Crooked Kingdom (30 page)

Genya raised an auburn brow. “Well, if
he's
the worst that can happen—”

“What are you doing here?” Zoya demanded. “Are you and your Fjerdan … accessory trying to get out of Ketterdam?”

“What if we were? Why did you ambush us?”

“There have been attacks on Grisha all over the city. We didn't know who you were or if you might be colluding with the Shu, only that you used the code on the peddler. We always station soldiers in the tavern now. Anyone looking for Grisha is a potential threat.”

Given what Matthias had seen of the new Shu soldiers, they were right to be wary.

“We came to offer our help,” Nina said.

“What kind of help? You have no idea what forces are at work here, Nina. The Shu have developed a drug—”

“Jurda parem.”

“What do you know about
parem
?”

Nina squeezed Matthias' hand. She took a deep breath. “I've seen it used. I've … experienced it myself.”

Genya's single amber eye widened. “Oh, Nina, no. You didn't.”

“Of course she did,” said Zoya. “You've always been like this! You sink into trouble like it's a warm bath. Is this why you look like second-day gruel? How could you take a risk like that, Nina?”

“I do not look like gruel,” Nina protested, but she had that same chastened look on her face. Matthias couldn't stand it.

“She did it to save our lives,” he said. “She did it knowing she might be dooming herself to misery and even death.”

“Reckless,” Zoya declared.

“Zoya,” said Genya. “We don't know the circumstances—”

“We know that she's been missing nearly a year.” She pointed an accusing finger at Nina. “And now she shows up with a Fjerdan in tow, one built like a soldier and who uses
drüskelle
fighting techniques.” Zoya reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of bones. “She attacked our soldiers with these, with
bone shards
, Genya. Have you ever heard of such a thing being possible?”

Genya stared at the bones and then at Nina. “Is this true?”

Nina pressed her lips together. “Possibly?”

“
Possibly
,” said Zoya. “And you're telling me we should just trust her?”

Genya looked less certain but said, “I'm telling you we should listen.”

“All right,” said Zoya. “I wait with open ears and a ready heart. Entertain me, Nina Zenik.”

Matthias knew what it was to face the mentors you had idolized, to feel yourself become a nervous pupil again, yearning to please. He turned to Nina and said in Fjerdan, “Do not let them cow you. You are not the girl you were. You are not just a soldier to command.”

“So why do I feel like finding a corner to sob in?”

“This is a round room. There are no corners.”

“Matthias—”

“Remember what we've been through. Remember what we came here for.”

“I thought we were all speaking Kerch,” said Zoya.

Nina gave Matthias' hand another squeeze, threw back her head, and said, “I was taken captive by the
drüskelle
. Matthias helped me escape. Matthias was taken captive by the Kerch. I helped him escape. I was taken captive by Jarl Brum. Matthias helped me escape.” Matthias wasn't entirely comfortable with how good they both were at being taken prisoner.

“
Jarl Brum?
” Zoya said in horror.

Nina sighed. “It's been a rough year. I swear I'll explain it all to you, and if you decide I should be put in a sack and dropped in the Sokol River, I will go with a minimum of wailing. But we came here tonight because I saw the Kherguud soldiers' attack on West Stave. I want to help get these Grisha out of the city before the Shu find them.”

Zoya had to be several inches shorter than Nina, but she still managed to look down her nose when she said, “And how can you help?”

“We have a ship.” That wasn't technically true yet, but Matthias wasn't going to argue.

Zoya waved a dismissive hand. “We have a ship too. It's stuck miles off the coast. The harbor has been blockaded by the Kerch and the Council of Tides. No foreign vessel can come or go without express permission from a member of the Merchant Council.”

So Kaz had been right. Van Eck was using every bit of his influence with the government to ensure Kaz didn't get Kuwei out of Ketterdam.

“Sure,” said Nina. “But our ship belongs to a member of the Kerch Merchant Council.”

Zoya and Genya exchanged a glance.

“All right, Zenik,” said Zoya. “Now I'm listening.”

*   *   *

Nina filled in some of the details for Zoya and Genya, though Matthias noticed that she did not mention Kuwei and that she steered very clear of any talk of the Ice Court.

When they went upstairs to debate the proposal, they left Nina and Matthias behind, two armed guards posted at the entry to the cistern room.

In Fjerdan, Matthias whispered, “If Ravka's spies are worth their salt, your friends are going to realize we were the ones who broke out Kuwei.”

“Don't whisper,” Nina replied in Fjerdan, but in a normal tone of voice. “It will just make the guards suspicious. And I'll tell Zoya and Genya everything eventually, but remember how keen we were on killing Kuwei? I'm not sure Zoya would make the same choice to spare him, at least not until he's safely on Ravkan soil. She doesn't need to know who's on that boat until it docks in Os Kervo.”

Safely on Ravkan soil.
The words sat heavy in Matthias' gut. He was eager to get Nina out of the city, but nothing about the prospect of going to Ravka seemed safe to him.

Nina must have sensed his unease, because she said, “Ravka is the safest place for Kuwei. He needs our protection.”

“Just what does Zoya Nazyalensky's protection look like?”

“She's really not that bad.” Matthias shot her a skeptical look. “Actually, she's terrible, but she and Genya saw a lot of death in the civil war. I don't believe they want more bloodshed.”

Matthias hoped that was true, but even if it was, he wasn't sure it would matter. “Do you remember what you said to me, Nina? You wished King Nikolai would march north and raze everything in his path.”

“I was angry—”

“You had a right to your anger. We all do. That's the problem. Brum won't stop. The
drüskelle
won't stop. They consider it their holy mission to destroy your kind.” It had been his mission too, and he could still feel the distrust, the pull toward hatred. He cursed himself for it.

“Then we'll find a way to change their minds. All of them.” She studied him a moment. “You used a duskbomb today. Did you have Wylan make it?”

“Yes,” he admitted.

“Why?”

He'd known she wouldn't like it. “I wasn't sure how the
parem
would affect your power. If I had to keep you from the drug, I needed to be able to fight you without hurting you.”

“And you brought it today in case we had trouble?”

“Yes.”

“With Grisha.”

He nodded, waiting for her admonishment, but all she did was watch him, her face thoughtful. She drew nearer. Matthias cast an uneasy glance at the guards' backs, visible through the doorway. “Ignore them,” she said. “Why haven't you kissed me, Matthias?”

“This isn't the time—”

“Is it because of what I am? Is it because you still fear me?”

“No.”

She paused, and he could see her struggling with what she wanted to say. “Is it because of the way I behaved on the ship? The way I acted the other night … when I tried to get you to give me the rest of the
parem
?”

“How can you think that?”

“You're always calling me shameless. I guess … I guess I'm ashamed.” She shuddered. “It's like wearing a coat that doesn't fit.”

“Nina, I gave you my oath.”

“But—”

“Your enemies are my enemies, and I will stand with you against any foe—including this accursed drug.”

She shook her head as if he was speaking nonsense. “I don't want you to be with me because of an oath, or because you think you need to protect me, or because you think you owe me some stupid blood debt.”

“Nina—” he started, then stopped. “Nina, I am with you because you let me be with you. There is no greater honor than to stand by your side.”

“Honor, duty. I get it.”

Her temper he could bear, but her disappointment was unacceptable. Matthias knew only the language of war. He did not have the words for this. “Meeting you was a disaster.”

She raised a brow. “Thank you.”

Djel, he was terrible at this. He stumbled on, trying to make her understand. “But I am grateful every day for that disaster. I needed a cataclysm to shake me from the life I knew. You were an earthquake, a landslide.”

“I,” she said, planting a hand on her hip, “am a delicate flower.”

“You aren't a flower, you're every blossom in the wood blooming at once. You are a tidal wave. You're a stampede. You are overwhelming.”

“And what would you prefer?” she said, eyes blazing, the slightest quaver to her voice. “A proper Fjerdan girl who wears high collars and dunks herself in cold water whenever she has the urge to do something exciting?”

“That isn't what I meant!”

She sidled closer to him. Again, his eyes strayed to the guards. Their backs were turned, but Matthias knew they must be listening, no matter what language he and Nina were speaking. “What are you so afraid of?” she challenged. “Don't look at them, Matthias. Look at me.”

He looked. It was a struggle
not
to look. He loved seeing her in Fjerdan clothes, the little woolly vest, the full sweep of her skirts. Her green eyes were bright, her cheeks pink, her lips slightly parted. It was too easy to imagine himself kneeling like a penitent before her, letting his hands slide up the white curves of her calves, pushing those skirts higher, past her knees to the warm skin of her thighs. And the worst part was that he knew how good she would feel. Every cell in his body remembered the press of her naked body that first night in the whaling camp. “I … There is no one I want more; there is nothing I want more than to be overwhelmed by you.”

“But you don't want to kiss me?”

He inhaled slowly, trying to bring order to his thoughts. This was all wrong.

“In Fjerda—” he began.

“We're not in Fjerda.”

He needed to make her understand. “In Fjerda,” he persisted, “I would have asked your parents for permission to walk out with you.”

“I haven't seen my parents since I was a child.”

“We would have been chaperoned. I would have dined with your family at least three times before we were ever left alone together.”

“We're alone together
now
, Matthias.”

“I would have brought you gifts.”

Nina tipped her head to one side. “Go on.”

“Winter roses if I could afford them, a silver comb for your hair.”

“I don't need those things.”

“Apple cakes with sweet cream.”

“I thought
drüskelle
didn't eat sweets.”

“They'd all be for you,” he said.

“You have my attention.”

“Our first kiss would be in a sunlit wood or under a starry sky after a village dance, not in a tomb or some dank basement with guards at the door.”

“Let me get this straight,” Nina said. “You haven't kissed me because the setting isn't suitably romantic?”

“This isn't about
romance
. A proper kiss, a proper courtship. There's a way these things should be done.”

“For proper thieves?” The corners of her beautiful mouth curled and for a moment he was afraid she would laugh at him, but she simply shook her head and drew even nearer. Her body was the barest breath from his now. The need to close that scrap of distance was maddening.

“The first day you showed up at my house for this proper courtship, I would have cornered you in the pantry,” she said. “But please, tell me more about Fjerdan girls.”

“They speak quietly. They don't engage in flirtations with every single man they meet.”

“I flirt with the women too.”

“I think you'd flirt with a date palm if it would pay you any attention.”

“If I flirted with a plant, you can bet it would stand up and take notice. Are you jealous?”

“All the time.”

“I'm glad. What are you looking at, Matthias?” The low thrum of her voice vibrated straight through him.

He kept his eyes on the ceiling, whispering softly. “Nothing.”

“Matthias, are you praying?”

“Possibly.”

“For restraint?” she said sweetly.

“You really are a witch.”

“I'm not proper, Matthias.”

“I am aware of this.” Miserably, keenly, hungrily aware.

“And I'm sorry to inform you, but you're not proper either.”

His gaze dropped to her now. “I—”

“How many rules have you broken since you met me? How many laws? They won't be the last. Nothing about us will ever be proper,” she said. She tilted her face up to his. So close now it was as if they were already touching. “Not the way we met. Not the life we lead. And not the way we kiss.”

She went up on tiptoe, and that easily, her mouth was against his. It was barely a kiss—just a quick, startling press of her lips.

Before she could even think of moving away, he had hold of her. He knew he was probably doing everything wrong, but he couldn't bring himself to worry, because she was in his arms, her lips were parting, her hands were twining around his neck, and sweet Djel, her tongue was in his mouth. No wonder Fjerdans were so cautious about courtship. If Matthias could be kissing Nina, feeling her nip at his lip with her clever teeth, feel her body fitted against his own, hear her release that little sigh in the back of her throat, why would he ever bother doing anything else? Why would anyone?