Sky Knights (7 page)

 It didn't feel like enemy territory until they came to the edge of the forest and looked out upon a burnt and blackened landscape, dusted neatly with a layer of snow. The jagged, black ends of what had once been trees thrust up through the snow, the only remains of what had once been a dense forest.

There was a long, black-on-white corridor of destruction, grown cold now, but Ira could imagine what it looked like all aflame. She'd seen it herself from the cockpit of her plane.

"This was the front line," Dounia said, scanning the horizon with her eyes. "They've advanced even further than I thought."

"Do we have to cross that?" Meow asked anxiously. "It's very out in the open. If that plane flies over again while we're crossing it, they'll see us right away."

"And anyone on the other side would see us coming," Ira said grimly. "But the fact stands that we have to cross. We've bombed the hell out of this area, and going around would take us days."

"We don't have days," Dounia said, shaking her head.

"We have no food or water," Meow said. "Or any survival equipment."

"I can't even start a fire," Dounia said. "Not if the enemy might see the smoke."

They all looked across the vast, empty space in front of them, littered with the remains of the destruction they'd rained down only weeks ago.

"If we cross it in the dark, they might not see us," Ira said, squinting across to try and see if she could see the other side. It was all just trees, with no sign of where the enemy could be.

"True," Meow said. "I really don't like the idea of us crossing in the daylight. Too many people could see us and kill us from a long way off."

One German sniper or one scout plane was all it would take, and none of them would have a chance, not without a place to hide or take cover.

They made themselves as comfortable as possible at the edge of the forest to wait for nightfall. They had several hours before it began to get dark, even this deep in winter, when night came early. Dounia cleared them a space by melting the snow off a small patch of ground. At least they would be dry while they waited.

Ira tried to make a better splint for her arm, and she wondered again if maybe she would be able to fix the break herself. Dounia must have known what she was considering, because she gave her a sharp look. Ira sighed, but knew that if she did it wrong, she could do enough damage that the shock could kill her.

A little while later, Dounia melted them some snow to drink. Ira's stomach gurgled and the water she'd gulped down swished around inside. She was so hungry, but there was nothing out here to eat.

"Sleep," Dounia told her. "I'll keep watch for a bit."

"I'll take the next shift," Ira said, already yawning and settling down, uncaring that the ground was so hard and lumpy.

"No, Meow will take the next shift."

She heard Meow protest, but the rest was lost in a darkening haze as she surrendered to sleep, unable to keep her eyes open once she'd given her body permission to rest.

Night came swiftly, and across the empty expanse in front of them, a string of lights illuminated the forest where the German front lines were setting up for the night. Maybe from above, their camps were blacked out, to keep the night bombers from seeing their position. But from the ground, Dounia could see them perfectly.

"Do you think they're keeping up watch on the other side?" Ira asked, coming up beside her, Meow curled over her good shoulder.

"Most likely they're watching the sky for our sisters," Dounia said. "Or looking toward our lines. No one looks for enemies from behind."

"Do you think that they are still searching for us?" Ira asked. "I haven't heard a thing since that plane, but you two are the ones with the hearing."

"Not a sound," Dounia shook her head. "Not anything at all."

She hadn't heard any birds in the trees or animals in the woods the entire time they'd been here. It made sense that no animals wanted to live near an active warzone, but it was still eerie, the lack of life here. Just them and snow-covered trees.

"Let's cross. We have to hurry; we can't still be in sight once the sun rises again," Ira said, but paused, looking at Dounia. "Is it just me, or does it feel wrong to step across this burnt earth?"

"I don't want to cross either," Dounia admitted, a crawling feeling beginning in her belly at the thought of being out in the open. "But we must."

"It's a different feeling," Meow said, eyes glinting in the night. "This was where our front lines were a few weeks ago."

"We'll retake it," Ira said, voice steel-hard and determined. "They thought they had us beaten once, but we forced them back from the gates of Moscow. They will never win."

"Never," Dounia agreed, and took Ira's hand in hers.

Together, they stepped out into the vast corridor, feet crunching on the new snow. The bombing had wiped away all the snow that had fallen previously, and it was less deep than the snow in the forest. Dounia walked as fast as she dared, making sure that Ira kept her footing in the rough, uneven landscape.

"What a dead empty place," Ira said, and the sound echoed in the barren, snow-coated landscape.

"Shhh," Meow hissed, ears flattening. "Your voices will carry over the snow."

"Do you think anyone heard that?" Dounia asked in a whisper.

"Can't say," Meow replied, ears pricking forward to listen. "I can't hear anything."

They continued, and Dounia guided Ira as best she could. Dounia and Meow could both see the ground just fine in the dark, but Ira was almost blind. It was a cloudy night, and it might yet start snowing again, so there was no moon to light the way. But it also meant there was no light to see them by, so Dounia was thankful for that. She just had to make sure that Ira didn't twist an ankle on the uneven terrain.

It was slow going, but Dounia dared not rush Ira any faster. If she injured a leg, that was it for them. Dounia could try and carry Ira all the way to their front lines, but it would put their chances of success at almost zero. The odds weren't that great as it was.

That's when she heard it, the rattling, whistling sound of wood and canvas wings on the air.

"Do you hear it?" she whispered to Meow.

"Yes," Meow said, eyes to the sky. "They're coming."

It wasn't long until up ahead of them, spouts of fire shot into the air and the earth rumbled as the night bombers dropped their loads on the front lines. Soon, parts of the enemy line ahead of them blazed scarlet, and the Germans shouted commands as they tried to bring the fires under control.

"At least we know where we're headed," Ira said, smiling grimly as the bombardment of the Germans continued.

"It almost looks pretty from here," Dounia said.

"Yes, look at those sparks, thrown so high into the air," Ira said, pointing at a particularly large fire. "Huge embers flying up and up, like a signal for us to follow."

The spotlights came on, sweeping over the night sky, searching for their tormentors that rained death and fire down on them from the air. Sometimes they would catch a flicker of movement, the edge of a wing or the flash of a tail, but there was hardly any sound to give them away. Just a whoosh, as if there were giant birds swooping in from above, giant birds of prey.

"It sounds so strange, like a demon in the night," Dounia whispered. "I had no idea that we sounded like that when we came diving in. It's scary."

"If I didn't know that it was our very own comrades up there defying death in their little wooden planes, I would almost say that we were something, some sort of magical being in the air," Ira replied.

"No wonder they hate us so much," Dounia said. "We're some terrifying thing that comes in the night that no one can kill, or even see."

"I can see why shooting us down is worth an Iron Cross now," Ira said. "I always thought it was so funny, that the Germans feared us enough to offer such a reward for our deaths."

"And here I thought we were just little girls in flying wooden crates." Dounia stifled a laugh in the crook of her arm. "Or so our men would have us believe."

"We're not girls at all. We're dragons."

"They are right to fear you," Meow said, baring his teeth. "Do they not know our history and all of those armies that have tried to invade our homeland in centuries past? The women of Russia have always been dragons."

Their courage bolstered, the three of them walked with certainty, twice as determined to reach their destination with their comrades flying overhead.

The wide swath of destruction had looked so vast from where they had been, but crossing it took less time than Dounia had imagined it would. Soon, they were almost on the other side, near to the camps, and she slowed down to a crawl. From where they were, the sound of men talking was loud and Dounia could make out the shape of tents in their camp.

That's when she heard it, and grabbed Ira's arm to stop her from going any further.

There was a sentry up ahead of them, and he said something to his companion, laughing and looking up at the sky. They hadn't seen Dounia or Ira, but it was a close thing.

Dounia spoke absolutely no German at all. She knew the word for "yes" because it was so close to their own word for "yes," but that was it. Ira knew a little, having made a point of learning once the war had started.

She leaned in close to Ira's ear and breathed, "What are they saying?"

"They are wondering if the bombing will continue," Ira whispered back, so softly that a human ear wouldn't have been able to hear it.

It would continue, that Dounia was sure of. Maybe something had delayed them, but another round of bombing would undoubtedly start up soon. It was a good night for it. There was cloud cover, and it wasn't snowing. It wasn't even windy. An ideal night for flying, if Dounia did say so herself. Without wind, the bombers had a much higher chance of hitting their targets.

"They have uniforms," Meow pointed out.

"That they do," Dounia replied, grinning. "And we have a nice distraction in the form of our own people bombing the German lines."

"A bomb might hit us," Ira said.

"Or it might not. It's our best chance to cross without being seen, when everyone is distracted."

Ira nodded, and as Dounia predicted, another round of bombing began soon after that. Under the cover of the explosions, no one heard a pistol fire twice. Everyone in the enemy camp was so busy with their spotlights and anti-aircraft guns that no one thought to go check on the sentries. No one saw two women and one black cat stripping the Germans of their uniforms and putting them on over their bomber jackets.

"This is so awkward," Ira complained, trying to fit the sleeve of the German jacket over both her bomber jacket and her splint.

"At least we look more bulky and less likely to look like women," Dounia replied. "The German army doesn't recruit women, you know."

"And short hair as well," Ira said, patting at her hair that she's braided back and hidden underneath the German helmet.

"How am I supposed to hide my ears?" Dounia complained. "This helmet feels horrible digging in and flattening them."

"You can't wear your bomber cap, people will notice!" Ira hissed back, looking at her critically. "It's no good, I can still see the tips of your ears."

"It will have to do," Dounia growled, trying to fit the helmet down further. "My ears can only be compacted down so far."

"Let's hope that everyone is too busy to notice," Meow said. "We have to go now, while everyone is distracted!"

Dounia dragged the bodies of the two German soldiers out further into the empty landscape and hid them in a bomb crater. Ira tried to help, but the strain on her arm made her pale with pain, so Dounia made her stop.

"Okay, now we can go," Dounia said, and they set off toward the camp.

Dounia's heart pounded harshly, becoming louder and louder the closer they got to the camp. The sounds of bombs exploding and the rapid fire of anti-aircraft guns nearby grew louder as well, until her head was a mess of noise. It was different. In the air, everything was quiet, and even the explosions seemed distant. If the edges of the helmet weren't digging into her ears so much, she'd be thankful for the way it dulled her hearing.

No one noticed their approach, too busy focusing on the gentle swooshing noise of the bombers coming in for another run. There were swarms of people everywhere, manning the guns and the spotlights, or simply putting out fires as they spread.

"I think we can hurry," Ira said into her ear, careful not to let them be overheard speaking Russian, although with all the bombs going off, no one could hear them anyway.

Dounia picked up her pace, trying to look like they were rushing with a purpose, like everybody else. She could hardly believe where she was right now, right in the middle of the enemy camp while their comrades flew by overhead.

The Germans were all very loud, Dounia thought. Or maybe they only seemed so loud because she couldn't understand what they were all shouting about. They looked very different from Russian men, or maybe it was her imagination. They all looked similar to her. Or maybe she was just scared, and they all looked the same to her because they were all the enemy, and any one of them would kill her without a second thought if they knew who she was.

They kept saying some word, over and over.

"
Nachthexen!
"

"What does it mean?" she asked Ira.

"Night witches," Ira said, grinning. "That's their name for us. The night witches."

They ran until Ira had a stitch in her side, and they stopped behind a tent, hidden in the shadows, panting. The cold winter air burned Dounia's lungs from the inside out, and her throat was raw all the way down. She hardly ever needed to run, and she never had to run after a full day of walking. She'd thought she was fit enough just jumping in and out of her plane, but this was exhausting.

"Where do we need to go to get to our lines?" Dounia asked, trying to calm her breathing and her racing heart, which was pounding so hard that her ribs ached.

"The same way we're going already," Ira gasped, doubled over and kneading her side. "That's not the thing I'm most worried about. Everyone is facing that direction, so if we try and slip out that way, we'll probably be noticed."