Six of Crows, #1
Six of Crows
by Leigh Bardugo
Contents
Chapter 38: Kaz
Overview
Kaz’s hidden escape plan is revealed: Kaz had identified the Ice Court’s sacred ash as the mouth of a spring and gambled that felling it would drop the crew into a river leading out through the gorge. The chapter shifts the heist from tactical control to desperate survival, as the crew’s escape depends on limited air, freezing water, and whether the rest of the plan succeeded.
The underwater passage also exposes Kaz’s emotional core, linking Kaz’s trauma, Kaz’s constructed criminal identity, and Kaz’s feelings for Inej. As Kaz begins to drown, Kaz’s desire to survive is tied less to greed or revenge than to Inej’s survival and the words Kaz has never said.
Summary
Kaz recalls how he shadowed Nina and Jarl Brum from the ballroom to the treasury instead of eavesdropping on Matthias and Brum, because Kaz wanted to keep Nina in sight among so many drüskelle. While hidden, Kaz painfully regurgitated the root bombs, chloropellets, and lockpicks he had swallowed before the ambush, keeping emergency tools available for the escape.
With nothing left to do but wait, Kaz thought about Inej’s declaration that she would take her share and leave the Dregs. When Black Protocol began, the Ice Court erupted with guards and alarms, but Nina and Matthias did not appear. Kaz feared either that they were in trouble or that Kaz had misjudged Matthias’s loyalty.
Kaz then saw Nina, Matthias, and a Shu boy running from the treasury just before the lab exploded. The plan became improvisation: Kaz had only told Matthias to meet at the sacred ash, and now the group was plunging through the shaft. During the fall, Kaz shoved a baleen disk into the Shu boy’s mouth, released the binding cables, and hoped the hidden river would carry them out.
Underwater, Kaz’s theory is confirmed. From Nina’s description of drüskelle ritual and the Ice Court’s design, Kaz had deduced that the sacred ash stood over a spring feeding the moat and gorge, the source behind the Fjerdan legend of Djel’s voice. The current is violent, the water freezing, and the baleen air supply limited, leaving Kaz uncertain whether the crew, Inej, Jesper, and Wylan will survive the escape.
As Kaz is swept through the darkness, memories surface: Jordie, the bank robbery that broke Kaz’s leg, the cane Kaz turned into part of his fearsome persona, and the gloves Kaz wears because the Reaper’s Barge left Kaz unable to bear skin contact. Kaz also remembers Inej at the Menagerie and in the Dregs, and Kaz recognizes how deeply Kaz needs Inej near him.
When the baleen begins to dissolve, water leaks in and Kaz’s lungs burn. Kaz tries to hold on by thinking of revenge against Pekka Rollins, but Kaz’s thoughts keep returning to Inej and the things Kaz has never told her. At last Kaz can no longer resist, opens his mouth, and the river floods in.
Who Appears
- Kaz BrekkerReveals the escape plan, recalls past trauma, and struggles to survive underwater.
- Inej GhafaAbsent from the escape scene but central to Kaz’s fear, memories, and longing.
- Kuwei Yul-BoThe Shu boy Kaz carries into the river, believing he may be Bo Yul-Bayur.
- Nina ZenikKaz tracks her movements and later sees her flee the treasury before the explosion.
- Matthias HelvarKaz’s gamble pays off when Matthias betrays Brum and reaches the ash escape point.
- Jarl BrumNina’s captor and Matthias’s mentor, whose presence drives Kaz’s earlier surveillance.
- JordieKaz’s dead brother appears in memory as Kaz confronts drowning and death.
- Jesper FaheyMentioned in Kaz’s uncertainty about whether Black Protocol and the escape support succeeded.
- Wylan Van EckHis root bombs and supplies enable Kaz’s contingency planning before the treasury escape.