Six of Crows

Once again, Matthias is dreaming of Nina. He hunts her in all his dreams. In the good ones, he kills her. In the bad ones, he kisses her. He hates himself for wanting her and for betraying his country. Tonight, he’s having a terrible dream in which she kisses him. But when he realizes it’s really happening, remembers he killed wolves earlier, and sees Nina is kneeling over him, he throws her to the ground and tries to strangle her. Someone puts a gun to his neck, but he doesn’t care. He must kill her. But Kaz hits him with a cane with a crow’s head and says Matthias must keep it together since he’s getting out tonight. Just then, screaming starts above, and Matthias says they opened the animals’ cages.

Kaz offers Matthias a gloved hand, and Matthias takes it. Inej puts a cloak and a mask on him, and they all head back toward the arena. Matthias tries to dive into the crowd, but Kaz pulls him back. Ignoring the mayhem in the arena, Kaz leads them toward the cages—but the desert lizard runs at them, and Inej kills it easily. Matthias is impressed. At the end of the tunnel, they emerge on a rocky beach where Jesper is sitting in a boat. As Jesper and Nina banter, Matthias makes his plan to kill them all and escape with the boat—but when he lunges at Inej, she trips him easily. Nina tries to help Matthias up, but he scoots away and calls her a witch. Kaz instructs Nina to put Matthias under.

Now, Matthias is listening to Kaz, whom he’s heard called Dirtyhands because he’s so immoral, talk about using Matthias to break into the Ice Court. He ignores Nina, though he can almost taste her perfume, and focuses only on the wild story Kaz tells about jurda parem. When Kaz is done, Matthias refuses to participate. Nobody can break into Fjerda’s Ice Court, which is actually an impenetrable compound, and Matthias won’t commit treason again. Kaz tries to sway Matthias by mentioning that they must get Yul-Bayur so the secret of jurda parem doesn’t land in the wrong hands, and by mentioning his four million kruge cut. Remembering advice from his mentor, Brum, Matthias says he’ll make a deal: he’ll help if he gets to kill Nina.

Kaz says he can offer better: Matthias can be a drüskelle again. He hands Matthias a piece of paper, which reads that Matthias is pardoned for trafficking slaves and will be escorted wherever he chooses. Nina, Kaz explains, will recant her accusations and go to prison for two months. At this, Matthias laughs—Nina’s “Grisha keepers” will probably get her out of it. But going home is still tempting, though Matthias is certain Fjerda will have already killed Bo Yul-Bayur. Kaz promises that Matthias will still get to go home in that case. Matthias wonders whether he can betray his country—Brum certainly wouldn’t. But Matthias sees how important it is that Yul-Bayur be stopped, so he decides to join Kaz, become a drüskelle again, and kill Nina the first chance he gets.

As Kaz pockets the pardon, he introduces Matthias to the rest of the crew: Nina, Inej, Jesper, and finally, Wylan, their “demolitions expert.” Inej and Jesper both scoff that another man in town is better, and Kaz admits that Wylan is new. Matthias thinks Wylan looks about 15 years old on a good day. What kind of crew is this? They’ll probably all die before he can commit treason. As the others continue to argue about Wylan, Kaz says Wylan has another purpose: he’s Wylan Van Eck, their “insurance” to make sure Van Eck pays up.