Crooked Kingdom (The Six of Crows Duology #2) - Leigh Bardugo Page 0,127

and smelled like a forest fire, but he had that wonderful glimmer-eyed look he always seemed to get when he’d been in a fight. All Wylan wanted to do was stand as close as he possibly could to him and know that he was safe.

Until this moment, Wylan hadn’t quite understood how much they meant to him. His father would have sneered at these thugs and thieves, a disgraced soldier, a gambler who couldn’t keep out of the red. But they were his first friends, his only friends, and Wylan knew that even if he’d had his pick of a thousand companions, these would have been the people he chose.

Only Kaz stood apart, staring silently out the window to the dark streets below.

“Kaz,” said Nina. “You may not be glad we’re alive, but we’re glad you’re alive. Come here!”

“Leave him be,” murmured Inej softly.

“Saints, Wraith,” said Jesper. “You’re bleeding.”

“Should I call a doctor?” asked Jesper’s father.

“No!” they all replied in unison.

“Of course not,” said Colm. “Should I ring for coffee?”

“Yes, please,” said Nina.

Colm ordered coffee, waffles, and a bottle of brandy, and while they waited, Nina enlisted their help to locate some shears so that she could cut up the hotel towels for bandages. Once a pair had been found, she took Inej into the bathroom to see to her wounds.

When a knock sounded at the door, they all tensed, but it was only their meal. Colm greeted the maid and insisted that he could manage the cart so that she wouldn’t see the strange company that had assembled in his rooms. As soon as the door closed, Jesper jumped up to help him wheel in a silver tray laden with food and stacks of dishes of porcelain so fine it was almost transparent. Wylan hadn’t eaten off dishes like these since he’d left his father’s house. He realized Jesper must be wearing one of Colm’s shirts; it was too big in the shoulders and too short in the sleeves.

“What is this place, anyway?” Wylan asked, looking around the vast room decorated almost entirely in purple.

“The Ketterdam Suite, I believe,” said Colm, scratching the back of his neck. “It’s considerably finer than my room at the university district inn.”

Nina and Inej emerged from the bathroom. Nina heaped a plate with food and plunked down beside Matthias on the couch. She folded one of the waffles in half and took a huge bite, wiggling her toes in bliss.

“I’m sorry, Matthias,” she said with her mouth full. “I’ve decided to run off with Jesper’s father. He keeps me in the deliciousness to which I have become accustomed.”

Inej had removed her tunic and wore only her quilted vest, leaving her brown arms bare. Strips of towel were tied at her shoulder, both of her forearms, her right thigh and her left shin.

“What exactly happened to you?” Jesper asked her as he handed his father a cup of coffee on a delicate saucer.

Inej perched in an armchair next to where Kuwei had settled himself on the floor. “I made a new acquaintance.”

Jesper sprawled out on a settee and Wylan took the other chair, a plate of waffles balanced on his knee. There was a perfectly good table and chairs in the suite’s dining room, but apparently none of them had an interest in it. Only Colm had taken a seat there, coffee beside him, along with the bottle of brandy. Kaz remained by the window, and Wylan wondered what he saw through the glass that was so compelling.

“So,” Jesper said, adding sugar to his coffee. “Other than Inej making a new pal, what the hell happened out there?”

“Let’s see,” said Nina. “Inej fell twenty stories.”

“We put a serious hole in my father’s dining room ceiling,” Wylan offered.

“Nina can raise the dead,” said Inej.

Matthias’ cup clattered against his saucer. It looked ridiculous in his huge hand.

“I can’t raise them. I mean, they get up, but it’s not like they come back to life. I don’t think. I’m not totally sure.”

“Are you serious?” said Jesper.

Inej nodded. “I can’t explain it, but I saw it.”

Matthias’ brow was furrowed. “When we were in the Ravkan quarter, you were able to summon those pieces of bone.”

Jesper took a gulp of coffee. “But what about the lake house? Were you controlling that dust?”

“What dust?” asked Inej.

“She didn’t just take out a guard. She choked him with a cloud of dust.”

“There’s a family graveyard next to the Hendriks lake house,” said Wylan, remembering the gated plot that abutted the western wall.