room as possibility took hold. It was a subtle thing, but he’d learned to look for it at the tables—the moment a player came awake to the fact that he might have a winning hand. Anticipation tugged at Jesper, a fizzing mix of fear and excitement that made it hard for him to sit still.
Maybe Matthias sensed it, too, because he folded his huge arms and said, “You have no idea what you’re up against.”
“But you do, Helvar. I want you working on the plan of the Ice Court every minute until we sail. No detail is too small or inconsequential. I’ll be checking on you regularly.”
Inej traced her finger over the rough sketch Wylan had produced, a series of embedded circles. “It really does look like the rings of a tree,” she said.
“No,” said Kaz. “It looks like a target.”
9
KAZ
“We’re done here,” Kaz told the others. “I’ll send word to each of you after I find us a ship, but be ready to sail by tomorrow night.”
“So soon?” Inej asked.
“We don’t know what kind of weather we’ll hit, and there’s a long journey ahead of us. Hringkälla is our best shot at Bo Yul-Bayur. I’m not going to risk losing it.”
Kaz needed time to think through the plan that was forming in his mind. He could see the basics—where they would enter, how they would leave. But the plan he envisioned would mean that they wouldn’t be able to bring much with them. They’d be operating without their usual resources. That meant more variables and a lot more chances for things to go wrong.
Keeping Wylan Van Eck around meant he could at least make sure they got their reward. But it wasn’t going to be easy. They hadn’t even left Ketterdam, and Wylan already seemed completely out of his depth. He wasn’t much younger than Kaz, but somehow he looked like a child—smooth-skinned, wide-eyed, like a silk-eared puppy in a room full of fighting dogs.
“Keep Wylan out of trouble,” he told Jesper as he dismissed them.
“Why me?”
“You’re unlucky enough to be in my line of sight, and I don’t want any sudden reconciliations between father and son before we set sail.”
“You don’t need to worry about that,” said Wylan.
“I worry about everything, merchling. That’s why I’m still alive. And you can keep an eye on Jesper, too.”
“On me?” Jesper said indignantly.
Kaz slid a black wood panel aside and unlocked the safe hidden behind it. “Yes, you.” He counted out four slender stacks of kruge and handed one over to Jesper. “This is for bullets, not bets. Wylan, make sure his feet don’t mysteriously find their way into a gambling den on his way to buy ammunition, understood?”
“I don’t need a nursemaid,” Jesper snapped.
“More like a chaperone, but if you want him to wash your nappies and tuck you in at night, that’s your business.” He ignored Jesper’s stung expression and doled kruge out to Wylan for explosives and to Nina for whatever she’d need in her tailoring kit. “Stock up for the journey only,” he said. “If this works the way I think it will, we’re going to have to enter the Ice Court empty-handed.”
He saw a shadow pass over Inej’s face. She wouldn’t like being without her knives any more than he liked being without his cane.
“I’ll need you to get cold weather gear,” he told her. “There’s a shop on the Wijnstraat that supplies trappers—start there.”
“You think to approach from the north?” asked Helvar.
Kaz nodded. “The Djerholm harbor is crawling with customs agents, and I’m going to bet they’ll be tightening security during your big party.”
“It isn’t a party.”
“It sounds like a party,” said Jesper.
“It isn’t supposed to be a party,” Helvar amended sullenly.
“What are we going to do with him?” Nina asked, nodding at Matthias. Her voice was disinterested, but the performance was wasted on everyone except Helvar. They’d all seen her tears at Hellgate.
“For the moment, he stays here at the Crow Club. I want you dredging your memory for details, Helvar. Wylan and Jesper will join you later. We’ll keep this parlor closed. If anyone playing in the main hall asks, tell them there’s a private game going on.”
“We have to sleep here?” asked Jesper. “I have things I need to see to at the Slat.”
“You’ll manage,” Kaz said, though he knew asking Jesper to spend the night in a gambling den without placing a bet was a particular kind of cruelty. He turned to the rest of them. “Not a word to