CHAPTER NINE
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THE FIRST TIME SHE HAD crossed the Fold, Kira nearly died—which wasn't particularly unusual for someone who was mad enough to attempt the crossing.

It was nearly certain death. And over the years Kira realized perhaps that's why she was on that skiff.

Grisha came to the palace, a few days early, a private meeting had been arranged, away from prying ears and eyes. The princess was to be tested.

What Kira hadn't realized back then was simple. They weren't testing if she was Grisha, they were testing if she was a Lantsov. Pure. Not stained by the little freak shows of Small Science. No Grisha could be on the throne. Or in line for it.

So, when nine-year-old Kira had let out a yelp as they nicked her arm, she had made the silver chain around the tester's neck tighten; nearly in a chokehold. Her eyes had widened in horror and she had focused on taking deep breaths. The tester was fine, not even a bruise.

The King and Queen, though, were looking at their daughter like she had grown a second head. Kira had to stand there under their scrutiny and watch as her mother began to weep. Not of joy. Not of pride. But of terror.

They weren't afraid of her. Not entirely. They were afraid of what it would mean for Kira to be what she was. Especially with the heavy rumors going around of illegitimate children in the Lantsov house. Kira was born after Nikolai, and if he was rumored not to be a true Lantsov, that meant that the same option went for her. Not that Nikolai ever let anyone say anything to her. Always shielding Kira away from the ruthless court of Os Alta.

Nikolai wasn't there for the testing, though. Kira had to shield herself from the looks on her parents' faces and no less than a week after she was on a skiff across the Fold.

A peace offering to West Ravka; trusting them with a Lantsov heir. That was their excuse. A political move to bring the divided country together. A bunch of bullshit was what it was.

If Kira hadn't died in the Fold she would surely be assassinated on the other side, by people who wanted the Lantsovs off the throne of Ravka. All because she would've been left alone.

But Faina Kira did die in the Fold. She fought her way off Ravka and only stopped in Ketterdam. Where Kira, just Kira, the Whisperer of the Barrel was born. From ashes of her past and the blood of the present.

And now she was dumbly staring at the darkness ahead, rumbles of the Fold giving her goosebumps. She had run away from the Fold only to come back reluctantly but willingly. Stupidly too.

She felt metal press against her back, tugging her forward, and glanced back to see Kaz, not looking at her but putting his cane back on the ground as the Conductor urged them forward.

"We're almost there."

"Where the hell is Jesper?" Kaz muttered as they followed Arken and his lit torch through the insipid darkness.

Kira didn't bother to answer. Kaz was giving her the cold shoulder and she was going to return the favor. Royal pettiness was a forte of hers.

"Just a little further," Arken said and Kira rose an eyebrow as she saw a sign warding off people for danger of—

"Landmines," Inej said as she stopped. The goat bleated.

"We'll wait. Follow the path that you carve," said Kaz as Arken ignored the sign and went forward.

The Conductor stopped looked at the sign and turned to them. "That sign, that was my idea to keep people away. Can't be too careful. We're fine. Come."

He hadn't said there were no landmines. So, Kira lunged forward, trailing close behind the Conductor and praying she wouldn't die from a landmine. Actually, now that she thought about it, it would probably be quicker than the volcra. Less painful perhaps. And now she was looking around the floor to see if she could hopefully sense one and throw herself at it. End her misery. She nearly laughed at her own thoughts.

"It's one thing hearing about it, but this is..." Kira was brought back to reality as Inej commented on the Fold.

"Nothing compared to what lies within," said Arken, and Kira nodded.

"It's worse than Kaz," Kira muttered and yelped when he nearly tripped her with his cane. She glared back at him. Kaz narrowed his eyes at her.

Thunder tumbled from within the Fold, but no lightning had made an appearance. Kira watched as the Conductor brought them over to a set of tracks where a metal-boxed vehicle was.

"So, goat, jurda... Thank you," Arken said as Inej passed him the jurda, "Now we're just waiting on..."

"Wait for me!"

Gunshots followed Jesper's voice and Kira cracked a grin, hardly appropriate for the situation they found themselves in, but well... She was crazy enough to come back to the fold, why couldn't she be crazy enough to grin at the face of a nearly certain death?

"They can't see the train." The Conductor extinguished the torch as Kaz barked for Jesper to hurry and Inej urged him to leave his own lantern behind.

"Landmines!" Kira heard Jesper yelp as she walked into the metal box, and a laugh escaped her lips. "Oh, wait for me!"

More gunshots.

"Don't you go without me! Wait!" He slipped into the vehicle and the door closed behind him and by now Kira was giggling, leaning against Inej like a mad person.

"Go on, after him!" they heard from outside, as Arken said, "Please tell me you have 20 pounds of alabaster coal."

"Slight snag in the plan," Jesper said with a wince and Kira had to fight down another burst of laughter. Inej looked at her with narrowed eyes.

"Turns out that the kid who was helping me buy the coal didn't exactly know how to, uh, buy coal."

"We know you gambled it away," Kaz cut him off, glaring daggers at Kira who couldn't, for the love of Saints, wipe the mad grin off her face.

"I lost a little bit of the money." Jesper paused. "I lost all of the money. Uh, but I managed to steal 20 pounds of alabaster coal." He passed the bag to the Conductor.

"No, no, there's 16 pounds."

"Sixteen pounds of alabaster coal," Jesper said promptly and turned to look at Kira and Inej. Inej didn't react but Kira sent him a thumbs-up.

She had succumbed to the madness that the plan was and if she was going down she would do it in utter chaotic madness to match.

"Can we do it on 16?" asked Kaz.

"Never been done before."

There were still gunshots outside, men shouting. The Conductor urged them to sit down, never to shift their weight and that left Kira seating next to Inej and in front of Kaz. Their gazes met as Inej talked to the Conductor and Kira was fighting really hard to smother her positively insane grin, fighting hard to push down a burst of a crazed laugh.

Just then an explosion was heard and Kira bit her cheek as Kaz's head reeled back to the Conductor. He was glaring (like usual). "I thought you said the landmines weren't real."

"I said nothing of the sort," said Arken, "I just said I put up the sign myself."

A discombobulated laugh escaped Kira's lips. "We're all going to die," she breathed out.

•••

The train engine was chugging as they went, and metal was clanging, Kira had calmed down her laughter and had closed her eyes, trying to think of happy times when she wasn't on the brink of death. Two memories popped into her mind and she began to hum lowly, quietly so she wouldn't appear even more delirious.

She was dancing in an empty ballroom, her little feet perched on top of Nikolai's own feet as he swirled them around. She was smiling widely and yelped when he dipped her down to the floor before using his strength—though it wasn't much seeing as he was only a few years older—and throwing her over his shoulder.

"Niko! I want to dance more!" Kira had screamed throwing punches at his back and Nikolai yelped and put her down.

"You're a strong creature, sister," Nikolai said as he reached his back with a scowl and Kira grinned at him. "Perhaps it's time you dance on your own, I hardly have the strength anymore," he added and Kira scowled.

But then a little grin formed on her face, "You're right, brother. Vasya is much stronger than you, I'll go call him. He is my favorite after all."

Nikolai scowled at her. "You go do that, Faina, and I'll go to the kitchens and get myself some cake." He turned his back on her and walked out of the room. He wasn't even halfway down the corridor when Kira threw herself at his back. Nikolai huffed but looked at her with a teasing smile. "Am I your favorite brother again?"

"That depends, can I have cake too?"

"I think Vasya must be eating some in the drawing room—"

"Fine! You're my favorite, Niko, now on you go! To the kitchens!"

"Am I your horse?"

"No, you're my transport, Nikolai Lantsov, now go!"

The second memory wasn't as cheery but she also wasn't a kid anymore. It was the day she had lost a bet to Jesper and had to spend its entirety trying to get Kaz Brekker flustered as she flirted with him.

"Kaz, darling, what would you say if I told you I loved the way your eyes are pitch black when you hurt people?" she purred in an overly flirty tone and batted her eyelashes. Jesper rolled his eyes because she was obviously overdoing it.

"I'd tell you that would probably be the last thing you'd see before I killed you," Kaz grumbled and Kira let out an exaggerated giggle.

"Kaz, your flirting skills sure leave space for improvement," she said, "but it's alright, I'll teach you."

"Jesper," Kaz snapped, "Can you shut her up?"

A smirk grew on Jesper's face and Kira exchanged a look with him.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to make me shut up, Kaz," Kira purred. "I know you want to."

"I hate everyone," Kaz muttered.

"Except me right?" Kira asked as he started leaving only to turn back and say over his shoulder, "Especially you!"

Jesper and her had burst out laughing, and Kira had hopped off the stool of the bar where she sat and made a beeline to Kaz as she continued to pester him. And now, as she sat in the train across the Fold, Kira let out a giggle and opened her eyes, her gaze immediately falling on Kaz.

The sound of metal clanging made them all look up. "What was that?" asked Jesper.

"I've erected a system of timers along the line. Bits of metal hung on poles to keep me apprised of our pace," the Conductor said raising his eyes from his watch.

"How did you know where to put the poles?" Kaz asked.

"Physics and engineering account for... most of my success."

"And the rest?" asked Inej.

"What we might call divine intervention. What others might call luck. And after all, the Fold is thick with volcra, and the tracks are not complete," he said, "Coal, please."

"I'm sorry. Did you say the tracks weren't complete?" Jesper asked incredulously.

"I said they aren't complete," Arken replied and Kira gaped.

"You little shit!" she said and made a move to stand up.

"Ah, ah, ah," Arken said, "No moving, your highness."

Kira bristled and while she couldn't move she did a good job of glaring at the Conductor as he went on, "We're a tad late. More coal."

"Back to the real issue," Jesper said, sounding incredibly tense, "We're on tracks that don't connect to other tracks?"

"There's a gap but—"

"You said you could get us through," Kaz interrupted.

"How much of a gap?!" Jesper asked.

"I built slats on the car. They roll into place under the wheels. The turbine generates enough wind to push us all the way to the eastern track... As long as we don't shift our weight."

There was another sound of metal clanging.

"Now, the noise may attract volcra, but it's the only way across," the Conductor said, "Now, there's a nest nearby. But we'll be fine. If they haven't attacked us in..."

Growling cut off his little speech, and Kira stiffened at the familiar sound of volcra.

"Well, now we've got a problem," Arken said.

"I'm going to strangle him," Kira muttered

"How do you fight them off?" Kaz urged.

"I outrun them. Open the throttle and toss in all the coal, which works when there's 20 pounds of it."

Kira's breathing grew heavier as the snarling of volcra continued and she nearly hurled at the sight of blood dripping from the ceiling next to Inej.

"Damn it! The stupid thing impaled itself on a spike."

"We need to get it off. The others will stand on it," said Kaz urgently.

"More coal!"

"We're down to fumes! We won't make it with this extra weight," said Kaz.

"Give me a second," the Conductor replied.

"This is how we die?!" Jesper wailed.

"Jesper, grab the goat."

"I'm not throwing out the goat!"

"Grab the damn goat! It's not bait. It's for you!" Arken barked. "I need you to calm down. Hug the goat. Shut the hell up."

Another sound of metal clanging echoed through the train. Kira's heart was beating faster now and she didn't know whether to scream, cry or laugh.

"We should have hit that 20 seconds ago," the Conductor muttered.

Kaz's eyebrow raised. "20 seconds is?"

"My timings are precise to get us outside. Even 20 seconds behind means the train stops inside the Fold and... that means we die."

No. Kira wasn't about to die in the Fold. Not again.

She closed her eyes, and let everyone else blur in her mind, letting the voices and panic fade away as she pressed her hands on the metal bench, breathing in deeply as she urged the carriage train to go forward. It was too much, but Kira pressed on, she had never handled so much matter at once, and making it move was harder when the stakes were higher and her heart threatened to leave its place.

She ground her teeth together as she felt the tug inside her stomach and used all her willpower to urge it forward, quickly on the tracks.

The sound of a gunshot took her out of her trance and her eyes fluttered open as she saw Jesper in the middle of the train, goat tucked beneath his arm as he swiveled around, not missing one shot.

"Are they all dead?" asked Inej as silence fell upon them.

Just then the ceiling cracked and a volcra tried to get in, and Kira saw Jesper close his eyes and fired his pistol, the shot clearing the volcra straight off. Then there were sun rays.

Sunlight filled the carriage through the cracks, beaming at them, Kira's face cracked into a huge smile, an incredulous laugh leaving her lips before she threw herself at Jesper in a hug. He laughed with her as they pulled away and Kira turned to Kaz.

Kaz was grinning like an idiot. And as their eyes met, his grin fell into a handsome smile.

But then the goat bleated and broke the silence between them and Kaz's face fell into his usual scowl, and his jaw clenched as he looked away from her.

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