The Phoenix and the Crow

No Mourners

Y/N stared silently at Kaz while he watched Inej intently, his bitter coffee eyes glittering in the light from the dome.

Inej explained how the costumes would be their masks. How the Fjerdans would only see a Suli lynx and a Kaelish mare. Not people, not even really girls, just lovely objects to be collected.

"It's a risk," said Kaz.

"What job isn't?"

"Kaz, how are you, Matthias and Y/N going to get through?" asked Nina. "We might need you for locks, and if things go bad on the island, I don't want to be stranded. I doubt you can pass yourselves off as members of the houses."

"That shouldn't be a problem," said Kaz. "Helvar's been holding out on us."

"Have you?" asked Y/N.

"It's not-" Matthias dragged a hand over his cropped hair. "How do you know these things, demjin?" he growled at Kaz.

"Logic. The whole Ice Court is a masterpiece of fail-safes and doubled systems. That glass bridge is impressive, but in an emergency, there would have to be another way to get reinforcements to the White Island and get the royal family out."

Y/N and Jesper shared a smirk at the sight of Matthias' baffled expression.

"Yes," said Matthias in exasperation. "There's another way to the White Island. But it's messy." He glanced at Nina. "And it certainly can't be done in a gown."

"Hold on," Jesper interrupter. "Who cares if you can all get onto the White Island? Let's say Nina sparkles Yul-Bayur's location out of some Fjerdan higher-up, and you get him back here. We'll be trapped/ By then, the prison guards will have completed their search and are going to know seven inmates got out of the sector somehow. Any chance we have of making it through the embassy gates and the checkpoints will be gone."

Kaz peered past the dome to the embassy's open courtyard and the ringwall gatehouse beyond.

"Wylan, how hard would it be to disable one of these gates?"

"To get it open?"

"No, to keep it closed."

"You mean break it?" Wylan shrugged. "I don't think it would be too difficult. I couldn't see the mechanism when we entered the prison gate, but from the layout, I'm guessing it's pretty standard."

"Pulleys, cogs, some really big screws?"

"Well, yes, and a sizable winch. The cables wrap around it like a big spool, and the guards just turn it with some kind of handle or wheel."

"I know how a winch works. Can you take one apart?"

"I think so, but it's the alarm system the cables are attached to that's complicated. I doubt I could do it without triggering Black Protocol."

"Good," said Kaz. "Then that's what we'll do."

Jesper held up a hand. "I'm sorry, isn't Black Protocol the thing we want to avoid at all costs?"

"I do seem to remember something about certain doom," said Nina.

"Not if we use it against them." Y/N spoke up causing Kaz to give her a nod. "Tonight, most of the Court's security is concentrated on the White Island and right here at the embassy. When Black Protocol sounds, the glass bridge will shut down, trapping all those guards on the island along with the guests."

"But what about Matthias' route off the island?" asked Nina.

"They can't move a major force that way," Matthias conceded. "At least not quickly."