Dirtyhands and the Bloodbender

Chapter VII: Hellshow

Hellshow
Nina Zenik

The look on Y/n’s face is all wrong. It’s a look that should belong on Kaz’s face, scheming and manipulative. Waves rock the boat side to side. Kaz doesn’t speak to Y/n, nor she to him. It’s wrong, all of it is wrong. I don’t like being at the Slat or the Barrel, but perhaps I should start going more often, to stop things like this from happening. I don't usually like to interfere with Kaz, after all, I would never want to experience the punishments he deals.

But this was different. Y/n's heart was racing, faster than it should for any human. I could practically see the gears turning in her head, hear her thoughts as they swirl around to form a plan. Kaz's breath catches every second he looks at her, but now instead of his breath, it's his heart. His heart paused, beating irregularly and it's not normal. Everything is wrong.

There was only one thing right about this: freeing Matthias from Hellgate, and even that was a little wrong too, because Brekker would never do a thing like this for charity's sake.

"Lower your veil." Kaz says. I almost ask why we need costumes in the first place, until I realize that we are surrounded by other boats. I pull the veil down as Kaz and Muzzen- some bouncer I don't quite know- lower their masks. My outfit is of the Lost Bride; silk blue cape and the veil shrouding my eyes. Kaz and Muzzen are dressed the same, Madman masks with bulging eyes and crooked noses with bright orange capes that fall to that ground. Y/n has the dress of some character from the Komedie Brute that I don't know, black dress with folded edges, her hair pinned up in a way that must have taken ages to do. It makes her look older, unflattering, but it does the job. I'd seen her put daggers between the folds, a gun strapped to a holster on her leg, but if I hadn't I wouldn't know they were ever there.

Y/n finally speaks, for the first time since we've left the docks. "Be prepared for what you'll see, Nina. It's..." She speaks softly, her words trailing off into the fog. I've never heard her so timid, so quiet, even during the Ravkan Civil War when we were rushed away. She has always been bold and brash, taking up as much space as she could and even bargaining for more.

Kaz didn't tell me the plan, and I didn't really expect him to, but it would have been nice. I wish Kaz could have just bribed the warden, but apparently Kaz didn't want him knowing that there was something he wanted. I don't get Kaz's logic and I never want to.

Inej joins us once we dock, silently slipping through the shadows. She wears a tunic with a high neck and gray imp horns, the way she steps so silent, it's like she's floating, walking through a world made of smoke.

"How did you even get here?" I whisper.

"I came earlier on a supply barge."

I can't help but scoff. "Do people just come and go from Hellgate for fun?"

"Once a week they do," Inej says.

"What do you mean once a-"

Kaz cuts me off. "Keep quiet."

"Don't shush me, Brekker," I whisper. I'm already furious at him, and trying to make me stay quiet makes me angrier. "If it's this easy to get into Hellgate-"

"The problem isn't getting in, it's getting out." Y/n and Kaz say simultaneously. They lock eyes then quickly look away.

"Now shut up and stay alert." Kaz quickly adds. I want to say that right back at him, because anyone could see he's distracted by whatever's going on between him and Y/n.

After winding our way down staircases, past cells, down into the belly of the beast, we find ourselves in an arena sort of thing.

There's a man, scrawny and bearded who is eaten within seconds of entering the pit. He faced a desert lizard with poison in its mouth, gray-green scales, yellow slitted eyes. He was quickly crushed under its weight, screaming as he is eaten away.

I avert my eyes, unable, unwilling, to look any longer. Everyone is booing, yet another sign that everything is wrong. "What is this?"

"Welcome to the Hellshow." Kaz says. "Pekka Rollins got the idea a few years back and pitched it to the right Council member." There's a snarl in his voice, the same one it always had when it came to Pekka Rollins.

"The Merchant Council knows?"

"Of course they know, Nina. There's money to made here." I wanted to slap him for his condescending tone.

"Why are they complaining? Isn't this what they can here for?" I angrily asked.

"They wanted a fight. They thought he'd last longer." Y/n says. She's been so unnaturally quiet I'd nearly forgotten she was with us.

"This is disgusting."

"The only disgusting thing about it is that I didn't think of it first." Kaz says.

"These men aren't slaves, Kaz. They're prisoners."

"No, they're murderers and rapists." I don't miss the way Y/n scratches the edges of her sleeves where scars don her arms, the way she pulls herself closer, like she's trying to disappear.

"And thieves and con artists. Your people." I direct the words at Kaz, who scoffs in return.

"Nina, sweet, they aren't forced to fight. They line up for the chance."

Y/n continues for him. "They earn better food, liquor, jurda, loads of things. Sometimes it sounds better than what we have at the Slat."

Matthias enters the arena. He no longer looks like the beautiful warrior I'd first met, golden hair shaved, blue eyes full of hate. He looked like a killer, like what he truly was.

The wheel spins. Wolves. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I want to scream, want to get him out now. Only I knew what wolves meant to druskelle. They fought together, a sacred bond shared between man and wolf.

Three wolves emerge. Every time one dies, it's like I can see the pain raging across his features, a prayer or farewell muttered under his breath.

We wait for Matthias to be alone before we go to his cell. I can't wait to get him out, for him to finally be free of the hell I've put him in. Muzzen- I've now learnt- is to take Matthias' place, and we would pretend he'd gotten firepox.

The minutes go by too slowly and too fast at the same time until Matthias is awake and his hands are around my throat.