The Winter Thief

28

Vera heard the key turn in the lock. As the door opened, she forced herself to stand, back straight, eyes alert. Even if she wasn’t a proper comrade, she was the daughter and granddaughter of generals. She didn’t know what she would do if the men came for her again, but stoked her anger because that helped.

A plump face wrapped in a shawl peered cautiously into the room. Seeing Vera, the girl nodded and touched her hand to her mouth. She put the basket and her lamp on the floor and, after another glance into the corridor, closed the door softly. She wore the same marigold robe. Vera noticed it was grimy and torn. The girl’s eyes were bruised and vacant, and she looked more frail than she had the day before.

Vera held out her hand, but the girl pulled hers back. They were latticed with fresh cuts, some still bleeding. The girl reached into the basket and brought out two long, black charshaf veils. She shoved one toward Vera. “Hurry.”

Vera dropped the garment over her head and was enveloped in scratchy wool smelling of unwashed bodies. A tickle ran across her neck-lice. She forced down her revulsion.

Sosi was tying up her charshaf, which was too long for her. Then she pinned the veil over Vera’s mouth. The girl picked up the lamp, opened the door and looked out, then slipped through, Vera following. Sosi closed the door, grasped Vera’s hand, and pulled her down the corridor.

They had gone only a short distance when Sosi opened another door and pushed Vera through. Inside, Vera froze. She recognized the room as the place where the men had taken her. The table with leather restraints and metal clasps loomed in the light of Sosi’s lamp. Sosi tugged at her arm, but Vera doubled over, gasping with pain, and ripped the veil from her face. Her stomach heaved but brought forth only a thin drizzle of bile.

“Be quiet,” Sosi whispered, taking a length of her skirt and wiping Vera’s mouth. Vera took a deep breath and nodded. Sosi turned to the back wall, pulled a wooden panel aside, and shoved Vera through.

On the other side, Vera saw several chairs facing the paneling, each chair situated in front of a peephole that gave a view of what was going on inside the room. She realized that Vahid had been behind this panel during her humiliation.

Sosi pulled at Vera’s sleeve. The girl’s face was white and greasy with sweat. She put out the lamp, fumbled a key from her sash, and unlocked a door. The smell of loam carried on the chill night air.

Vera pulled the charshaf tight around her face and stepped into a small courtyard cleared of snow. Keeping their backs against the wall, she and Sosi moved through the yard like shadows, then set out across open ground, ducking behind bushes, until they came to the edge of a grove of trees. There Vera began to run, the rocks and brush lacerating her bare feet. She heard Sosi’s footsteps behind her until her own breath and heartbeat drowned out all other sound.