Words on Fire

Lukas cocked his head, suggesting that we should take another route away from the square, and I followed directly on his heels, forgetting my burn. Forgetting everything but the need to warn Milda before the soldiers got to her.

If they did, I was certain her fate would end up just as it had for my parents. Arrested, possibly sentenced to Siberia. Leaving me alone again.

I would not let that happen.

We were almost within sight of Milda’s home when Roze rounded the corner, nearly crashing into us. Tears streamed down her face as soon as she saw me.

“Audra, I was looking for you!”

“Is it Milda?”

Roze folded her hand into mine. “Yes, she told me to sneak out and find you, to warn you to stay away. I escaped through the shed out back, but they almost saw me.”

Lukas was still carrying the books I’d saved from the fire. I turned to him. “We’ve got to help Milda.”

“No!” Roze tugged at my arm. “Milda wants us to save her books!”

“She’s right,” Lukas said. “If they find the books, then they’ll have all the evidence they need against Milda.”

“They must already have evidence against her—that’s why they are there! Lukas, we all care about the books, but this is Milda’s life!”

Lukas exhaled deeply, leaving lines of worry across his forehead. “You’re right too. Any ideas for Milda?”

My hand had been absently fingering the items in my father’s satchel while I’d been speaking. My fingers passed over one of my father’s tricks, and my stomach began to twist. I had an idea. A dangerous, terrible, almost-certain-to-fail idea.

Almost certain to fail. Which meant I had some small chance of succeeding. It would have to be enough.

Starting with Lukas. If he knew my plan, he’d never let me do it. I turned to him. “If Roze helps me get Milda out of the house, can you get the books out of the secret school?”

His eyes narrowed. “What are you going to do?”

I smiled as if it were nothing so big, as if the idea weren’t making my hands shake and my stomach feel sick. “Just a little magic. I’ll meet you in the forest as soon as we get Milda.”

I hoped. One of the tricks was something I’d never done before, though I’d seen my father do it many times.

Lukas nodded and ran off toward the back of Milda’s home. Once he’d left, I said to Roze, “How many officers are inside?”

“Two.”

“You snuck out, can you sneak back in?”

“Probably.” Now she looked as nervous as I felt.

“Go in, and when the two soldiers are distracted, you’ve got to get Milda out the same way you left. I can only give you a couple of minutes, so you’ll need to move fast.” I looked in her eyes, seeing them fill with tears. “Roze, can you do this?”

She nodded, though her voice quivered when she squeaked out the words “I can.” She looked as if she wished the ground would swallow her up rather than have to carry out my plan, and I completely understood. I was just as terrified.

“Go,” I said. “Hurry!”

She ran off in the opposite direction as Lukas had gone, and when I was alone on the street, I walked to the front of Milda’s home and slipped my father’s magic ring over my forefinger. Papa wore it on his pinky finger, but it was too big for me there. I put three small cups facing downward on the flat end of the rail of the fence in front of Milda’s home. Next, I pulled out his disappearing sheet. It was only a length of fabric with three bars running through a seam at the top. I hooked the three bars together to form one solid bar that held the fabric at its full width. That was the part of the trick I’d never done before, and I genuinely didn’t know if I could do it, but I laid it at my feet anyway.

I hoped Roze was in place to rescue Milda, because I was about to begin.

Until becoming a book smuggler, I’d rarely spoken at all, and even when I did, it was always in the softest voice I could manage. But now I needed a loud voice if I was to get the attention of the soldiers inside. It felt like I was screaming to them, but I didn’t think I was. I tried to sound friendly when I shouted out, “Cossack officers, if you’re looking for book smugglers, I know where they are!”

That brought one officer out to the front of the home. I needed both of them. If an officer was left inside to guard Milda, my plan wouldn’t work.

He said, “You’re just a little girl. Go away or we’ll arrest you as well!”