CHAPTER 9

Ilddrüsje

     "Of course she'll live. I might not be a Healer, but I've saved plenty of people back in my time."

Brynn heard a familiar snort. "'Back in your time'? Nina, you're seventeen."

"It's been a long seventeen years."

Brynn chuckled softly. "That it has." She slowly peeled her eyes open to find Nina, Jesper, and Wylan standing over her. Matthias was just barely in her eyesight, his arms crossed and his eyes on Nina. Jesper and Nina's eyes widened and Brynn only smiled.

"You're awake!" exclaimed Nina.

"That's the second time you've said that to me," she noted.

Jesper laughed. "You almost died, Brynn. How are you already acting like you woke up from a nap?"

Brynn tried to sit up, but the pain in her abdomen and the throbbing in her head caused her to flop back down. "I guess I'm just naturally carefree."

"You are anything but carefree," said Nina.

"How are you so sure?"

"Because you're a terrible actress."

She gasped. "I am anything but! Clearly you've never seen my amazing performance as the Madman." Brynn shivered. "What's in the inventory?"

Nina began to rattle off her list of injuries. "Nine fractured ribs, three broken ones, broken leg, and blunt force trauma to the head. I think your leg broke your fall."

"Now you can match with Kaz," said Wylan. Brynn couldn't tell if he was joking or not.

Hovering her hands over her abdomen, Brynn closed her eyes, finishing off Nina's work. When she was done, she felt brand new and ready to do anything, aside from the soreness. Nina helped her up, helping her brush off the majority of the snow from her clothes.

"Brynn." She looked up to see Kaz standing next to Inej, his regular apathetic eyes roving over her figure. Only minutes ago she was on her deathbed for the second time. "You're not dead," he noted.

Brynn smiled. "You're not getting rid of me that easily."

He gave her a brief nod, then turned to the rest of them. "Let's go. We've already wasted enough time here." Brynn felt a small pang in her chest, but pushed it aside.

"We need to bury the Grisha," said Nina.

"The ground's too hard, and we don't have the time. The Shu team is still moving towards Djerholm. We don't know how many other Grisha they may have, and Pekka's team could already be inside."

Nina frowned. "We can't just leave them for the wolves," she insisted.

"Do you want to build them a pyre?"

Brynn glared at him. "Kaz," she warned.

He ignored her. "Do your job, Zenik. I didn't bring you to Fjerda to perform funeral rites."

Lifting her hands, Nina's glower was withering. Kaz didn't so much as flinch. "How about I crack your skull open like a robin's egg?"

"You don't want a look at what's inside my head, Nina dear."

Before she could make good on her threat, Matthias stepped forward. "Stop. I'll do it. I'll help you dig the grave." He handed Nina a pick from his gear, grabbed one for himself from Jesper's pack, then turned back to the rest of them. "Head due south from here. I know the terrain, and I'll make sure we catch up to you by nightfall. We'll move faster on our own."

Kaz's gaze was steady as he looked at the Fjerdan. "Just remember that pardon, Helvar."

Brynn gave Nina a small hug and moved to join the others. "Are we sure it's a good idea to leave them alone?" Wylan wondered.

Brynn snorted. "No."

"But we're still doing it?"

"We trust them now or we trust them later," Kaz said.

"Are we going to talk about Matthias' little revelation about Nina's loyalties?" asked Jesper.

Kaz struck his walking cane on the snow. "Pretty sure most of us don't have 'stalwart' or 'true' checked off on our resumés." That was most certainly true, and Brynn's mind never let her forget it.

~~~

Djerholm was not at all what Brynn expected. It was nothing like the drab, black and grey slanting buildings of Ketterdam—the air mixed with mist and dark coal smoke, the hustle and bustle of trade everywhere you looked. No, Djerholm was a mix of colors and tidiness—everything with its proper place. The houses were painted every bright color imaginable—even their warehouses had the cheery colorfulness of the rest of the city. Brynn was reminded of a children's book, everyone happy as can be with everything put together and colors everywhere.

Hringkälla was very popular in the capital city of Fjerda. Ornaments and clothes especially for the ceremony glittered in the shop's windows, the cookies decorated with wolves and trees looking especially mouth-watering. Using her Healer abilities brought back some of her appetite, and every piece of food she passed made her stomach grumble.

Finally, after the awful food at the Gestinge, they'd demanded Kaz to get them something edible. Sitting in a crowded bakery as they waited for Nina, the group of six looked out of place. A teenage boy with a walking stick, a lanky Zemeni, a small Suli girl, a grumpy-looking buffed boy who sat in the corner, a curly-haired boy who looked like he was about twelve, and an impossibly-blonde girl with eyes as blue as the brightest blue dahlia. Nina had done a good job tailoring her.

Brynn took a sip of her coffee, eyeing the dark-haired boy across from her, his cane resting across his legs. "Spit it out, Adala."

She put her mug down. "How'd you break your leg?"

Kaz simply shrugged. "I jumped off the roof of a bank during a heist. Nothing special."

"Then why do you refuse to let me fix it?"

"Because it doesn't need fixing." His voice was strict and Brynn knew she'd hit a nerve.

"I wasn't insinuating that it needed fixing," she tried to explain. "I just thought it looked painful—"

Kaz interrupted her sharply. "Let it go, Brynn."

Luckily, Nina stepped into the bakery, the bell on the door jingling, absolutely looking like she had been in the cold too long. Her cheeks were rosy and her brown hair was tangled, but she paid no mind to it, instead declaring, "Someone needs to start feeding me sweet rolls immediately."

Brynn didn't miss the relief that flooded Matthias' face and she smiled. She wished someone looked at her like that.

Instead of moping like a heartsick teenager about it, Brynn stood up to walk past Nina and out the door. The Heartrender asked her where she was going, grabbing on her arm to keep her in place.

"I just need a little fresh air," muttered Brynn, peeling Nina's fingers off of her bicep. "I'll be back soon."

The air was cold outside, but Brynn was starting to get used to it again. Little flurries of snow fell down from the sky, children jumping about with their tongues stuck out and grins from ear to ear. Brynn smiled at them as she passed, walking down the street with her hands stuffed in her pockets.

It was easy to forget how awful people like this were to people like her. The Fjerdans smiled at everyone they passed, cheeks and noses rosy from the cold. They all looked so... normal. Normal as can be for Grisha-killers.

Brynn stepped aside for a young couple to walk past, offering them a smile in return for theirs she gave to her. But the smile dropped a second later.

A poster had been put up on the wall across from her, blowing in the soft breeze. It was a wanted poster, but that wasn't what caught her attention. As Brynn stared at the poster, her own face stared back.

She glanced at the people around her before grabbing the poster and hurrying into a nearby alley. The drawing of her was good—too good. The same hollow cheeks, her wavy red hair, wide, grey eyes—just four years earlier.

Brynn reminded herself that she wasn't a redhead anymore. Nina had tailored her hair blonde, her eyes blue. But she couldn't get the picture of herself on a wanted poster out of her mind.

"They called you Ilddrüsje."

She whirled around to come face-to-face with Matthias. "What?"

"Ilddrüsje," he repeated.

"Firewitch," she breathed in Kerch.

Matthias nodded, towering above her. "They put up posters for you all the way from Elling to Halmhend. You're lucky nobody can recognize you, or else you'd have a much different experience in these streets."

She crumpled the paper in her hands, stuffing it into her pocket to hopefully burn later. "Yeah, I know."

When she turned to leave, Matthias grabbed her arm. Brynn whirled around to glare at him and he released his grip.

"There are stories about the drüsje who burned her village to the ground in the Wandering Isle," he said. "Then when you brought your magic here, to Fjerda, the stories became so far-fetched, I didn't know what to believe."

"Believe what you want," muttered Brynn as she turned to leave. "The one thing they have in common is that I'm a wicked witch, and that's true enough."

a/n—Do you see the parallel between Kaz and his gloves/Brynn and her powers? I didn't even realize I did that until I saw it and I was like, "Oh, I'm such a genius." Anyway, let me know what you think! Also, I think I'll probably be able to update even more because my schedule's cleared up a bit now. Love you guys!