Six of Crows

Sixteen-year-old Inej Ghafa, known as “the Wraith” among the Dregs, grew up among the Suli people, a nomadic tribe in Ravka. As part of a family of acrobats, Inej learned to balance on the high-wire and aerial swings; as Kaz’s closest ally in the Dregs, she uses her agility to spy and attack when least expected. Inej is so adept Kaz thinks “cats would sit attentively at her feet to learn her methods” (38), and she’s ruthless with her knives when she or her friends are in danger.

Over the course of Six of Crows, Inej’s past is gradually revealed: At age fourteen she was kidnapped by slavers on the coast of Ravka, taken to Ketterdam and sold to Heleen Van Houden, proprietor of the Menagerie, a brothel specializing in “exotics.” Heleen beat Inej, “bought her once, and then sold her again and again” (367), and Inej struggles with both fury and fear of Heleen throughout the novel. Inej first encountered Kaz at the Menagerie—he paid Heleen for information—and told him she could be a useful asset to the Dregs, so Kaz convinced the Dregs’ leader to purchase Inej’s indenture. Inej believes that Kaz has “turned her into a spy” (63), he’s given her the ability to stand up for herself. She can’t help but care for Kaz even when he doesn’t “seem to give a second thought to her presence” (66).

At the beginning of the novel, Inej is motivated by what she doesn’t want. Desperate to be free of all remnants of the Menagerie, she exchanged her Menagerie tattoo for a vicious scar, yet she won’t take the Dregs tattoo, either. As the story continues, Inej discovers where to “aim” her own heart: She dreams of commanding her own ship and “hunt[ing] the slavers and their buyers” (311). Inej still cares for Kaz, and although he asks her to stay with him, he can’t speak his true feelings for Inej. She chooses her own quest to vanquish the slavers over her attachment to Kaz, but as the novel ends, Inej is kidnapped, and her fate is left to be decided in the novel’s sequel.

Nina Zenik is a 17-year-old Grisha Heartrender, meaning she has the ability to magically influence the human body “to kill or to cure” (76). She is also outspoken, confident, and skilled at talking herself out of difficult situations—in multiple languages—as well as using her Grisha powers. Originally from Ravka, Nina joined the Grisha’s Second Army after Ravka’s civil war, eager to fight for the people and country she loved. She was captured by Fjerdan Grisha hunters and only escaped when the Fjerdans’ ship sunk. She managed to reach Kerch on a merchant ship, but along the way she developed a complex relationship with one of the drüskelle, Matthias Helvar.

For the first portion of Six of Crows, Nina’s actions are governed alternately by her desire to make up for betraying Matthias and her loyalty to the Grisha. Nina wants to keep the formula for jurda parem secret—the drug will destroy the Grisha if it’s placed in the wrong hands—and she’s willing to kill its inventor to do so. Nina is torn between her love for Matthias and her hatred for the way Matthias and his countrymen see Grisha as an abomination. When Matthias betrays his own mentors to save Nina, Nina fully accepts her feelings for Matthias, promising to “kiss [him] unconscious” (390). Then, when she has the chance to kill Yul-Bayur’s son Kuwei, betray the Dregs, and ensure the Grisha’s safety, she chooses not to. She has now placed her own personal relationships, and her sense of human decency, above killing in the Grisha’s name.

In the climax of the novel, Nina takes her new loyalty to her friends even further, displaying great courage as she takes jurda parem—a drug that could leave her an addict, withering away till she dies—so she’ll have the power to save the Dregs. She does save her friends, but as the novel ends, she is still weak from withdrawal, with another character guessing “she might not last out the month” (457). She professes her love for Matthias and her desire to return home to Ravka. Her two conflicting desires have now come together as Matthias promises to take her there. Most of all, Nina feels no regret for her choice to sacrifice herself, placing her friends’ and love’s lives above her own.

Eighteen-year-old Matthias Helvar is from Fjerda, where he was a drüskelle, a hunter of Grisha on an intensely personal mission. Matthias’s parents and sisters were killed when Grisha soldiers burned his village, and drüskelle leader Jarl Brum became his father and mentor. Matthias believes that Grisha are abominations; he is faithful to the nature gods of his country and, as Grisha’s powers are “unnatural,” they must be exterminated. At the same time, Matthias can’t deny his deep attraction to Nina, the Grisha who saved him from drowning in the shipwreck and then falsely accused him, so he ended up in prison.

Kaz, whom Matthias despises for his ruthless nature, asks Matthias to help him break into the Ice Court, an act that will force Matthias to “betray his country” (111). The only way Kaz can convince Matthias is by offering him an official pardon from Nina’s false charges, a way for Matthias to become a drüskelle again. The desire to return to the position that means so much to him—and, once he does so, to make Nina pay—convinces Matthias to betray his country by guiding outsiders into the sacred court. Matthias considers compromising his morals out of a desire for revenge.

As Matthias comes to know and care for the rest of the Dregs—and, despite himself, allows his love for Nina to overtake his hatred—his motivations transform. He decides to truly help the Dregs, even imprisoning his former mentor, Jarl Brum. After Nina sacrifices herself by taking jurda parem, Matthias stays beside her through her withdrawal, promising to take her back to Ravka and begging her not to go. In the final scene of the novel, Matthias protects a still-weak Nina as the Dregs begin their next mission. Clearly, his love for her has become his new purpose, his honor and driving force.

The son of a farmer in Novyi Zem, 17-year-old Jesper Fahey traveled to Ketterdam to attend university but ended up joining the Dregs. Inej describes Jesper as a long-limbed sharpshooter who is “constantly in motion” (17); only Jesper himself knows that the thrill of a gunfight serves a deeper purpose, “call[ing] the scattered, irascible, permanently seeking part of his mind into focus” (142). This same “seeking” aspect of his personality originally drew Jesper to Ketterdam, where he hoped studying would satisfy his restlessness, but he found that gambling did so even better. Jesper loves and misses his father, but he can’t handle the countryside’s “wide open spaces and silence” (192), and he feels incredible guilt for borrowing his father’s money and losing it while gambling. Jesper joins Kaz’s dangerous mission because his portion of the reward will allow him to pay back his father, and he maintains this motivation throughout the novel.

Despite his gambling problem, Jesper demonstrates great bravery and loyalty to his friends. He works particularly hard to protect Wylan, a mercher’s son and the least experienced of the crew. Although Jesper taunts Wylan, the jabs become increasingly playful until Jesper concedes that “flirting with [Wylan] might actually be more fun than annoying him” (291). Jesper eventually admits to liking boys in addition to girls, and Jesper’s and Wylan’s relationship seems set to develop further in the novel’s sequel.

At the same time, Jesper’s role in the Dregs’ mission forces him to expose a part of his identity he’s always concealed: He is a Grisha Fabrikator, able to control materials such as metal, and he has kept his powers hidden at his father’s urging. He realizes that once the mission is complete, he’ll have to decide whether to “cultivate his power or keep hiding it” (439)—a decision he still hasn’t made when the novel ends. Jesper clearly has some work left to do in order to manage his impulsive nature, understand his Grisha abilities, and move forward in his romantic relationship with Wylan.