Crooked Kingdom (The Six of Crows Duology #2) - Leigh Bardugo Page 0,138

Matthias’ hand. “The Grisha are still stuck at the embassy, Kaz. I know you don’t give a damn, but we have to get them out of the city. And Jesper’s father. All of us. No matter who wins the auction, Van Eck and Pekka Rollins aren’t going to just pack up and go home. Neither will the Shu.”

Kaz rose, leaning on his crow’s head cane. “But I know the one thing this city is more frightened of than the Shu, the Fjerdans, and all the gangs of the Barrel put together. And Nina, you’re going to give it to them.”

K az sat in that chair for what felt like hours, answering their questions, letting the pieces of the plan shift into place. He saw the scheme’s final shape in his mind, the steps it would take to get them there, the infinite ways they might falter or be found out. It was a mad, spiky monster of a plan, and that was what it had to be for them to succeed.

Johannus Rietveld. He’d told a kind of truth. Johannus Rietveld had never existed. Kaz had used Jordie’s middle name and their shared family name to create the farmer’s identity years ago.

He wasn’t certain why he’d purchased the farm where he’d grown up or why he’d continued to make trades and acquire property under the Rietveld name. Was Johannus Rietveld meant to be his Jakob Hertzoon? A respectable identity like the one Pekka Rollins had crafted to better dupe gullible pigeons? Or had it been some way of resurrecting the family he’d lost? Did it even matter? Johannus Rietveld existed on paper and in bank rec ords, and Colm Fahey was perfect to play the role.

When the meeting finally broke apart, the coffee had gone cold and it was nearly noon. Despite the bright light streaming through the windows, they would all try to get a few hours’ rest. He could not. We don’t stop. Kaz’s whole body ached with exhaustion. His leg had ceased throbbing and now it just radiated pain.

He knew how damnably stupid he was being, how unlikely it was that he’d return from the Slat. Kaz had spent his life in a series of dodges and feints. Why come at a problem straight on when you could find some other way to approach? There was always an angle, and he was an expert at finding it. Now he was about to go stomping ahead like an ox yoked to a plow. Odds were good he’d end up beaten, bloodied, and dragged through the Barrel straight to Pekka Rollins’ front stoop. But they’d landed in a trap, and if he had to chew his paw off to get them out of it, then that was what he would do.

First he had to find Inej. She was in the suite’s lavish white-and-gold bathroom, seated at a vanity table, cutting fresh bandages from the towels.

He strode past her and removed his coat, tossing it onto the sink, beside the basin. “I need your help plotting a route to the Slat.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“You know I have to face them alone,” he said. “They’ll be looking for any sign of weakness, Wraith.” He turned the spigots, and after a few creaking groans, steaming water poured from the tap. Maybe when he was rolling in kruge he’d have running hot water installed in the Slat. “But I can’t approach at street level.”

“You shouldn’t approach at all.”

He stripped off his gloves and dunked his hands in the water, then splashed it over his face, running his fingers through his hair. “Talk me through the best route or I’ll find my own way there.”

He would have preferred to walk instead of climb. Hell, he’d have preferred to be driven there in a carriage-and-four. But if he tried to make it through the Barrel on the streets, he’d be captured before he got anywhere near the Slat. Besides, if he had any chance of making this work, he needed the high ground.

He dug in his coat pockets and held up the tourist map of Ketterdam he’d found in the suite’s parlor. It didn’t have as much detail as he would have liked, but their real maps of the city had been left on Black Veil.

They laid the map beside the basin and bent to the task as Inej drew a line through the rooftops, describing the best places to cross the canals.

At one point she tapped the map. “This way is faster, but it’s steeper.”

“I’ll