“No. I need someone who knows the Court inside and out.”
She leaped to her feet and began pacing, hands on hips, dressing gown flapping. “You’re a little skiv, you know that? How many times have I come to you, begging you to help Matthias? And now
that you want something …”
“Per Haskell isn’t running a charity.”
“Don’t put this on the old man,” she snapped. “If you’d wanted to help me, you know you could have.”
“And why would I do that?”
She whirled on him. “Because … because …”
“When have I ever done something for nothing, Nina?”
She opened her mouth, closed it again.
“Do you know how many favours I would have had to call in? How many bribes I’d have had to
pay out to get Matthias Helvar out of prison? The price was too high.”
“And now?” she managed, her eyes still blazing anger.
“Now, Helvar ’s freedom is worth something.”
“It—”
He held up a hand to cut her off. “Worth something to me.”
Nina pressed her fingers to her temples. “Even if you could get to him, Matthias would never agree to help you.”
“It’s just a question of leverage, Nina.”
“You don’t know him.”
“Don’t I? He’s a person like any other, driven by greed and pride and pain. You should understand that better than anyone.”
“Helvar is driven by honour and only honour. You can’t bribe or bully that.”
“That may have been true once, Nina, but it’s been a very long year. Helvar is much changed.”
“You’ve seen him?” Her green eyes were wide, eager. There, thought Kaz, the Barrel hasn’t beaten the hope out of you yet.
“I have.”
Nina took a deep, shuddering breath. “He wants his revenge, Kaz.”
“That’s what he wants, not what he needs,” said Kaz. “Leverage is all about knowing the difference.”
The sick feeling in Nina’s stomach had nothing to do with the rocking of the rowboat. She tried to breathe deeply, to focus on the lights of the Ketterdam harbour disappearing behind them and the steady splash of the oars in the water. Beside her, Kaz adjusted his mask and cloak, while Muzzen rowed with relentless and aggressive speed, driving them closer to Terrenjel, one of Kerch’s tiny outlying islands, closer to Hellgate and Matthias.
Fog lay low over the water, damp and curling. It carried the smell of tar and machinery from the shipyards on Imperjum, and something else – the sweet stink of burning bodies from the Reaper ’s Barge, where Ketterdam disposed of the dead who couldn’t afford to be buried in the cemeteries outside the city. Disgusting, Nina thought, drawing her cloak tighter around her. Why anyone would want to live in a city like this was beyond her.
Muzzen hummed happily as he rowed. Nina knew him only in passing – a bouncer and an enforcer,
like the ill-fated Big Bolliger. She avoided the Slat and the Crow Club as much as possible. Kaz had branded her a snob for it, but she didn’t much care what Kaz Brekker had to say about her tastes. She glanced back at Muzzen’s huge shoulders. She wondered if Kaz had just brought him along to row or because he expected trouble tonight.
Of course there will be trouble. They were breaking into a prison. It wasn’t going to be a party. So why are we dressed for one?
She’d met Kaz and Muzzen at Fifth Harbour at midnight, and when she’d boarded the little rowboat, Kaz had handed her a blue silk cape and a matching veil – the trappings of the Lost Bride, one of the costumes pleasure seekers liked to don when they sampled the excesses of the Barrel. He’d had on a big orange cape with a Madman’s mask perched atop his head; Muzzen had worn the same.
All they needed was a stage, and they could perform one of those dark, savage little scenes from the Komedie Brute that the Kerch seemed to find so hilarious.
Now Kaz gave her a nudge. “Lower your veil.” He pulled down his own mask; the long nose and
bulging eyes looked doubly monstrous in the fog.
She was about to give in and ask why the costumes were necessary when she realised that they weren’t alone. Through the shifting mists, she caught sight of other boats moving through the water, carrying the shapes of other Madmen, other Brides, a Mister Crimson, a Scarab Queen. What business did these people have at Hellgate?
Kaz had refused to tell her the specifics of his plan, and when she’d insisted, he’d simply said, “Get in the boat.” That was Kaz all over. He knew he didn’t have to tell her anything because the lure of Matthias’ freedom had already overridden every bit of her good sense. She’d been trying to talk Kaz into breaking Matthias out of jail for the better part of a year. Now he could offer Matthias more than freedom, but the price would be far higher than she had expected.
Only a few lights were visible as they approached the rocky shoal of Terrenjel. The rest was darkness and crashing waves.
“Couldn’t you just bribe the warden?” she muttered to Kaz.