INIQUITY- kaz brekker

Eight

Bhez Ju had an enchanting beauty to it, the kind of beauty that Iris had studied on maps and yearned to see one day. The pagodas were made of a deep cherry wood, the rooves adorned with bright flashes of yellows and blues. The streets were rich with music and people, bunting strung across the rooves of fruit and vegetable stalls. Shu lanterns hung upon the bunting, lighting up the smoggy air of the winding streets. Hope hung on the air, clinging onto little children's shoulders as they chased after their parents. 

As Tolya, Nina, Zoya and Inej made their way over to a relic to make a prayer for the dead, Iris, Wylan, Jesper and Kaz hung back in the shadows. None of them believed much in Saints or prayers. Anything they would have prayed for was long dead now. It made Iris think of her mother however, the unfamiliar shadowed figure that had left her in Ketterdam without a look back or a second thought. She wondered whether her mother knew that she had left her daughter in the hands of Pekka Rollins, and if she had known, why had she done it?

When Tolya had finished with his prayer, he slunk over to the quartet who were stood awkwardly in a tense silence. Wylan was angry with Jesper, Iris was angry with Kaz and Kaz was angry with everyone but especially Jesper. 

"Just so you know, it's considered bad luck not to honor the dead during Suntsa Sar," Tolya pointed to the relic, a sly grin on his face as he munched on a bao bun.

"If I truly believed in luck, I'd be in less debt," Jesper scoffed.

"I'm more concerned with the living than the dead," Kaz added.

"Everyone I know that is dead, I killed. And with good reason. I have no one to honour because they never honoured me," Iris shrugged which got an amused look from Tolya.

"Tend not to your ghosts and they will come back hungry," Tolya spoke philosophically. 

"Are you able to detach yourself from your poetry book or is it just part of you?" Iris teased the man. 

"The tea shop should be open now," Kaz gruffly snapped Iris out of her amused grin. "Follow me Zusak."

Iris furrowed her brow in confusion but obliged and followed Kaz over towards the relic.

"I need you to examine the tea. Ensure there's nothing suspicious about it," Kaz spoke in an ordered manner.

"Oh so now you need me," Iris scoffed, rolling her eyes in irritation. 

"Do you want Nina to drink poisoned tea?" Kaz narrowed his eyes.

"Of course not," Iris exclaimed. "I wouldn't mind if you drank it though," she muttered angrily under her breath. Kaz pretend not to hear her but he did. Her words cut deeper than he expected, lashings from a whip steered by her hands. He'd said he didn't need her but time and time again he found himself coming up with ways to keep her by his side. 

"You two, we have a teatime to make," Kaz spoke sharply to Nina and Inej who nodded and followed the Bastard onwards. 

Iris hesitated and took a deep breath before grabbing one of both Nina and Inej's hands and squeezing tightly to show her support for the girls who had been mourning the sounls they'd lost. Both Nina and Inej gave Iris a grateful smile, Nina laying her head on the Alkemi's shoulder as the group headed towards the teashop. 

Iris supposed she was lucky in that sense. Not having ever met her parents, she didn't have any to mourn. No one to cry over when they died, no one to lay flowers on their grave. No one to love her. Lucky. Yes. She was so... lucky.

As Inej departed to group to take watch on the roof, Iris, Nina and Kaz sat at an outside table and waited to be served. When the tea came, Ohval did not and Kaz began to tap his cane against the floor in impatience. Iris counted every tap in its rhythm, Kaz somehow had it perfectly timed.