LEGENDS

ᴀ ꜰᴏʀᴋ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ʀᴏᴀᴅ

CHAPTER SIX

ONE WEEK LATER

KIRSI SCANNED THEIR SURROUNDINGS in an attempt to be at least a bit helpful. They had landed in West Ravka- in a quaint little town that she would've considered more of a village. There couldn't have been more than two hundred people living there, and they all seemed to be milling about the main square where the docks sat between land and sea.

Goats and pigs and chickens and other farm animals littered the grounds, stinking up the air in a putrid kind of stench. But Kirsi couldn't feel anything but grateful as she stepped off the dock and onto actual land. The smells of the ship they'd taken had not been nice, after Kirsi proved to suffer from terrible seasickness. As soon as they had set sail from Ketterdam, she remembered just how awful the voyage from Kespa had been. The other Crows hadn't been too happy about the journey either. It was miserable traveling with a seasick girl, after all.

I'm fine, she'd argue past a set of green lips and droopy eyes.

You look like Death after he took a dive into a swamp, or something, Jesper scrunched his nose when the sounds of the girl's wretching reached his ears.

Kirsi would glare, and Inej would dab a damp cloth along the girl's brow. I've never seen a worse case of seasickness, Kirsi, she'd pointed out.

Kaz had simply stayed away. He seemed distant, and not quite well, during the entirety of the voyage. But, as the group disembarked and made their way to dry land, Kirsi noticed that he looked much better. Refreshed. She wondered if he'd been somewhat seasick, too. It was at this time that she looked over to him as his eyes scoured every inch of the square.

"We're going to need a ride."

Kirsi followed his line of sight, nodding. Immediately, her eyes landed on a carriage on the other side of the square- dark and falling apart at its seams, but a carriage, nonetheless. A boy, maybe about her own age, fed the horse attached to it, then reached into the mode of transportation to grab a small pack. Easy enough. Kirsi held out her hand without taking her eyes off the boy. Staring at the same boy in question, Kaz dug into his pocket, pulled out a few coins of the foreign, Ravkan currency they'd picked up, and dropped them into Kirsi's palm.

"I'll be back." She informed.

Kaz would never admit to it, but he was suddenly very grateful that the Crows had Kirsi, especially for this particular job. For some odd reason, Kirsi was very good at getting what she wanted. It's a gift, Jesper had claimed. Kaz, on the other hand, simply believed that the girl had become a master manipulator during her time in Ketterdam, which is why he wasn't shocked in the slightest when the Crows were pushing on through Ravka within the carriage and only a few kruge or so less than they had started with. Yes, Kirsi was a Crow, through and through.

Kirsi peered out of the carriage, eyes scanning the landscape that sat all around them. She couldn't help but feel disoriented, like her skin was not her own. They had just entered Novokribirsk, and the dark atmosphere reminded her of Kespa. Before she could get lost within the swirling thoughts in her head, Kirsi reset her focus on the group within the carriage.

"I didn't hire you simply to get us across the Fold." Kaz stared pointedly at the man across from them. He looked quite uncomfortable, but Kirsi guessed that three sitting on a bench made for two had its downsides. She watched the man, then Jesper, and matched gazes with Inej, who all appeared unhappy with the seating arrangements. "You're with us because you smuggle Grisha out of the Little Palace, and that's the location of our target."