Words on Fire, page 3
Which was the worst thought of all.
I’d probably only walked a couple of kilometers before I became too tired and sore to continue on any farther. I tucked myself into a copse of trees far off the path and pulled the shawl tight around my shoulders to sleep, using the package from inside my father’s bag as a pillow. I doubted I’d get any real rest this way, but I didn’t care if I did. If I slept too deeply, I’d have nightmares.
I dug into my father’s bag again and pulled out a blanket he sometimes used in a trick to make a person disappear in front of a crowd of onlookers. The blanket itself wasn’t much for warmth, but it might offer me some bit of comfort tonight as I cuddled it to my chest. My eyes became sleepy, and as I closed them, I wished my father could’ve had the kind of magic to disappear when the Cossacks had come for him.
More than anything, I wished magic were real. Which made me hurt even more to know that it wasn’t—that without him, it never could be real.
I stayed curled up in that position, drifting in and out of an empty sleep that left me more tired than when I’d begun. Thankfully, it was a warm night, but still I shivered through it, out of fear and loneliness, I supposed. Finally, the sun began to rise, and with it my mood began to improve. Maybe the worst was over. Maybe the soldiers would realize it had all been a mistake, and my parents would be released, wherever they were.
I sat up, stuffed the blanket back into the shoulder bag, and ate one of the cakes, saving the rest for later, for I had no idea how long it would take to walk the rest of the way to Venska. I grabbed a nearby stick and pressed it against the side of my ankle, then used Violeta’s shawl to tie it tight to my leg. I hoped that would brace it and lessen the pain of walking. So far this morning, I’d done well for myself.
That was, until I picked up the package. The forest floor must have been a bit damp, for the cloth around the package had soaked up some moisture overnight. If the moisture had gotten to whatever was inside, I didn’t care. My mother had been right in all her pleas and protests to my father, that it would end badly. I cared nothing for whatever was in that package.
Except that my father had cared deeply about it, and my mother had, too, despite her worries. They had sacrificed their freedom for it and may yet lose their lives for it. What could possibly be so valuable?
Then something exciting occurred to me, a thought that lifted my spirits once again. If this package was so valuable, then surely it could be useful in getting my parents back! I had something the Cossacks clearly wanted, and they had my parents. Maybe we could make a trade.
My heart pounded with anticipation, with hope … but then it almost immediately sank into nothingness.
I couldn’t make a trade with the Cossacks. I didn’t know any of them personally and certainly couldn’t trust them. If I presented them with the package, they wouldn’t agree to a trade. They’d merely arrest me and take the package for themselves.
Maybe Milda could make the trade. Maybe that’s why my mother wanted this package to go to her, because she would be able to use it to get them back.
My eyes fell upon the wrapping again. I had promised to get it to Milda but never promised it would arrive unopened. I set the package on my lap and tugged at the knot, but somewhere behind me, a branch cracked. Maybe it was only an animal or a whisper of the morning breeze, but maybe not. I grabbed the basket of cakes, checked quickly to be sure I’d left nothing behind, then ran as fast as my ankle would allow.
My entire foot throbbed worse than it had last night. I didn’t think it was broken, or else I couldn’t have walked on it at all. But I was sure whatever damage I’d done to it was made worse by so much walking, which meant by the time I got to Venska, I’d be lucky if I wasn’t dragging myself to Milda’s front door.
Along the way, I passed a small river straddled by a bridge as wide as only three planks of wood and suspended by weathered rope. I hoped it was safe because I needed to cross it, so I held my breath, held even tighter to the rope, and took my first step forward. When I’d crossed, I looked back and felt a swell of pride. That hadn’t been nearly so difficult as I’d expected.
I paused at the river’s edge for a long drink. Where the water had pooled and become still, I stared at myself in the reflection and gasped. I looked horrible. Streaks of dirt lined my cheeks where I’d brushed tears off my face. Both my braids looked like something had clawed bits of hair loose to stick out in all directions. And my eyes were still red, though there was nothing I could do about that.
I washed my face, which already helped me feel a bit better, then undid my braids, finger combed my hair the best I could, then braided it again as neatly as possible. While I rested, I ate the second of the three cakes in the basket. I knew I shouldn’t have. It would surely take at least the rest of the day to walk to Venska, and I was bound to get hungry. But I was hungry now too.
Once I’d finished the cake, I decided I had better keep walking and get as far along the path as possible before my stomach rumbled for more food.
By mid-morning, I reached the fork in the path that Filip had told me about, or at least, it seemed like a fork. I didn’t think the trail that led to the right had gotten much use, but maybe few people ever went to Venska. Maybe just me and an occasional squirrel.
However, it became clear within the hour that I had taken a wrong turn. The worn path beneath my feet had faded into young summer plants and old autumn leaves so thick I knew nothing else had passed this way, not even a squirrel.
At least there was no evidence of soldiers passing this way either. So if I was lost, it could be worse.
But I was lost, and I’d been lost for long enough that I wasn’t even sure how to retrace my steps back to where I thought there’d been a fork in the trail. I would have to hope that if I continued, I would eventually come to Milda’s village or to any village where I might receive some help.
I limped forward while the sun rose in the sky and continued on even as it began to sink again. With it, my spirits sank too. For all I knew, I’d passed Venska hours ago and was halfway to Russia by now.
My mood worsened further when I first heard the sound of a river. Filip had said nothing about having to cross a second river, so I knew now that I was very far from where I ought to be. I rounded a bend and came upon it, then sighed. This river was much too wide to jump across, and if I tried to wade through it, I’d be soaked for the rest of the day and probably into the evening.
I searched upstream until I found an area with enough rocks that I could step from one to the other to cross. And it worked perfectly … at first.
Halfway across, my injured foot teetered on an uneven rock. One arm held on to the package while the other arm flapped wildly in the air, trying to keep my balance. For the first time, I was glad to be alone because I must have looked ridiculous. Nor did it work. I fell bottom-first into the water, landing on a sandbar a half-meter deep. Instinctively, I’d held up my father’s bag, so it was only splashed, but it had cost me the last cake to protect it. That had fallen from the basket in my arms and was now sailing down the river, sinking lower until it was out of sight. Tears filled my eyes, but I fought them back. It was absurd to cry for the loss of a cake when I’d lost my parents less than a day ago, and their loss was far worse. Maybe these tears weren’t for the cake at all.
“Why didn’t you cross on that log?”
The words were in Lithuanian, not Russian, but I still froze in place. I turned to see a boy downriver, standing beside a donkey, allowing it to drink from the water. Between us was a sawed log, nearly flat for crossing the river. How had I missed that? Worse still, how had I missed this boy? He looked older than me by a year or two but was about my height, so either I was a little tall for my age or he was a little short, I wasn’t sure. His brown hair was tousled and in need of a cut, but I gathered from the unkempt look of his clothes that his appearance wasn’t a priority. He had a nice smile, though, or he would have, if his smile wasn’t so upsetting. Was he laughing at me?
“I prefer crossing on rocks,” I told him, which was a stupid thing to say.
“Ah. Round river rocks with slippery moss on the sides.” He grinned. So he was laughing at me. “Excellent choice.”
I stood, but my ankle hurt worse than ever, and with the current pulling at my legs, I began wobbling.
The boy left the donkey and ran for me, catching me beneath the arms just as I was about to splash in again.
“It’s no crime to ask for help,” he said, putting an arm around my shoulder. Then he smiled again. “Unless you ask in Lithuanian, of course. Then it’s a very serious crime.”
I tilted my head as I looked over at him. What a strange boy he was.
He nodded at the package in my arms. “May I carry that for you?”
“No.” I pulled it to my chest. I wouldn’t hand it over to anyone other than Milda, or maybe the Cossacks if Milda wouldn’t help me bargain with them for my parents.
He shrugged and led me the rest of the way to the riverbank, then let me sit on the grasses to rest.
“I’m Lukas,” he said. “I haven’t seen you around here before.” He hesitated, waiting for me to say something, and when I didn’t, he added, “Are you lost?”
“I’m trying to get to Venska,” I said.
Lukas grinned again. “Then you are indeed lost.” He pointed behind me. “Venska is about a half kilometer behind us now, once you get out of these woods. Be careful to spot the path leading into the village. It’s easy to miss.”
I grimaced and got to my feet again. I’d only taken a few steps forward before I braced myself for greater courage, then said, “Can you show me the way?”
Lukas hesitated and looked around him. “No, I’m sorry, I can’t.”
“Please.”
He shrugged. “I’m not someone you want as a friend, trust me.”
I didn’t need a friend. I only knew that I was hungry and tired and my emotions were wrung out. I couldn’t risk missing the turn and ending up walking straight back into Rusakov and his men. It wasn’t in me to ask for help, or really to ask for anything at all, but I had to convince this boy to help me.
I considered offering him some sort of bribe or payment, but when I looked in my father’s bag, hoping a few coins might have magically appeared, I saw nothing … except for magic. Papa had let me practice with his tricks all I wanted, though I’d never tried the tricks on anyone but him and Mama. Did I dare to test a trick on Lukas?
No, but I also didn’t dare to return to the woods without him as a guide. That would be far worse.
I reached into my father’s bag and pulled out a deck of cards. “What if we make a bargain? You can pick any card from this deck, and if I guess what it is, you have to take me to Venska.”
Lukas grinned. “And if you don’t guess it?”
“I’ll show you what’s in this package.”
He cocked his head. “You’ll give me what’s in the package, you mean.”
I nodded, trying to look as if this were a fair game. It wasn’t.
“Any card I choose?” Lukas asked.
Technically, it’d be the exact card I wanted him to choose, but this was a trick my father had taught me years ago. I could do it in my sleep, and as tired as I was, I might almost be doing that very thing.
I fanned out the cards facedown so that neither of us could see them. Lukas pulled a card from the deck.
“Look at it,” I instructed him. “Then return it to the pile.”
He did, and then I shuffled the cards back together. He watched me carefully, thinking he had gotten the better of me. I held up one random card for him, a jack of spades. “It isn’t this one.” Then held up a second, a red seven. “Nor this one.”
Lukas smiled. “Are you going to tell me all the cards it’s not, or the one it is? Because our bet—”
I held up a third card, the ten of clubs. “It was this one.”
Lukas’s smile turned to amazement, and when he recovered, he bowed low. “I don’t know how you did that, but you win. Where in Venska would you like to go?”
I opened my mouth but realized I’d forgotten the full name of the woman I was supposed to find. “Er, I’m looking for Milda …”
“Sabiene?” Lukas grinned.
“You know her?”
“I do. She always has a treat for Pasha when we come.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “Pasha?” In Russian, it meant “small and humble.”
Lukas nodded toward his donkey, then added, “The name is to remind this animal who is in charge.” He tugged at Pasha’s rope again but to no avail. “It obviously is not me. My father is away on business. I suppose he won’t know that I’m not going to be home tonight … again.” He cocked his head at me to follow him. “Let’s go.”
I began following him away, then asked, “What do you mean ‘again’?”
Lukas chuckled to himself. “You’ve heard the story of the fool son?”
I shrugged. “No.”
“Ah. Well, the name tells you all you need to know. My father considers me a great fool, and he may be right. I don’t need to go home to be reminded of that every time he speaks to me.”
“I’d give anything to go home,” I whispered, too low for him to hear. Which was a good thing, because I could never explain to him that I understood exactly what he’d meant. I would not be going home tonight either. I would likely never go home again.
I’d ridden my father’s horses before, of course, but always with a saddle. Lukas’s donkey was bareback, which made riding him somewhat like staying balanced on two logs floating down a bubbly river. By the time we reached Milda’s home, the bruises on my backside would match those on my ankle and I’d neither sit nor walk for a week.
“Where did you come from?” Lukas asked.
I shrugged, which was all the answer he was going to get. I didn’t want to talk to him any more than was necessary, and certainly not to tell him anything about me. If he were one of Rusakov’s spies my father had told me about, then I wouldn’t be foolish enough to give myself away.
Or at least to make things worse than they already were.
“You know, there’s a story for a girl like you,” he said. “Once upon a time, there was a girl named Rue—”
“Rue! That’s what my father calls me!” Then my shoulders sank. “Used to call me.”
“Yes, but this was actually her name.” Lukas cleared his throat, then continued. “Rue was the daughter of a wealthy man, and a very special girl because she could do magic. For this reason, the snake that lived on that same land wanted the girl for himself so she could do magic at his bidding. One day the wealthy man was injured when his cart overturned on him. The snake said, ‘I will save you, but you must give me your daughter.’ As it was the only way to save his life, the man reluctantly agreed.”
I found myself smiling as Lukas spoke. I’d heard similar stories from my mother all my life, though never one quite like this version.
“The snake went to a bear that lived in the nearby forest and threatened to bite the bear if the bear did not help him free the trapped man. ‘I will help you, snake,’ said the bear. ‘But when the man gives you his daughter, you must let her choose between us, choose which of us she prefers.’ The snake agreed, for he was certain the daughter would never take the side of a bear.”
“I wouldn’t choose either one,” I said.
The expression in Lukas’s eyes warned me to let him finish the story. “The man was freed and the next morning he brought his daughter into his fields to choose between the snake and the bear. Like you, Rue wanted nothing to do with either of them, but her father warned that if he did not keep his promise, the snake might bite them and the bear might eat them.”
I screwed up my face. “How awful!”
“Well, it would be, if Rue weren’t so clever. She told the snake to swim up the longest river in Lithuania, and if he were her choice, she would meet him at the end. She told the bear to run to the deepest part of the forest, and if he were her choice, she would meet him at the end. The snake immediately began swimming, farther and farther north, until one day he swam right out of Lithuania.”
“And what of the bear?” I asked.
“He waits there still, hoping one day she will come.” Lukas glanced back at me. “He knows he was tricked, but he believes if she comes, she will be a most valuable friend.”
“That’s a lovely story,” I said. “I’ve never heard that one before.”
“There are many more stories to be told of Rue’s adventures,” Lukas said. “Perhaps I can tell you more of them one day.”
“You won’t have time, I’m sure,” I said. “You must have a family who needs you, or someone you work for.”
Lukas only shrugged. “My family doesn’t want me and certainly doesn’t need the sort of help I might offer them. And I work out here for Ben, though he doesn’t exactly pay me. Making money is hardly my concern, though. If I have a bite of food each day and I’m on my feet each morning, then I have enough.”
So he was a sort of thief, then, maybe living on his own for some time considering how comfortably he moved about these woods.
I said, “Someday you’ll have to learn to work a proper job instead of wandering through the forests on some mysterious errand for a person named Ben.”
He snorted. “So says the girl who I found wandering through the forests carrying a bag of tricks and a mysterious package.”
I rolled my eyes but remained silent. He’d made his point.
Lukas stopped and turned around to face me. His eyes flicked between my bag and my confused expression. “So what’s in that package?” When I hesitated, he added, “Oh, you don’t know what you’re carrying! Where did you get it?”
My eyes darted away. Officer Rusakov had called my parents criminals, and this package was obviously evidence of their crimes. Evidence of my crimes now, I supposed. Before long, Lukas continued walking again, whistling a tune as we went.
