Dirtyhands

seven

Kaz walks. He doesn't know where he is going anymore. He is just enjoying the euphoric feeling that his most recent crime had given him. He starts to walk back to Van Eck's manor. He needs to borrow something.

*Inej's pov*

The wind blew through her hair. It was the feeling that she associated with freedom. Inej stands at the front of her ship, letting the spray of the sea hit her face as the ship cuts through the waves. "Aris! Pick up the pace!" She calls out to her first mate. He drops the topsails and the ship launches itself forward. She smiles as she draws her favorite blade. They are approaching a slaver's ship.

It's a large vessel, with dark sails. "Prepare the canons for battle." Inej orders as she grabs a rope with a hook attached to the end. She tied one side to the mast of her ship. As they line up with the enemy's ship she throws the rope over to the other ship. It gets caught on the other ship and she starts to climb over. The crew rushes towards her but she starts to slash at them with her blades. She moves gracefully from one slaver to another. It's like a dance. As she slashes through the crowd of sailors her crew breaches the captain's quarters and takes him hostage. "Lower your weapons or you'll have to pull your captain out of the sea," Inej says loudly and the slavers look at each other before dropping their weapons.

"Good. You're all under arrest now. Put up a fight and I'll have no choice but to throw you into the ocean." Aris announces.

The slaves murmur to each other as Inej's crew cuff them and leads them on to the other ship. Inej slips below the decks and finds their prisoners. There are only ten people here at the moment. They all look underfed and scared. "I'm not here to hurt you." Inej whispers and finds the key to the cells hanging on the wall. She unlocks the cells and the prisoners file out without a word. "My crew will show you the way on to my ship." She says as she looks around. She finds some kruge and shoves it in her pocket.
She returns to the deck and climbs onto her ship. "Sink it." She orders and the canons fire onto the now empty ship.

"Back to Ravka?" Aris asks as the ship starts to lower into the waves.

"Yeah." Inej answers and heads for her cabin. She puts her kruge in a drawer and leans her head on her hands. She has a really bad feeling. Something is wrong and she knows it deep down. "I hope Kaz isn't getting into trouble.." Inej mumbles but she knows that it is wishful thinking. Trouble seems to find him like a magnet finds a nail. Inej crosses her arms and buries her head in them. They were just a few miles away from the Ravkan shore so they should be there in a few hours. She closes her eyes and thinks over all of the good deeds she has done over the past few months. She has freed hundreds of prisoners and put even more slavers behind bars. Maybe she had earned a small break. Maybe after this job, she could return to Ketterdam for a few weeks before setting off again. As she figures out what her next move is going to be, Inej slowly starts to fall asleep. Taking on slavers is quite exhausting.

"Inej. Inej. We are here. King Nikolai is waiting for you." Aris says as he pokes her.

"We are?" Inej asks groggily as she opens her eyes and stretches. She yawns softly as Aris nods in response.
She stands up and nods to the door. Aris gets the signal and leaves her in the room. When she first started to hunt slavers, she had struck a deal with Nikolai. She would give him the slavers and he would make sure that they stayed behind bars.

It was a good system and it worked for them. He would give her full immunity as well. Inej takes the knife that Kaz had given her and shoves it into its sleeve before attaching it to her belt. She walks out and heads off of the ship.

She walks up the large hill leading to Nikolai's palace. The garden is beautiful. It's full of roses. She walks into the throne room, which overlooks the garden. Nikolai is there. His crown is crooked and he has a lopsided smile on his face. "Inej. How's my favorite captain doing?" He says.

"I'm fine. Thanks for asking." Inej smiles and gives him a small bow out of respect. "I caught a crew of twenty slavers."

"Good job." Nikolai hums in approval. He turns to a guard. "Take them to the prison." He says and the guard leaves. He turns back to Inej. "A letter came for you from Ketterdam." He says.

"Was it Kaz?" Inej asks and part of her hopes it was.

"No. It was Jesper." Nikolia answers and offers her the envelope.

Part of Inej's heart sinks in her chest but she looks up at Nikolai and smiles as she thanks him. "Thank you. I think that I'm going to return to Ketterdam for a few weeks. I need a break." She says.

"Ohh. Of course. Enjoy your vacation." Nikolia says and nods at her.

Inej nods back before exiting the room.

Inej walks through the gardens and stops under a tall tree. She climbs it and looks down at the letter in her hands. She sighs softly before opening it. Then she starts to read.

'Dear Inej,
Hey. It's Jesper. I guess I should get right to the point. Pekka Rollins is back and apparently, he is working with Wylan's father. They probably want blood and Kaz is in danger. As we all know, Kaz is an asshat who hates to admit that he needs anything from anyone. So I'm here to do it for him. We need your help or all of us are going to die a painful and bloody death. We are in deep. Kaz plans to do all of this alone. He has been off since you let him. He isn't the same and he is driving himself insane trying to cover that up. If it wasn't for Rollins he would have made it out of his funk one of two ways. Broken or even harder than before. Rollins has added a third option, death. Kaz is being reckless and he can't think straight. I'm going to try to stall until he can at least get a grip over himself but I don't know how long that is going to last. The bastard is stubborn as hell. Please hurry. By the way, Wylan says hi. Goodbye, and rescue us. Thanks.
Your best friend in the whole world,
Jesper'

Inej jumps down and sprints to her ship. "We set sail now. To Ketterdam and hurry up." She hisses and the crew scrambles to their positions. All she can do now is pray to the saints.

*End of Inej's pov*
Kaz looks down at the blood all over his gloves. He got what he came for. He knows where Pekka Rollins is.