I didn’t want to hear more. With each word Zemfirka spoke, she took me back to my past. With each word, she muddied the waters of what I wanted to believe was a simple battle between good and evil, the noble ruler and the ruthless usurper. I knew Mikhail wasn’t a bad person, but what did that mean of the system he’d inherited?

“You gave them what they wanted,” she repeated once more, before slipping her glasses back on. “That is why I joined. Now, how about some more fish?”

As Zemfirka rose to retrieve the rest from the tin, the train shuddered so violently that my tea glass tipped over, metal holder and all. Lukewarm tea flew across the table, and a bit of her herring flopped onto my hand. I rose to my feet, gripping onto the table for stability.

Beneath my feet, I felt the sudden jolt of levers shifting into place and wheels grinding to a screeching halt. Glasses tinkled against each other in the cabinets, and cans rolled across the floor as the train braked.

The train rolled for another fifteen seconds before coming to a shuddering halt. Slowly, I eased from my crouch.

“Why are we stopping?” I asked.

“I don’t know. We can’t be far from Eyry.” Zemfirka went to the window and peered out, and I followed behind her. Past the window, the pine trees appeared as sharp as rusalka teeth, drowned in a haze of fog.

“What do you see?” I asked.

“Nothing. Maybe there’s something on the tracks.”

As she pulled away, an idea occurred to me.

“I’ll check on the patients in cars nine and ten,” I said. “You take seven and eight.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

I slipped past her, hurrying from one car to the next. The wounded soldiers groaned in their cots, and I helped up one who had fallen before continuing on my way. In car ten, I found Vanya retrieving a spilled hand of cards from the floor.

“Just my luck,” he said to his companions—a soldier with bandages crossing over his nose and left eye and a girl wearing a black ribbon tied around her bandaged arm. “I swear, I was going to win this round.”

“What are you doing?” I asked sharply, and he glanced up.

“Oh, nurse, just in time. Care to join us for another round?”

“Where’s...” I trailed off, catching a glimpse of the wounded soldier’s gray eye. Mikhail offered me a strained smile, rising to his feet. The uniform had already been an adequate disguise, but the bandages were even more so.

“I need some help in car eleven,” I said, thinking quickly. “Can you two be of assistance?”

“Of course,” Vanya said, before nodding to the girl and tossing her the pack of cards. “Why don’t you hold on to these? They’ll keep you entertained.”

We entered the storage car, finding a private niche behind the laundry baskets.

“Do you think they found out that we’re onboard?” I whispered.