CHAPTER FOURTY-NINE
vol ii — home turf

WYLAN HAD SIMPLY ducked into the room with his head down, not wanting to make eye contact with anyone and nestled next to Dinara. She looked down at the boy, her eyebrow raised, wondering as to why he was suddenly cuddling up to her. "What's wrong?" she asked, leaning down to place her lips next to his ear, not wanting anyone to hear.

"Jesper kissed Kuwei. And he seemed to enjoy it," Wylan said, looking up with teary eyes, trying his hardest to bat them away. Dinara simply pressed a kiss to his forehead, and turned her head to narrow her eyes as Jesper, knowing he was a deadman when she got him alone.

Kaz seemed to be the only one who noticed her drilling a hole into Jesper's head, raising an eyebrow as he noticed her protective stature around Wylan. He only rolled his eyes and rubbed his leg, hoping to numb the pain that was shooting up his leg. His attention was turned towards Nina as she was questioning his words. "All right, when you say an auction, you don't actually mean —"

"Kuwei is going to sell himself."
"Are you mad?"

"I'd probably be happier," Kaz said, Dinara letting out a little snort, knowing damn well he was on his way to being mad. "Any Kerch citizen and any free citizen that travels to Kerch has the right to sell his own indenture. It isn't just the law, it's trade, and there's nothing more holy is Kerch. Kuwei has the sacred right — as sanctioned by Ghezen, god of industry and commerce — to submit his life to the will of the market."

"You want him to submit himself to the highest bidder?"
"No. To our highest bidder. We're going to fix the outcome."
"My father will never allow it."

A small disagreement broke out, wondering how the hell Van Eck was going to let this all slip away from his fingers. Kaz assuring everyone he can deal with the Shu and the bidders, knowing in his own mind that his plan was the only one that was going to work compared to whatever else someone could think of ( which was nothing ). "Inej, don't you think you should tell them a bit more about your new friend?" Nina said, which was much more of a statement leaving her lips than anything else.

"There's a new player on the field, a mercenary hired by Pekka Rollins."
"Mercenary is a little bit of an understatement. She followed Inej onto the high wire and then threw knives at her."
"Not knives, exactly."
"Pointy death doilies?"

Inej threw down the silver suns that had been thrown at her, Kaz and Dinara reaching down to pick them up. Dinara looked at them with intrigue, noting how light and how pointy they were. She closed her eyes and threw it at the empty wall across from her, a dead center hit to Jesper's favorite hat that was hanging up. "Oh. Inej nothing against you, but Saints, I need to get one of these myself. They are absolutely wonderful."

"I'm glad you think that, Di," Kaz said, keeping a mental note in his mind for later. "Who is she?" he asked, this time directing his comment towards Inej.

"Her name is Dunyasha. She called herself the White Blade and a variety of other things. She's very good," Inej said, her hands starting to toy with the bottom of her sleeves, not enjoying the fact that she was reliving what happened to her.

"How good?"
"Better than me."
"Put me in a room with her."

"I've heard of her. Her name came up in an intelligence report the drüskelle gathered on Ravka," Matthias informed, dismissing Inej's concern about the issue. "She claims she had Lantsov blood and that she's a contender for the Ravkan throne." Nina let out a hoot of laughter that caused the boy next to her to simply raise an eyebrow. "We considered backing her claim to undermine Nikolai Lantsov's regime. He's a new king, vulnerable. There are some questions regarding his own lineage. But the report suggested that Dunyashd is erratic, possibly delusional. We determined she was too unpredictable for such a venture."

"Might be the smartest thing you've done, wolf boy," Dinara said, her mind racing with what just came out of Matthias' mouth. "Never back an absolute deranged maniac. That's what my mother always said. Granted, she was a deranged psychopath."

"How sweet, Di. Mummy gone mad?"
"Yep. Why do you think I'm so good at what I do? Mother dearest taught me how to dodge and throw."
"How fun. Truly. Mother daughter bonding."
"Focus."
"Me and Dinara can get to the embassy and back without being seen. See if the hotel is compromised."

Kaz took a moment to answer, scanning Dinara's face, wishing he could keep her next to him the entire time, but knowing that he couldn't. "Good."

"There's another problem. Matthias, cover your ears."
"No."
"There's a very large bathtub off the master bedroom."
"Nina."
"It was just an observation. Ravka can't win the auction. We're broke."
"Oh. I knew that."
"You did not."
"You think Fjerda isn't well aware the Ravkan coffers are empty."
"You could have at least pretended to be surprised."

Kaz had gone into detail about how the Kerch Merchant Council was going to back them and how they were going to effectively come out of this whole situation without being touched. Dinara knew that Kaz's plans seemed to go off without a hitch in some aspects, but there always seemed to be the small problem of there being an unexpected element being thrown in. The fact that jurda was going to be the prime aspect of the entire situation. Something that was there that was their safeguard, the thing getting them out of this whole endeavor.