Blood and Water - The Darkling

Chapter 17: Thread

*Unedited

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𝖂𝖍𝖊𝖓 I walk into the tent, Alina is staring at her bite in a small soldier's mirror. I plop on one of the cots and pat the mattress beside me. My sister sighs, covers her wound, and makes her way over to me.

"Tell me everything," I gently say.

"He doesn't think this is the right choice," Alina replies softly. "He doesn't think I'm strong enough to defeat the Darkling."

"Mal isn't like us Alina," I respond. "He can't possibly know that. With a third amplifier, we could do almost anything."

"See, I agree!" My twin exclaims. "But Mal thinks that I won't want him after all of this is over."

I scoff, "Of course he does."

"And I hate that I never stopped to think about what he wants."

"Alina, we can summon light and some view us as Saints," I answer. "We have enough to worry about. You don't have to beat yourself up for not thinking about Mal all of the time."

"That's the thing, Lana," My sister groans. "This is all so much. I'm not a queen or a saint. How do I lead an army? Where do we even start on the search for the third amplifier? Why won't my wound heal? Why am I seeing the Darkling? Will I be ready to face him?"

"First of all, you have me. I have some experience in that regard," I reply. "As for the other things, I don't have all of the answers. But I know this. The Darkling will come looking for us. Ready or not, we have no choice but to make a stand. We will face him. And one way or another, this will end."

"You're right, as usual."

"That's the spirit, sister dearest," I respond. "Now here's to the future. One day at a time."

I pull Alina into a hug. When she pulls back, her face is scrunched up, "Have you been drinking?"

My expression shows it all. We burst out into laughter together, worries forgotten, if for only a moment.

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We didn't leave for Os Alta right away but chose to spend the next three days transporting shipments of goods across the Fold. We operate out of what is left of the military encampment at Kribirsk. Most of the troops had been pulled back when the Fold started expanding. A new watchtower has been erected to monitor the black shores of the Unsea, and only a skeleton crew stayed on to operate the drydocks.

Not a single Grisha remained at the encampment. After the Darkling's attempted coup and the near destruction of Novokribirsk, a wave of anti-Grisha sentiment swept through Ravka and the ranks of the First Army. I wasn't surprised. An entire military base was destroyed. Ravka won't soon forget and there's no real leader to unite the people.

Some Grisha had fled to Os Alta to seek the protection of the King, as though that would help. Others had gone into hiding. Nikolai suspects that most of them had sought out Aleksander and defected to his side. But with the help of Nikolai's rogue Squallers, we managed two trips across the Fold on the first day, three on the second, and four on the last. Sandskiffs journeyed to West Ravka empty and returned with huge cargos of Zemeni rifles, crates full of ammunition, parts for repeating guns similar to those Nikolai had used aboard the Hummingbird, and a few tons of sugar and jurda—all courtesy of Sturmhond's smuggling.

"Bribes," Mal says as we watch giddy soldiers tear into a shipment being unloaded on the dock, hooting and marveling over the glittering array of weaponry.