No. 30: Borrowed Clothing

Now that Nikolai had been crowned king, he had a lot of work ahead of him rallying the country. And so he and Alina set off on a tour to do just that. Rumors of the Sun Summoner's powers turning to Shadow were no doubt already circulating widely, and Nikolai hoped seeing Alina for who she really was would reassure the people.

Of course, such a journey was not without risk, as his new general repeatedly reminded him. Having a foreign agent infiltrate the coronation was proof of how vulnerable Ravka was. Which was why Nikolai could not let them be daunted. Besides, with the Sun Summoner and Stormwitch beside him, there was no better protection.

Unfortunately, the new threat of jurda parem put even their powers to the test.

The attack came out of nowhere, as ambushes do. Somehow the scouts had failed to detect the enemies lying in wait, and the first blow took out the carriage's back wheel, which sent the whole thing lurching to the side. Nikolai and Alina fell against each other as the sounds of fighting erupted outside.

Alina barreled from the carriage first, intent on fighting. Nikolai followed, drawing his pistol. The scene was chaos, with Grisha attacks coming from somewhere behind cover, and the First Army escort was trying to gain ground on them. A fireball struck the carriage, setting it aflame. Nikolai scrambled away from it. Zoya summoned her own power to fight back, and Alina began to weave shadow between her palms. Nikolai scanned the foliage for their targets.

Before he could spot anyone, however, a wave of water came out of nowhere and crashed into him. It swept him up and away with the power of a vicious sea storm, carrying him over a knoll and into a small lake. The moment it plunged him into the water, he felt the temperature instantly plummet as well. Ice crystals formed around him, branching off through the water. Nikolai kicked his way to the surface, only to bump into a very solid sheet of ice.

He jerked back and frantically looked around. The Grisha had frozen the lake over, no doubt fueled by the amplification of parem. Nikolai pounded his fists against the ice, trying to break through. Sharp tingles burst across his skin from the freezing temperature, and what precious air was in his lungs escaped in a flurry of bubbles. He tried to hold his breath, tried to keep his head as he used the butt of his pistol to strike the ice. But it held firm. He knew everyone else was engaged in battle, didn't know if anyone had seen him get swept away. No doubt that had been the plan to assassinate him.

His lungs burned and seized as they couldn't hold on any longer, and a surge of water rushed into his mouth when he convulsively gasped. The arctic water burned his throat and lungs, and he felt his struggles petering out.

There was a cracking sound, then a swish, and fragments of ice that went floating away. Nikolai could only watch in a detached way as arms flailed in the water nearby. One finally caught him, and then they were frantically grasping at him and hauling him up out of the water. He couldn't even suck in a lungful of air when he breached the surface, his body too numb to make any movements at this point. He wasn't even shivering, he vaguely noted.

"Nikolai!" Alina yelled, looming over him.

He tried to meet her gaze, tried to soothe her obvious distress. The fact that he couldn't move or speak didn't seem to register that the distress was warranted.

Arms slid under his and he was dragged off the frozen lake and onto solid ground, not that it was much warmer.

"He's blue," Alina said in alarm. "I don't think he's breathing!"

"Roll him over," another voice ordered. It sounded terse, like Zoya.

Then Nikolai was pushed onto his side and someone began pounding his back until his lungs began to expel the lake water. It burned coming up just as much as when it went down, and Nikolai's vision was dim by the time it finished.

"Get him out of those clothes," Zoya ordered. "Grab some dry ones from his trunk."

Footsteps hurried away, but Nikolai barely noticed. He barely even followed the hands urgently undoing the buttons of his coat and wrenching it off of him. When fingers fumbled at the buttons of his trousers, he thought he should make a quip or at least have the dignity to do it himself, but all those thoughts quickly fled, along with any motivation or agency.

"The trunks got caught in the flames," a third voice exclaimed upon return.

Zoya cursed. "Take off your keftas. We need to get him warm."

Zoya, Alina, and—Adrik, Nikolai now realized—shrugged out of their long Grisha coats.

"Someone get a fire going!" Zoya shouted next. "And send for help."

Hands were manipulating his limbs again, pulling off the last soaked layers between his skin and the open air. The shock of the exposure was surprising and finally elicited a violent shudder. But then he was quickly bundled in three layers of keftas, covering his bare goose flesh. He shivered again at the sensation of warmth the fabric already held from their previous wearers.

A few minutes later, he was moved further up the embankment to where a fire had been set. Guards had been posted all around the campsite, rifles held vigilantly.

"What- happened?" Nikolai stuttered. "T-to…" He couldn't get his teeth to stop chattering long enough to form more words.

"The attackers have been neutralized," Zoya said with an oddly neutral tone and a glance Alina's way. "Including the Tidemaker who tried to drown you. They appeared to be on parem."

Nikolai nodded, or thought he did. He was feeling sluggish and drowsy.

"Can you warm him with your sun summoning?" Adrik asked urgently.

Alina grimaced. "I haven't been able to summon sun since…"

"We don't have a Healer or Heartrender," he pressed.

Alina drew her shoulders back in determination and raised her hands. Nikolai felt a trickle of dread, wondering if she would end up unleashing shadows on him. The first wisps of magic were, indeed, darkness, but then there was a flicker of light, and another. Gradually, the shadows faded and light blazed forth. Alina moved the swirling lights toward Nikolai, letting them settle against him like another blanket. He closed his eyes as warmth finally seeped into his skin and lulled him into sleep.

He next became aware of rough jostling beneath him and the crunch of dirt under wheels. Squinting, he peered around the unfamiliar carriage and discovered he was lying cramped on the seat with his head in Alina's lap.

"Hey," she said, looking down at him worriedly. "Are you back?"

"From where?" he asked roughly.

"The brink of freezing to death," Zoya's voice replied, and he looked across the small space to where she was sitting.

He blinked in confusion at the simple blouse she was wearing, which for her might as well have been a state of complete undress. Then he remembered what had happened, and he craned his neck to look at the keftas he was still wrapped in.

"Ah yes, that. I feel better. Alive, at least."

"Good," Alina said. Her hand was resting on the crown of his head, and Nikolai just lay there for a few moments, enjoying the tender touch.

But at last he decided to sit up, though his limbs were much stiffer than he anticipated, and Alina ended up scooting close into his shoulder so he could lean against her.

"Where are we headed?" he asked.

"Against my preference, to your next planned destination," Zoya answered. "It was closer."

"Word was sent ahead," Alina put in. "So they know to prepare a room and some clothing for you immediately."

"Mm. I wonder how scandalous it would be for me to be seen wearing Grisha garb," Nikolai mused.

"Very," Zoya deadpanned.

Alina rolled her eyes.

"Then I shall give them back," Nikolai started.

Alina grabbed his hands to pull them back down to his lap. "You have nothing to change into."

"Even more scandalous," he said with a quirked grin.

This time Zoya rolled her eyes.

Alina shook her head in exasperation, but there was a hint of fondness there as well as she pressed the back of her hand to his cheek. "You're still cold. You'll keep these on until we can get you in a properly warmed bed and seen by a Healer."

"Very well," he conceded. In truth, he was feeling drowsy again, no doubt from his near-drowning, near-freezing ordeal.

So when his head drooped to the side to bump against Alina's, she didn't move, but sat there as his pillow as the borrowed carriage rolled on.