, "The only problem is relaxing."