Crooked Kingdom: A Sequel to Six of Crows

“Slowly, Kaz began to let the man’s legs slide through his grasp. It’s terrible, isn’t it? Knowing someone holds your life in his hands. The clerk’s voice rose another octave as he realized his mistake. She’s just a working girl, he screamed. She knows the score! I’m a good man. I’m a good man! There are no good men in Ketterdam, Kaz said. The climate doesn’t agree with them. And then he’d simply let go.”

“Slowly, Kaz began to let the man’s legs slide through his grasp. It’s terrible, isn’t it? Knowing someone holds your life in his hands. The clerk’s voice rose another octave as he realized his mistake. She’s just a working girl, he screamed. She knows the score! I’m a good man. I’m a good man! There are no good men in Ketterdam, Kaz said. The climate doesn’t agree with them. And then he’d simply let go.”

“‘You don’t look like a monster.’

‘I’ll tell you a secret, Hanna. The really bad monsters never look like monsters.’”

Wylan criticizes Kaz for speaking to Cornelis Smeet’s daughter in such a frightening way, but Kaz’s near-mythic status as a monster allows him to retain a semblance of humanity; he guarantees the girl’s silence without killing her. The “secret” that the worst monsters “never look like monsters” foreshadows the reveal of Kaz’s backstory and develops the theme of The Making of Monsters. Kaz and his brother lost everything to Pekka Rollins, who tricked them by playing the part of the kind, nurturing Jakob Hertzoon.

“‘He’ll never trade if you break me!’ she screamed, the words tearing loose from some deep place inside her, her voice raw and undefended. ‘I’ll be no use to him anymore!’”

When Van Eck threatens to shatter Inej’s legs, she reveals her fear that Kaz values her only for her usefulness as a spy. Kaz sows this fear by hiding his thoughts and emotions under layers of armor. He must learn how to lay down his defenses for their relationship to develop.

“Colm Fahey looked like a farmer on his way to church. Totally out of place. Kaz—hell, anyone in the Barrel—would take one look at him and just see a walking, talking target.”

Jesper’s struggle to reconcile the family he was born into with the one he found in the Barrel is one manifestation of The Search for Home and Family. Seeing his father in Ketterdam forces Jesper to confront the disparity between the innocent boy Colm believes Jesper to be and the criminal Jesper has become in his new home. Jesper’s fear that Kaz would see Colm as “a walking, talking target” foreshadows Kaz enmeshing Colm in his schemes.

“Nina was out there. He knew it and he had no way to reach her. He screamed her name again and again, feeling his feet going numb in his boots, the ice seeping through his clothes.”

Matthias’s recurring nightmare gives Part 2 its title. The nightmares began after Nina took parem, and the killing wind represents his fear of losing the young woman he loves to addiction. This fear plagues Matthias throughout the novel. In his final moments, the recurring nightmare shifts into a peaceful dream that assures him Nina will recover from her addiction and survive.

“Again and again, Kaz thought of those few crucial seconds when he’d let his attention shift to Inej instead of keeping his eyes on Van Eck. It wasn’t a mistake he could afford to make again. That boy had betrayed his weakness in a single glance, had ceded the war for the sake of a single battle, and put Inej—all of them—in danger. He was a wounded animal who needed to be put down. And Kaz had done it gladly, choked the life from him without pause for regret. The Kaz that remained saw only the job: Free Inej. Make Van Eck pay. The rest was useless noise.”

Kaz’s thoughts as he prepares for the hostage exchange clarify his reasons for turning himself into a ruthless, unfeeling monster. Convinced that his feelings for Inej endanger her and his friends, Kaz “choked the life” from the part of him that has emotions and attachments. However, while he dismisses his feelings as “useless noise,” he cannot fully silence them. Kaz’s fear of failing Inej and his friends leads him to divide himself into two parts—the monstrous Dirtyhands who has the strength to protect them and the “wounded animal” of a boy who cares for them.

“‘I would come for you,’ he said […] ‘I would come for you. And if I couldn’t walk, I’d crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we’d fight our way out together—knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that’s what we do. We never stop fighting.’”

Inej asks Kaz whether he would have rescued her if Van Eck broke her legs. Kaz tries to hide behind his monstrous alter ego, Dirtyhands, because he worries that he cannot protect anyone if his emotions rule him. However, he cannot bear for Inej to think he would abandon her, and he promises that he will always fight for her. The exchange marks a turning point in their relationship. Afterwards, both Kaz and Inej try to share their vulnerabilities with one another.

“‘Nina Zenik, you are still a soldier of the Second Army, and I am still your commanding officer. You are directly disobeying orders.’

‘Then you’ll just have to put me in chains too.’”

Zoya is both Nina’s “commanding officer” and a powerful reminder of Nina’s time in Ravka. However, Nina does not allow her longing for her old home to outweigh her commitment to her new home and family. Matthias already defied his mentors and their teachings for Nina’s sake, and Nina reciprocates his loyalty by refusing to let Zoya restrain him.

“I will have you without armor. Those were the words she’d said to Kaz aboard the Ferolind, desperate for some sign that he might open himself to her, that they could be more than two wary creatures united by their distrust of the world. But what might have happened if he’d spoken that night? […] Could she have been herself in such a moment, or would she have broken apart and vanished, a doll in his arms, a girl who could never quite be whole?”

Inej’s reflection on armor and intimacy develops the theme of the search for home and family. She and Kaz are both survivors, but that survival depends on maintaining an invulnerable front. She wants to be close to him, but she does not know if either of them could endure being fully vulnerable. The fear that she might become a broken “doll in his arms” shows the lingering impact of her time at the Menagerie, where she was treated like an object. Inej wants to build a new home with Kaz, but the pain of their pasts leads her to believe that they are both safer pursuing revenge and redemption apart from one another.

“What if Djel worked through these people? Unnatural. The word had come so easily to him, a way to dismiss what he did not understand, to make Nina and her kind less than human […] The drüskelle gave their oath to Fjerda, but to their god as well. If they could be made to see miracles where once they’d seen abomination, what else might change?”

Matthias directs Kuwei and Jesper to use their Grisha powers against a mob of Pekka Rollins’s men. Their victory sparks an epiphany. Matthias finally reconciles his love for his home in Fjerda with his love for Nina by deciding that his god gives Grisha their powers. Matthias sees a way to redeem himself from the years he spent hunting Grisha; he vows to help his fellow drüskelle overcome their prejudice against Grisha so that they too can “see miracles where once they’d seen abomination” and so that Ravka and Fjerda can work toward peace.

“Our power connects us to life in ways ordinary people can never understand, her teacher had said. […] We are tied to the power of creation itself, the making at the heart of the world. […] But the power she’d used tonight? It was nothing like that. It was a product of parem, not the making at the heart of the world. It was a mistake.”

Nina’s Grisha powers connect her to her home in Ravka and give her a sense of identity. However, jurda parem cuts Nina off from the customary Heartrender ability to control the workings of the human body and instead gives her the power to command the dead. As a result, the drug makes her feel estranged from herself and her home. She rejects her new power and mourns the loss of her link to “the heart of the world.”

“Until this moment, Wylan hadn’t quite understood how much they meant to him. His father would have sneered at these thugs and thieves, a disgraced soldier, a gambler who couldn’t keep out of the red. But they were his first friends, his only friends, and Wylan knew that even if he’d had his pick of a thousand companions, these would have been the people he chose.”

Reuniting with the crew after Van Eck and Pekka Rollins nearly killed or captured them all prompts Wylan to realize how much he cares about them. He no longer sees them as a way to protect himself or to gain vengeance against his father. Instead, he claims them as his friends. Among the Dregs, Wylan finds a new home and family to replace the ones he lost when Van Eck disowned him. Rejecting his father’s opinion that his friends are just “thugs and thieves” paves the way for Wylan to gain a sense of self-worth and defy his father’s disparagement.

“Jesper’s shoulders bunched, but he didn’t back down. ‘I made a mistake. I let my bad get the best of my good, but for Saints’ sake, Kaz, how long are you going to make me pay for a little forgiveness?’

‘What do you think my forgiveness looks like, Jordie?’”

Jesper spends much of the book trying to earn Kaz’s forgiveness. However, Jesper stands up to him after Kaz declares his intention of turning himself in, and the two boys argue bitterly. Calling Jesper by his deceased brother’s name shows that Kaz is just as frayed as his tattered plans at this point in the novel. The dispute also demonstrates Kaz’s intense secrecy. Even Jesper, one of his closest friends, knows nothing of Jordie. The context of the slipup shows that part of Kaz resents the way that seeking vengeance for Jordie has consumed his life.

“‘The Suli believe that when we do wrong, we give life to our shadows. Every sin makes the shadow stronger, until eventually the shadow is stronger than you.’

‘If that were true, my shadow would have put Ketterdam in permanent night.’

‘Maybe,’ Inej said, turning her dark gaze to his. ‘Or maybe you’re someone else’s shadow.’

‘You mean Pekka.’”

The Suli belief about shadows adds further nuances to the novel’s complex portrayal of morality. Kaz and Inej both suffered because of others’ greed and cruelty when they were only children, but they have blood on their hands as well. Inej thinks of herself as an arbiter of justice, and her righteous anger against slavers drives her quest for revenge. Dunyasha’s appearance forces Inej to confront the sins she committed to protect herself and her friends. Additionally, Inej suggests that Pekka Rollins sowed the seeds of his own undoing because his crimes set Kaz on a ruthless path of vengeance. The discussion about shadows shows that Kaz and his crew must take accountability for their own misdeeds even as they seek to avenge themselves, highlighting the theme of The Struggle for Revenge and Redemption.

“She stood in the center of the tile floor, framed by white and gold, like a gilded icon. ‘What happened to you, Kaz? What happened to your brother?’

‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘Tell me. ‘Please.’

Tell her, said a voice inside him. Tell her everything. But he didn’t know how or where to begin. And why should he? So she could find a way to absolve him of his crimes? He didn’t want her pity. He didn’t need to explain himself, he just needed to find a way to let her go.”

Kaz attempts to get closer to Inej by taking off his gloves and helping her change her bandages, but the skin-to-skin contact causes him to panic. Inej responds with compassion, knowing that Kaz’s aversion to touch is somehow connected to the tragedies that befell him and his brother. However, he cannot bring himself to tell her what happened. The simile comparing Inej to a “gilded icon” emphasizes Kaz’s reverence for the goodness he sees in Inej and his conviction that he is unworthy of her. Even the near-saintly Inej cannot “absolve him of his crimes,” so he tells himself that he does not need Inej’s “pity” but rather “a way to let her go.” Kaz hides behind his armor again and focuses on revenge because he considers himself beyond redemption.

“Wylan summoned every bit of bravado he’d learned from Nina, the will he’d learned from Matthias, the focus he’d studied in Kaz, the courage he’d learned from Inej, and the wild, reckless hope he’d learned from Jesper, the belief that no matter the odds, somehow they would win. ‘I won’t talk,’ he said.”

[…]

In the end, he was not Nina or Matthias or Kaz or Inej or Jesper. He was just Wylan Van Eck. He told them everything.”

Bardugo frames the scene in the chapel such that Wylan appears to betray his friends out of cowardice, revealing their secrets to his father. However, Wylan's capture was part of the plan all along, and he knew that he could stop the beating as soon as he started talking. In this light, his initial refusal to talk becomes an act of bravery. Wylan takes strength from his friends’ admirable qualities and proves that he belongs among them by demonstrating his own valor and resolve.

“Nina had grieved for her loss of power, for the connection she’d felt to the living world. She’d resented this shadow gift. It had seemed like a sham, a punishment. But just as surely as life connected everything, so did death. It was that endless, fast-running river. She’d dipped her fingers into its current, held the eddy of its power in her hand. She was the Queen of Mourning, and in its depths, she would never drown.

Nina’s strength and sense of self return as she uses her parem-altered abilities to spread the false plague across Ketterdam. The metaphor comparing death to an “endless, fast-running river” emphasizes death’s power. The use of an image from nature also underlines the fact that death is a natural part of existence. Nina no longer fears addiction will “drown” her because using her powers makes her craving for the drug fade. Since jurda parem represents greed, Nina’s rise as “the Queen of Mourning” demonstrates her refusal to allow others to steal her power or personhood.

“She would never be as ruthless and she could not wish to be. But she knew this city inside out. It was the source of her suffering and the proving ground for her strength. Like it or not, Ketterdam—brutal, dirty, hopeless Ketterdam—had become her home. And she would defend it.”

Inej reflects on her relationship with Ketterdam during her final fight with Dunyasha. The city is “the source of her suffering” because she came to Ketterdam as a slave, but it is also “the proving ground” where she became the formidable spy known as the Wraith. Inej spends most of the novel dreaming of sailing away to wreak vengeance on the people who tore her from her home and family in Ravka, but this fight makes her realize that Ketterdam “had become her home.” Her resolve to “defend” the city foreshadows the novel’s ending, when she tells Kaz that she has unfinished business in Ketterdam and asks him to help her end human trafficking in the city. Inej shows that home is not simply a place the heart longs for but rather somewhere that shapes people’s identities.

“It’s not a gift. It’s a curse. But when it came down to it, Jesper’s life had been full of blessings. His father. His mother. Inej. Nina. Matthias leading them across the muddy canal. Kaz—even Kaz, with all his cruelties and failings, had given him a home and a family in the Dregs when Ketterdam might have swallowed him whole. And Wylan. Wylan who had understood before Jesper ever had that the power inside him might be a blessing too.”

This moment marks the culmination of Jesper’s character arc. His Zemeni mother taught him marksmanship and that their Fabrikator powers are a blessing. After her death, Jesper internalized his father’s fear that Grisha powers are “a curse” that killed his mother. The young sharpshooter spent most of his life hiding his Grisha identity, even from the friends who gave him “a home and a family in the Dregs.” Buoyed by the “blessings” in his life, especially Wylan’s support, Jesper now accepts his Grisha powers as a gift and uses them to aim a rubber bullet at Kuwei. In doing so, Jesper not only preserves his friends’ plan but also protects all of his fellow Grisha. The Shu chemist will no longer be targeted by nations that want to use parem to turn Grisha into weapons. Jesper shows that it is never too late to live as one’s authentic self.

“‘You tell me where he is, Brekker,’ Rollins roared in his face. ‘You tell me where my son is!’

‘Say my brother’s name. Speak it like they do in the magic shows on East Stave—like an incantation. You want your boy? What right does your son have to his precious, coddled life? How is he different from me or my brother?’

[…]

‘Please, Kaz,’ whispered Inej. ‘Don’t do this. Don’t be this.’”

Dirtyhands claims to have committed his most monstrous deed yet—burying Rollins’s young son alive. He demands that Rollins earn the boy’s location by remembering Jordie’s name, which connects to the symbol of crows and the importance of remembrance. Crucially, Inej believes Kaz’s story about burying the child, and her earnest entreaties to Kaz help convince Rollins as well. Thus, Inej facilitates Kaz’s revenge while also making him feel incapable of redemption.

“‘There has to be a Fjerda worth saving. Promise me.’

‘I promise.’ The words were more sob than sound.

‘I have been made to protect you. Even in death, I will find a way.’ He clasped her hand tighter. ‘Bury me so I can go to Djel. Bury me so I can take root and follow the water north.’

‘I promise, Matthias. I’ll take you home.’

‘Nina,’ he said, pressing her hand to his heart. ‘I am already home.’”

Matthias attempts to save a young drüskelle from the fear and prejudice that controlled Matthias for years, but the boy shoots him to avenge Fjerda. Nina promises to carry on Matthias’s dream of ending the enmity between their peoples. Matthias’s final words demonstrate that love gave him the strength to overcome his hatred and redeem himself; Nina is a Grisha, but she is also his “home.”

“‘No mourners,’ said Jesper, surprised by the ache of tears in his throat.

‘No funerals,’ they all replied softly.

‘Go on now,’ said Colm. ‘Say your goodbyes.’

They walked down to the boathouse. But before Wylan entered, he bent and plucked a red tulip from its bed. They all followed suit and silently filed inside. One by one, they knelt by Nina and rested a flower upon Matthias’ chest, then stood, surrounding his body, as if now that it was too late, they might protect him.”

Throughout the novel, the Dregs’ call-and-response “No mourners, no funerals” develops the theme of the search for home and family. The expression makes its final and most poignant appearance as the Dregs prepare to say goodbye to Matthias. The “ache of tears” that Jesper feels and the red tulips they lay on Matthias’s body show their love for the fallen Fjerdan. The crew has transformed from an uneasy alliance of unlikely associates to a true family, and they mourn the loss of one of their own.

“‘Wylan gave me a good price. His father’s fleet is full of worthy ships, but that one … It suited you.’ He looked down at his boots. ‘That berth belongs to you too. It will always be there when—if you want to come back.’

Inej could not speak. Her heart felt too full, a dry creek bed ill-prepared for such rain. ‘I don’t know what to say.’

His bare hand flexed on the crow’s head of his cane. The sight was so strange Inej had trouble tearing her eyes from it. ‘Say you’ll return.’

‘I’m not done with Ketterdam.’ She hadn’t known she meant it until she’d said the words.”

By giving Inej a warship, Kaz accepts that she must go on a quest for redemption. The dock that he gives her represents his hope that they can hold onto the home that they created for each other. Kaz’s bare hands signify his willingness to take off his armor for Inej. The last time he removed his gloves, he panicked while changing her bandages; by symbolically and literally baring himself to her again, Kaz shows his continued willingness to strive to be close to Inej. This gesture encourages Inej to continue fighting for Kaz and Ketterdam as much as his words do.