"Yeah, yeah, we got it."

"Enjoy," the Dime Lion says, something ugly and sadistically amused in his voice, as the guard waves them through. 

The room beyond is an arena, not a prison, the black walls of the old tower rising above them to the starry sky, the roof long since missing. There's a crudely made amphitheater below the stone ledge they're standing on, terraced ledges crowding claustrophobically around a small fighting pit, nearly every space on the ledges filled by people in costume, the sands of the pit scuffed and stained dark with blood. There's a wheel of fortune with scuffed paintings of animals, like they just gutted some old gambling hall for the props, and two heavy gates on opposite sides of the rings, and an announcer wearing a costume probably meant to look like a lion's pelt.

Barbaric.

"And now we wait," Kaz mutters.

The first fight is between a prisoner and a large lizard whose jaws drip with a flesh-eating venom - the prisoner doesn't last long, and the crowd boos as he's torn apart and partially eaten. Several Dime Lions prod the lizard back into the tunnel, and the body of the prisoner is cleaned up. 

And Susanne Helvar is next to emerge.

She looks different from how Nina last saw her. Thinner. Harder. The burgeoning hope in her eyes replaced by a cold rage as she glares around the arena - and at the announcer specifically. (She doesn't seem to notice Nina at all.)

She steps up to the wheel and spins it with her shackled hands, so forcefully it nearly comes off its setting. The red needle clacks, until the wheel finally starts to slow...

And settles on a painting of a wolf's head. 

Something changes in her posture. Something helpless. Angry. Hurt. But she doesn't lash out even as the guard undoes her shackles, even as he and the announcer leap on the ladder to be safely lifted from the arena. 

She just stands and stares at where the wolves will emerge. 

Ah.

"Kaz. Don't let this happen."

"I don't run the Dime Lions, Zenik. Your Fjerdan will have to deal. You can make it up to her after."

Her expression looks dead as three wolves emerge, snarling - mangy, their ribs visible - already rushing her, so hungry they're heedless of the danger - 

And then the ice that was her mask breaks - 

And what's under is more feral than even the starving wolves, a terrifying rictus that doesn't look human, doesn't even look like something of this world - 

The wolves stop. Stumble. Pause, and pant for breath - 

And lay down, resting their heads on their paws peacefully.

There's a Fjerdan saying. The water hears and understands. The ice does not forgive. 

It's a jagged, broken ice that looks up at the Dime Lions. A dark cold water revealed under. Hungry, and ready to drag everyone who dared walk across her calm surface into its depths. 

She lifts her hands. It's almost unnecessary. 

The announcer crumples, clutching his chest, before anyone has time to react. The guards scrambling to raise their rifles aren't far behind. 

Which, of course, is when the crowd starts to panic. 

"Down, down, get down!" Kaz drags her party down behind the lip of the railing.

She's used her time productively is, absurdly, the thought most on Nina's mind.

Kaz has good instincts, based on how many random audience members Helvar kills when she runs out of Dime Lions - aiming for the ones closest to the exits, the ones whose deaths will cause the most chaos as the press of those desperate to escape trip over them - though she's focusing on killing any who try to enter most, including the panicked guards who just open fire into the crowd. 

Kaz's crew aren't the only ones who think to get out of sight, even if that means not fleeing yet. 

It takes an eternity, in the time measured by panicked heartbeats, for Helvar to run out of people she feels like killing. A good number have escaped... But the bodies - and those hiding or pretending to be dead - are thick on the ground, and there's distant shouting. And less distant sobbing and groaning; it isn't hard to tell that there's some people still alive in here. 

There'll probably be backup, sooner or later. Someone trying to restrain the enraged Grisha.

Helvar stands in the middle of the bloody arena, breathing heavily - 

And then turns to start healing the wolves.

Nina rises, evades Kaz's hand grabbing for her, and hops down into the arena to help.

She turns around, snarling, hand rising - and freezes when she sees who it is. "Nina?" Her voice cracks.

"...Yeah."

"I'm here to break you out of prison, babe." She attempts a flirty smile.

She doesn't smile back - but she does relax. And then she gestures at the wolves. "Them too."

"It'll be a tight squeeze in the boat."

"I'll keep them calm."

"Nina. You owe me."

"I know."

"All right, wolves too."

- And then Inej steps out of the hallway leading to the cages.