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Grishaverse 4
Leigh Bardugo
Summary is from SparkNotes
1. A guard named Joost is patrolling the home of Councilman Hoede, a wealthy merchant. Joost is imagining how he might compliment his crush, Anya, who is a Grisha, a person with magical powers. Anya, like many Grisha, is an indentured servant, forced to do the bidding of her wealthy master, Hoede. The other guards tease Joost for his crush and the fact that he can’t grow a mustache. Joost goes to where Anya should be, but she is missing. He eventually finds her in Hoede’s boathouse, which has been removed from his patrol route, supposedly due to construction that doesn’t seem to be occurring. In the boathouse, Joost sees Hoede, another merchant he doesn’t recognize, and many guards surrounding Anya and a young boy. Hoede and the merchant make Anya perform a series of tests. First, they cut the boy and make her heal him. Then, they give her a drug and have her heal the boy again. Next, they say they are going to cut the boy’s thumb off, but Anya suddenly begins to control everyone in the room with her words. She tells everyone to wait. She picks up the boy and tells Hoede to pick up a knife.
2. Kaz, Inej, Jesper, and Big Bolliger are members of the Dregs, one of several criminal gangs in the city of Ketterdam. Kaz, the ruthless young leader, walks with a limp, uses a crow-headed cane, and wears a perpetual scowl. Jesper, a sharpshooter, is excellent with pistols and always itching for adventure. Inej, stealthy and agile, can scale buildings easily and spy on others undetected. She wears her collection of prized knives under her clothing. Big Bolliger is a large brute who provides muscle for the Dregs. The Dregs are preparing to meet with a rival gang, the Black Tips. As Inej scales a nearby building to survey the meeting place, she is frustrated that Kaz hasn’t given her more information. Geels, the leader of the Black Tips, wants to wrest control of Fifth Harbor from the Dregs because Kaz has turned it into a lucrative port. Though the rules of street engagement say one must come to these meetings unarmed, Geels pulls a gun on Kaz. Things don’t look good for Kaz, especially when Geels mentions that he has paid off the city guards. But when Geels orders Holst, one of the guards, to shoot Kaz, he shoots Big Bolliger instead, surprising Geels. Inej sneaks up behind the second guard and holds him at knifepoint. Kaz reveals that he’s blackmailing Holst and that he knows that Big Bolliger is double-crossing the Dregs. Kaz also tells Geels that he knows about his girlfriend, and his men have been ordered to burn her alive in her apartment if Kaz is harmed by Geels. Geels relents, and Kaz breaks his wrist with his cane and leaves Big Bolliger to bleed out on the ground.
3. After celebrating the victory against the Black Tips, Kaz is ambushed, beaten, and abducted by someone with a syringe who appears to be able to walk through walls like a ghost. He thinks at first that it is the ghost of his brother Jordie. Kaz wakes up bound in chains in the presence of a merchant named Van Eck, who says the Merchant Council has a business proposition for him. When Kaz picks the lock on his chains and threatens Van Eck with a letter opener, the ghost appears again out of nowhere and takes Kaz down. Van Eck explains that the ghost is a Grisha named Mikka under the influence of a drug called jurda parem. The drug enhances Mikka’s powers, giving him the ability to walk through walls. Van Eck says that the drug was sent to the Merchant Council by a scientist named Bo Yul-Bayur, a Shu. Bo Yul-Bayur was concerned about his country’s plans for the drug and was seeking asylum from the council. Instead, he was imprisoned by the Fjerdans. Bo Yul-Bayur holds the secret formula for jurda parem, which has only been produced in limited supplies so far. Van Eck says the council is concerned about the ramifications if the formula gets into the wrong hands. The council wants to extract Bo Yul-Bayur from the Ice Court, the Fjerdan fortress where he is held, without causing an international incident. According to Van Eck, jurda parem has been tested on three types of Grisha so far. Under the drug’s influence, Etherealaki like Mikka can walk through walls, Healers like Anya can control people’s minds, and Fabrikators, another type of Grisha, can turn objects into gold. Van Eck shows Kaz the officers who were told to “wait” by Anya. They are stuck in a state of suspended animation that Van Eck calls as good as dead. However, Van Eck explains that the drug is highly addictive and quickly ravages the bodies of the Grisha who develop a dependency. Sensing that the mission is highly dangerous and that Van Eck is desperate, Kaz demands 30 million kruge, a huge sum, to take the job. Van Eck reluctantly agrees.
4. Kaz orders Inej to fire Rojakke, a talented card dealer at The Crow Club because he believes the dealer is skimming off the top. Inej disagrees with the order, but she carries it out anyway. When Rojakke protests and begins to make a scene, Inej hits him with brass knuckles and drives him away. Inej spies on Kaz as he meets with Per Haskell, the boss of the Dregs and the owner of her indenture (the money she owes before she can be free). She hears Kaz talking about the big job and is hurt that Kaz hasn’t told her about it. Later, she joins Kaz in his room. He tells her very little about the job but offers her four million kruge to join his crew. As they talk, he undresses and washes himself in front of her, making her feel uncomfortable. Inej doesn’t know whether to be flattered or offended. She notices that he only has two tattoos. One is the crow and cup tattoo that all members of the Dregs have, except for Inej. The other is a letter R on his bicep. Inej wonders what the R stands for but doesn’t ask Kaz. Kaz gives her the ruby tie pin that he stole from Van Eck and tells her to sell it. She leaves, sliding gracefully down the railing in the stairwell.
5. Kaz heads to the gambling district of town. He reflects that the only gambling house aside from The Crow Club that he cares about is The Emerald Palace. It belongs to Pekka Rollins, whom Kaz wants to murder—but he’s in no hurry. First, he plans to give Rollins headaches by cutting into his business. For example, he hires actors to lure potential customers away from The Emerald Palace by having fake conversations about their luck at The Crow Club. He repeats the phrase “brick by brick” to remind himself that Rollins deserves a slow, painful death. Kaz goes into a pleasure house named The White Rose to meet Nina, a Grisha who works there. Nina sits with people and uses her Grisha powers to help them feel different emotions, calming their anxiety and making them feel peaceful. She pays a percentage of her earnings to Per Haskell. Kaz tries to persuade Nina to join the crew he is building to free Bo Yul-Bayur. When Nina hears about jurda parem, she wants to kill Bo Yul-Bayur. She considers his experiments with Grisha horrifying. Kaz offers to help her free Matthias Helvar, who is imprisoned. Nina says she’s been begging Kaz to free Matthias for a long time. Kaz says that they now have a mutual interest in helping Matthias escape.
6. Nina, Kaz, Inej, and another member of the Dregs named Muzzen disguise themselves in costumes and row to an island near Ketterdam, home of the prison known as Hellgate. Nina dreads the journey, but when they arrive at Hellgate, she feels excited to be in the same building with Matthias. The group attends a weekly battle called Hellshow, where prisoners are pitted against terrible beasts. They gain extra privileges if they win but suffer a painful death if they lose. Nina remembers the day that Inej found her and delivered Kaz’s offer for her to join the Dregs. They saved her from The Emerald Palace, and she set up shop as a Heartrender at The White Rose. Nina is happy she decided to join Kaz and Inej, but she is angry to be at Hellshow. They watch as a prisoner battles a gigantic poisonous lizard and is quickly killed. Then Matthias enters the ring. Nina hasn’t seen him for a long time. She recalls how beautiful he once looked and reflects on how much he has changed. He now looks like a killer. Three wolves enter the ring and the battle begins. Matthias’s people, the Fjerdans, consider wolves sacred, and Matthias feels as if he’s killing family as he slays the wolves. He is injured in the fight but survives. The group finds Matthias’s cell, where he’s been drugged by a medic to sleep off his injuries. Kaz has paid Muzzen to take Matthias’s place in prison. He has Nina “tailor” Muzzen, magically altering his appearance. Nina makes Muzzen look like he has firepox, a disfiguring disease carried by wolves, so that he will be unrecognizable and put in quarantine for a month, buying time so the switch will go unnoticed. When Matthias awakes and recognizes Nina, he tries to strangle her.
7. Matthias thinks about how many times he has dreamed of either killing or kissing Nina during his incarceration. Kaz explains his plan to break Matthias out of Hellgate, but Matthias is resistant. He hates Nina and doesn’t trust Kaz and his gang. Jesper frees the animals, they begin attacking prisoners and guards. Amid the chaos, the gang escorts Matthias out of the prison and into an escape boat. Matthias continues to resist, attacking Inej and trying to escape from the boat, but she thwarts him easily. Nina uses her powers to put Matthias to sleep until the boat is further out at sea. When Matthias awakes, he is tied up in a dark room. Kaz tells him about the plan to break into the Ice Court. As a loyal Fjerdan, Matthias refuses to help, viewing the mission as a betrayal of his people. However, Kaz shows him a written pardon for his crimes, which would allow him to return to Fjerda and become a drüskelle again. Nina has agreed to recant her testimony against Matthias and go to jail herself for perjury—but only if Matthias joins the heist and completes the mission. Matthias reluctantly agrees, while privately scheming how he can get revenge on Nina. Kaz introduces Wylan, the sixth member of the crew, as a demolitions expert. The crew is skeptical of Wylan because he looks very young and inexperienced. Kaz explains that Wylan is the son of Van Eck, the councilman who arranged the mission. As such, Wylan will serve as “insurance” in case Van Eck decides not to pay.
8. The crew objects to Wylan’s inexperience, arguing that they should get a better demolitions expert. But Kaz explains that Wylan is more than just a hostage. In addition to his knowledge of explosives, he has been to the Ice Court and is skilled at drawing. Matthias and Wylan work together to draw a map of the Ice Court, and Matthias reluctantly shares what he knows about Fjerdan security protocols. The plan, Kaz tells them, is to intentionally get arrested and imprisoned in the Ice Court. They will then escape and kidnap Bo Yul-Bayur.
9. Kaz gives each member of the group a task and dismisses them. He and Matthias stay behind at The Crow Club. The first moment Matthias and Kaz are alone, Matthias attacks Kaz and tries to steal the pardon. Though Kaz is much smaller than the muscular Matthias, he anticipates the attack, easily slipping out of Matthias’s grip before ruthlessly beating him with his cane. The subdued Matthias calls Kaz a demon. Kaz tells Matthias that he’s no match for him and puts him back in shackles for the night.
10. Inej walks around Ketterdam reminiscing about her father, who used to advise her to follow her heart and be decisive. She feels lost and not sure what she wants. She passes by the Menagerie, the pleasure house where she was once enslaved after being kidnapped from her family. Just being near the Menagerie triggers a sense of panic in her. Inej tries to calm herself, but she is filled with terror when she runs into Tante Heleen, the owner of the Menagerie. Tante Heleen threatens to snatch Inej and put her back to work in the Menagerie, but then lets her go. Inej arrives at the dock and sees the boat Kaz has procured for the journey to the Ice Court. She senses that something is wrong. Suddenly an explosion obliterates the boat.
11. Kaz tells Jesper and Wylan that the boat that blew up was a decoy. He directs them to the real boat. People begin shooting at them. Jesper returns fire as he, Wylan, Nina, and Matthias move toward the real boat. Wylan sets off a flash bomb.
12. Still on the dock, Inej is wounded in the attack. One of the opposing men, Oomen, seizes Inej and attempts to capture her, pinning her arms. She escapes by using knives concealed in her knee pads. Badly wounded, Inej attempts to climb a pyramid of shipping crates when someone seizes her ankle. Just as she is about to kill herself to avoid capture, she realizes it’s Kaz. Kaz carries her to safety.
13. Kaz brings Inej onto the boat. He orders Nina to use her Grisha powers to heal Inej, even though Nina isn’t a healer. Jesper and Matthias capture Oomen and bring him to Kaz. Kaz rips out one of Oomen’s eyes to get him to reveal who ordered the attack. Oomen reveals that Pekka Rollins hired the Black Tips to attack the Dregs. After Kaz gets all the information he needs from Oomen, he throws him overboard as retribution for injuring Inej. Kaz wonders if Rollins has also been hired to go after Bo Yul-Bayur.
14. Nina recalls when she first met Matthias, before his imprisonment. She and fifteen other Grisha had been captured by a group of Fjerdan drüskelle and were caged in the hold of a ship. Jarl Brum, the Fjerdan commander, cruelly tells the captives that the drüskelle are a holy order of soldiers dedicated to eradicating Grisha from the Earth. The ship is transporting the Grisha to trial in Fjerda, where they will undoubtedly be found guilty and executed. After Brum leaves, Nina begs Matthias for some water. He ignores her at first, but later brings her a cup of water. Back in the present, Matthias and Nina talk on the ship to the Ice Court. Matthias says he dreamed of Nina every night in Hellgate. Nina says she stayed in Ketterdam rather than returning to her homeland, Ravka, because she couldn’t leave him at Hellgate. She says she regrets accusing him of being a slaver and getting him arrested.
15. The voyage to Fjerda continues. Matthias reflects on Nina’s remorse. The gang discusses the plan to rescue Bo Yul-Bayur. The escape plan involves Inej—still badly injured from the ambush in Ketterdam—climbing out of the basement of the Ice Court through a six-story incinerator shaft. The crew worries that Pekka Rollins and his gang will kill them when they reach the Ice Court, but Kaz blows them off. Matthias senses that there’s a bad history between Pekka Rollins and Kaz.
16. After three days, Inej wakes up on the ship in great pain to find Nina keeping watch over her. Nina is grateful that Inej is alive and immediately starts crying in relief. Nina tells Inej that it was Pekka Rollins who hired the rival gangs to attack them at the harbor. She says Kaz killed the Black Tips who harmed Inej. Nina asks Inej about a scar on her body, and Inej says it was a clumsily removed tattoo from the Menagerie. Nina also asks why Inej doesn’t have the cup and crow tattoo of The Dregs. Inej says Kaz told her she didn’t have to get it. Inej feels uneasy on the ship. She hasn’t been to sea since she was kidnapped by the slavers. She begs Nina to sing her a song, and Nina obliges even though she has a terrible singing voice. Inej’s memory takes her back to the day the slavers sold her to Tante Heleen. She remembers Tante Heleen inspecting every inch of her body and buying her because of her flawless brown skin. At that moment, she had thought about drowning herself in the harbor rather than going with Tante Heleen.
17. Everyone is happy and relieved that Inej has recovered. Matthias thanks Inej for helping the crew survive the ambush, and Jesper rejoices that she is alive. Jesper tells Inej that Kaz was despondent when she was unconscious. Inej says it’s only because Kaz needs her for the plan to work. Kaz watches them but keeps his distance, and Jesper wonders what he’s thinking.
18. Two days after Inej wakes up, Kaz finally works up the nerve to talk to her. He shows her Wylan’s drawing of the prison and asks her if she thinks she can climb up the incinerator’s chimney. If she fails, the whole crew will end up stuck in the Ice Court’s prison. Inej imagines how she will die if she can’t manage the climb. Inej is aware that Kaz has a personal vendetta against Pekka Rollins. She asks Kaz why. Though Kaz has never told anyone, he confides to her that Rollins killed his brother long ago. Inej is surprised to learn that Kaz had a brother and says she’ll pray for him. Kaz thinks about his desire for Inej, but then he gets angry with himself for confiding in her. He takes his feelings out on Inej, rejecting her concern. Alone on deck, Kaz remembers when his brother Jordie was alive. Jordie and Kaz had come to Ketterdam after their father’s death. They met a businessman, Mister Hertzoon, who took them under his wing. After some time, Hertzoon told Jordie about a promising investment opportunity. After Jordie entrusted Hertzoon with their entire inheritance, Hertzoon disappeared.
19. The ship finally arrives in Fjerda. On Kaz’s orders, Nina uses her Grisha powers to “tailor” Matthias, changing his appearance to prevent anyone at the Ice Court from recognizing him. Matthias resents being tailored but has no choice in the matter. As Nina works on him, the two of them have an awkward yet intimate conversation. Matthias feels uncomfortable being so close to Nina. The crew travels through the frigid landscape of Fjerda on foot for several days. Kaz explains the basics of the plan for the heist. They will smuggle themselves into the Ice Court disguised as prisoners and then escape their cells and meet up in the basement. Inej will climb to the roof through the incinerator shaft and throw down a rope for the others to follow. Once outside the prison, they will find Bo Yul-Bayur, get access to the glass bridge, steal clothes from the embassy, and cross the bridge with Bo Yul-Bayur before blowing it up so they can’t be followed back to their ship. The crew has many questions about the plan, but Kaz withholds much of his scheme as the others have come to expect. Matthias complains about the destruction the heist will wreak on the Ice Court and his people. Privately, he ponders ways he could sabotage the heist. The crew’s trek across Fjerda reminds Matthias of his past with Nina. The ship carrying him and Nina had capsized in a storm and he had been thrown overboard. He regained consciousness in icy waters, clinging to floating debris, with Nina yelling at him to wake up. Nina used her Grisha powers to warm Matthias’s body, allowing him to swim many miles to a desolate Fjerdan shore. Once on land, the two remained wary of each other but realized they needed each other to survive. After finding an abandoned whaling camp, they stayed there for the night, removing their wet clothes and huddling together to survive the cold. As the Dregs continue their trek through Fjerda, they come upon three Grisha who have been burned at the stake by drüskelle. One of the Grisha is still alive but badly burned. Jasper shoots the person to put them out of their misery. Nina is brought to tears by the scene and begins berating Matthias for the hateful ideology of the drüskelle. Matthias says that all Grisha are given a fair trial before being executed, but Nina points out that Grisha are never found innocent because their crime is their existence. Furious, Nina says she hopes that a Grisha army will one day wipe out Fjerda and punish Matthias for his crimes. Matthias replies that his own family has already been killed by a Grisha army who burned his entire village to the ground.
20. Nina remains traumatized by the burned Grisha and furious with Matthias. She remembers the weeks they spent together after the shipwreck, traveling together across the desolate landscape back to civilization. They goaded each other often, but their antagonism slowly gave way to fondness. Once, Nina fell through the ice and was about to fall into a chasm, but Matthias grabbed her hand. In a moment of panic, she realized that he might let her go. But Matthias decided to save her. After that, they finally told each other their names. Back in the present, Matthias and Nina begin to argue as the group presses on. Nina accuses him of being a murderer. Matthias forces Nina to tell the whole group that she falsely accused him of being a slaver, which landed him in Hellgate. The group argues and Kaz tells Nina and Matthias that they need to make their peace. Suddenly, the earth begins to shake and the group realizes they are being attacked by a small group of Grisha drugged with jurda parem. They fight back, managing to defeat the Grisha with guns and explosives. After the skirmish, Nina recognizes one of Grisha, named Nestor. He is dying of a bullet wound, but he begs her for more jurda parem. After Nestor dies, Nina and Matthias stay behind to bury him while the rest of the group presses on. After seeing firsthand the powers that jurda parem endows the Grisha, Nina and Matthias agree together that Bo Yul-Bayur cannot leave the Ice Court alive.
21. The crew arrives in Djerholm, the Fjerdan city closest to the Ice Court. They scout out the route of the prison wagons and set their plan in motion. They chop down a tree that falls across the road, forcing the wagon drivers to get out and use the horses to drag the tree out of the way. Meanwhile, Kaz sneaks up behind the wagon and picks the lock. When he opens the door, he momentarily freezes. Inej goes to him and notices the wagon is far more crowded than they anticipated. They will have to cram in very close together, hooded and wearing shackles on their hands, feet, and necks. Inej touches Kaz on the shoulder. He snaps out of his trance and begins picking the locks on the shackles of six prisoners. Inej notices that he keeps his gloves on, even though they hinder his progress. Nina uses her powers to put the six freed prisoners to sleep in a ditch, and the crew takes their places on the wagon. When the wagon begins moving again, Inej notices that Kaz, shackled next to her, has fainted.
22. Kaz dreams about what happened after Mister Hertzoon swindled Jordie and him. When their money ran out, they were forced to live on the streets of Ketterdam. Jordie remained optimistic that their luck would change, but when an epidemic of firepox swept through the city, Jordie and Kaz both fell deathly ill. Jordie died in the night, and he and a sleeping Kaz were put on a sick boat used to transport corpses out to a barge to be burned. Kaz awoke in a pile of putrid bodies, with no one around to hear his cries for help. Eventually, his sickness subsided and he used Jordie’s bloated body to help him swim back to shore. Kaz regains consciousness in the prison wagon and panics when he feels the bodies of the other prisoners pressing against him. Inej talks to calm him down. When they arrive at the Ice Court, Kaz notices the bodies of five men skewered on pikes. He recognizes them as members of Pekka Rollins’s gang. He reflects that they don’t have to worry about the rival gang beating them to Bo Yul-Bayur. Kaz assures himself that none of the bodies are Pekka Rollins. He wants to be the one to kill Rollins. The guards check all the prisoners. After a tense moment when their papers don’t match the original prisoners’, they are all taken inside. Kaz keeps his gloves on, even though he fears it will draw undue attention to him. One of the guards searches Kaz and confiscates lockpicking tools from between his teeth. Once in their cell, a large prisoner calls Kaz a cripple and picks a fight with him. Kaz easily bests him, cruelly dislocating his shoulder to send a message to the other prisoners. He reminds himself that he isn’t helpless.
23. Wylan and Jesper flirt and antagonize each other while they wait for the Elderclock to strike six. Jesper digs a pellet out of his leg where Nina stitched it in. He and Wylan cover their mouths and he throws the pellet in a waste bucket. It releases a gas that makes all the other prisoners pass out. Then Jesper reveals he’s a Fabrikator, a Grisha with the power to manipulate matter. He starts slowly extracting iron from the bars, using it to fabricate lock-picking tools for Kaz. Kaz frees them. Kaz and Nina decide to go looking for Bo Yul-Bayur in the upper cells, even though the plan was for Matthias and Nina to go. The others meet Inej in the basement. Inej says there’s a problem: the incinerator was lit earlier in the day and shaft is still too hot to climb. But then, Wylan finds Inej’s climbing shoes in the garbage, where the guards had disposed of the prisoners’ clothes. Inej decides she can make the climb.
24. Nina discovers a series of cells that appear to be built for Grisha, by Grisha. She is disturbed and frightened and accidentally encounters some guards. Using her powers, she knocks them out, but not before one of guards fires his gun and sets off the alarm.
25. Inej climbs the incinerator shaft, but her shoes begin to melt in the heat. She fears she will not make it. She remembers when Kaz freed her from the Menagerie and hired her to be part of the Dregs. He told her he valued her stealth, and she appreciated his honesty about her indenture. It was a step up from the Menagerie, but she still was not free. Fearing she will die in the incinerator shaft, Inej curses Kaz and herself for believing in him. She begins to despair, when suddenly, she has an epiphany. If she survives and pulls off the heist, she can use the money to buy her own ship and hunt down slavers like the ones who kidnapped her. With renewed purpose, she begins to climb.
26. Kaz is searching for Bo Yul-Bayur. He remembers when he first got a job for Per Haskell. He tried to seek out Mister Hertzoon, but no one had ever heard of him. One day he saw Hertzoon and followed him into a gin shop. The shop owner told him the man’s name was actually Pekka Rollins. Kaz notices Pekka Rollins in one of the cells. Rollins is badly beaten but recognizes Kaz. Though he’s late to meet Nina, Kaz breaks into the cell anyway.
27. Inej throws down the rope. Matthias, Wylan, and Nina climb up and join her on the roof. Jesper remains behind, waiting for Kaz, who is late. When Kaz finally arrives, Jesper notices that his shirt is covered in blood. The two of them climb up the rope and join the others. Inej is in pain. Her shoes have melted to the skin of her feet. Kaz orders Jesper to use his powers to separate the rubber from her skin. The rest of the team is shocked to learn that Jesper is a Grisha. Kaz apologizes for being late. He admits that he went after Pekka Rollins but doesn’t reveal what happened in the encounter. Since Bo Yul-Bayur wasn’t in the prison, they decide he must be confined somewhere on the White Island, a sector of the Ice Court where a huge party is being thrown. Inej proposes that she and Nina gain access to the party by posing as girls from the Menagerie, which has sent a contingent to entertain the Fjerdans.
28. Kaz hatches a new plan. While Inej and Nina infiltrate the party, Wylan and Jesper will disable the gate and trigger Black Protocol, locking all the guards on the White Island while the crew absconds with Bo Yul-Bayur. Nina tailors herself and Inej, giving each of them the tattoo worn by girls of the Menagerie. Inej gives Kaz his gloves, which had been discarded in the basement by the prison guards. Kaz begins to confess his emotions to Inej but stops himself. Inej tells Kaz that if they survive, she plans to take her share of the money and leave Ketterdam. She touches his cheek, and he doesn’t flinch or come toward her. She says if she dies, she’ll die unafraid. Nina and Inej incapacitate two girls from the Menagerie and lock them in a cupboard. They dress up in their outfits, take their security papers, and head to the party. A guard scrutinizes their papers, but Nina distracts him with seductive talk. He lets Nina into the party, but Inej is detained and taken to a holding area.
29. Matthias tells Kaz about the sacred ash tree at the center of White Island. It is a place where the Fjerdans believe their god speaks to those who are worthy. Matthias shows Kaz the trick to crossing the ice moat, which has a submerged glass bridge. After they cross, they encounter two guards and take them down. Matthias picks up a guard’s gun and is tempted to shoot Kaz, but he does not. Suddenly Kaz pulls a gun on Matthias, revealing that he was never in any danger. He only pretended to be vulnerable to test Matthias’s loyalty.
30. Jesper set out to disable the gate. Wylan distracts the gatehouse guards by pretending to be a drunken Fjerdan guard. Jesper takes down the guards, and they enter the gatehouse. They plan to cut the ropes that operate the gate, but they discover that the cables are made of steel chains. Jesper isn’t sure they will be able to cut the chains, but he sets to work using his Fabrikator powers to weaken a single link. Privately, he worries that there are a thousand ways Kaz’s plan could go wrong.
31. Nina mingles and flirts with the guests at the party, searching for a Fjerdan drunk enough to reveal the whereabouts of Bo Yul-Bayur. To her surprise, she meets Jarl Brum, the drüskelle leader who she assumed had died in the shipwreck.
32. Jesper and Wylan struggle to break the chain in the gatehouse, all the while engaging in flirtatious banter. Jesper reveals that his obsession with guns started back in his homeland. He had worked for a gunsmith, using his powers to fabricate fancy guns. Wylan reveals that he doesn’t really like making bombs or killing people. His real interests are music and math. At one point, Wylan asks Jesper if he is only interested in girls, and Jesper says no. After nearly an hour, Jesper laments that a more skilled Fabrikator would have easily broken the chain. Finally, the chain snaps and the two rejoice.
33. Inej waits in the holding area. Another detained guest complains loudly to the guards. Inej begins to lose her nerve and demands to be taken to the checkpoint. Just as she does, Tante Heleen notices her and recognizes Inej. She tells the guard that Inej is an impostor who belongs to the Dregs, and that Kaz must be somewhere in the Ice Court too. Heleen grabs Inej by the shoulders and demands to know what she has done with her girl. Inej freezes momentarily but then seizes Heleen’s wrist, twisting it so hard that she falls her knees. The guards seize Inej and drag her through the courtyard as Heleen cackles and threatens to have Inej and Kaz hanged. The bells ring, signaling the initiation of Black Protocol.
34. Unsure if Brum knows who she is, Nina works on seducing him into telling her where Bo Yul-Bayur is being kept. He begins talking to her about Grisha, feigning a titillated interest in their power. He takes her to the treasury, which contains cells constructed by Grisha. Brum shows her some cells where Grisha are held captive, suffering the ravages of jurda parem. Nina pretends to be fascinated and seductively asks Brum to take her someplace more private. Brum shows her a special cell and invites her inside, but as soon as she enters, he slams the door, locking her in. Matthias appears at the door with Brum. He tells Nina that he has sold her out to Brum, putting his country before himself.
35. Brum shows Matthias the special cell block for holding Grisha. He explains that the facility has long been used to experiment on Grisha. The goal is to heighten their powers so they can become a powerful army for Fjerda. Jurda parem will help achieve this aim. Matthias expresses surprise because drüskelle are taught that all Grisha should be eradicated. Brum compliments Matthias on the purity of his faith but tells him that they can accomplish more by using Grisha than killing them. Matthias reflects on how Brum was a mentor to him, but he is beginning to realize the hatefulness of Brum’s ideology. Brum embraces Matthias and assures him that he will be welcomed back to the drüskelle. He says they will punish Nina by dosing her with jurda parem. Matthias returns Brum’s embrace but then suddenly puts Brum in a sleeper hold. As Brum loses consciousness, Matthias tells him he’s wrong about Nina. Just as Matthias had planned all along, he steals Brum’s master key and goes to save Nina.
36. Wylan and Jesper are attacked by Tidemakers dosed with jurda parem who can pull people’s blood from their bodies. Jesper removes the tiny metal fragments stuck to his clothes and uses his Fabrikator power to attack the Tidemakers with the metal. As he and Wylan escape, he feels heavy with grief for harming his own kind.
37. Matthias frees Nina from her cell, and they embrace. He recites the drüskelle oath but pledges to protect Nina, instead of Fjerda, until the day he dies. Together, they seek out Bo Yul-Bayur but instead find his son Kuwei in a lab. Kuwei explains that his father is dead and the Fjerdans are forcing him to try to replicate his father’s formula. Nina considers killing the boy, but Matthias stops her because he is too young. Kuwei reveals that jurda parem was developed by mistake. His father was attempting to make a substance that would hide Kuwei’s Grisha powers. Kuwei uses his Inferni powers to destroy the lab. The three of them flee, pursued by Lars, an old friend of Matthias, and other drüskelle. The drüskelle capture Nina, Matthias, and Kuwei using a tool Matthias once helped to create. Suddenly an explosion occurs at the sacred ash tree. A hooded drüskelle attacks Lars and reveals himself to be Kaz. Kaz gives everyone a piece of baleen, a substance that helps people breathe underwater. They all hold their breath and jump into the spring flowing beneath the sacred ash tree.
38. Kaz struggles to hold his breath as he is pulled through the cold, dark waters flowing underneath the ice moat. Kaz reflects on his hunch that there was a river beneath the sacred ash. When Matthias had told him that the Fjerdans could hear the voice their god speaking by the ash tree, Kaz had figured there was a more logical explanation. As Kaz begins to run out of air, memories of his life flash before his eyes. He remembers the night he almost drowned with Jordie’s body and the first time he met Inej. He thinks about how much he loves her laugh and how he has so much he needs to tell her. He fights to stay alive for Inej, but he can’t hold his breath any longer. Water rushes into his lungs.
39. Things look bleak for Inej, who is being hauled back to the prison for interrogation by two guards. Although she is handcuffed, she decides she can overpower the guards, even without her knives. In one swift move, she trips up one guard and breaks his nose. The other guard threatens to shoot her, but he suddenly falls down dead. Jesper and Wylan, disguised as Fjerdan guards, have stabbed him in the back with a pair of shears. Inej reveals that she stole Tante Heleen’s prized diamond during their previous scuffle. Inej wishes she could see the look on Heleen’s face when she realizes that it’s missing. Jesper uses the diamond and the winch from the gate to fabricate a drill. As more guards try to ram their way through the door, Wylan and Jesper drill a hole through the bulletproof glass on one side of the cell. Just as the guards gain entry, Inej jumps through the hole. She swings on a lamp as a bullet whizzes by her. She uses her acrobatic skills to launch herself onto a tank. She then gets in the tank and shoots through the glass, thinking to herself that the shattered glass is prettier than diamonds. Wylan and Jesper join Inej in the tank, and they drive the tank right out of the Ice Court. Much to their amusement, they notice a banner dragging in the mud behind them. The banner reads “Fjerdan Might.”
40. Nina, Matthias, and Kuwei emerge from a frigid river. They pull out Kaz, who is unconscious. Matthias starts CPR and then Nina takes over, using her Grisha powers to restart his heart. Kaz revives and recoils from Nina’s touch. Matthias berates Kaz for blowing up the sacred ash tree, but Kaz responds defiantly. The tank approaches, and the group rejoices to be reunited with the rest of the gang. Their celebration is cut short when they realize they are being pursued by an army of tanks. Jesper blows up the bridge behind them so the other tanks can’t follow them. They all ride the tank into town. They can smell the sea as their escape ship comes into view. Then they see an entire army positioned between them and the ship. The army is led by Jarl Brum, and he has with him several Grisha on jurda parem, ready to attack. Brum demands that they release Kuwei. Kaz tells the group he is out of tricks. Vastly outnumbered, they resolve to go down fighting. Nina realizes the only way out is for her to take jurda parem. Kuwei produces a small pouch from his pocket. Matthias tries to stop her, having witnessed the terrible effects of the drug, but Nina swallows the dose. Immediately, she feels the power of the drug take hold.
41. Her powers heightened, Nina immediately kills the army’s Heartrender and then commands the soldiers to sleep. The crew walks over and through the sleeping soldiers toward their ship until they encounter a troop of drüskelle wearing special Grisha-proof armor. Jarl Brum is among them. At Brum’s command, the drüskelle open fire, and Matthias is shot in the chest. Nina removes the bullet and heals him instantly. Next, they shoot Nina, but she quickly heals herself. Brum taunts Nina, saying that she can’t touch them because of their armor. So instead, she instructs the sleeping soldiers to attack the drüskelle and remove their armor. Once their armor is off, she tortures the helpless drüskelle with her powers. Matthias recognizes his former friends among the drüskelle and begs Nina to show them mercy, and she spares their lives. The crew boards the ship and sails away.
42. On the voyage back to Ketterdam, the crew discusses what will happen to Nina now that she has taken the jurda parem. Nina, still empowered by the drug, tells Inej that she can hear the way Kaz’s heartbeat changes when Inej is near him. Without asking, Nina removes the scars left behind by Inej’s Menagerie tattoo. Inej tells Kaz about her plan to buy her own ship and hunt slavers. Kaz asks her to stay in Ketterdam instead because he wants her. She asks him how he wants her, given he can’t touch her or look at her. She says she’ll have him without armor or she won’t have him at all. Silently, she begs him to say something to make her stay. When he doesn’t say anything, she walks away.
43. Nina begins to suffer severe withdrawal. Matthias sits by her bedside. Nina asks Matthias to stay with her until the end. He says he’ll stay with her always and he begs her not to leave him.
44. Jesper misses Wylan, whom he hasn’t seen since they set sail from Fjerda. He’s been told that Wylan is below deck taking care of Nina. When the ship arrives in Ketterdam, Kaz sends word to Van Eck and arranges for a rendezvous. The crew rows a longboat out to a small island to meet Van Eck. When they reach the island, Van Eck gives Kaz the money in exchange for Kuwei, but then Van Eck’s men draw their weapons. Van Eck says he won’t let Kaz leave the island alive. Suddenly, he summons a group of Grisha Tidemakers and Squallers who are high on jurda parem.
45. Van Eck reveals his evil plan. The Merchant Council was never aware of the heist. Van Eck had hired Kaz and Pekka Rollins to abduct Bo Yul-Bayur because he wanted to manufacture jurda parem himself and take over the world. Van Eck threatens to destroy Kaz’s ship. Kaz tells him he shouldn’t do that because his son is on board. Van Eck reveals that he doesn’t care about Wylan because he’s an idiot who can’t read or write. Besides, he has another son on the way who will be his true heir. Van Eck’s Grisha destroy the ship. Jesper howls, thinking Nina and Wylan were on the ship, but Matthias and Kaz remain calm. They reveal that Van Eck doesn’t have the real Kuwei, but Wylan. Before Nina went into withdrawal, Kaz had her tailor Wylan to look like Kuwei. Furious, Van Eck threatens to have his Grisha kill everyone. Kaz makes the mistake of glancing at Inej. Van Eck then orders the Grisha to take the money and Inej only. Jesper shoots one Squaller but the others fly off with Inej. Van Eck escapes with the money and with Inej, giving Kaz one week to produce the real Kuwei. Wylan and Jesper see that Kaz is scheming. He vows to get back his money and Inej.
46. Kaz visits Pekka Rollins at his office in the Emerald and asks for a favor. Rollins remembers that Kaz had inexplicably freed him from his cell at the Ice Court, saying he wasn’t meant to die there and assuring him that he would pay for the favor someday. Rollins figures Kaz has come to collect. Rollins balks when Kaz asks for money until Kaz agrees to sell him his share of The Crow Club and Fifth Harbor. Pekka accepts the deal, giving Kaz a large sum from his safe. But he warns Kaz against confronting Van Eck, predicting that the merchant will use his political power to crush Kaz. After Kaz leaves, Pekka discovers that Kaz pickpocketed him. He wonders if Kaz can manage to take down Van Eck.