Maaret pulled her son closer to her, sat up and put her back against the wall. When she spoke, her voice was a whisper. 'And me? Do you wish me dead like the others will after tonight?'
The candlelight illuminated the silver of her tears.
'No.' Ajza squatted so that she was on a level with the woman. 'No, I don't wish any harm to you, Maaret.'
Maaret wept silently for a moment, then wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. 'The others hate me.'
Ajza knew she couldn't lie to the woman. 'Some of them. Not all.'
Pain tore at Maaret's face. 'The ones with children, they will understand. They will be glad they were not the ones to have to do this awful thing,' Maaret croaked. 'They will talk badly of me to the others. But in their hearts they will know that they would do the same thing. To save their children, they would do what I have done.'
Ajza didn't speak.
'Poor Zamira.' Maaret doubled over in pain. 'She was so young. And to die like that? With a dog tearing the life from her?' She shook her head. 'I never wanted that for her.'
'I know.'
Maaret wiped at her face. 'I tried to die. I did. In December, before my baby was born, I tried to die. Taburova picked me to go into Moscow. I wore explosives. I was willing to die. Especially after I found out what my husband had done.'
Ajza steeled herself to show no emotion. It was the most difficult thinsg she'd ever done. 'What did your husband do?'
'He betrayed Taburova.' Maaret gulped air. 'He spied on Taburova. For the British. A few days before Taburova selected me to go into Moscow, Ilyas escaped.'
Pain clawed at Ajza, tearing her heart apart. Tears blurred her eyes, but Maaret was so overcome with her own distress that she didn't notice. Ajza sipped air and pushed the emotion and confusion away. Images of her brother tumbled through her mind. She hoped she could always remember them all.
'If he escaped,' Ajza whispered through her tight throat, hoping that Maaret only thought she was trying to be quiet, 'how did he die?'
'He came back for me. For me and the baby. He found out that Taburova sent me into Moscow.' Maaret shook her head. 'I do not know how he found me that night, but he did.'
Tracking device, Ajza thought. He was keeping watch over you. My brother would never have left you and his baby.
'He begged me to come away with him,' Maaret went on. 'I could not.'
'Why?'
Maaret stared at her. 'Because I am Chechen. Because I want my people to be free.'
'Ilyas wanted you to be free.'
'No.' Maaret shook her head vehemently. 'No. He was a traitor to my people. He was a traitor to our faith. He came to us, to Taburova, and won us over with his stories.' Her lips stretched in silent pain for a time before she could speak again. 'Taburova believed in him. I believed in him. I fell in
'How did Ilyas die?'
'He took the explosives from me. I should not have let him, but I was feeling the baby kicking. I knew it was almost time for him to be born. He was so close to living.' Maaret's face knotted in agony again. 'I should not have been weak.'
'Ilyas took the explosives,' Ajza said in a quavering voice. 'That was his decision.'
'I know, but I should not have let him.'
'You would not have been able to stop him.' Ajza remembered how stubborn her brother could be. 'It was his choice. Did he set off the explosives?'
'It was Taburova. He was watching. I did not think he was, but he was there. When Ilyas tried to get rid of the explosives, Taburova set them off.'
'Taburova killed Ilyas.'
Maaret nodded. 'He told me…he told me that he knew Ilyas would be there. He said it was the only way to kill the traitor to our people.'
The baby stirred restlessly and whimpered.
Maaret adjusted his blanket and held him close. 'I came home the night after Ilyas died. I wished I had been the one to die. Then I went into labor. I prayed for God to take me then, because women who die in childbirth go to heaven no matter what sins they have committed. But I did not die. And my son was born.' She traced his round face with her fingers. 'Then I saw him and held him and smelled him, and I knew I would do whatever was in my power to take care of him.'
'And you have,' Ajza said.
Lifting her gaze, Maaret said, 'That is why Taburova lets me live. As long as I have my son and I can protect him, Taburova knows I will do anything he says.'
For a while Ajza sat there in the silence. She thought about Ilyas and the predicament his widow and son were in. And there was nothing she could do to get them out of it.
'I'm sorry,' Ajza whispered a short time later.
But Maaret was asleep, her head lolling against the wall. Ajza eased the young woman down, realizing that they were sisters-in-law, and discovered Maaret was still burning up with fever.
She left the space long enough to get a bowl of water and a piece of cloth to use as a compress. Then she sat on the bed and gently laid Maaret's head in her lap. She bathed her head, praying that the fever would break and the woman would recover.
50
'Wake up!'
Someone kicked Ajza's foot. Pain shot up her leg and brought her to instant wakefulness. She started to roll away and rise in a defensive crouch, but Maaret's weight stopped her.
One of Taburova's men stood before her. He'd torn the curtain away and it pooled at his feet. He held a pistol. Behind him, another man was yelling at the women on the opposite side of the room.
'Get up,' the guard ordered. 'We have things to do today.'
Ajza wanted to tell the man that Maaret was sick, that she needed to rest. Before she could, the woman on the other side of the room complained of being sick. The second guard kicked her and demanded that she get up.
The woman made an effort to stand, but only succeeded in vomiting on the guard's boots. Angrily the man reached down and jerked her to her feet. The woman stood for a moment, then swayed. Her knees buckled and she hit the floor.
Callously the guard aimed his pistol at her and pulled the trigger. The detonation woke Maaret's baby and made him cry. His frightened cries woke Maaret when the guard's rough voice had not. She reached for her child and pulled him close.
'This one was useless,' the second guard said of the woman he'd killed.
The first guard nodded and turned back to Ajza and Maaret. 'Get up.' This time he pointed the pistol at them.
Ajza stood and helped Maaret to her feet. Fortunately the young woman's flesh felt much cooler. Her fever had broken.
'Is something wrong with her?' the guard demanded.
'She'll be fine,' Ajza said. 'She was up late last night, and the baby makes her tired.'
'If she can't make it to Moscow,' the guard threatened, 'she will be shot where she falls.'
The fragile hope that Ajza had nurtured all through the night vanished in a breath. She could only worry about what to do with her brother's widow and infant son.
