Red Winter

15

There was no sign of the rider as I took Kashtan from the barn and headed across the field. Before us, last night’s rain and sleet had frozen in the furrows, lying like glass between the turnip leaves. Beyond that, the plain stretched on with only the slightest undulation in the near distance, but further away, perhaps two kilometres, the land rose in a sharp and rocky eruption where the steppe changed level on a new plateau. Above it, the air was muddled by a thin mist.

I glanced down at the dog running with us. ‘You stay here too,’ I said to him. ‘You can’t keep up with us.’ Then I put my heels into Kashtan’s ribs and she responded straight away, trotting through the turnips, reaching the sea of grass and thistle in just a few minutes. Here, the plants were laden with the hoarfrost, their stalks and leaves weighted and feathered with the shining crystals. I glanced back at our wake, knowing there was no way of hiding our progress. Whoever the riders were – for I found it hard to believe there could be only one – they would find my trail with ease. They had managed to track me through the forest despite my efforts, so this trail would offer no challenge.

The only advantage I had now was speed. Kashtan was rested and fresh. She had slept and eaten well and felt like a new animal. My pursuers would be tired from their night in the forest. The cold would be gnawing at them just as it was gnawing at their horses.

I pulled a scarf over my mouth and spurred Kashtan into a gallop, hoping the cold night had not darkened my pursuers’ tempers or else Lev and Anna would bear the brunt of it. I leaned into her, watching her head bobbing, her mane rippling, as we rushed past the clusters of trees that stood like sentinels, leaning away from the prevailing wind, unclothed and stark against the clear sky and the glistening grass. The cold wind was hard on me, like riding through something more solid than air, and I narrowed my eyes, feeling the tears squeezing out and freezing in the creases in my skin.

As I moved with Kashtan, confident to let her race on and choose the best route ahead, I began to wonder if I should have brought Lev and Anna with me. If anything happened to them, it would lay on my conscience, but I told myself I had my own family to consider, and they had to come first. Lev and Anna would slow me down, giving my hunters time to make ground, and if something happened to me, Marianna and the boys would have no one to come for them. They would be left alone to their fate, just as Lev and Anna were now left alone to theirs. I’d had to choose between my own family and another.

A teacher and a little girl.

And if the people who were coming to their place of refuge knew who I was – if they were men who had learned of my attempted deception and had followed me from the village where Alek and I had left our uniforms – then they were hunters of men. They were torturers and murderers. Violent individuals charged with the dispersal of terror. Not unlike the men I was following; the men who had taken the peasants of Belev into the forest and…

I pulled back on Kashtan’s reins and called to her, telling her to slow down. I rose in the saddle and twisted to look back at the farm. There was no sign of Lev and Anna, but they would be there, waiting for the approach of the devils. I knew now, just as I had known when I left, that they were not safe. I had done a terrible thing. Though I had tried to ignore it, I had known that if the men following me were the kind I expected them to be, they would not ride past and leave Lev and Anna alone. They would execute them for their collusion with a counter-revolutionary. A deserter. They would show no mercy. They would do what they had probably done a hundred times. They would kill and burn.

I had left them to die.

The seconds passed like hours as these things went through my mind. The cold air clawed at my throat, and the ice crackled around my eyes. I felt the ghost of Lev’s embrace and saw Anna looking up at me that last time.

‘We have to go back,’ I said to Kashtan, and though I could hardly believe I was going to do it, I felt a great joy in it. They would make me slow. They would be a responsibility I didn’t need, but I couldn’t leave them. I couldn’t go on to find my own family knowing I had left another behind to die.

I turned Kashtan and gave her the spur, pushing her hard so that we raced through the hoarfrost. The wind was cruel in my eyes as I watched for any sign of the rider Lev had seen, but so far, there was nothing.

There was a thickening mist that obscured the trees on the distant horizon, but I could still see a little way beyond the farm to the empty steppe. If the rider had been an advance scout, he would have returned for the rest of his party. He must have seen Lev and thought it might be me, preparing an ambush for them. He knew who I was and would not want to approach alone. Or perhaps they had split up to follow my confused trail through the forest and he was waiting for the others to catch up. Whatever the reason, I was glad for it, and I lifted my eyes to the sky and prayed once more to the God I had never trusted.

I asked Him to find us more time, to slow the riders down, and if He didn’t help, then to hell with Him. I would deal with it myself.

Halfway back, Kashtan’s hooves pounding, I spotted the dog following the flattened path of our trail. He had stopped, ears pricked and neck stretched, his whole body alert.

‘Wrong way, dog,’ I shouted as we reached him, forcing him to leap out of our way. ‘We left something behind.’

He turned his head as he watched us pass; then he was behind us and out of sight.

Kashtan felt my urgency and she didn’t let up, crossing the field at a gallop. She was probably glad for the chance to run without the restriction of the forest she’d had to cope with so much these past days.

Once across the field, she cleared the fence in an easy jump, and then her hooves were thumping on the compacted dirt of the yard and I was shouting for Lev and the girl.

‘Come out,’ I called as Kashtan turned in a circle, snorting with excitement. ‘It’s me. Kolya.’

I took Kashtan towards the rear of the barn and dismounted as Lev and Anna came out of the farmhouse. I pulled open the barn door and took Kashtan inside.

‘What’s going on?’ Lev asked, running in behind me. ‘I thought you—’

‘Close the door. You have to come with me,’ I said, grabbing tack from an armature on the wall. ‘Get this on your horse. Now.’ I thrust the saddle into his arms and went to Anna. ‘I want you to go to the door and open it just enough to look out, do you understand?’

She nodded.

‘Good. Now, it’s important you don’t go outside. Just open it a crack – enough to watch the horizon – and if you see anyone there, let me know straight away, all right?’

Anna nodded again and ran to the door.

‘What the hell is this, Kolya?’ Lev asked when I returned to him. He kept his voice quiet so as not to alarm Anna, but I could hear the edge in it. He worked as he spoke, lifting the saddle onto the horse’s back, setting it in the right position over the pad that was already in place.

‘Is she fast?’ I asked. ‘Your horse.’

‘Fast enough for what?’

‘You were wrong,’ I told him, taking the front cinch. ‘What you said about just being a peasant and his daughter. If the man you saw was one of the men I think are following me…’ I pulled the cinch tight under the horse’s belly and looked up at him. ‘If he was one of them, there will be more. And they won’t be forgiving. You helped me. You could die for that.’

Lev stopped what he was doing and stared at me. ‘Who are you?’

‘Keep working,’ I told him. ‘Get the bridle on.’

He didn’t move right away. Something was going through his mind, and I was sure I knew what it was. He was thinking about how I had left them, knowing what might happen to them.

‘The bridle,’ I said, looking up. ‘We don’t have time for—’

It was Anna who brought it, hurrying back from the door and snatching up the bridle as she came. She thrust it into her father’s hands, saying, ‘We’ll be all right, Papa.’

‘Yes, we will,’ I told her.

‘Kolya came back to help us,’ she said.

‘Right. Now get back there and keep watch. And you need to get that bridle on. Quickly.’

As Anna returned to the door, Lev did as I asked, putting the bit between the horse’s teeth and slipping the bridle over her head.

‘I’m sorry. I told myself you’d be all right.’ I bent to take the rear cinch and fasten it. ‘I listened to what you said and let myself believe you were right.’

‘What changed?’ The horse resisted the bridle as if she felt the tension in us, but Lev held her steady.

‘I had time to think about it,’ I said, standing and checking the saddle was firm. ‘And I realised you were wrong. I was wrong. I’m sorry. Sorry for putting you in danger.’

Lev was fitting the throatlatch when Anna shouted back to us. ‘They’re coming,’ she said. ‘I see them.’

‘How many?’ I asked, jogging to the door and looking out.

‘Three.’

‘We have to go,’ I said to Lev, seeing three riders in the distance. Not much more than dots on the horizon, made hazy by the mist. ‘You ready?’

‘Let me get my shotgun,’ he said, but I held him back, closing the door and telling him to leave it. There was nothing they needed. Nothing that was worth dying for.

‘Just mount up,’ I said, as I ran to the back of the barn and pulled open the rear door. If we left that way, it would make us invisible from the direction of the advancing riders. We wouldn’t be able to hide our tracks across the steppe behind us, but at least it would earn us a little extra time if they didn’t see us leave. By the time the riders arrived, we would have reached the plateau I spotted earlier. They would probably approach slowly, watching for an ambush, and they would spend a while investigating the farm before discovering our trail. With a bit of luck, we would be in the trees beyond the plateau by then and we could better hide our tracks.

‘Hurry,’ I said, coming back to help Anna onto the horse. I lifted her up and Lev held her as she swung her leg over so she was sitting in front of him. ‘Go.’ I shooed them out of the barn, taking Kashtan’s reins and leading her outside before I shut the door behind us. ‘Come on. Quick.’ I continued to shout commands at them, feeling my nervousness increase with the added responsibility they brought.

I yanked open the back gate and ushered everyone through before closing it behind us and climbing onto Kashtan’s back.

‘As fast as you can,’ I shouted, kicking my heels into Kashtan and holding tight as she broke into a gallop without further persuasion. Like always, she was in tune with my emotions and my needs, and she responded exactly as required.

We raced across the field, Lev and Anna riding well and in close pursuit, and when we passed the dog for a second time, I looked back at him, seeing him change direction and follow once again.

On the other side of the furrowed field, there were patches of hawthorn and elderberry and places where the brambles had grown wild, but Kashtan avoided them, pressing on across the steppe until we came to the rise almost without me having noticed. I brought her to a stop and turned to look back at the farm in the distance, but it was no more than a dark smudge now, made indistinguishable by the trees around it. If I hadn’t known it was there, I would not have spotted it from this angle.

‘Are you both all right?’ I asked as Lev came to a halt beside us.

‘Fine.’ He was out of breath, and his skin was as flushed as Anna’s, both of them almost glowing in the grey and white that surrounded us.

‘Do you have scarfs? You should cover your faces.’

‘We only have what you see,’ Lev said. ‘Everything else is at the farm. We’re lucky to have coats and hats.’

‘Anna’s cap isn’t enough,’ I said.

‘It’s all we have.’ There was a hint of resentment in Lev’s tone.

‘I’m sorry,’ I told him. ‘I’m sorry I ever came to the farm. I’ve dragged you into this now and…’

Lev blinked long and hard, shaking his head. ‘No. I should be thanking you for coming back. We were already in this. Everybody is. You didn’t have to come back for us.’

‘We should keep moving,’ I said. ‘We’re not safe yet.’

I leaned down and patted Kashtan’s neck. ‘Well done.’ I praised my friend and encouraged her to find a good route to pick her way to the top of the rise. In places, it was almost sheer, while in others, the gradient was gentle and easy to navigate, and when we were at the top, we were perhaps ten metres above the part of the steppe we had just ridden across.

The top of the ridge was busy with a confused tangle of twigs and thorns, but we found a way through, coming out onto a steppe that rose into the distance where the forest erupted from its soil once more. Somewhere close to those trees, the road from Belev snaked its way to Dolinsk, and that was where I intended to head next – to follow Tanya and Lyudmila; to find Koschei. There was something I wanted to see, though, before moving on. I needed to assess the scale of what followed in our wake, so I dismounted, knowing we were out of sight from the farm.

I told Lev to stay and rest for a moment, and Kashtan wandered a few paces away, nuzzling the frost, searching for grass, while I went back to the undergrowth, finding a gap and lying down on my stomach. Crystals showered me as I pulled myself through, some finding their way down the back of my neck, but I ignored them and kept moving to the edge of the outcrop. From this elevated position, there was a clear view of the steppe, the farm and the land beyond it.

With the naked eye, it would have been impossible to see the men approaching the farm, but with the binoculars, the shapes were visible on the steppe between the distant forest and the field I had first seen yesterday.

Seven of them, approaching the farm in a line.

I shivered as I watched them, but I was not afraid now as I had been before. In the forest, there had been a sense of the unknown, but now I had confirmation. I was being followed, and that was easier to deal with than not knowing. My concerns were no longer washed in the shadow, and though I was still fearful of being caught, of failing Marianna and the boys and Lev and Anna, those seven riders were men. And men could be outsmarted, or confronted and killed if necessary.

They must have set out at first light; they couldn’t have navigated the dense forest at night, and they were tracking me, which would have been too difficult in the dark. But they had gained ground faster than I had anticipated.

I put the lenses to my eyes again, propping myself on my elbows and watching the figures coming closer to the farm. It was impossible to see them as anything other than riders, and I would have liked to know exactly who they were.

Which of my former comrades had betrayed me?

If I knew that, then perhaps I could face them. I was armed, skilled, and had a good position here on the ridge, but if they were seven men with the skills I had, then a confrontation might not swing in my favour. I would be of no use to Marianna and the boys if I was lying dead in the hoarfrost, waiting for the snow to bury me, and I had Lev and Anna to think about now, waiting just a stone’s throw behind me.

My life would be easier without them and the responsibility I had for them, but it would be poorer in other ways and I was glad they were here. As I watched those seven riders inch across the steppe, I knew I had done the right thing. The men following me would be well armed and expecting trouble – some of them would even be hoping for trouble, as I had once done. They might hardly even have needed an excuse to murder Lev and Anna.

The rider at the centre rode slightly ahead of the others and was the first to reach the gate, but the others were soon alongside him so that all seven riders were in a line facing the yard.

From here to there was a frozen sea of glittering hoarfrost on the thistle and feathergrass and shrubs of the wild steppe. With the wind dying, the mist was thickening, changing the light, threatening to shroud the landscape in a dense cover, and it was impossible even to tell what colour the horses were. They were just dark smudges. The men were faceless shadows and that made them all the more frightening.

As if on command, the men dismounted and came over the fence into the yard. Four broke off to one side, heading to the barn, while the remaining three made their way towards the house.

Having seen enough, I lowered the binoculars, but something caught my eye, making me raise them once more. In the near distance, there was movement on the steppe, a dark shape moving in our trail.

The dog, I said to myself. He’s persistent.

I watched him for a few seconds, nose to the ground; then I crawled back through the undergrowth and returned to Lev, brushing the ice from my clothes.

‘Seven men,’ I told him.

‘Seven? My God, who are you that they need seven men?’

‘It won’t take them long to find our trail. With a bit of luck, they won’t come after us straight away.’ I looked around. ‘This mist is getting thick and they won’t want to lose our trail out here. If they stray off it in the mist, they’ll waste time finding it again, but if they stay at the farm… well, the trail isn’t going anywhere. If it was me, I’d rest.’

I couldn’t be certain, though. Whoever they were, they had been following me for a while now, at least since Belev, and that meant they were good trackers. They would have to be resilient too: the route I took through the forest hadn’t been easy and I’d worked hard to disguise my trail. It was possible that they wouldn’t stop; that they wouldn’t risk losing me.

I didn’t want to tell Lev that, though. I didn’t want to scare him and Anna.

‘So you think they’ll stay at the farm?’

‘They’ll be tired. Their animals too. They must be tough to have followed me this far, but it’s no fun sleeping in the forest every night. It gets tiring. They’ll be glad of a fire and something warm to eat, just like I was. I think they’ll rest.’

‘Are you sure?’ Anna asked, watching me closely.

‘I can’t be sure of anything.’ Kashtan’s saddle creaked as I climbed up. ‘That’s why we need to keep moving; get as far ahead as we can. We have to try to lose them.’