The bottle man shouted a few more coarse words at Rotty—Specht was clearly enjoying himself—and then the fishing boat was past Zentsbridge and sailing along, moving faster now that they’d left the most crowded part of the canal. Matthias could not resist a look back and saw shadows moving behind the stacked wine crates on the bottleboat. There was still more work to be done.
“Where are we going?” said the medik abruptly. “I thought we were headed to the university clinic.”
“Waterway was closed,” Rotty lied.
“Then take us to Ghezendaal hospital and be quick about it.”
That was the idea. The university clinic was closer, but Ghezendaal was smaller, less well staffed, and bound to be overwhelmed by the plague panic, a perfect place to bring a body you didn’t want looked at too closely.
They glided to a halt at the hospital’s dock and the staff assisted Rotty and Nina out of the boat, then helped lift the stretcher out as well. But as soon as they arrived at the hospital’s doors, the nurse on duty there looked at the body on the stretcher and said, “Why would you bring a corpse here?”
“It’s protocol!” said the medik. “I am trying to do my duty.”
“We’re locking down for a plague. We don’t have beds to give to dead men. Take him around the back to the wagon bay. The bodymen can come for him tonight.”
The staff members disappeared around the corner with the stretcher. By tomorrow a stranger’s body would be ashes and the real Kuwei would be free to live his life without constantly looking over his shoulder.
“Well, at least help this woman, she’s about to—” The medik looked around but Nina and Rotty had vanished.
“They already went inside,” said Matthias.
“But—”
The nurse snapped, “Are you going to stand here all day blocking my doorway or come inside and be of help?”
“I … am needed elsewhere,” the medik said, ignoring the nurse’s disbelieving look. “The rudeness of some people,” he sputtered, dusting off his robes as they left the hospital. “I am a scholar of the university.”
Matthias bowed deeply. “I thank you for your attempts to save my charge.”
“Ah, well, yes. Indeed. I was only doing as my oath demands.” The medik looked nervously at the houses and businesses that had already started locking their doors and sealing their shutters. “I really must get to … the clinic.”
“I’m sure all will be most grateful for your care,” Matthias said, certain the medik intended to rush home to his rooms and barricade himself against anyone who so much as sniffled.
“Yes, yes,” said the medik. “Good day and good health.” He hurried off down the narrow street.
Matthias found himself smiling as he jogged in the opposite direction. He would meet the others back at Zentsbridge, where hopefully Kuwei would soon be revived. He would be with Nina again and maybe, maybe they could begin thinking about a future.
“Matthias Helvar!” said a high, querulous voice.
Matthias turned. A boy stood in the middle of the deserted street. The young drüskelle with the ice-white hair who had glared at him so fiercely during the auction. He wore a gray uniform, not the black of a full drüskelle officer. Had he followed Matthias from the church? What had he seen?
The boy couldn’t have been more than fourteen. The hand he held his pistol in was shaking.
“I charge you with treason,” he said, voice breaking, “high treason against Fjerda and your drüskelle brothers.”
Matthias held up his hands. “I am unarmed.”
“You are a traitor to your land and your god.”
“We haven’t met before.”
“You killed my friends. In the raid on the Ice Court.”
“I killed no drüskelle .”
“Your companions did. You’re a murderer. You humiliated Commander Brum.”
“What’s your name?” Matthias asked gently. This boy did not want to hurt anyone.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Are you new to the order?”
“Six months,” he said, lifting his chin.
“I joined when I was even younger than you. I know what it’s like there, the thoughts they put in your head. But you don’t have to do this.”
The boy shook even harder. “I charge you with treason,” he repeated.
“I am guilty,” said Matthias. “I’ve done terrible things. And if you wish it, I will walk back to the church with you right now. I will face your friends and commanding officers and we can see what justice may come.”
“You’re lying. You even let them kill that Shu boy you were supposed to protect. You’re a traitor and a coward.” Good, he believed Kuwei was dead.
“I will go with you. You have my word. And you have the gun. There’s nothing to fear from me.”
Matthias took a step forward.
“Stay where you are!”
“Do not be afraid. Fear is how they control you.” We’ll find a way to change their minds. The boy had only been with the order for six months. He could be reached. “There’s so much in the world you don’t have to be afraid of, if you would only open your eyes.”
“I told you to stay where you are.”
“You don’t want to hurt me. I know. I was like you once.”
“I’m nothing like you,” said the boy, his blue eyes blazing. Matthias saw the anger there, the rage. He knew it so well. But he was still surprised when he heard the shot.
N ina pulled off her gown and the heavy rubber belly she had strapped over her tunic while Rotty rid himself of his beard and coat. They tied everything in a bundle and Nina tossed it overboard as they climbed into the bottleboat moored beneath Zentsbridge.
“Good riddance,” she said as it sank into the water.
“So little maternal sentiment,” Kaz said, emerging from behind the wine crates.
“Where’s Inej?”
“I’m fine,” said Inej from behind him. “But Kuwei—”
“You’re bleeding again,” Nina observed as she slid behind the high stacks of crates to join them. There was little traffic on the canal now, but it didn’t do to take chances. “And what happened to your eyes?”
“I’d tell you to ask the White Blade, but …” Inej shrugged.
“I hope she suffered.”
“Nina.”
“What? We can’t both be merciful and serene.”
They were in a pocket of shadowy space between the crates of wine and the stone arch of the bridge. The stretcher with Kuwei’s body on it lay atop a makeshift table of crates. Genya was injecting something into the Shu boy’s arm as Zoya and the man Nina assumed was Sturmhond looked on.
“How is he?” Nina asked.
“If he has a pulse, I can’t find it,” said Genya. “The poison did its work.”
Maybe too well. Genya had said the poison would lower his pulse and breathing to such an extent that it would mimic death. But the act was uncomfortably convincing. Some part of Nina knew the world might be safer if Kuwei died, but she also knew that if someone else unlocked the secret of parem , he was Ravka’s best chance at an antidote. They’d fought to free him from the Ice Court. They’d schemed and connived and struggled so that he could be safe to pursue his work among the Grisha. Kuwei was hope.
And he was a boy who deserved a chance to live without a target on his back.
“The antidote?” Nina asked, looking at the syringe in Genya’s hand.
“This is the second dose she’s injected,” said Kaz.
They all watched as Genya checked his pulse, his breathing. She shook her head.
“Zoya,” said Sturmhond. His voice had the ring of command.
Zoya sighed and pushed up her sleeves. “Unbutton his shirt.”
“What are you doing?” Kaz asked as Genya undid Kuwei’s remaining buttons. His chest was narrow, his ribs visible, all of it spattered with the pig’s blood they’d encased in the wax bladder.
“I’m either going to wake up his heart or cook him from the inside out,” said Zoya. “Stand back.”
They did their best to obey in the cramped space. “What exactly does she mean by that?” Kaz asked Nina.
“I’m not sure,” Nina admitted. Zoya had her hands out and her eyes closed. The air felt suddenly cool and moist.
Inej inhaled deeply. “It smells like a storm.”
Zoya opened her eyes and brought her hands together as if in prayer, rubbing her palms against each other briskly.
Nina felt the pressure drop, tasted metal on her tongue. “I think … I think she’s summoning lightning.”
“Is that safe?” asked Inej.
“Not remotely,” said Sturmhond.