"This one was well timed, at least."

"And you want me to help you with the Fjerda job?"

"Ideally."

"There's a new drug, jurda parem. Only effective on grisha. It amplifies your abilities, lets a tidebinder walk through walls, a healer take control of a group's minds... And it's cripplingly addictive and seems like it drives the users insane. Only one person knows how to make it. He fled Shu for Kerch, but Fjerda intercepted his ship. He's in the Ice Court. The job is to get him out."

"...Fuck."

She's no traitor. But there's a difference between the government and the country - and a difference between the Ice Court and the crown princess. 

And the grisha are her people too.

"What's Kaz's plan once he's out?"

"We're working on that. Merchers have promised thirty million to get him here, but she doesn't think they'll actually pay."

"That doesn't sound like a weapon anyone should have."

"This is me not disagreeing with you on that. But no one in Ketterdam does anything for free."

"What will Kaz do if I stop this inventor's heart? Or snap his little neck?"

"Strand us in Fjerda, probably."

"I've worked with worse."

"We wouldn't be starting off half-drowned, at least."

That gets the faintest ghost of a smile out of her. "And I'll already know that I trust you."

"But... they're already thinking about alternate payouts. The Little Palace would bid for an assassination, if they knew."

"...I don't want to hand the inventor over to Ravka. But - letting Ravka pay us to kill him sounds fine."

"That's what I'd prefer, too."

"Then we'll push for that." She slumps, clearly exhausted. 

"It's halfway to a plan, at least."

"More than we had before."

She can't snuggle Nina while one of them rows, unfortunately, and she's still trying to keep the wolves calm. They're not much for creaky rowboats on dark waters. 

(She wants to sleep. She wants to run free through the woods of Fjerda again. She wants - )

"They'll think I'm dead already," she says suddenly, voice small. "They'll have turned Trassel out."

It's tradition, when a druskelle dies, for his wolf to be turned out alone on the northern ice. Her family might have tried to delay it, but... She and Nina were alone after the shipwreck for a long time, on the unpleasant journey back to civilization, and it's been a longer year since. 

"I'm sorry."

She buries her hands in the ragged fur of two of the wolves, and contemplates burying her face in the side of the third. Maybe when they're on a ship with more room. 

"I - She has to have survived. I would've known, if she'd died." (But would she? She doesn't entirely understand what she is - the cursed powers of drüsje, witches, aren't supposed to work on animals, but she's always found them easier than humans - her powers first beat in her chest for an injured dog she'd found as a child. And she's always felt more like one of the wolves, a howl in her chest that she can't let out, than one of the men. Those cursed powers aren't supposed to include bonds across distance and time, which is the stuff of children's fairytales and teenaged girls' gossip.)

"She would have, if she's tough like you."

She laughs. It's a brittle, sad sound. "Tougher, even."

"I need to find her. Find out what happened."

"A share of thirty million kruger isn't much for my plans. Kaz can pay me for my service by getting me my Trassel back."

"I can hear her complaining already."

That gets another, less fleeting smile out of her. 

"It's good to have you back, Nina."

She smiles back.

"I'm glad you didn't give up on me, Feilan."

Wolf-cub. A name just for her and Nina - that feels more like it belongs to her than any of her other names, from the one she was born with to the one she served under to the one she uses now. 

Her smile widens. "I - needed someone to trust."