𝕾𝖍𝖗𝖔𝖚𝖉𝖘 - 𝙺𝚊𝚣 𝙱𝚛𝚎𝚔𝚔𝚎𝚛

V

Mira tunes out the crowd as she watches the next fight impassively. They should announce the fighter's crimes. She wonders if she should pitch it to the Council, but that would mean going through all the proper channels and she really doesn't have the time for that. They'll die anyway.

Brekker kicks Mira's foot. She looks up at him and he jerks his head. Time to move.

They all follow him to the arch they entered from. Nobody really noticed, too focused on the fight.

"Need your escort?" The guard asks as they approach.

"I had a question," says Brekker. "About your mother and whether the rumors are true."

Nina sighs and Mira wants to laugh. "Never can make this easy, can you, Kaz?"

The guard steps forward, lifting his gun. "What did you say? I-" His eyelids droop. "You don't-" His pulse drops, and he falls with it.

Muzzen grabs him before he hits the floor and Inej sweeps him into the cloak Brekker had just been wearing. She isn't surprised to see him wearing a prison guard's uniform under it.

"No wait, I preferred you with it on."

Brekker sends her a glare.

"Where'd you get that?" Nina asks. So many questions. Mira learned to stop asking the unimportant ones like where you get something. Life had been much simpler since she started asking if someone has the thing.

Brekker adjusts the sleeves of the uniform. "Nina, people love to give up authority to men in nice clothes. I have uniforms for the stadwatch, the harbor police, and the livery of every mansion on the Geldstraat. Let's go."

~̴~̴~̴~̴~̴~̴~̴

Mira lets her thoughts wander as she follows the Crows. She's at the back, but senses nobody following. She knows she should be memorizing the path back to civilization but it's so damp down here she's not worried.

They slow down and Mira hears a medik's voice echo through the tunnels. "He'll sleep through the night. Make sure he drinks something in the morning and check his pupils. I had to give him a powerful sleeping draft."

The voices fade and Brekker motions them forward.

The door is solid iron, broken only by a narrow slot through which to pass the prisoner's meals. Brekker starts on the lock.

"This place is barbaric."

"Most of the fighters sleep in the old tower." Mira responds, looking around at the tunnels and wrinkling her nose at the mold. "Keeps them away from the rest of the population."

The door creaks open and Mira is the last one in. Inej holds a bonelight up. The cold green glow from luminous deep-sea fishes was a telltale sign something shady was going down. Crooks would use them when they didn't want to get caught, but couldn't be bothered to carry a lantern.

The faint smell of calendula ointment reaches Mira's nose. She lifts her mask to get a better look around the cell.

"No wait, I preferred you with it on." Brekker repeats her earlier insult.

She rolls her eyes. "Shame I like annoying you."

Nina steps forward but Brekker stops her. "Inej, assess the damage."