Six of Crows: Chapter 6: Nina Summary & Analysis

Nina feels sick to her stomach in the rowboat with Kaz and Muzzen. They’re on their way to Hellgate to rescue Matthias, whom Nina has been trying to get Kaz to help for almost a year. They’re all dressed in costumes, and now, Kaz tells Nina to lower her veil. She notices other costumed people in boats on the water. When they reach Hellgate, Dime Lions gangsters take Kaz’s money, and then a guide leads them through the prison to a second tower. Inej joins the group out of nowhere, startling Nina. Finally, the guide leaves Kaz’s group with a guard, instructing them to request an escort when they’re ready to leave. Down below is an arena. Masked spectators watch as a scrawny man spins a huge wheel. When it stops, the crowd roars and a massive reptile enters the arena. It kills the prisoner almost immediately.

Kaz explains that this is the Hellshow, Pekka Rollins’s idea. All Nina knows about Pekka Rollins is that he’s the “king of the Barrel.” She almost ended up working for him when she first arrived, after she spent weeks trying to get Matthias freed from Hellgate. He’d offered to let her work in one of his brothels, but Inej climbed through her window that night and offered Nina Kaz’s terms, which were much better—and a week later, a customer killed a girl at Rollins’s brothel. Inej also insisted that Kaz was trustworthy. Now, though, Nina is just angry at him, even though he explains that the prisoners aren’t forced to fight: they do so to earn better cells, food, and even girls. Nina allows Inej to squeeze her hand as prisoners fight animals until, finally, Matthias enters the ring.

Matthias used to be beautiful. He was a drüskelle, a Fjerdan witch hunter whose job it is to hunt Grisha to be executed in Fjerda. He looked like a saint then—but now, though he’s still handsome, he looks like a scarred killer. He spins the wheel and Nina begs Kaz to do something when she sees where it landed: wolves. Three enter the ring, and Matthias grudgingly kills them. Wolves are sacred to the drüskelle, but only Nina knows this. She notices that Matthias is crying when the guard raises his hand in victory. Guards lead him away, and Nina spends the next hour stewing.

Finally, Kaz tells Nina to target the guard, and Nina drops the man’s pulse. Kaz sweeps his own disguise onto the guard—underneath his cape, he’s wearing a guard’s uniform. Then, Kaz leads Nina and Muzzen down to the prisoners’ cells, and Kaz expertly picks the lock. Inej holds up a lit glass sphere up to illuminate the cold, but clean, cell. Seeing Muzzen remove his cloak and mask to reveal a shaved head and prison pants, Nina realizes that Kaz intends for Muzzen to take Matthias’s place—Nina must reproduce Matthias’s injuries on Muzzen. Nina argues that it won’t work, but Kaz explains that “Matthias” is going to look like he has firepox, which will lead to a quarantine and help hide the switch. Nina has 10 minutes to complete the transformation.

Nina breaks Muzzen’s ribs and covers his skin in painful pustules. She asks why he agreed to this, and she isn’t surprised when he notes the money. When Nina is finished, Kaz tells Nina to heal Matthias just enough so he can walk. Nina tells herself Matthias is just another Dregs member that Kaz brings her to heal—and in any case, Matthias barely looks like the boy she fell in love with. She kisses Matthias’s temple and says his name, which causes him to wake up a little. He groggily says her name and cups her cheek—and then he begins to strangle her.