The medicine was on the windowsill at the café.
She wanted to simply die out there in the field. She could have just let the cold take her as the temperature dropped far below zero. But it was the flashes of lights in the woods before her, the flares that lit up the snowy peaks and fields around her, that made her sit up, pull herself together, her body finally feeling something again. Her muscles quivered with the constant tension. Her bones ached. She leaned over and vomited onto the earth.
Why could she not die here in the field? What use was it, trying to run again?
The Gestapo and the Wehrmacht were at the old mining tunnels—she could tell by where the flares were coming. And if they went there, then the dogs would find the subterranean bunker. It would only be a matter of time. They had already found and executed Yanko, and Jakob. She rocked back and forth trying to thrash away the images of the slumped figures. Father Gabriel. The ropes. Eva. Jana.
Through the noise in her head, she heard two words. The others. The others. The others.
But where? The countryside crawled with patrols, with dogs, with hunters seeking their prey. With hunters out to win a prize. Six thousand Reichsmark! A fortune!
She would truly freeze to death in this field if she did not move. On the horizon beyond, an orange glow. That was the village behind Villa Liška. They were burning it to the ground, that abandoned village. Had they found something? Found someone? Or were the Nazi bastards just sending another warning?
She rose and scrambled across the field. She stumbled into an irrigation ditch, picked herself up, and managed to get into some of the brush. Now that she was moving, her body screamed for heat. She stood and pushed farther toward the mountains, heading north. What had Aleš said about the meeting? They were going to meet near Ústí nad Labem. That was it. That was north. Over the mountains, there.
The darkness was hell and it was protection. Magda fell to the ground before a stream and cupped her shaking hands. She drank the cold water. Her stomach growled. She could have been moving for an hour. Maybe only fifteen minutes. Maybe it was two hours. Through the woods, she could not know whether she was even heading north. The moon was waxing, and she was navigating in the pitch dark. What if she ran straight into the Wehrmacht or the patrols or whoever was on the hunt tonight? Maybe they were recruits from Ploskovice and the Napola, in a drill like Walter once had done. Either way, they were everywhere.
She rose and followed the stream. An owl hooted. Something moved in the woods. Magda stood stock still, her blood ice in her veins. And then her heart beat again. She spun around. Again, another sound. She covered her mouth to prevent her breathing from giving her away, and slid down a slope. She clung to a tree and tried to regulate her breathing.
Footsteps. Definitely not those of an animal, but man. She’d spent enough time in the woods with Aleš and his group to know the difference.
A voice above her. “Who’s there? I know you’re there. Come out.”
Magda unwrapped herself from a tree trunk. “Karol? Is that you?”
“Magda?” The shape scrambled down and landed beside her.
Magda threw her arms around Karol’s neck. “What are you doing here? I thought they might have caught you all!”
“I could say the same of you.” He reached behind him and withdrew a flashlight, illuminating his face. It was the most beautiful face she had ever seen. “I’ve been on the run and hiding since this afternoon. We returned to find the Nazis had surrounded the mines, and they’re crawling through the hills. What happened? What set the Nazis off?”
Magda sobbed. Karol pulled her into him. Through chattering teeth, she told him what had happened in the town square. About Yanko first. Then Father Gabriel and Jakob.
“Karol, they had Jana and Eva too.” She shivered violently.
Karol took off his coat and wrapped it around her. “What were you doing in town?”
“I wanted… I was trying to…” Magda wiped her eyes. “Karol, I disobeyed Aleš. I took the medications.”
His torso stiffened against her.
“I just wanted to find out whether it would be possible to send the parcel. The nun’s outfit gave me a good excuse to ask, to find out.”
Karol rubbed her back and shoulders brusquely. “I’m so sorry,” he muttered.
Magda nodded into his chest. She felt so tired. Absolutely exhausted. And they were far from safety. “Where are Aleš and Renata?”
“We split up. Davide was with me for a while. As soon as we saw what was happening, he said we’d be safer on our own. He told me to head back north eventually but not right away, just in case. So I’ve been zigzagging through the area.”
“What are we going to do?” She had nothing on her except the nun’s habit and the coat she wore on her back.
“I’ve got a gun.” Karol reached into his waistband. “Aleš gave it to me.”
He placed it into her hand, and she weighed it in her palm.
“That’s one of the weapons I recovered, isn’t it? It was my brother’s.”
“Then you should keep it.”
Magda handed it back to him. “I don’t know how to shoot. Besides, I don’t think I could. I’m the biggest idiot, the greatest coward this war has ever seen.”
“Don’t say that. It’s not true.”
“I watched them die.” She sobbed against his breast. “I just watched them die. I’m the reason they were hunting Eva at all. I’m the reason Samuel is dead. That Jana is dead!”
Karol’s hold tightened. “I don’t know all the history you have with these people,”
