Original release date: April 23, 2021
In East Ravka, Alina is taken to General Kirigan, who proves she is the Sun Summoner when she leaks light after he cuts her. She is taken away to the Ravkan capital Os Alta, where she will be given to the king and queen. Her convoy is attacked by Fjerdan drüskelle, warriors who hunt down and exterminate Grisha. Most of her Grisha guard is killed but she is rescued when Kirigan arrives and uses his shadows in a “Cut” that disemebers her captor. They make it to Os Alta on horseback and Alina is put into captivity, though she promises to find and reunite with Mal after he was left behind with the First Army. In Ketterdam, Kaz is threatened by Pekka Rollins to drop the job, but he refuses. Inej meets with Tante Heleen, the owner of a brothel where Inej had been forced to work before Kaz paid her off. Heleen promises to drop Kaz’s outstanding debts on her if she will kill a human trafficker named Arken. Kaz searches for someone known as The Conductor, who can safely lead them through the Fold and discovers it is Arken, who Inej grudgingly lets live. Kaz, Jesper, and Inej set off to find Alina.
* * *
[Forich] Three of them.
In special uniforms, all done up and regal.
They put you in a line and they go one at a time.
How many questions is it?
It’s not that kind of test.
And they’ve got this device. It’s all special made, like.
They prick your arm.
Does it hurt?
Only for a bit.
Then you find out if you’re Grisha, and you go and live in the Little Palace and eat sweet melon and Kerch candies, wear special coats.
[boy] Has anyone from here been picked?
Once. First year in. Lucian.
The little pyro was an Inferni, of course.
I want to be a Tidemaker.
I bet I’m a Squaller.
You break wind, you don’t make it.
[all laughing]
How does the test work?
[Forich] For you?
For you, it won’t.
They don’t do the test if you’re sick or injured.
Thanks to your little scrap with dinner, you’re gonna have to skip this year, mutt.
Children, visitors.
[Alina] She didn’t see us. We’re safe.
[both panting]
Don’t you want to know if you’re Grisha?
Not if we can’t go together.
[Ana Kuya] Mal! Alina!
[both panting]
[clamoring]
Healer!
How many more?
Ten, maybe twelve of us, I think.
Hold! Your collarbone is fractured.
[gasps and groans]
Mal! The tracker! Where is he?
First Army goes to medical.
[grunts]
[Alina groaning]
Bring her to the general’s tent.
[Alina] Who?
But I’m not done yet.
You can go with her.
What was that? Hmm? You want to tell me?
Be more specific.
It was one thing when we had a week to find a way across the Fold. But sunrise?
We have to say no.
[Kaz] No.
“No” to the job?
“No” to saying “no.”
We can’t go!
Can’t we?
[Inej] I can’t go.
You will. I have a plan.
No, you don’t.
Inej!
I know by now when you’re still figuring things out.
You don’t know how to pull off this job.
I still have six hours, and right now, you aren’t helping.
Maybe you crack a way across, but that doesn’t solve this problem!
If I can’t crack this, no one’s going.
If you do?
Then maybe you stay here.
Maybe I won’t be here when you get back.
Inej! Inej!
[Kirigan] Bring her closer.
Closer.
Well?
Well, what? Sir.
What are you?
Alina Starkov, Assistant Cartographer, Royal Corps of Surveyors.
They’re all gone.
It’s my fault. That’s why I’m here, isn’t it?
Answer the question.
What are you?
A mapmaker, sir.
[all laughing]
Quiet.
[laughter stops]
So who actually saw what happened?
Zoya? You manned the main sail.
We were attacked barely two markers in.
Someone lit a lantern.
And?
[Zoya] The volcra went after the riflemen and our Inferni first.
And then there was a searing light.
It was her.
Our mapmaker.
Is this true? Can you summon light?
Where did you grow up?
Keramzin.
[Kirigan] Hmm.
And when were you tested?
You don’t remember?
Well, let us just make certain.
[groans]
[panting]
Alina Starkov, where is she?
They took her to General Kirigan’s tent.
What? Why?
They think she’s the Sun Summoner.
Corporal, you’re wounded.
[groans]
She’s in trouble.
How so?
Because she isn’t Grisha.
When they realize their mistake, think what they’ll do to her.
How are you so sure?
Because I know her better than anyone else.
Lift up your sleeve.
What’s happening?
Your sleeve. Please.
Alina!
[guard] Stop, soldier!
[gasps]
[dramatic music playing]
[gasps]
Alina.
[indistinct chatter]
Inej! Listen, I…
[footsteps approaching]
[grunting and groaning]
[grunting]
[sniffles] Evening.
Mr. Brekker, is it?
[Kaz] You’re a long way from home.
Am I?
Like you were earlier?
When you took a Grisha from the Orchid.
The Orchid isn’t Dime Lions turf.
[Pekka] Well, it’s a new acquisition.
Hmm. You heard it here first.
Now.
[Kaz grunting]
Now, I know you saw Dreesen.
You got the jump on whatever job he has.
I don’t know the details, obviously, just that you have a little travel hazard ahead of you.
So, here’s the deal.
You can do nothing, walk away from it.
I’ll tell Dreesen I’m taking over for you.
Then we’re even.
Not even close.
Hang on.
The other option is…
I’ll cave your head in with your own cane and dump you in the harbor.
Hmm?
That first option seems better now, don’t it?
[grunts]
Tell me…
have we ever made a deal before?
You and me? Nah.
Otherwise you’d know better.
Or you’d be dead.
Come on.
[Inej] He doesn’t have a way across the Fold, and we both know it.
[Jesper] I bet he’ll figure it out.
Come on, take that bet.
Bolliger won’t play with me anymore, so…
Thank you.
He’s obsessed with taking down Pekka Rollins.
Of course he’s obsessed with the one villain in town who’s paid off the stadwatch to get away with murder.
Thanks. Another one, Joe.
No, it’s more than that.
I’ve seen the way Kaz looks when he says Pekka’s name.
Kaz wants revenge.
Of course she calls for me now.
Off to the Menagerie? Want company?
No.
No, I meant to watch your back.
[indistinct chatter]
You all right, boss?
[sighs]
[grunts] No.
I’ve been warned off the job.
[Jesper] By who?
Who do you think?
[Jesper] Did he remember you?
[Kaz] If he had, I’d be dead.
Sunrise is in five hours.
Yeah, but we’re off the job now, right?
Never make decisions out of fear, Jesper.
Only out of spite.
Well, greed always worked for me.
Go guard the door.
[speaking indistinctly]
I don’t understand. I wasn’t cheating.
You’ve been here every night for a week.
You don’t play Makker’s Wheel or Ratcatcher, only cards.
Because you keep track of what’s played.
Well, that is not cheating.
No, but I’ll have to add an extra deck to your table to keep things more balanced.
An incentive to keep playing.
Count it for me.
Where are you from?
West Ravka. Os Kervo.
West Ravkans count money from one hand to the other, but people out east who work the mines in Sikursk, they count like you do.
I am from West Ravka.
West Ravkans don’t mention the “west” part.
To them, there’s just Ravka and the old country.
You’re lying about where you’re from because you’ve fled.
You’re hiding.
My daughter is Grisha.
Neither of us wanted her to fight in the war.
You can’t make us go back.
No, I’m not after you, but you need to tell me how you and your daughter got through the Fold unscathed and unnoticed.
Now.
[breath trembling]
He just went by a title.
The Conductor.
We paid him in advance and he took us across in some special transport.
It was noisy, but he had us wear hoods, so we couldn’t share how he does it.
I don’t know what else to tell you.
Give me something. A name. An address.
A contact, someone he worked with.
He left us with a stage performer who took us in for a few nights.
Poppy.
[scoffs]
Where’s Poppy working these days?
Emerald Palace, boss.
[sighs]
Go.
You heard me. Let’s go. Get in.
No.
There’s been a mistake. I need to find Mal.
The general does not make mistakes.
His orders were to get you to Little Palace immediately.
Now get in the coach.
Everyone makes mistakes.
Look at me. Do I look important to you?
You look like trouble. Which is nearly the same.
Move.
Wait.
Malyen Oretsev. He’s in the medic tent.
I need to speak to him. I’m going to speak to him.
Listen to me.
Every spy in the area will hear what you did and our enemies will come for you.
Our only chance is to get you to Os Alta, behind palace walls, before you get killed. Come on.
Mal!
Alina!
No!
No, stop. I didn’t know!
Alina!
[Alina] I didn’t know!
Alina!
[Alina] Mal!
[groans]
[Zoya] Are you two close?
Oh.
Is she the friend you ran off to?
Where are they taking her?
She’ll be fine. She’s in good hands.
Not while she’s around Grisha.
Soldier! She is one now.
[indistinct chatter]
If you’re back for work, get changed.
[woman] There you are.
Go on.
That one’s new.
Would you like to see how it works?
Come, come. Sit.
[sighs]
Let us talk business. I have some work for you.
I work for Kaz Brekker now.
[inhales sharply]
That’s not entirely true.
Mr. Brekker still owes five more installments on you.
Regardless. I’m on a job.
So I hear. A little bird.
Some business across the water. Far east, yes?
You should ask him.
Sit. I insist.
I’ve a more important question for you.
Do you want to go with him?
Because you know you can’t leave town without my permission, so…
If you want to leave, you must be paid in full.
That’s too much. Kaz doesn’t have that.
I’m not concerned with what he has, but I like what you have.
A set of skills I happen to need tonight.
This business with the blades, and the shadows.
You must be quite good for Brekker to pay for you.
So, find this man staying tonight at this address… and kill him for me.
Kill him?
Do this and you are free and clear.
Our business will be done. But it must be tonight.
Who is he?
Does it matter?
He’s in the same business that brought you to my door.
Sells to the White Rose, but won’t sell to me.
The boys and girls he’s bringing in are driving my clients to the competition.
So… drive a knife into his heart.
Do we have an agreement?
[cheering and clamoring]
[chuckles]
[Inej] Jesper.
Whoa!
How do you do that?
[Inej] I need your help.
Of course, love. Doing what?
I need you to kill a man for me.
[laughs]
Oh. Why me?
But you’ve got as many knives as I’ve got teeth.
You know why.
Yeah.
But how is getting me to do it any different from you doing it?
Will you help me or not?
Like I said, of course. But…
[Kaz] Jesper! New job.
Come along.
She did it again.
This is Fedyor.
Pleasure to meet you.
[Fedyor] They call this a kefta. It’s bulletproof.
The uniform of the Second Army.
What about the First Army? Back in Kribirsk.
A thousand soldiers marching with us. Isn’t that safer?
Slower, not safer. Not really.
If you left me with the cartography unit, no one would look twice at us.
Why is that?
You summon pure sunlight.
Your kind of Etherealki has just been a theory, a picture in a storybook.
Until now.
You’re a very special girl, so how has no one looked twice at you before?
Are you joking?
Maybe it’s nicer inside the Little Palace, but out here, when you’re different, when you look different, everything’s at risk of becoming a fight.
Do you know why the Little Palace has walls in the first place? Hmm?
Because for years, being Grisha was a death sentence.
At least now, thanks to General Kirigan, we’re protected. Feared.
And that’s how we survive.
Not by being overlooked, but by making them look, and knowing you’re powerful.
I’ve survived long enough without your protection. Thank you.
But you wouldn’t last a minute now that you are you.
All of Ravka has been waiting for you.
I get it.
The whole country wants to see the Fold gone.
[Fedyor] But it’s bigger than that.
You are hope for the country, yes, but a myth come true for a Grisha.
It was a Grisha who created the Fold.
If a Grisha destroys it, maybe…
[sighs]
Maybe we wouldn’t need those high walls to protect us anymore.
[soldier 1] The road is blocked! Beware!
[fighter shouts in Fjerdan]
Stay here, and don’t leave.
[soldier 2] Hold it here!
He means well.
[soldier 2] Watch the tree line for movement.
Drüskelle…
[fighter shouts in Fjerdan]
[weapons firing]
[arrows firing]
[grunts]
[groaning]
[screams]
[fighter speaking Fjerdan]
[groans]
[grunts]
[horse neighs]
[weapon fires]
[screams]
[panting]
[grunts]
[fighter speaking Fjerdan]
[explosion]
[groans]
[bones cracking]
[grunts and groans]
[screams]
Sharpshooter!
[soldier 3] Sharpshooter!
[Ivan] What’s going on?
[straining]
[indistinct shouting]
[weapons firing]
Are you all right?
Yeah.
Didn’t penetrate.
[groans]
Listen to the heartbeats. How many are there?
[hearts beating]
[Ivan] There’s too much smoke!
Squaller!
[woman] I can’t see!
Where’s the Squaller?
[Ivan] Get to the carriage! Protect the girl!
[coughing]
[Ivan] Squaller!
[horse neighs]
[screams]
[in Fjerdan] Witch!
[Alina screaming]
[in English] Please!
[grunting]
[screaming]
No! Please! Please!
I’m not Grisha! I’m a mapmaker!
[gasps and yells]
[man screaming]
[grunts]
[in Fjerdan] What you are is a witch.
[fighter growls]
[fighter shouts in Fjerdan]
[in Fjerdan] Darkling.
[in English] Are you hurt?
No, not really.
The others will have fled now they know I’m here.
You ride with me.
[grunts]
[indistinct chatter]
[Jesper] I mean it. We need a demo man.
[Kaz] You’re still on that?
I just brought it up tonight.
Jesper, you ask for an explosives expert on every job.
Because I don’t want to be the one you point to and say, “Explode something for us.”
That is not a Jesper talent. I shoot things with style.
And I look good. Just play to my strengths, boss.
[Kaz] Alina Starkov will be kept at the Little Palace.
Entering the Little Palace requires us to be quiet.
Blowing something up, we’ve likely failed.
[Jesper] Then we should take Inej.
She’s a good investment. More quiet than I’ll ever be.
She can’t stay here, you know that.
Whoa. Hang on, aren’t we on Pekka’s turf now?
I go to Heleen now and ask for her buyout, she knows I need Inej and sets a price I can’t pay.
That’s evil. Well, how do you know that?
It’s what I would do.
Besides, Inej refuses to kill.
Would you trust her in a matter of life and death?
Well, I’ve trusted her so far and I’m still alive, so, yeah.
Now, you want to tell me why we’re scoping out a rival club?
To have a talk with an old business partner.
The bouncers will know you on sight.
That’s why I brought you.
Make sure they don’t see me.
[sighs] Handsome decoy is also not a Jesper talent.
Seventeen, twelve… uh, thirteen point five.
Nope, sorry, Anatov, no room for you.
[grunts and groans]
[Alina] Can we stop? Please.
[Kirigan] Why?
[Alina] My tailbone is killing me.
[groans]
[panting]
[gasps]
For your face.
What happened back there?
Drüskelle.
Elite members of the Fjerdan military trained to infiltrate deep behind our lines and kill or kidnap Grisha.
I meant how you sliced one of them in half from a dozen paces.
Would you rather I’d used a sword?
I don’t know.
Sorry.
It’s fine.
There is matter to everything.
Even air.
Or shadow.
Too small to see.
The Cut is something a Summoner can do, but it requires tremendous skill.
And I would only use it as a last resort.
Like that ambush.
Saints…
Is this my life now? Hunted wherever I go.
You get used to it.
How did they even know about me?
Your little light show in the Fold was visible from miles away.
Whatever their original mission was, they must have diverted to find you.
That’s why I’m traveling with you.
They’re that scared of you?
I think they’re more scared of you.
Why?
What your power means to us.
You may well be the first of your kind, but we’ve always had a name for you.
For what we hope you can do.
Enter the Fold. Destroy it from within.
With proper training, some amplification, you could be the…
No!
No?
No, what?
I don’t want any of this.
Why can’t you get rid of it?
Do you think I haven’t tried, Miss Starkov?
If I enter the Fold, I’m a beacon for the volcra.
All I can do is make it worse.
Then just… Can’t you use some Grisha science to transfer this to someone who can use it?
You would give up your gift?
Gift?
You dragged me away from my only friends and now, according to you, I’ll be a target for the rest of my life.
You know why you’ve never found someone with this power?
Maybe it’s because they don’t want to be found.
I’m going to ask you again.
Were you tested as a child?
[Ana Kuya] Mal! Alina!
We hid.
We were different enough already.
Didn’t want to be even more alone.
You are Grisha.
You are not alone.
[reins jingling]
[horse snorts]
Why are you back?
[Semyov] We were ambushed. Fjerdans.
They must’ve been close enough to the Fold to have seen the explosion.
They were after her.
But where are the others?
Dead. Wounded. Waiting on fresh horses.
Alina? Is she all right?
She is with General Kirigan.
You left her alone with one man?
[horse neighs]
We simply cannot afford any more losses.
Can we get a small unit to go in? Look for any survivors?
[Mal] We need to go after her.
Excuse me, soldier?
Alina Starkov. The Sun Summoner.
The whole company should be her escort.
Everyone will want her dead or in custody.
Not our problem, son.
Not our…
What does that mean?
The Sun Summoner is Grisha.
Second Army.
Let those fancy folk handle her.
Until they decide she’s a fraud and put her head on a spike, I’m not wasting time or men on it.
Until a few hours ago, she was one of your own.
And you would turn your back on her so quickly?
And they won’t kill her.
She’s real. [breathes deeply]
I saw it.
All I know is she’s not worth the risk until the King tells me so.
She’s worth it, sir.
When I was drafted, my sergeant schooled us about Grisha.
He said we would win this war because one of them was worth 50 of us.
Then the revolver pistol came in from the west, and I was told a Grisha was worth two dozen soldiers.
When I lost half my company to the Fjerdans with a repeating rifle and one in ten of our casualties was Grisha, they said it was an acceptable ratio.
How long before they are just as useless as the rest of us?
[indistinct chatter]
[gunshot]
[screaming]
[man] Whatever.
You!
You heard that, too?
[bouncer] Was that you?
No, I’m, uh… I’m, uh, bouncing for the Clipper.
Haven’t seen you before. Where’s Tombar?
Oh. Don’t know. Hey. Was that sign damaged before?
[gunshot]
Saints! Where was that?
[rustling]
[door opens]
Boris, would you…
It’s been a while, Poppy.
[gun cocking]
I see you’re still upset.
About you stealing my shares of the Crow Club?
It wasn’t stealing. It was just a raw deal.
Most deals in the Barrel are.
What do you want, Dirtyhands?
I need to find someone.
Or at least, learn how to find them. Tonight.
Looking for a club act, are we?
I’m looking for the Conductor.
So you do know him.
This is about a job, isn’t it?
One that sends you all the way east, for a million kruge?
You’ll never make enough to compete with Pekka, you know?
He’s a king. You’re just the Bastard of the Barrel.
Tante Heleen wrote you?
Just this evening, yes, you snoop.
She was asking about the Conductor as well.
Probably about the same job.
So I warned him to steer clear of her.
You warned him? With a note?
She wanted you to do that so she could have the messenger followed.
She wouldn’t hurt him, would she?
She would if it meant hurting me.
Now, if you have any loyalty to him, tell me where he is. Right now.
[objects clattering]
[labored breathing]
[groans]
Awake? Finally.
[grunts]
[panting]
[groans]
You hit me.
I needed some time.
To ransack my apartment?
To find records of the children you sold to the brothels.
I have never sold any indentures.
You sold people to the White Rose. People like me.
You work for Heleen. No, no, you’ve got it all wrong.
I’m not in her business, I’m a smuggler.
You steal people. How many Suli indentures have you sold?
I liberate families fleeing the war.
I smuggle deserters and refugees. Please, please!
Give me names. Who buys them?
Do you separate the boys from the girls?
How old were you when you were taken?
Who are you looking for? Your parents? A sibling?
A sister?
Brother.
[breath trembling]
He was 12 and I was 14 when four men took us from my parents’ wagon, separated us.
I came to Ketterdam on a labor merchant ship.
I don’t know where he went.
Tell me what I can do to help.
One had a silver tooth.
Went by the name of Gregor or Griggs.
[coughs]
I don’t run in those circles, really.
You’re likely after longshoremen or stevedores who take side money from people like Heleen.
If you can’t give me a lead, you can at least give me my freedom.
[in Ravkan] Sankta Lizabeta.
[in English] You follow the faith, too.
[sobbing] Please.
What amount of prayer can forgive murder?
Ask the Saints for me.
[gasps]
[Kaz] Don’t!
[breath trembling]
He’s our way to Alina Starkov.
[breathes heavily]
Him?
[Kaz] Heleen knew it.
She was using you to sabotage our mission.
She and I made a deal.
It isn’t worth more than what we get with him alive.
You choose him over my freedom?
You assume it’s one or the other.
[sobs]
Conductor. I have a job for you.
Get us to the Little Palace.
[Kirigan] You’ll be safe here.
The palace is the most secure building in the whole country.
I made sure of it.
Where are you going?
Take her to the vezda suite.
Am I a prisoner?
All of Ravka is.
Until you and I have banished the Fold.
So no pressure.
[sobbing]
[footsteps]
[gasps]
[footsteps in distance]
[indistinct chatter]
[gasps]
Mikhael, Dubrov, what are you doing?
Keeping a friend from making a mistake.
It’s not a mistake, she’s in danger.
She’s with the Black General. Safe as you can get.
Not enough for me. Make way.
Dubrov’s right.
Okay, she’ll be at the Little Palace by tomorrow.
Fine, that’s where I’ll go.
What’s your plan? You can’t just walk in there, Mal.
That place is filled with people who can kill you with merely a clean line of sight.
You can’t get in the gate without a formal invitation.
Which you don’t have.
Hmm.
And you’re no good to anyone if you’re hanged as a deserter.
Look, you want into the palace?
Be a hero. Get a medal. That will get you invited.
Right. Fine, I’ll stay.
But only for you.
Yeah. Sure.
It has nothing to do with the getting hanged or killed part.
I don’t get it.
She kept her power a secret from him. Isn’t he mad at her?
We’re all fools, Dubrov.
And when our closest friend is in trouble, we do foolish things.
I’m taking her.
And when we return, I’ll have the buyout to clear the books.
Until then…
this is my collateral.
What do you have that could possibly be enough?
The Crow Club?
Well, I stand corrected.
Inej is yours to lose now.
It’s all yours to lose.
[somber music playing]
