Chapter 19 Entering White Island

Apparated into the side of thr Embassy Sector with Hadrian and Nina twisting out of nothing with the same sound and crack.Since the charms are still in place no one detected a thing.

Now they quickly went towards raw Druskelle sector,which a large pyramid-shaped skylight looked down on what seemed to be a

training room, its floor emblazoned with the drüskelle wolf's head, the

shelves lined with weapons. Through the next glass pyramid, he glimpsed

a big dining hall. One wall was taken up by a massive hearth, a wolf's

head carved into the stone above it. The opposite wall was adorned by an

enormous banner with no discernible pattern, a patchwork of slender strips

of cloth – mostly red and blue, but some purple, too. It took Hadrian a

moment to understand what he was seeing it was Grisha colours feeling sick he muttered"By the saints this is just sick."

Nina was horrified and whispered"Those

are pieces of the kefta that Grisha wear in battle. They're trophies.There are so many."

There were Hundreds no Thousands.Hadrian shook himself and quickly walked and placed the Greek fire vial and said"We have to move."

Just like the prison and the embassy, the gatehouse in the drüskelle

sector was built around a courtyard so anyone entering could be observed

and fired upon from above. But with the gate out of operation, the

courtyard battlements were as deserted as the rest of the building. Here,

slabs of sleek black stone were inlaid with the silver wolf's head, the

surfaces lit with eerie blue flame. It was the one part of the Ice Court he'd

seen that wasn't white or grey. Even the gate was some kind of black metal

that looked impossibly heavy.Hadrian having placed enough Greek fire vials around to destroy majority of the ice court.

They now once again reappeared at the side of the Embassy,now made their way to the glass bridge.It was the way to enter the White Island.

The glass bridge rose before them in a gleaming arc, shimmering in the

blue flames of the lanterns on its spires. All around her people laughed and

clung to one another as they climbed higher above the ice moat, its surface

shining below, a near-perfect mirror. The effect was disconcerting,dizzying Nina as too-tight beaded slippers seemed to float in mid-air.

The

people beside them looked as if they were walking on nothing at all.Again Nina now had the unpleasant understanding that this place must have

been built by Fabrikator craft in some distant past. Fjerdans claimed the

construction of the Ice Court was the work of a god or of Sënj Egmond,one of the Saints they claimed had Fjerdan blood.

But in Ravka, people

had begun to rethink the miracles of the Saints.

Nina already had an idea "Had they been true

miracles or simply the work of talented Grisha? Was this bridge a gift

from Djel? An ancient product of slave labour? Or had the Ice Court been

built in a time before Grisha had come to be viewed as monsters by the

Fjerdans?"

At the highest point of the arch,they both got her first real view of the White

Island and the inner ring. From a distance, she'd seen the island was

protected by another wall. But from this vantage point she saw the wall

had been crafted in the shape of a leviathan, a giant ice dragon circling the

island and swallowing its own tail.

She shivered whispered to Hadrian"Wolves, dragons, what

was next? In Ravkan stories, monsters waited to be woken by the call of

heroes. Well, she thought, we're certainly not heroes. Let's hope this one

stays asleep."

The descent on the bridge was even more dizzying, and Nina was

relieved when her feet struck solid white marble once more. White cherry

trees and silvery buttonwood hedges lined the marble walkway, and

security on this side of the bridge seemed decidedly more relaxed. The

guards who stood at attention wore elaborate white uniforms accented with

silver fur and less than intimidating silver lace.

As you moved deeper into the rings, security

actually tightened – it just became less visible. She looked at the

partygoers moving with her up the slippery stairs and through the cleft

between the dragon's tail and mouth.

They passed through an open stone court and the palace doors into a

vaulted entry several storeys high. The palace was made of the same clean,

white, unadorned stone as the Ice Court walls, and the whole place felt as

if it had been hollowed out of a glacier.Hadrian subtly placed the Greek fire vials in few locations.

Nina made quick

work of the guard at the vault door.

Hadrian opened the the lock with a unlocking charm, and the circular entry to the vault was opening.

Nina raised her hands, prepared to attack. They waited, as the door slid open.The room was as white as all the others, but hardly bare. Its long tables

were full of beakers set over low blue flames, heating and cooling

apparatuses, glass vials full of powders in varying shades of orange. One

wall was devoted to a massive slate board covered in chalk equations. The

other was all glass cases with little metal doors. They contained blooming

jurda plants, and Nina guessed the cases must be heated. A cot was pushed

up against the other wall, its thin covers rumpled, papers and notebooks

strewn around it. A Shu boy was seated cross-legged on it. He stared at

them, his dark hair flopping over his forehead, a notebook in his lap. He

couldn't have been more than fifteen.Next to him was man who was Shu he was awake,but seems to be paralyzed.