Chapter Six

Just Like You Told Me, Go Forth Slowly

"Isn't it odd," began Jesper, "that all the men on that job last night were frequent visitors of Tante Heleen's?"

"Not remotely," Kaz spoke bluntly.

"Okay then, isn't it odd that a job you planned went so horribly wrong that every single one of those men didn't make it back?"

"To err is to human Jesper."

"Whoever called you human, Kaz?"

He had to concede the point with a nod but gave Jesper nothing as he threw back his shot and moved away from the bar, he had only come down to discuss the fifth harbour and its progress. Another large job that Haskell had been reluctant to grant him, but one that was going to pay off tremendously, especially for Jesper thought Kaz had acted on what Inej had revealed, had tracked down the names of every man in the Slat who had been a patron of the Menagerie during her time there, planned a job that could only go wrong and purposely sabotaged it. Well, if he thought that he was too smart to do more than heavily imply it to Kaz. If Inej walked through the ground floor without fear, that was nothing to do with him, and if for the first time in four days there wasn't a bleeding bar fight… then all the better for it.

Kaz left the bar and made his way to the Harbour thoughts of Jordie were pushed down and away as he surveyed the bustle of the merchants moving through. Brick by Brick he thought bitterly, it was growing to be the most used Harbour in Ketterdam, and it was his. His greatest investment since he had pulled himself from the same Harbour years ago.

A hand brushed his coat as a stray pigeon pushed against him, his gloves grabbed its hand and twisted, and the fool screamed out as the bone snapped.

"Do you have a death wish or are you just stupid?" He looked down at the young boy who was staring at him with recognition in his eyes.

"Dirtyhands, I didn't realise! P-please." Kaz looked at him impassively and for a moment saw Kaz Reitveld staring back up at him.

He broke his other hand with the butt of his cane. Left him on the street cradling his broken wrists. Maybe the boy truly hadn't realised, Jesper had told Kaz he looked like an old man from behind. In fact, Jesper had repeated this many times to him. But if there was a lesson to be learned Kaz would teach it through pain. He didn't need a reason to break bones, but it felt nice to have one this time. His jaw felt tight as he walked away, the boy had pushed against him and under his clothes, his skin felt as if it was crawling. The touch hadn't seeped through the clothes, no skin, he repeated like a mantra.

His face was full of shadows and the Dregs moved out of his way quicker than usual, sensing that to approach Kaz as he entered the Slat would be a dire mistake.

He moved up the stairs as quickly as possible, his leg aching with each step, reminding him he was alive and breathing and alone. He pushed into his room and locked the door before collapsing at his own desk. His breaths came out in sharper bursts, and he clenched and unclenched his fists tracing the head of his cane, first the beak than the eyes and finally the coils that wrapped around the cane. His breathing slowed with each trace, power, and control in his hands.

His eyes opened, the shift in the room telling him she was by his window, and he had forgotten his own plans for their training. Inej needed to master safe cracking.

Not today Inej, Kaz pictured himself saying, not tonight. You see I just visited the last place I saw my brother's floating body and saw a kid who looked so much like the ghost of me it made me feel like I was back in that bleeding harbour. And then I broke his hands for the inconvenience. So not tonight, tonight I need a break.

"Come in." He said instead. He stood up and moved towards the safe on his desk, not his of course, a merchant's, he had stolen purely for this task. Restraining himself from opening it himself had been difficult but it would be more satisfying for Inej to do it.

"Are you okay, Kaz?"

He pinned her with a look, "Cracking safes is harder than a lock, you need to listen for its signs, here the clicks and feel the weaknesses."

He found working with Inej to be more calming than he expected. She listened to what he said and after the first idiotic question she did not bring up his wellbeing again. When the safe finally swung open Kaz allowed her to reach in and grab the kruge's inside. She handed them to him and he split them with her.

"I hardly did anything that you couldn't have done yourself." She protested, always aiming to be contradictory.

"You cracked it, you got a cut."

They moved away from each other, and it caught him that it hadn't been entirely murderous to be near her through the safety of his layers.

She moved to her spot on the window, and he moved to his desk.

"Anika says there's no more for her to teach you. She thinks you can take it from here."

"And what do you think, Kaz?"

He thought she became more deadly by the day, he thought he saw the way the Dregs had begun to move from her path.

"I think you're ready for a job spider," he said, "There's a business meeting taking place at De Vries mansion in the financial district. It would be extremely beneficial for me to know what is said at this meeting. I want you to go and listen, and report back."

Inej nodded and Kaz pushed a map of Ketterdam over, De Vries mansion was marked on it clearly. Inej had moved across and taken it.

"I'll be by myself?"

"Anything else would jeopardise the job, the meeting is tomorrow night, come to me when you get back."

She didn't stay long that night, maybe sensing he needed to be alone. Kaz wondered if he did need to be alone, and if not that, what did the bastard of the barrel need? Certainly not sleep or rest, as his mind didn't allow him to get a moment of that throughout the night.

She wasn't back.

It was long past the time Kaz had expected the meeting to be over by. She hadn't been late once, not to a single meeting, a single training session. In frustration, he walked across the room and shoved the window further up, the only thing Kaz could think to do. He let his annoyance seep through and hold him, to hide a different feeling that he wouldn't and couldn't name at this time. He moved around the room and fiddled with his possessions, his coins, the head of his cane.

Then he froze, not looking towards the window but instead moving to sit at his desk. He didn't speak until he had sat down and Inej had positioned herself Infront of him.

"What do you have for me?"

"De Vries wants to extend his business, partner with a merchant called Radmakker and go in together on regular shipments from the fifth harbour."

"Regular shipments of what?"

"Paintings, artifacts. He seems to think they'll bring in a lot of Kruge."

Kaz was deep in thought, he could have some of the men working the harbour in his pocket, intercept some of the shipments, never all of them.

"Kaz," He looked up, "I followed Radmakker afterwards, that's why I was late. He wants to cut De Vries out of the deal, sell directly to the other members of the merchant council. He's looking for someone to take De Vries out of the picture."

"Radmakker just let this information out whilst walking?"

"Whilst talking to his wife, in bed. I came in behind him."

That was his spider, no, not just a spider, what Inej had done was different. She was better than he expected. "We'll make an offer, a cut of the prophets and access to the shipments before they're sold, and De Vries is gone."

"What if he says no?"

"You hold a knife to his throat until he has a change of heart," Kaz leant back in his chair, relighting another candle.

"Me? You told me I was just listening."

It was a consistent push and pull with Inej, Kaz gritted his teeth. "You listened, and now you make an offer. Go back to his house and make the offer, come straight back. I will be here."

If she was nervous, she was getting better at hiding it from him, she was back out the window and Kaz busied himself with his own plans. He had his building, now he needed the money and funding to get it going. His club needed to be superior to anything Pekka had, needed to draw clients and keep them there.

When Inej returned she looked…powerful.

"Well?" Kaz spoke.

"He said yes, and called you a demon."

"How kind."

"He, uh, said something else as well… said you had found yourself a spirit to do your work for you."

Kaz barked out a short laugh, he wondered where it came from and a look at Inej told him she was thinking the same.

"I've found myself a Wraith." He muttered half to himself. Or rather, he had created one.

Inej had moved herself to her usual position by his windowsill, when she stretched out a foot he noticed the holes in her simple black slippers.

"Your shoes?" He asked.

Inej reddened, he wondered if she was embarrassed. "They weren't designed for scaling buildings. My feet have better grip anyway."

Kaz raised an eyebrow as he looked at the scrapes he could see on the soles of her exposed feet, she hadn't complained. Not once. She had her own money, could buy herself new slippers, but what would be the point if they couldn't stand up against the harsh walls and roofs of the Barrel? Kaz pocketed the information away.

"Do you ever sleep Kaz?"

"No, I'm kept alive by pure spite." Sarcasm dripped from his words, although the statement itself held some truth.

"Your bed is covered in dust."

"If you have a problem with my room then you don't have to be here."

Inej scowled at him and he met it with his own, she held his gaze for longer than he was used to. She was one to talk about sleep, if Kaz spent most nights slumped by his desk he knew she spent them on the roof, or of late at his windowsill. Well if she wanted to push it then that could change.

"Perhaps you should get your own sleep Inej, since you seem so interested in my own sleep habits. I'll see you tomorrow for training." The words themselves sound normal but the tone in his voice was enough to carry his anger at her prying.

"Kaz, I didn't…"

"Shut the window behind you."

He heard the gentle shut of the window closing, for Inej it might as well have been a slam.

After a while, Kaz stood and approached his bed, he looked at it in apprehension.A fine layer of dust was coating it and he couldn't remember the last time he had collapsed into its sheets. He pulled off his coat and vest and pulled himself under the cold sheets. Breathing deeply. Kaz didn't know if he was proving a point to himself or Inej.

Kaz's eyes flicked shut, his eyelids filled with water and suddenly the sheets felt much too cold against his skin, the soft pillow becoming a bloated corpse. His eyes shot open, and he pushed himself out of the bed. He stripped the sheets and threw the pillows in a corner before lying back on the empty mattress.

This was normal, he told himself, as normal as it could be, and damn Inej for getting into his head about it, let her be shut out and see how it feels.

Yet when he awoke in the morning, with Jordie's voice still fresh in his mind, his first action was to open the window.

I really enjoyed writing this chapter! So much trauma, so little time. An interesting job coming up soon! Let me know what you thought in the reviews!
Responding to Reviews
Thank you to GreyHaru for reviewing!

AspiringGeek: Thanks for reviewing! Yes I really love the idea that in the beginning, Kaz does get glimpses of those feelings for Inej but he just is not in a position to even begin to address them or realise what they actually are. I keep toying with that concept throughout the chapters!

Cat K: I love how in the books Kaz creates these reasons for everything, it can never just be that he did something for Inej, it has to be a big side reason for it. I love including that in this story! Imagine him actually acknowledging his actions. I love hearing your theories thank you!

Thank you, everyone!
-ThisMayFlower