51
“…and we know Yak fighters scrambled out of Siberia and Tetlin, but they never got to Tanana.” Blue paused and stared at Grisha and Wing on the seat beside her. “Do either of you know why?”
Grisha concentrated on his driving, but managed one word, “Haimish.”
“Yeah,” Wing said absently. “His last act seems to have borne fruit.”
“Hamish is dead?” Blue asked quietly. “What did he do to stop the fighters?”
“I think he arranged for help from the U.S.A., maybe got us a squadron of fighters. He worked for the Yanks, you know.”
“No, I didn’t know that, but I ain’t surprised. You sure he’s dead?”
“Yeah. And Chandalar, too.”
“Ah, damn!” Blue’s voice broke for the second time in twenty minutes.
“Losin’ all these people I love, who helped me be the person I am, makes me die a little bit with each one. I don’t know how much more I can take.”
The death of her brother, Lynx, didn’t seem to jar her as much as hearing about Malagni and Slayer-of-Men. “You weren’t sure about Malagni?”
“I know he lost his arm and a lot of blood.” It seemed like a million years ago to Grisha. “But I won’t believe he’s dead until I see his grave.”
“Yet Nathan the mind-bender still lives,” Blue said shortly.
“He’s hurt,” Wing said testily. “He might even lose an arm.”
Blue turned and stared at her friend. “But no bullet touched him, right?”
“His arm was broken by a piece of falling roof.” Wing sounded defensive. “No, he has no bullet wounds.”
Blue fastened her gaze on Grisha.
“What do you think, little brother? Is our Nathan a witch or just damn lucky?”
“Who knows? I believe he’s especially intuitive. But if he can read minds he has an affliction I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy,” Grisha mumbled. “There’s no way to turn off what others are thinking. Think how awfully boring that could become.”
Both women laughed, muting the tension.
Blue sobered quickly. “It might be boring, but I think he can control people around him.”
“How can you believe that?” Wing asked incredulously. “He’s been unconscious for hours and I don’t feel any different than when he’s awake.”
“I can believe it ’cause he’s the strangest damn thing to come downriver in my lifetime,” Blue said. “Grisha, how about you?”
He yawned hugely. “I feel more awake when he’s around.”
“I’m serious, Grisha.”
Grisha glanced past Wing at the larger woman. “If he’s controlling me, I don’t know about it.” He paused. “But I almost wish he was, I’d have someone else to blame for my screwups.”
Nobody laughed.
“What was the situation at Tanana when you left?” Wing asked.
“Mopping up. Most of the garrison were Cossacks and knew they were dead even if they surrendered.” Blue’s tone grew bleak. “They didn’t surrender, but we took the redoubt anyway.”
“At what cost?”
“Fred Seetamoona and his assault team feinted to draw their fire, they all died. That’s how we were able to take the place at all.”
“Fred was on the council,” Wing said slowly.
“We’ve lost five council members that I know of over the past few days,” Blue said.
“How did you end up in this half-track with a bunch of desperate survivors?” Grisha asked.
“Pure, crazy chance. We captured three of these things and we only had two people who could drive them, so I volunteered to guard this one until somebody could come back for it.” She grinned, showing the gap in her teeth.
“The Cossacks got there first and I just played dumb, which under the circumstances, wasn’t too difficult.”
“So what’s next?” Grisha asked.
“What do you mean?” Wing said.
“We’ve got Tanana, Chena is in ruins and won’t be of much use to them or us for a long time to come—”
“Not to mention Huslia, Koyuk, Fort Yukon, and Bridge,” Wing said quickly.
“Where?” Grisha asked.
“Those are the other strongpoints on the highway now in our hands. We took Fort Yukon because we needed the airfield,” Blue said. “Finish what you started to say.”
“I already said it: what’s next? Where do we go from here, attack south?”
“No,” Blue said quickly. “We’re fighting a revolution for independence, we have no legal reason to hold more than the land of the Dena.”
“But Nathan and Chan mentioned attacks on St. Nicholas and Tetlin.”
“Tetlin is inside the Dena Republik and is the strongest redoubt outside St. Nicholas. We hope to negotiate them out of there,” Blue said with a trace of bitterness. “We planned an attack on the slave pens in each place, to gain more followers, but that didn’t happen.”
“Why not?”
“Too cold. The prisoners would have frozen to death before we could help them. As soon as the ice goes out on the Yukon, we’ll hit Tetlin, if they haven’t freed our people before then.”
“Blue, you’re pretty optimistic if you believe that,” Wing said with a snort.
“Finish answering my question,” Grisha said.
“We consolidate and negotiate,” Blue said. “And, if we have to, we keep fighting.”
“The Russians will definitely counterattack,” Grisha said. “They won’t give up this easily.”
“We’ve hurt them badly here—” Blue began.
“Do you think this is the cream of the Czar’s army?” Grisha said. “This is the frontier, a colony. This is where they send the people who are being punished or aren’t worth the food they eat.”
He licked his lips, hating himself for demeaning the sacrifice of others. “You were able to plant charges at the strongpoints before your initial attack, weren’t you?”
“How’d you know what we did?” Blue asked.
“It’s what I would have done. But the point is, the next Russian troops you see will be more aware, better trained, and possess few social skills. The real Russian Army will be a lot harder to beat than these trash-heap garrison troops.”
Wing turned and stared at him. “We will fight until we die. I don’t think the Russian Army cares that much about the Czar’s holdings in Russian Amerika.”
“The leaders do the thinking; all armies are paid to fight.”
“If enough of them die, they will realize that to fight us is tantamount to death,” Blue said with finality. “Their choices are to go home, join us, or die.”
“Maybe you should tell them that,” he said in a musing tone. “Perhaps they would come to their point of decision much faster.”
“Propaganda’s not a bad idea,” Wing said. “Do we still have a printing press?”
“More than one,” Blue said. “We’ll print up small notices in Russian and English and distribute them in all the Russian-held redoubts.”
“How will you deliver them?” Grisha asked.
“Getting in and out of their areas is easy. We’re all worthless Indians or
