“Iva—” His cheeks reddened. With a sheepish scowl, he shifted his gaze away from me and folded my rushnyk over his arm.

“You like him, don’t you?”

“Wh-what?” Mikhail blushed. “Of course not. He’s—he’s a bullheaded idiot, he won’t shut up, and half the time he’s either goading me on or insulting me.”

I chuckled. “Don’t deny it.”

“I’m not—” His mouth snapped shut as Pelin returned carrying a paper sack and two milk bottles.

“I hope you like bread.” She looked around. “Where’s your friend?”

While Mikhail told her about the plan, I stepped around the kiosk to see where Vanya had gone. Across the train yard, he walked up the row of wounded soldiers lying on stretchers. With his relaxed stride and dark brown greatcoat, he hardly looked out of place amid the railway workers and loiterers.

When I pointed out the number of civilians carrying rifles, Mikhail told me there was a shortage of uniforms among the Fraktsiya. Many of the plainclothes men and women were soldiers, identified by the green patches hand sewn onto the shoulders of their coats or the gilt badges on their caps and shirt collars.

But if there were officials onboard, they would be wearing the issued uniforms, and so would the soldiers close to them. We’d have no luck blending in without disguises of our own.

At several of the cars, bodies were being unloaded rather than brought on. Already, the Troika priestesses were tending to the dead—one by severing the tendons in the arms and legs using a silver blade, and the other by tying the jaw shut with red ribbon until it could be filled with cleansing herbs. Near the end of the row, a lone man in Strannik garb knelt beside a corpse, slipped the boots free, and chained the naked feet together.

While explaining his plan, Vanya had told us that the Strannik dead were attended to by guards rather than priestesses, strong and healthy men and women who would stand watch over the corpses for three days—that was how long the goddess Voserka had labored to shape the first humans at the hearth of creation, and the same window of time it took the dead to return to life. Typically, this final watch would occur at the site of the person’s death, as in Kraylesa. When that wasn’t possible, it would happen in an isolated field or glade, far from settlements where the living might be polluted by the Unclean forces that gathered near the dead.

Those who came back were considered cursed. They would be put down without mercy and incinerated until nothing but ashes remained.

Vanya stopped beside the other Strannik and spoke to him. I wasn’t close enough to hear what they were saying or even which language they used, but after a minute, Vanya turned and looked around the platform. Spotting me, he waved his hand and gestured for me to approach.

I took a deep breath. This is who you could have been, I thought as I walked over. It’s still a part of you.