ACT ONE SHATTER LIKE GLASS CHAPTER ONE THREE CROWS
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KETTERDAM IS WHERE DREAMS GO TO DIE. Kryia Sokolov felt it in her veins the second she and her soaking clothes took to step on its ground. There was no joy in a place where greed was a competition and life was only the cards you were dealt with. Sinika swore to her that this city and this island would be where they would find their army – hiding in the nooks and crannies of corruption. In Kerch, Grisha were not so celebrated as they were back home. No soul in Ketterdam looked at their gifts in awe or admiration, only all the kruge they could profit off of them; indenture was simply another word for work to her people.
It had been seven months since Kerch welcomed the Bezprizorniki – seven months Kryia had spent wishing she could go back home. Although, no part of her ever wanted to see the Shadow Fold again. The monsters she saw out of Ravka was enough violence for a lifetime. It was a slaughter, in every sense of the word. She could hear the volcra's wails, and how hauntingly human they sounded. And their faces, she would never forget their faces. Dark and mauled and nearly eyeless. With wings so broad it could be a bed for a family of five. But she wasn't with the monsters who lurked in the crevices of the dark. She was in Ketterdam, and somehow that felt more dangerous. Maybe it was because their monsters were different; they didn't gouge or wail. They shook your hand and gave you a kind, gentle smile.
East Stave was where terror was a place. The fisherman at the harbour would utter that the sun never shone because the Saints wanted to smother the dread caused by the Dime Lions, but Sinika was a firm believer in high risk, high reward. So, it was no surprise that he chose the most dangerous place in Ketterdam, second to the Barrel. He said it was necessary to reside in their territory – Pekka Rollins' territory. Becausewhen the mouse lives under the cat's nose, the cat begins to think that the scent of its prey is the scent of itself. Pekka would come to understand that all men can be countered, even him.
