Natasha Van Doren is a shadow summoner. She bides her time and resides in darkness, feared and esteemed by Ketterdam's civilians, a ghost . She cons Kaz Brekker into joining a heist he can't refuse and with thirty million kruge on the line, the crow...
" My face is the combined beauty of Ravka and Shu Han, "
- A.I
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THEY DIDN'T SPEAK.
They couldn't speak.
Kaz Brekker and Natasha Van Doren were two broken soldiers forcing their way through the ice. They stood next to each other without a word, shared sympathetic looks and empty smiles, but not once did they speak. The cliffs of Djerholm were spiky like barbed wire.
The streets were neat lines of cobblestones, much unlike the tangled back alleys of Ketterdam. The houses were the colour of sweet candy, bright hues of pink, yellow and blues. It was a town uprooted from a utopia.
The weather warmed, yet they kept their cloaks close, the ground thawed, but they kept their snow boots on. Inej had slipped on neat rubbers, dancing down the clifftops like the world was a mist separating her from the world.
The Ice Court was a big ugly thing.
Nikolai Lantsov had told Natasha of his business in Frejda, how he had tried easing the burning tension between the two countries. In the end, he had been kicked out, sent away in colours of flaming disgrace. The Frejdans had waged war on the Ravkans the following week.
The walls of the Ice Court were glowing like the stars, flashing embers of smooth and glossy glass. Natasha watched Inej gulp, her thumb counting up the length of the walls. Inej decided to give up with wide eyes after eight.
"It'll only get taller the closer you get," Alessia hummed. Her hands wrapped in stolen silks, a new tunic fresh on her body. She and Jesper had stolen down towards the village before the others had woken.
Kaz would've argued, but not even Dirtyhands could refuse good cake.
They spent their morning with full bellies and cold smiles. Alessia spiked conversation so had Jesper. No one was in the mood to talk. Wylen kept his head down, eating his slice in silence.
"That's a cannon,"
"I've broken into banks, warehouses, mansions, museums, vaults, a rare book library, and once the bed-chamber of a visiting Kaelish diplomat whose wife had a passion for emeralds. But I've never had a cannon shot at me," Kaz rasped.
He glared thoughtfully at their oily barrels, daring them to shoot with a raised brow.
"There's a first time for everything," Natasha added, keeping her tone level and cheerful. "Imagine how lovely the story will be, Kaz Brekker - bastard of the barrels - blown up by icy cannon,"
Matthias sniffed a laugh from behind them both. "I'd read that," Jesper said, keeping his thumbs tucked into the interior pocket of his coat. "Only if they put a picture of me on the front cover with Kaz,"
