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...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
" I would look bad on the newspaper, and even more dreadful on your carpet, "
- H.V.H
NATASHA GULPED AS THEY MEET IN THE MIDDLE. A blonde female guard stepped forth, ribbons of hair sticking out from a navy cap. Natasha looked through the crowd, fruitlessly aiming for a glimpse of Kaz Brekker. Naturally, the boy had slipped away - a shadow in a cruel world.
The girl by her side, named Aleya, nudged her side with a sharp jostle of her bony elbow. Natasha hissed in pain, the silver veil almost slipping off her face. "Look alive, Taya," Aleya said, readjusting the red beads in her dark hair.
"I'm trying," Natasha mumbled. She combed an anxious hand through her hair, picking at a particularly large tangle. At sea, Alessia and her mediocre tailoring abilities had kept Natasha flushed and alive. Natasha was sure, that now she was oddly pale - a sombre shadow of a felicitous teenager.
"See you on the other side," Aleya grinned cheerfully, brushing her fingertips over Natasha's pulse - more so the menagerie tattoo. She glanced down at the bruised welts, taking no notice of the swollen skin.
Natasha moved into the final crew. Aside from the artful selection of silks, Kaz had also managed to steal her a pearl-beaded purse. She thumbed open the clasp, peeking into the dreary depths.
A selection of Zemeni coin, black hair clips and leaflets of paper were all packed neatly. Natasha quickly zipped the purse, pocketing it beneath the layers of her silks. Natasha moved into the final lingering flocks of the Menagerie girls.
The checkroom stank of fruity perfumes and the sickly sweet smell of sex. Another woman, cropped hair and thin-lipped, stepped forth. Without warning, she tugged downwards at Natasha's clothes.
The silks spun down in a fury of bright colours, leaving her almost bare. Natasha immediately cowered, as a large metal brush was swept across the tinkling beads. The other girls stripped down without words, lips pressed tight and eyes forced to the ground.
Taya's purse rolled out from beneath Natasha's silks. She could have sworn the smirk of the prison-guard, was laced with the very flames of evil. The purse was thrown dramatically on the centre of an oval table. Natasha bit the inside of her cheek, until blood dribbled down the side of her lip.
"What is this?" The blonde guard sneered. The other pointed a large rifle into Natasha's centre. Her accent was thick and heavy, broken Zemeni cursed on her foul tongue. "What are you hiding?" She took a long pause as if she was scouring a dictionary for the right word. "Whore."
The others girls smiles fell slack. Even Heleen's mouth quivered. "Whore," Natasha repeated, pressing a hand over her mouth to cover a smirk of disbelief. Natasha arched a dark brow, crossing her arms over her chest. "I am a whore to you?"
Natasha stood in the centre of the room wearing nothing but the thinnest layer of silk. "What is in your bag?" The woman said lazily. She had no regard for the other girls - her gun fixed pointedly at the pink pouch.
Tante Heleen stepped forth, pressing an arm over Natasha's chest. "Stay quiet," She hissed. Heleen clicked her tongue, sweeping the gun away from the centre of her face. "You won't shoot me," she laughed sourly. "It would look bad on the newspaper and on your dreadful carpet,"
Natasha stepped underneath Heleen's arm. "Taya has been working with me for a very long time," Natasha nodded, hardly listening through the blood beating in her ears. "She lost her family in a terrible fire, lost all six of her brothers,"
Heleen waved her arm theatrically. "The girl hardly has a penny to her name," She grabbed Taya's pouch between her forefinger and thumb, holding it up to the guards face like evidence from a crime scene. "All she has are tumble coins and her Zemeni documents,"
"Show me," The guard rumbled, unamused by Heleen's display. She sulked back into the arms of Shu Serpent, finishing her check. Natasha grabbed the bag from around the middle, cursing the unknown Taya.
"I told you," Natasha said in Frejdan, too good to sound believable - for her status. "Only coins," A clatter of silver and bronze pennies fell across the table. Kaz had managed to collect a decent hall.
"What about the papers?" Natasha laughed, pulling out several sheets of paper. Each was stamped in blue ink - the marking of the Council of Tidemakers. Ketterdam's flag flew next to the enclosed picture.
Taya was small, her eyes and height different from Natasha's. Taya's skin was fairer, her eyes almond-shaped. The bells on Natasha's ankles rang in funeral mourning as she hopped from heel to heel.
"They do not match," The dark-haired woman spat. She lifted Natasha's veil, her teeth stained with yellow Jurda. "Who are you, girl, and why are you here?"
"An old friend and to visit, of course," Natasha had only been slightly worried when they discovered her. Her cheek pressed against the wall, her wrists painfully held behind her back. The other girls whispered through their teeth as several Frejdans flooded the room.
But when his flooding voice rung through the air, only then did she realise the severity of her situation. Natasha forced her cheek off the wall, spinning towards him. Nikolai Lantsov.
"Natasha Van Doren," Nikolai grinned with pearly teeth. A pair of Ravkan guards stood by his side. "Isn't it lovely seeing you here again?" He looked her up and down, blinking with ocean blue eyes. "Looks like you're in a spot of trouble too,"
Nikolai raised his brow in a condensing manner - like a father disciplining their child. He stared into her silver eyes for a long intimate moment. "Let her go," Nikolai said softly, quirking his head against his shoulder in thought. He played childishly with his fingers as his brain stirred over the situation. "The girl is with me," The Frejdans dropped Natasha to the floor with a loud thud.
"You can't," Heleen cried, flaying in front of Natasha. Her silks flapped into the hysteria of the moment. "Where is Taya? Where is my girl?" Natasha looked up at Heleen coolly from a crumpled heap on the floor.
"Tumbling," Natasha gasped, her eyes darting between Nikolai's unconcerned figure and Heleen. "Singing, dancing in a closet, how should I know?" She rubbed at her ribs, wobbling onto her feet.
"You will pay, girl," She snarled, grabbing Natasha by the neck. Natasha moved swiftly out the way, almost causing Heleen to fall to the floor.
"Sure," Natasha smiled. "Maybe another time, though," She added as the Ravkan guards stepped forward, already dragging her out the room.
A/N
- so sorry about the update. There's been a lot going on! When this probably comes out it'll probably be Eid. So Eid Mubarak to all my Muslim readers may Allah (SWT) offer you a blessed and happy day! (inshallah) Also, please excuse my poor attempts at Arabic
