Talons⛥Kaz Brekker

⛥𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱⛥

I didn't talk to Kaz the rest of the way. I could hardly look at him. When we got back to Ketterdam, I met Jesper by the railing. "It looks the same as we left it," he said

"What did you expect?" I asked trailing my gloved hands along the railing. There was always a sense of safety for others when I wore them, sometimes I'd take them off just to keep people on edge. "I don't know exactly," Jesper replied.

The next day, we all got up, besides Kuwei and Nina. They had left on the longboat. Nina had tailored Wylan to look like Kuwei.

"Stubborn sky," Inej muttered. She was right. The sky was grey and not moving. There were no clouds on the horizon, but the air felt dense with
moisture, as if a storm was simply refusing to form. Wylan came up, but only me, Matthias and Kaz knew it was actually Wylan. He looked scarily alike to Kuwei. You could hardly notice him. "How is she?" I heard Jesper ask Matthias, clearly talking about Nina.

"Weak. She's been unable to sleep. But we got her to take some broth, and she seems to be keeping it down," Matthias replied.

"Where's the longboat?" Jesper asked as me, him, Kaz, Matthias, Inej and Wylan rowed away from the Ferolind with Rotty. I stayed at the back, far away from Kaz as humanly possibly. "Repairs." Kaz replied bluntly, I knew it was a lie. Vellgeluk was so flat it was barely visible once we were rowing through the water. The island was less than a mile wide, a barren patch of sand and rock distinguished only by the wrecked foundation of an old tower used by the Council of Tides.

Smugglers called it Vellgeluk, ‘good luck’, because of the paintings still visible around the base of what would have been the obelisk tower: golden circles meant to represent coins,
symbols of favour from Ghezen, the god of industry and commerce. Me, Jesper and Kaz had come to the island before to meet with smugglers. It was far from Ketterdam’s ports, well outside the patrol of the harbour watch, with no buildings or hidden coves from which to stage an ambush. An ideal meeting place for wary parties.

A brigantine was moored off the island’s opposite shore, its sails
hanging limp and useless. I had watched it make slow progress from
Ketterdam in the early dawn light, a tiny black dot that grew into a hulking blot on the horizon. I could hear the sailors calling to each other as they
worked the oars. When their own longboat made shore, me and the others leaped out to pull it onto the sand.

Jesper checked his revolvers, Inej briefly touched her knives, Matthias pulled on a rifle, I started tugging at the fingers of my gloves and Wylan watched it all in silence. I didn't take them off though. If I needed to I'd get them off in a split second.

"All right. Let's go get rich," Kaz said.

"No mourners," Rotty said as he settled down to wait in the longboat. "No funerals," we all replied as we walked to the place where Van Eck was waiting. "So that's what thirty million kruge looks like," I said referring to the large chest. Jesper whistled, "hopefully the longboat won't sink."

"Just you, Van Eck? The rest of the Council couldn't be bothered?" Kaz asked in a mocking tone.

"The Council felt I was best suited to this task, as we've had dealing before," Van Eck replied.

Van Eck turned his glance to me, "I suppose the rumours are true. Nice to see you alive and well again Miss Dawn."

I lifted my head tall and tilted it at an angle, "if all this goes well I'd love to say the same thing back."

"How's your family? Oh wait," he said almost mockingly. Of course word would get around the Council that one of their member's family was wiped out. I growled lowly, that was a low blow that had left everyone's eyes on me. “Nice pin,” Kaz said with a glance at the ruby stuck to Van Eck’s tie.
“Not as nice as the other one, though.” Van Eck’s lips pursed slightly. “The other was an heirloom. Well?” he
said to the Shu man beside him.