Wildwood Dancing

celebration!” he was saying, his words loud and uneven, as if he was too excited to control it. “Florica, we’ll have hot ? tuica? and some food. We 182

won’t stay here long—this news needs to go straight down to Judge Rinaldo. Who’d have thought it, eh? To feel the wretch’s skinny neck in my own hands!”

“Jena,” Aunt Bogdana said quietly as she helped Stela up onto the table, “go out and ask my son what has happened.”

Heart thumping, I did as she asked. None of my sisters offered to go with me. In the kitchen, Cezar, his two friends, and several other men were shedding their outdoor clothing, their layers of wool steaming in the warmth from the big stove, while Florica busied herself with platters and cups, obeying Cezar’s demand that she serve them. I halted in the doorway.

Cezar turned from hanging his cloak on a peg and met my eye.

His face was flushed with what seemed to be triumph. He strode across and seized both my hands in his.

“Congratulate me, Jena! We made a capture last night!”

I thought of Tadeusz, so cool and controlled; I thought of somber-faced Sorrow, holding Tati’s cloak for her. My voice would not oblige me by framing an intelligent question.

“Sit down, Jena. I can see I’ve shocked you. I should have broken the news more gently. Florica, some water for Mistress Jena, please.”

“What’s happened?” I croaked. “You caught one of the Night People? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Not one of them, ” said Daniel. “Another one of the forest folk, an accomplice. He was hanging about in the woods, up to no good. Cezar thought he might lead us to the Night People.

Give us useful information.”

“He would have done.” It was clear that Cezar wanted to 183

tell this story himself. “If the wretch hadn’t decided to fight us, we could have locked him up and got what we wanted out of him.”

Every part of me had turned cold. “An accomplice. What kind of accomplice?”

“A dwarf. No doubt where he was from. I offered the fellow freedom in return for information, but he wouldn’t have any of it. Fought like a little demon. Bit Daniel on the hand; nearly took my eye out with his boot. Didn’t have a chance, of course.”

Anatolie. I could not ask, What color was his beard? Did he have diamond studs in his teeth? Was he an old friend of mine? “You mean you took him prisoner?” I asked, thinking that any dwarf could escape from human custody, given time. What had he been doing out in our world by night at such a time of risk?

Cezar’s features were suddenly grave. “No, Jena. These folk are not so easily taken. We used various methods to try to make the little devil talk, but he had nothing to say about Night People or about ways in and out of their realm. In the end, he perished for his silence. There was no alternative. We could not let him go free. These vermin must be cleared from our forest.

Those who cover for the perpetrators of crimes are, in their way, just as guilty as the criminals.”

They’d killed him. Just like that, he’d lost his life for something he’d had no responsibility for. The dwarves were peace-able folk; they could have played no part in Ivona’s death.

Various methods . . . Surely Cezar didn’t mean torture?

“It doesn’t sound like cause for congratulation,” I found myself saying. My voice wobbled. “You caught, hurt, and killed someone without knowing if he had any responsibility for the 184

murder. And you didn’t get any information. You spilled more blood, and for nothing.”

There was a sudden silence. All the men were staring at me.

By the stove Florica stood utterly still, the kettle in her hands.

“Jena,” Cezar said in a dangerous, quiet voice, “I think it’s best if you leave us now. We men are weary; it’s been a long night’s struggle. You need a little time to digest this news. Distress is making you irrational.”

“A long night’s struggle? A pack of—what—ten or eleven men against one dwarf ?” I was on my feet, so angry that I let the words spill out without caution. “Forgive me if I cannot agree that this is some kind of victory.”

“Leave the room, Jena.” Now Cezar spoke sharply; it was a command. “I will not have words of that kind spoken here in the valley, not while I am master of Varful cu Negur?a. Please curb your tongue. Florica, where’s that ? tuica??”

One of the hardest things I had to do was break this news to my sisters in Aunt Bogdana’s presence, not knowing how each of them might respond. I was quivering with rage and humiliation after Cezar’s reprimand, and full of horror over what he had done. All I wanted to do was run away somewhere by myself with Gogu and cry like a child. But the voices of my cousin and his friends were loud and excited as they went over their exploits; it could only get worse as the ? tuica? flowed. I needed to be first with this news, to render it gently. I did try.

“Cezar killed a dwarf ?” Iulia found her voice first.

Stela, halfway through taking off her party dress, was staring round-eyed, her chin beginning to wobble.

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“Aunt Bogdana,” said Paula, her own voice less than steady,

“I might take Stela upstairs.”

“Of course, dear—your gown doesn’t have much work left to do. This is odd news. I did not think Cezar . . . It’s quite disturbing.” A loud gust of laughter reached us from the kitchen.

I was watching Tati. She stood by the wall, white and staring, as the sounds of hilarity filtered through the door.

Then she turned and left the room without a word.