The Phoenix and the Crow

Parem

'I can smell them.' Y/N batted at her hair and clothes as she lurched through the snow, trying not to retch. She couldn't stop seeing those bodies, the angry red flesh peeking through their burnt black casings like blackened coals. It felt like she was coated in their ashes, in the stink of burning flesh. She couldn't take a full breath. Not that she deserved to. She wondered how many of those soldiers were at one time under her command. Under her sworn protection and care.

She had made every effort to be a mother or sister figure to the soldiers in the second army. That's how you earn their loyalty, show them you care and they're valued. And she tried. She tried so hard to make every one of them feel her compassion and empathy while maintaining her power as Lieutenant-General. She tried and it wasn't enough. Again.

She heard an argument stir in the group behind her but she paid no mind to them until a sudden rumble shook the ground. Y/N turned around and lost her footing, she saw Kaz brace himself with his walking stick. They exchanged puzzled glances.

"Are there fault lines this far north?" Wylan asked.

Matthias frowned. "Not that I know of, but-"

A slab of earth shot up from beneath Matthias' feet, knocking him to the ground. Another erupted to Y/N's right, sending her sprawling. All around them, crooked monoliths of earth and ice burst upward, as if the land were coming to life. A harsh wind whipped at their faces, snow spinning in flurries.

"What the hell is this?" cried Jesper.

"Some kind of earthquake!" shouted Inej.

"No," said Nina, pointing to a dark spot that seemed to be floating in the sky, unaffected by the howling wind.

"We're under attack," Y/N spoke up. She crawled on her hands and knees, seeking some sort of shelter in order to regroup. Her mind raced as she witnessed things never done by Grisha before. There was someone in the air, hovering in the sky high above her. She was watching someone fly.

The only Grisha known to fly was herself.

She had seen Squallers play at tossing each other into the air at the Little Palace, but the level of finesse and power it took to maintain controlled flight was unthinkable– at least it had been, until now. It wasn't a topic that they taught at the palace. Jurda parem.

Y/N had seen the drug's effects on a Heartrender but to see it on a Squaller is a whole different field.

The Squaller turned in the air, stirring the storm into a frenzy, sending ice flying until it stung her cheeks. She could barely see. She fell backward as another slab of rock and ice shot from the ground. They were being corraled, pushed closer together to make a single target. She knew they were too high in the air for her flame to reach them.

"I need a distraction!" shouted Jesper from somewhere in the storm.

She heard a tiny plink.

"Get down!" cried Wylan. Y/N flattened her body to the snow. A boom sounded overhead, and an explosion lit the sky just to the right of the Squaller. The winds around them dropped as the Squaller was thrown off course and forced to focus on righting himself. It took the briefest second, but it was enough time for Y/N to throw her hands out to contain the fire from the bomb and direct it to the Squaller while Jesper aimed his rifle and fired.

A shot rang out, and the Squaller was hurtling toward the earth. Another slab of ice slid into place. They were trapped like animals in a pen, ready for slaughter. Jesper aimed between the slabs at a distant stand of trees, and Y/N realized there was another Grisha there, a boy with dark hair. Before Jesper could get a shot, the Grisha rammed a fist upward, and Jesper was thrown off his feet by a shaft of earth. He rolled as he fell and fired from the ground.

The boy in the distance cried out and dropped to one knee, but his arms were still raised, and the ground still rumbled and rocked beneath them.

She saw Inej signal to Kaz. Without a word, he positioned himself against the nearest slab and cupped his hands at his knee. The ground buckled and swayed, but he held steady as she launched herself from the cradle of his fingers in a graceful arc. She vanished over the slab without a sound. A moment later, the ground went still.

"Trust the Wraith," said Jesper.

The group stood, dazed, the air strangely hushed after the chaos that had come before.

Y/N had already got to work on melting the slab of ice to get them out of there and within a few short moments the bottom collapsed and fell backward. Y/N moved her hands gracefully for the fire to swallow the ice before it hit the ground, melting it so it didn't make as loud of a sound. Her flames radiated a heat none of them had felt before, enough to warm them all up before they would have to continue their journey.

They found Inej standing over the body of the trembling Grisha. He wore clothes of olive drab, and his eyes were glassy. Blood spilled from the bullet wound in his upper thigh, and a knife jutted from the right side of his chest. Inej must have thrown it when she'd escaped from the enclosure.

Nina knelt beside him.

"I need a little more," the Grisha mumbled. "Just a little more." He grabbed at Nina's hand, and only then did Y/N recognize him.

"Nestor?"

He twitched at the sound of his name, but he didn't seem to know either of the Grisha women above him. "Nestor, it's me Nina."

Y/N knew the two of them were in school together back at the Little Palace. She had personally sent them to Keramizin together on a mission. He was a Fabrikator, one of the Durasts who worked with metal, glass, and fibers. It didn't make sense. Fabrikators made textiles, weapons. He shouldn't have been capable of what she'd just witnessed.

"Please," he begged, his face crumpling. "I need more."

"Parem?"

"Yes," he sobbed. "Yes. Please."

"I can heal your wound, Nestor, if you stay still."

"I don't want your help," he said angrily, trying to push away from her.

"Nina," Y/N warned while placing her hand on her shoulder.

He stood up, staggering on his wounded leg, pulling at the knife buried in his chest. "Where are they?" he screamed. "Where did they go?"

The rest of the group backed up slightly while Y/N stayed in her place. "Who?"

"The Shu!" he wailed. "Where did they go? Come back!" He took a wobbling step, then another. "Come back!" He fell face forward into the snow. He didn't move again.

Nina had rushed forward while Y/N stood still and watched in horror. This wasn't right. Practicing the small science should make a Grisha stronger, never drain them to the point of death. Never. Grisha was never supposed to die like this, let alone a soldier. They were to be honored and held with the highest regard.

Kaz had called them all together to keep hiking but Nina argued that they couldn't leave the body for the wolves. The two bickered for a moment before Matthias offered to help Nina and make sure they'll catch up with the other five. So the group carried on, trying to shake off the scare of the events a few long moments ago.

They all knew this wasn't going to be an easy heist. They all signed up for it, some more willing than others. They all had to train their minds to focus back on the bigger goal at hand. Go in, get Bo Yul-Bayur, get out. Alive. All of them.