Daughter of the People

     The stench of Ketterdam was overwhelmingly vulgar to Zoya, even if she'd been there before. But familiar or not, she wished she could take a bath and put on her familiar kefta again instead of walking along the dirty and loud streets of Ketterdam.

As the Crow Club came into view, Zoya nearly gasped. It looked like a great black bird of prey among a sea of gaudy peacocks. It was three times the size of any other establishment.

A building that wasn't quite part of the gambling club, but seemed to be connected to it in more ways than one was to its left. It was predominantly black, though it didn't look any less cheery because of its color. People came and went, and the scent of baked sweet wafted through the door every time it opened with the ding of a bell. The sign above it showed a black crow on the lip of a teacup with a black flower—a dahlia—in its beak, a small cake on the corner of the saucer. The words in Kerch below the picture read The Crow Cafe.

"They've definitely got a theme," muttered Zoya as she and Nikolai walked in. The inside was a little more colorful than the outside facade, the marble floors black and white, the red chairs cushioned. There were a few small tables, but every one of them were occupied. The cafe was busy, every kind of person with another kind of sweet in their hand. The cafe smelled like baked goods, and Zoya took in one deep breath before focusing her mind on the task ahead of her: Brynn Adala.

A young woman was working at the counter, counting a stack of kruge with a bored expression on her face. Zoya thought she looked a little bit like a lynx.

"Excuse me, we're looking for Brynn Adala," said Nikolai. "It's a serious matter."

The girl raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Is that so?" She nodded her head over to a small group of teenagers by the door. "You can get in line. She's busy at the moment. But when she becomes free, I'll let everyone here know. Next!"

Zoya narrowed her eyes. "How about you go tell her that she's needed? Or maybe I'll just—"

"What my companion here means to say," interrupted Nikolai quickly, "is that it is urgent. So, please."

She rolled her eyes and put the money in the cash register. "Fine. But there's a line of people waiting, so if you'd move so that they can order, that'd be lovely." Zoya could sense the sarcasm in her voice.

They took a few steps away from the front counter, trying to get a little bit of space from the rest of the customers. Zoya's eyes wandered to the display case. Some of the pastries looked like normal sweets, glazed or coated in powdered sugar, some of them covered in unfamiliar sauces. But there were a few that had specific looks to them, a black crow cookie, a kind of eclair that had somehow been made into the shape of a white wolf, a biscuit that looked like an icicle. Everywhere Zoya looked, there were black dahlias. In the display case, on the walls, on the tables, even on the lights. Maybe the place should have been named The Black Dahlia.

Finally, the woman came back, but she was accompanied by a Kaelish girl with an apron covered in flour and other ingredients. Her grey eyes scanned the crowd briefly, before landing on Nikolai and Zoya in the corner. She waved them over to one side of the counter that wasn't blocked by customers.

When they were close enough, Zoya could barely recognize the girl. The last time she'd seen her, she was in bad shape, barely able to stand without the help of her sister. Now, she was practically glowing, her hair pulled into a neat braid and her skin not nearly as sickly. There was a little bit of flour on her cheek.

"This is a nice surprise," Brynn Adala said. "General, Sturmhond. What can I do for you?"

"Where's Kaz Brekker?" asked Nikolai. "He hadn't responded to any of the letters we sent."

Brynn frowned. "Letters?" she murmured to herself, then narrowed her eyes at something behind them. "I didn't hear anything about letters from Ravka. Typical." She shook her head, returning to her calm demeanor. "You're looking for Kaz? Alright, stay here." She turned around and started shouting something in Kaelish to someone in the kitchen, who shouted something else back in the same language. Brynn let out an annoyed breath and stormed back behind a door that swung behind her, and it continued to swing like a pendulum.

"Now we're dealing with teenage bakers?" said Zoya under her breath. "What now?"

"Careful, she's a Grisha, too," said Nikolai. "And she's survived jurda parem, just like Nina."

"Just because she's Grisha doesn't mean she's one of us," she replied. "Just that she's a little closer to it. Still a canal rat like Brekker."

The door swung open again before Nikolai could reply and Bynn came flying back to them. "I've sent a messenger to find him. Though knowing Kaz, he'll already be there, waiting for us. Come on."

"Where are we going?" asked Zoya.

Brynn grinned mischievously. "Down below. And I have a feeling you'll like it." She grabbed the countertop and lifted it up, giving them a pathway to behind the counter. When they were on the other side, she let it back down and led them back through the door to the kitchen.

The kitchen smelled even better than the cafe area. There weren't too many cooks, but from what Zoya could tell, they were all skilled at what they did, their fingers nimble and moving quickly as they assembled every pastry in record time. But they spoke to each other as they did, laughing and having a good time. When Brynn walked in, they called out their greetings. Clearly, the people here respected this teenager. Brynn discarded her dirty apron in a hamper.

Brynn turned a corner and pushed open a steel door leading down to a steep set of stairs. "Watch your step," called Brynn as she went first, not missing a beat. "We've had a few injuries on these steps and I'd prefer not to have any more."

The trek down the stairs further into the dark was long and Zoya felt she might trip and fall at any moment. She was surprised when Brynn was silent the entire way. The girl seemed like the talkative type.

Finally, they made it to ground level, and to another steel door. Brynn gave them a grin before knocking on the door, four quick knocks, then two more quick knocks. A slit opened at eye level and a pair of eyes appeared.

Brynn raised her eyebrows in expectation, and the slit closed again. A moment later, the door slid open soundlessly, a man with a grizzled jaw and tattoos halfway up his neck standing behind it. He towered above Brynn, but she hardly looked intimidated. Instead, she grinned.

"Specht! You're here, again?" She patted his chest as he moved to the side to let them through. "Let me guess, that pretty Shu girl with five brothers has caught your eye."

Specht shuffled his feet, a weird sight for someone who looked like he could have taken all three of them in a fistfight. Brynn laughed. "What was her name?"

"Anadil," he said quietly.

She nodded, still grinning. "Nice girl. Uh, Healer, right?"

Zoya perked up. "I thought we got all the Grisha out a year ago."

Brynn glanced back at her. "Hardly. Those were the ones who had enough courage to make themselves known to you all. The others, well..." She paused. "It's better if I show you."

Specht shut the door behind them as Brynn led the two down a tunnel. Then, the sound of people, the crackling of flames, the whooshing of wind, the sloshing of water. Brynn stopped by a cave entrance, extending her hand in invitation for Zoya and Nikolai to see for themselves.

Zoya went first, wanting to know where the sounds were coming from. She entered a medium-sized cave, about the size of her bedroom. People huddled in the corners, old and young. A young boy danced by a fire that was crackling in the middle, his hands held out to make the flames dance with him. Two identical women tossed a large bubble of water back and forth, giggling every time it splashed onto one of them. One of the older women was pushing her hand at the fire, and the wind she shot at it nearly made the flames go out. But the boy continued his dance, laughing at the woman each time she failed.

Zoya stared at the people, dressed in roughspun brown clothes, healthy, but very much bored. These were Grisha, still with fear in their eyes, but who had been given a life where they didn't have to live in fear.

"What is this?" she said.

Brynn smiled. "Many Grisha in Ketterdam don't like running. They just want a roof over their head, and food in their bellies. So that's what I gave them. Occasionally, a few will ask if I can help them get to Novyi Zem or Ravka or the Southern Colonies, which I help them with. Anything they want, within reason, is all theirs."

Nikolai blinked. "You're Rebe Dva Lyudey?"

"Excuse me?"

"In Kerch, I believe it's Dochter van het Volk."

She broke out into a half-smile. "Oh, Daughter of the People. I shouldn't get any credit for that one, must've been 'the people' that I've helped." She shrugged. "Such as you, Sturmhond, Korol Rezni, Sobachka."

It took a moment before Zoya realized that she shouldn't have known that Nikolai was Sturmhond. Brynn had already started down the hallway again, her fingers were running along the wall. Zoya and Nikolai exchanged a glance before rushing to keep up with her.

"Did you know that I found these tunnels by chance?" Brynn asked, still a few feet ahead of them, her feet lithe and graceful against the ground, making nearly no noise. "We were just beginning to get the cafe ready and the door was covered up by a very thick layer of plaster. Such a waste." She said it almost as if she were disappointed in the previous owner of the building. "But don't worry about it being uncovered and open for anyone to see. There are more failsafes in the doors themselves, as well as my most trusted men and women that would never let anyone in unless I or Kaz says so. And even if Kaz says so, they're a little skeptical to let people in."

"How did you know—" Zoya began.

"That your confident privateer would be addressed as Your Majesty?" Brynn shrugged. "Illusions are my trade, lies are my weapons. You should know better than to use my own sword against me."

Nikolai stared at her. "What did parem do to you?"

She turned back to him and grinned, beginning to walk backwards with her fingers trailing on the wall beside them. " A calamity or miracle, you decide." At their confused glances, she elaborated. Zoya watched as the wall beneath Brynn's fingertips turned to ice.

Zoya and Nikolai paused, twisting to look at the long streak of ice on the wall behind them. "Wylan called it the frigid flame," said Brynn. "Jesper wanted to call it the Brynn Flame. Sasha called it my 'cool ice powers'."

Then, the ice began to peel off of the wall, floating in the air until it turned to look at Zoya. The ice turned into two snakes, then shot at Zoya, deadly and out for blood. They hissed, and just as they were going to reach Zoya, they disappeared into mist. Zoya blinked, and the ice was back on the wall, just as it had always been.

Nikolai blinked as well and stepped back, looking down at his feet as if something had been there before.

"It's quite the experience, isn't it?"

Zoya whirled around at the new voice. Kaz Brekker stood next to Brynn, his gloved hands over top of that cane with a crow's head, his dark hair perfectly combed back and his eyes watching them, almost in amusement.

"What was that?" growled Zoya.

Brynn cocked her head to the side. "What, you didn't like it?" When Zoya continued to glare at her, she sighed. "An illusion, of sorts. A result of parem, as I'm sure you've already realized." She turned to Nikolai. "I could make everyone see the same thing, or perhaps let their imagination wander. What did you see, Your Highness?"

Nikolai paused, hesitant, until he said, "A fox."

"And Kaz?"

"Two crows."

"General?"

Zoya crossed her arms. "Why?"

"Humor me."

She narrowed her eyes. "Two deadly snakes."

"And it all felt very real, did it not?" asked Brynn.

"I could've sworn I felt the fox rubbing up against me," said Nikolai. "How did you do that?"

Brynn shrugged. "Magic, the Small Science, just twisted a little bit, whatever you'd like to call it. You could call me an illusionist, a magician, it doesn't really matter." She turned. "But I'm sure you're not here to speak of what parem has done to me. You want to go after the titanium the Kerch army has stockpiled at Rentveer."

Kaz and Brynn began walking down the tunnel again. Zoya furrowed her brows. Brynn spoke again. "Illusions require me to dig into a person's brain to find out the best way to trick them, and then plant the illusion there. It sounds a lot more complicated than it is, but I learn quite a lot while I'm in there."

Zoya didn't like the idea of this girl being in her mind. But it was still very impressive, how the girl was so talented in her new ability that she'd only had for about a year.

"That's a fortified military base on one of the roughest sections of the Kerch coastline," said Kaz. "It's unreachable by sea without divine intervention and impossible to approach by air without being shot down. There's only one road in or out, and it's heavily guarded. All that adds up to an almost guaranteed chance of capture. I have a long list of enemies who would like nothing better than to catch me at something illegal and throw me in Hellgate."

"So you've left off criminal enterprise?" Zoya asked skeptically.

"I know which chances to take. Why should I take this one?"

"Because you like a challenge?" suggested Nikolai.

"You have me confused with some other thief."

"I don't think I have confused either of you," said Nikolai. "I have something you want. Safety for the Wraith."

Brynn's step faltered slightly and she didn't even try to conceal her intrigue as she glanced back at Nikolai. "How so?"

"It is my understanding that a certain ship, captained by a young Suli woman and with a Kaelish first mate and flying under no country's banner, has thrown the human trade in and out of Ketterdam into upheaval. I particularly liked the tale of the two slavers they left slathered in tar and crow feathers at the entrance to the Stadhall. I do admire their theatrics, though the Merchant Council was less impressed, perhaps due to the note pinned to the captain's chest that read, 'Gert Van Verent's new mansion was paid for in bodies.' It made for quite the story in the papers, and Mister Verent—a former member of the Council in good standing—is now under investigation."

"He isn't," said Kaz.

"No?"

"He was found guilty and sentenced to two years in Hellgate. His political rivals have already carved up his fortune."

"How swift is Kerch justice when there's money to be made," Nikolai marvelled. "The captain, her right-hand-woman, and her ship are known only as the Wraith, but I have it on good authority that this mysterious duo are Inej Ghafa and Sasha Adala."

"Never heard of her."

"No?" Nikolai feigned shock. "That surprises me on many accounts. Given the Suli woman's association with the Dregs, her considerable talent for puncturing people with all the zeal of a nearsighted auntie trying to embroider a quilt. And not to mention that the last names of Brynn and the Kaelish girl are both Adala."

Brynn waved her hand. "A mere coincidence."

"It may be for the best that you have no personal connection."

"Is that so?" said Kaz in disinterest.

They had stopped at a huge iron door with an elaborate locking mechanism, just like the two they'd passed through earlier.

"Have you heard of the izmars'ya?" Nikolai asked.

"My Ravkan is rusty."

"And mine is nonexistent," snorted Brynn.

Nikolai continued. "They're submersible warships that travel beneath the sea. They can attack any vessel unseen, and are almost impossible to invade. Some very powerful people in Kerch possess this technology. If the Wraith's enemies convince the Kerch government to use these weapons against her, the Wraith and her crew could be blown from the water at any time."

"A dire situation for them, no doubt." Kaz's voice was even, but his gloved hand gripped the silver crow's head of his cane. Brynn looked deep in thought. "And perhaps for the person who invented such a menace."

The threat was obvious.

"No doubt. But it so happens that when this technology was granted to Kerch, the very wise king of Ravka—have you met him? Unusual for someone to be so smart and good-looking—had the hulls of the izmars'ya imbues with bits of rhodium, so that with the help of a Fabrikator and a certain device in his keeping, a ship could receive early warning of any submersible within a three-mile radius and take evasive maneuvers. If said ship was so inclined."

"An early warning system."

"Precisely."

Brekker reached for the handle of the door. "And you have this clever invention in your possession?"

"Not on my person," said Nikolai. "I know better than to fill my pockets with valuable merchandise around a thief known as Dirtyhands. And his queen, who might just be as dangerous and tricky as him, if not more. But the device is well within reach."

Brekker gave the handle on the iron door a spin. "Come with me, Sturmhond. If we're going to pull this off, we'll need some very particular help."

As Brynn followed him through, she pulled a cake out of her pocket and bit into it happily.

a/n— The character development, amirite? Just a few more chapters and A Little Wicked will officially be done!