My voice shriveled in my throat. I nodded once, twice, unable to speak.

His fingers edged to his throat, touched the embroidery there. “How long?”

“What?” I stammered.

“How long was I...was I gone for?”

From the haunted look in his eyes, it was clear he remembered some of his fight with the Fraktsiya soldiers, if not all of it.

I swallowed hard. His question carried such weight, it must have meant far more to him than he let on. It had taken me seven or eight hours to bring him back, I supposed, but how long was that really? Was that enough time for the first hint of decay to spread beneath the skin? For the blood that hadn’t run into the river to go cold and congeal?

“Not long,” I said at last.

He didn’t answer.

“I saw your mother,” I murmured. “When I went down to the river, she came to me.”

Silence.

“She helped me save you. She wanted you to live. You were brought back for a reason.” I felt in my heart that this was no coincidence. Everything in the world had meaning and significance.

Vanya’s body tensed, his shoulders curling up like I had struck him. He drew in a deep breath, his hesitation heavy with unspoken meaning.

“You were brought back for a reason,” I repeated, my voice firm with conviction. “And these stitches, they’re proof that you survived.”

“Thank you, Toma,” Vanya whispered, looking over at me. His lips rose in a wrenching smile, and although no more tears welled from his eyes, I sensed that he was crying on the inside for everything he had lost and for a life that would never be the same.

39

Rain clouds rolled in from the east, transmuting the sunlight from gold to lead. Watching the storm approach, I shivered with a sudden foreboding. Some of the worst moments of my life had been preluded by storms, and now more than ever the weather felt like an omen of destruction.

As we walked, Vanya remained uncharacteristically quiet. He didn’t want to talk about what had happened to him. He didn’t want to talk at all. Several times I tried to start a conversation, only for it to fizzle out after the first few minutes. I didn’t want to push him, and I didn’t mind not talking—after seven years in the wilderness, I’d learned that silence in many ways was more natural than sound. Especially among those who came back.

Except, as the minutes passed, the silence began to disturb me in a way it never had before, allowing dark thoughts to ferment in my mind. So many hours had passed since I had escaped the Fraktsiya encampment, I knew that Galina and Mikhail must already be at Eyry Castle. Still, I sensed in my heart that there was time to save them. We had come so far now, it was too late to stop, too late to wonder. If Vanya’s death had taught me anything, it was that I must never give up on the people I loved.