A Darker Shore

This epistolary companion novella is set in the Grishaverse, the same world as Bardugo's Six of Crows duology, and takes place some years after those books. The story unfolds through official investigation minutes, personal letters, diary entries, and newspaper clippings, all centering on a deadly incident off the island of Vellvals near the trading city of Ketterdam.

The framing narrative opens with two inspectors convened in Ketterdam's Stadhall to investigate the Vellvals tragedy. Inspector Anton Haggart, a senior investigator, and Inspector Gerwin Merx, his younger partner, have been appointed by the Merchant Council of Ketterdam to review intelligence materials related to the disaster. Haggart provides context: After the auction for the scientist Kuwei Yul-Bo and the imprisonment of the corrupt merchant Jan Van Eck, the Council faced intense scrutiny. Two councilmen were found tied on the Stadhall steps with the word "slaver" carved into their chests, alongside ledgers proving their involvement in the slave trade. Other merchants fled as their illicit dealings were exposed, and ships sank or vanished along disrupted trade routes. Much of this damage is attributed to a ship called the Wraith, commanded by an unknown woman. The Council issued a warrant for the captain's arrest on charges of piracy. Merx states that their true purpose is to examine whether Council members themselves acted illegally, but Haggart warns against pressing too aggressively.

Interspersed with the investigation are personal letters revealing what has become of former members of the Dregs, a criminal gang based in Ketterdam's Barrel district. The first correspondence is between Kaz Brekker, the Dregs' leader, and a figure identified only as "I," whom the inspectors believe is Inej Ghafa, a former Dregs member who served as Kaz's intelligence gatherer. Writing from aboard the Wraith near the coast of Ravka, a neighboring nation, Inej reflects on the landscape where she was kidnapped as a child and sold into servitude. She describes freedom at sea but also longing for Ketterdam and the sound of Kaz's pen on his ledgers. Kaz replies with characteristic deflection, revealing he has purchased a farm where he and his late brother Jordie once climbed apple trees as boys. He invites Inej to visit, a rare gesture of vulnerability.

A letter from Jesper Fahey, another former Dregs member now living with Wylan Van Eck in the Van Eck mansion, introduces a new threat. Jesper encloses sheet music for a composition Wylan titled "Safe Harbor," noting that Kaz heard the piece, returned the sheet music with detailed notation suggestions, and asked that it be sent to Inej. Jesper also introduces Emiel Kroon, a security expert whose uncrackable safes and alarm systems have foiled multiple criminal operations. No gang claims Kroon, and his origins are unknown. Jesper notes that Kaz's health is deteriorating: He is thinner and paler, the Dregs face increasing raids by the Stadwatch, Ketterdam's police force, and Kaz is uncharacteristically passive. Jesper urges Inej to winter in Ketterdam.

Inej replies from Djerholm, the Fjerdan capital, where she has visited the Ice Court, the royal stronghold she once helped infiltrate during the events of Six of Crows. She describes her growing crew of freed sailors and former captives. At the Ice Court, the Fjerdan queen, known as Mila Jandersdat, wept upon hearing Wylan's composition. Inej observes that despite embracing court life, the queen carries "the memory of a life she never got to live" (16). Inej has found no information on Kroon in Fjerda's underworld and urges Jesper to watch over Kaz.

The investigation materials reveal the conspiracy at the story's center. Councilman Van Andel's ship sank off the Ravkan coast; he claimed the cargo was grain, but Merx argues it was human. The Council issued a bounty of 100,000 kruge, the local currency, for the Wraith's captain. Private correspondence between Van Andel and Councilman Graeve reveals both have suffered losses at the Wraith's hands and agree to take extralegal action, with Graeve proposing to capture and interrogate the captain to dismantle her network.

The next set of letters between Kaz and Inej, written on stationery from Club Cumulus, one of Kaz's establishments, appears to arrange a meeting at Vellvals. Van Andel and Graeve intercept these communications and plan an ambush, with Van Andel instructing Graeve's ships to fly pirate flags to blend in with the Wraith's expected reinforcements.

The result is catastrophic: six merchant ships destroyed, approximately 100 men dead. Because Graeve's ships flew pirate colors, Van Andel's fleet mistook them for the Wraith's vessels and opened fire, and the two fleets destroyed each other. Merx suspects Van Andel engineered this outcome by falsifying communications between Kaz and Inej to lure Graeve into the trap. Haggart concedes the letters cannot be independently verified and urges Merx to attempt verification, fearing the scandal could shatter public trust in the Council.

At an emergency midnight session, Merx abruptly reverses course. He declares he has failed to authenticate the letters, advises closing the investigation, and announces his immediate retirement, stating that Ketterdam is "no place for honest men" (34). He requests all official files be sealed.

Merx's private diary, which he buries separately alongside undeciphered final letters, reveals the full truth. The phrase "should the stars align" in Kaz's correspondence strikes Merx as false, since Kaz does not believe in fate. Merx notices that Kaz uses Club Cumulus stationery, printed with stars, exclusively when writing to Inej. By aligning the stars on the stationery with Wylan's sheet music, Merx uncovers a hidden cipher: Small marks above and below certain notes encode the real messages. Kaz and Inej know their letters are being intercepted and use them to bait Van Andel and Graeve into destroying each other. The meeting at Vellvals is never real.

Merx solves one final piece. The note in which Van Andel instructs Graeve to fly pirate flags is a forgery written by Kaz. The authenticating seal comes from Emiel Kroon, because Kroon is Kaz Brekker in disguise. Kaz has been dosing himself with painkillers to suppress his characteristic limp, allowing him to move unrecognized among the merchant class and explaining his deteriorating health. As Kroon, he installs security systems for wealthy merchants, gaining access to their seals, safes, and secrets. He also uses Stadwatch crackdowns, which he encourages through Kroon's influence, to eliminate rival gangs while staging a raid on his own operation as cover.

Before the midnight meeting, Kaz visits Merx and lays out the scheme without remorse, then presents a dossier exposing Merx's criminal past under a different name. He threatens to deliver the file to the Council if Merx does not end the investigation. Merx capitulates, comparing Kaz to "a demon from childhood stories who offers dangerous bargains and terrible gifts" (39).

The final letters look toward the future. Inej writes from Djerholm, wintering under the Fjerdan queen's protection, and describes a holiday feast of griddle-cakes soaked in red foxberry syrup. She asks Wylan for another song and the recipe for apple cake. Kaz replies from Ketterdam, observing the Stadwatch raids with detachment and announcing plans to reopen Club Cumulus. The book's final page provides the apple cake recipe, a quiet, domestic closing note to the web of espionage, blackmail, and orchestrated violence that precedes it.