Words on Fire

“Now sit down like you belong there,” he said. “And whistle if we’re being followed.”

Of course we were being followed. Why else would he have rushed us out of town like that?

“Who’s the girl?” Ben asked. Lukas started to answer for me but Ben said, “Doesn’t her voice work?”

I rolled my eyes at being forced to speak when Lukas was doing a fine job of it. “My name is Audra.”

“No last name?”

Milda had warned me against using my last name, and even if Lukas knew Ben, I didn’t, nor did I particularly trust either of them—not yet.

“Just Audra,” I said.

But the driver only looked me over and said, “She looks like the daughter of Henri Zikaris. Same eyes.”

My head whipped back at him. “You know my family too?”

“All book carriers knew your parents.”

“They’re still alive.” When I got no response, I repeated that, then added, “And I’m working on a plan to get them back again.”

He shrugged. “It’ll never work. Even if it could, you won’t be involved. I’m dropping you off at the next town, as a favor to your father.”

“I’m supposed to stay with her,” Lukas said.

“Then I’ll drop you both off,” Ben said without missing a beat. “You’re too young for this as well.” Then he glanced back at me. “Why are you here anyway? Your parents wanted you kept out of this business.”

I closed my eyes, wishing he wouldn’t talk about them as if they were dead. They weren’t. And I didn’t appreciate him brushing off my talk of a plan to get them back as if it was just the silly idea of a young girl.

Unless it was just a silly idea. No single book could possibly be as valuable as my parents’ lives.

“So you never knew?” Lukas asked. “Until now, you never knew about your parents’ work?”

“I knew a little,” I said, which wasn’t quite true. And I wasn’t at all happy that Lukas and Ben seemed to know far more about my parents than I ever had.

“Well, no matter,” Lukas said, smiling. “I think you’ll be quite good at smuggling.”

I had no plans to smuggle long enough to become good at it—I had only agreed to this one delivery in honor of my parents. I sat up straight, for the first time remembering the book I carried. It was still in the sack slung from my shoulders. “We’ve got to hide this one too.”

“Agreed.” Lukas looked around. We’d left the town behind and were headed north. Where had the soldiers said they were going to search for any signs of trouble?

Here. They were searching here.

“Something’s wrong,” I whispered.

Maybe the trouble was Ben’s doing, or mine, or maybe it had nothing to do with us, but we would be swept up in it anyway. The Cossacks would be happy to nab anyone they considered in violation of the law.

When it didn’t appear that Ben had heard me, in a louder voice, I said, “We’ve got to go back.”

“Can’t go back,” Ben said. “Somewhere behind us is an entire regiment of Cossacks.”

“Then get off the road!”

“This wagon wouldn’t get far through the woods.” Lukas’s brow pressed low. “If you’re afraid—”

I was plenty afraid, but that wasn’t the reason I wanted off this wagon. No, my fear came from what I was about to do, what I had to do if we were going to get through the next few minutes.

Before Lukas could finish his thought, I pulled the book out of the sack of fabric and tossed it at Lukas, then jumped from the side of the wagon with the sack in my arms. Alarmed by my sudden actions, Ben pulled up on the reins, but I said, “Let me go on ahead. After three minutes, you can follow me.”