The Phoenix and the Crow

The Climb

     A chill settled under Y/N's skin as they were led through the glass tunnels. She could see the guys on the other bridge and it brought her comfort for a moment before they went out of sight once again. She sucked in a sharp breath through her nose and released it through her teeth. 'Breathe.' She felt her mind run a million miles per hour, running through many scenarios of all that could go wrong.

With one last look, through the glass walls that surrounded them, she spotted Kaz. Her heart clenched but she was quick to take a deep breath and switched her mind off. The constant buzzing in her brain was silence for the first time in years. The last time she had felt the need to turn off her mind was when she was under the Darkling's hand.

"You won't tell me?" General Kirigan seethed. "Fine. Have it your way, but do know that I was trying to be merciful." The Shadow summoner nodded subtly to the Inferni in the corner of the room. She watched the man tied to the chair struggle as he tried to pull himself free.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" His scream should have felt deafening, but Y/N's hearing was muffled by her thoughts.

'I'm a soldier.' She knew her orders and she knew what she had to do. It wasn't the first time Kirigan had asked this of her, but it never lightened the burden on her chest. To take an innocent life. 'He's not innocent. Says who? Kirigan.'

She flexed her gloved hands, feeling the flames' warmth weaving through her fingers. "I'm sorry." Click. Her mind went blank. She was conscious enough to know what she was doing but at least she couldn't hear the pain that her actions were causing. And if she tried hard enough she couldn't even see her flames licking up the sides of the wooding chair the man was tied to. She couldn't see the way his skin burned under her power. She couldn't hear his cries of pain, begging for help.

In a way, it wasn't her. She wasn't killing the man in front of her. It wasn't her. It wasn't her.

Deep down she knew she was lying to herself, and in the long run, it would do her no good. But in that moment it soothed her soul and mind. So she lied. She lied to herself and turned her mind off.

Her body moved on its own accord as she proceeded through the line of female prisoners. Stripping out of her clothes and into the scalding showers, into a large area where the prisoners were told to change into the unflattering, gray uniforms. Once they were shoved into their cells Y/N finally snapped herself out of her trance. She waited a few minutes longer before she nodded to Nina, the Heartrender knocking the other prisoners out. She started to melt the lock and pushed the door open.

"Let's go." Her voice was hoarse as she gestured for the Grisha and Suli to go ahead of her.

The three of them walked down different hallways. It would only take one wayward guard to ruin their plans. The scariest part was traversing the walkway through the glass enclosure, a long, brightly lit stretch that left them completely exposed. There was nothing to do but cross their fingers and make a run for it. Once they made it to the refuse room, Y/N waited a few paces down the hallway to keep watch and wait for the others to join them. Wylan and Kaz had made it soon after the girls.

"Nina," Kaz quietly panted and nodded for her to follow him. He quickly made eye contact with Y/N, his eyes softening for a split second.

She felt the pressure in her chest release for a moment before she drove her attention back to the hallway. She saw Jesper and Matthias quickly making their way down the hall. She gave them both a tight smile and led them back to the refuse room where they found Wylan and Inej. The room was smaller than the laundry and stank of garbage. Two big rolling bins full of discarded clothes were pushed against one wall, waiting to be burnt. Y/N felt the heat emanating from the incinerator as soon as they entered and she welcomed it with a soft smile to herself.

"We have a problem," Wylan said.

"How bad?" Jesper asked, dumping the coils of rope he held on the floor.

Inej gestured to a pair of big metal doors set into what looked like a giant chimney that jutted out from the wall and stretched all the way up to the ceiling. "I think they ran the incinerator this afternoon."

"You said they ran it in the mornings," Y/N said to Matthias.

"They used to."

Jesper had moved to pull open the doors but Y/N stepped in the way. "Can't have you getting burned." She grabbed the doors' leather-covered handles and pulled them open. She was instantly hit by a blast of searing sir. It carried the black and acrid smell of coal—and something else, a chemical smell, maybe something they added to make the fires burn hotter. It wasn't unpleasant. This was where all the refuse from the prisons was disposed of—kitchen leftovers, buckets of human filth, the clothing stripped from prisoners, but whatever the Fjerdans had added to the fuel burned hot enough to sear any foulness away. She leaned in to look far below, the incinerator coals banked but still pulsing with an angry red glow.

She placed her hand out, already feeling the heat reach her fingertips as she waved them around to mess with the ember. "Wylan get me a shirt from one of the bins." She tore off one of the sleeves and tossed it into the shaft. It fell soundlessly, caught flame midair, and had begun to burn away to nothing before it ever had the chance to reach the coals.

She shut the doors and tossed the remnants of the shirt back in the bin. "Well, demo is out," she said. "We can't take explosives in there. Can you still make the climb?" she asked Inej.

"Maybe. I don't know."

"What does Kaz say?" Jesper asked. "Where is Kaz? And where's Nina?"

"Kaz doesn't know about the incinerator yet," said Inej. "He and Nina went to search the upper cells."

Matthias' glower went dark as a rain-heavy sky ready to split. "Jesper and I were supposed to go with Nina."

"Kaz didn't want to wait."

"We were on time," said Matthias angrily. "What is he up to?"

Y/N had begun to wonder the same thing.

"He's going to limp up and down all those flights of stairs, dodging patrols?" Jesper nearly scoffed.

"Inej," Wylan called from one of the rolling bins. "These are our clothes." He reached in and, one after the other, pulled out Inej's little leather slippers.

Her face broke into a dazzling smile. Finally, a bit of luck. Kaz didn't have his cane. Jesper didn't have his guns. And Inej didn't have her knives. But at least she had those magic slippers.

"What do you say, Wraith? Can you make the climb?" Y/N asked with a smirk.

"I can."

Jesper took the shoes from Wylan. "If I didn't think these might be crawling with disease, I would kiss them and then you."