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𝐊𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐦, 𝟏𝟕𝟗𝟑
After their father died, plagued with a fever and a progressive skin rash that fled along his skin, appearing like a trail of damp red blossoms, Kaz had sold the farm. Not for much. The debts and liens had seen to that.
But it was enough to see them safe to Ketterdam and to keep them in modest comfort for a good while. Kaz had been 12, Juniper and Wylan 10, still missing Dad and frightened of travelling from the only home they'd ever known.
She and Wylan held tight to their big brother's hands as they journeyed through miles of sweet, rolling countryside, until they reached one of the major waterways and hopped a bogboat that carried produce to Ketterdam.
"What will happen when we get there?" They'd asked Kaz.
"I'll get a job as a runner at the Exchange, then a clerk. I'll become a stockholder and then a proper merchant, and then I'll make my fortune."
"What about us?"
"You will go to school."
"Why won't you go to school?" Kaz had scoffed. "I'm too old for school. Too smart, too."
The first few days in the city were all Kaz had promised. They'd walked along the great curve of the harbours known as the Lid, then down East Stave to see all the gambling palaces. They didn't venture too far south, where they'd been warned the streets grew dangerous.
They let rooms in a tidy little boarding house not far from the Exchange and tried every new food they saw, stuffing themselves sick on quince candy. Juniper liked the little waffle stands where you could choose what you liked to put in them.
Each morning, Kaz went to the Exchange to look for work and told the twins to stay in their room.
Ketterdam wasn't safe for children on their own. There were thieves and pickpockets and even men who would snap up little boys and girls and sell them to the highest bidder. So the twins stayed inside.
Kaz kneeled in front of the single bed in the room, where the twins sat as he tried to make coins disappear, just as he'd seen a magician do, performing in front of one of the gambling halls. Kaz could have watched him for hours, but eventually, he knew he had to get home.
The card tricks had been good, but the disappearing coin kept the twins up at night. How had the magician and Kaz done it? It had been there one moment, gone the next.
The disaster began with a wind-up dog. Kaz had come home hungry and irritable, frustrated after another wasted day. "They say they have no jobs, but they mean they have no jobs for a boy like me. Everyone there is someone's cousin or brother or best friend's son."
Both Juniper and Wylan hadn't been in a mood to try to cheer him up. They were grouchy after so many hours indoors with nothing but coins and cards to keep them company.
