Sky Knights (8 page)

"Not to mention that the people manning our lines won't know it's us. They might think we're the enemy and shoot us," Meow pointed out.

"Are you telling me that we're stuck in this camp until we figure out how to get past them all without being noticed?" Dounia asked, far too tired to go off on a rant. She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against the tent pole.

"It's not as if we had time to think up a plan with the Germans hard on our tail," Ira said. "We have to keep moving. I'm just glad we managed to get this far without being killed."

"Well, do you have a plan now?" Dounia asked.

"No," Ira snapped back. "Sorry if I can't think right now, but I'm mostly running on adrenaline and that floaty feeling you get when you're in pain. And I am in quite a lot of pain because my arm is broken!"

Meow's ears flattened, and he hissed, "Careful, your voices are too high to be mistaken for men's, and if you shout any louder someone is going to notice us."

"So what are we going to do?" Dounia asked, wracking her brain for a plan, but coming up blank.

"If I just knew how a German camp functioned, this would be a lot easier," Ira said irritably. "If it's anything like ours though, then someone is always on watch towards the enemy lines."

There was a sudden shout from behind them and Dounia turned on her heel sharply to face whoever had come up behind them.

It was a German officer, and although he looked a little worse for wear, his eyesight was just fine. He yelled at them in German for about half a minute and then stopped mid-sentence. His eyes went first to Meow, who arched his back and hissed at him. Then he looked at their faces and took a step back in surprise.

He said something else in German, sounding shocked, and Dounia was starting to get really annoyed with not being able to understand anything that was being said.

"How much trouble are we in?" she asked Ira.

"He's about to add it all up, so I suggest we run," Ira said.

"Okay," Dounia said.

Without warning, Meow launched himself off Ira's shoulder and landed claws-first on the officer's face, yowling furiously. When Dounia moved to help, Ira grabbed her arm and pulled. They fled, and behind them the officer started screaming angry invectives in German.

There was nothing Dounia could do but run.

*~*~*

Ira couldn't remember the last time she'd run this fast, but it was all she could think of to do with the screams of the German officer were fading from her ears. Overhead, she heard the characteristic swoosh of her comrades coming in for another bombing run. It was an ideal distraction, except for the fact that any of those bombs could drop right on top of her.

Meow tore up alongside her yowling, "Go! Go! Go!"

Ira had no breath left to say anything, and kept running. Everyone else around them was scurrying back and forth too, so their mad dash through the enemy camp went largely unnoticed.

Bombs started going off around them, sending shockwaves rumbling through the earth, shaking the ground beneath their feet. Everything smelled of ash and smoke, and it stung her eyes. It was chaos, and all she could hear was her own heartbeat pounding in her ears. Every other sound was lost in screams and explosions.

They slowed down eventually, and Ira pulled Dounia around the corner of an anti-aircraft gun turret and waited to see if the German officer was still following them. The explosions rocked the encampment, and a bomb dropped on the other side of the turret, throwing snow and earth up into the air in a wet spray.

"
Hey you
!" someone yelled, and it took Ira a moment to realize this yell was being directed at them.

She turned, hoping that Dounia's ears weren't too noticeable in the dark, and that Meow was staying out of sight. Another officer, not the same one, thankfully, was coming toward them.

He squinted at them through a pair of glasses that had lost one lens and said, "
You're very young to be on the front, lad. Where are you two off to in such a hurry?
"

"
We
..." Ira said, but couldn't think of anything.

"
Running from the Witches, aren't you
," the officer continued. "
You can't have been here long then. They're no different than any other enemy, for all that they are women. They're not mythical or anything like that, just ordinary soldiers. Their terror tactics work well, I'll grant you that. Come on, then, no more running. We have to help put out some of those fires.
"

Ira looked at Dounia helplessly before remembering that Dounia didn't even know what the man was saying. There wasn't much choice but to follow the man, however, and she beckoned for Dounia to come with her.

The German officer recruited a few more troops that didn't have any tasks, and got them to form a chain. Ira couldn't believe that they were going to waste precious water on fires when she realized that the bucket she'd been handed was full of snow.

"
Hurry, pass it down
," the officer instructed them, and Ira complied as fast as she could.

Dounia didn't ask anything out loud, but her eyes were wide and questioning. Obviously she couldn't say anything, just in case someone in the line overheard her speaking Russian.

Ira's arm throbbed in reminder that she couldn't use it, and Ira lifted the buckets with only one arm while pretending she was actually lifting with two. She bit her lip at the strain, and her good arm started burning in protest. Her arm muscles started shaking, and lancing pain began shooting up her broken arm with all the movement.

Just when she thought she would drop the next bucket, the officer raised his arm and brought their operation to a halt.

"
Good work, boys
," the officer said, dismissing them all.

Just as Ira thought that maybe they could finally sneak away, he turned to them and said to Ira, "
I noticed that your arm was injured. I must insist you go to the medical tent. I will escort you.
"

"
Sir
," Ira said, trying to make her voice as low as possible. She had a low voice for a woman, but for a man it was still somewhat high. "
My friend
..."

She hurriedly checked the name on Dounia's breast pocket.

"
My friend Cpl. Weiss will take me there
," Ira said slowly, making sure not to pronounce her German with an accent.

Hopefully the officer would think she was just trying to be heard over the yelling and explosions going on around them. She didn't think she was speaking with a noticeable Russian accent, but she'd never actually spoken with a native German speaker, so it was possible her pronunciation was off.

Ira had never thought that she would end up in a situation where she had to speak German convincingly enough to sneak through enemy lines, and now she wished she'd studied harder when she'd had the chance.

She waited, hardly daring to breathe.

"
I will escort you to the tent, and Weiss can stay with you
," the officer pronounced. "
Now don't think you can get out of manning the lines like this every time. You might just be lads, but we must all do our part.
"

Ira didn't argue, following the man to the medical tent. Dounia grabbed onto her arm and shot her another look, eyebrows furrowed, but Ira could only shake her head and gesture for them to follow. There was no time to explain, and Ira hoped desperately that the officer wouldn't look too closely at them. For now, he thought that she and Dounia were a pair of young soldiers, but any moment now he could get a better look at them and figure it out. But he would figure it out a lot faster if Ira tried to disobey orders.

Unfortunately, the tent they were taken to was well lit, and Ira ducked her head to try and hide the roundness of her face. Dounia's face was sharper and less feminine than hers, but she also had cat ears, which were more noticeable than she would like. Dounia was right, the helmet she was wearing really didn't cover them up that well.

Thankfully, the German officer was still half blind, so maybe he would think the roundness of her face was just his blurry vision.

"
Doctor!"
the officer said loudly, causing half the occupants of the tent to look up.

The patients all lost interest and went back to waiting for their turn.

A young man, probably not yet thirty despite the premature grey streak, rapidly came over and waited for the officer to continue, face attentive and amiable. He had a streak of blood under one eye, and his hair was starting to get a little long in the front, pushed back off his face and plastered there with sweat. He had a mild, pleasant expression as he greeted them.

"
Can I help you, sir?"
he asked, smiling.

"
This lad here has an injured arm. See to him, will you?"
the officer said, and then marched right back out of the tent without a word.

Ira could tell he was the type of officer that expected to have his needs seen to right away, and that he probably thought that Ira would have her arm looked at as soon as he left. Ira looked over the rest of the tent and saw that there were still four other soldiers in between her and getting seen to.

"
Doctor, I apologize
," she said, realizing she was speaking too formally but didn't know how German soldiers spoke to each other. "
I am happy to wait my turn."

The doctor looked at her sharply, and an unusual look entered his eyes. The light was too bright, and his eyes too quick. He knew she wasn't a German soldier, she could tell. The look he had was one of a man piecing things together. She waited, ready to knock him over and run again, and tensed up in preparation.

"
Oh, no, my lad, no need to be frightened
," he said gently.

He knew she wasn't a native German speaker and was speaking slowly, enunciating for her so that she could understand him better. Ira felt like her heart would beat itself to death on her ribcage as it quaked with fear in her chest. He knew.

"
You and your friend wait here
," he said, still speaking slowly and softly, as if he were trying to tame a wild animal. "
I will look at your arm when I'm finished.
"

Should she run? What if he was calming her down so that he could go and get somebody else to capture them? Her heart was beating too fast and she wasn't breathing. All of a sudden, her vision swam and her legs felt watery and weak.

"
Oh, oh
," she heard the doctor say, and suddenly there was an arm around her back steadying her and lowering her down to the ground. "
You've been through a lot, haven't you, my poor boy. I'll get you some water.
"

Ira breathed, and the doctor crossed the tent to get a canteen, handing it to Dounia. He leaned over very close and instructed her "little sips." In Russian. No one else in the tent was even paying attention, but Dounia's eyes were wide and dilated in panic.

"
Shhh, there's a lad
," the doctor said, switching back to German, and then leaving them leaning against the tent wall to go attend his other patients.

Dounia helped Ira drink some of the water from the canteen and then took a swig herself, panting.

"He knows we're Russian," Dounia whispered in Ira's ear.

"Yes, I could tell," Ira whispered back.

"What do we do?" Dounia hissed.

"I'm not sure we can do anything about that," Ira said. "He hasn't tried to hurt us yet."

"
Yet
," Dounia said darkly. "Doesn't mean he
won't
."

"Well, I think that we shouldn't try to do anything unless he actually tries to hurt us, or alert anyone else to our presence," Ira said. "I'm too exhausted to run anymore, and my arm hurts. My entire side feels like it's on fire."

Dounia flinched, and Ira realized what she'd said.

"Sorry," Ira whispered. Bad choice of words.

"Where's Meow?" asked Dounia. "I lost him after that officer grabbed us."

"I don't know," Ira said. "I'm sure he's fine. He's a smart cat, and I'm sure he knows how to stay out of trouble. Or at least out of the line of fire."

They quieted after that, waiting for the doctor to do whatever it was he was going to do. There was something else, Ira was certain of that. He wasn't just going to fix her arm, that was for sure. Ira didn't even know if he was going to try and help her at all. They were an enemy to his country, and Ira couldn't trust his motives.

Slowly, the tent emptied. They were the last ones inside the tent, and there were no new patients to contend with. Ira could still hear bombs going off, but far away down the line. It seemed that the bombardment of this section was over.

"
Now, let's look at your arm.
"

The doctor spoke accented but recognizable Russian, probably more fluently than she spoke German. Ira eyed him warily, but complied, trying to struggle out of the German uniform. Dounia helped her, and the doctor waited patiently.

"
Nachthexen
," he said, eyes widening when her bomber jacket underneath was revealed.

"
Yes
," Ira replied shortly, releasing the makeshift splint she'd had keeping her arm in place.

"
I knew that you were Russian
," the doctor continued. "
I thought you were just stragglers from the bombing. You're the pilots of the plane that was downed yesterday.
"

Ira ignored him piecing together their story and focused on getting her bomber jacket off over her injured arm. Dounia helped, and soon it was just her uniform covering her arm up.

"
I'm sorry
," the doctor said and cut her sleeve away with a pair of scissors.

Ira couldn't watch after that, although she heard Dounia hiss in concern as the injury was finally revealed. As Ira was looking away, there was a movement at the edge of the tent and Meow slipped inside, coming to her side immediately. Ira reached out and stroked his head, trying to distract herself.

"
Oh? And where did you come from, small one?
" the doctor asked.

"
I've been here since the start
," Meow said, swishing his tail.