“After my father died, my mother and I left,” I said. “I don’t know why. Something...something happened. I think we were going to cross through the Edge, into Groznaya.”

“Were you driven out?” Vanya asked. “If it was around that time, it could have been during an expulsion.”

“No. I’m not Strannik.”

“We aren’t the only people who’ve been banished,” he said. “People of Grozniy descent were, too.”

I gave it some thought. Our move had occurred during the night. My mother hadn’t even had time to sell our house or pack more than a bag each. Because... “It was something else. I think my mother was running from something. Something personal.”

“Go on,” Vanya said.

There was a wall in my memory that divided my childhood in the village from my life in the wilderness. On one side of the wall, there were darkness and cobblestones, my father reduced to ashes atop the pyre, and an eternity of exhausted walking. On the other side, there was the snow, the cold, and Galina clothed in rags, excitedly asking if I was alive.

My most distinct memory of the time between was an image that had haunted me since childhood—a man crossing between the snow-burdened pines, cloaked in flames that liquefied the ice beneath his feet and caused the bark on nearby trees to blister and blacken. Even knowing the power of bogatyri, the vision seemed so surreal that I wasn’t sure whether it was a dream or a genuine memory.

“I...I don’t remember much. I just know my sister, Galina, found me and brought me to Mama and Papa. I’ve been with them ever since.”

A heavy lump formed in my throat. Galina had saved me from certain death. Why was I just standing here? Every second I wasted meant another step her captors were putting between us.

It made me uncomfortable to linger on my past, so I skipped through it, jumping past the hunting, the gathering, the small garden and wheat crop I tended to, until I reached our current situation.

Mikhail kept looking at me like he wanted to say something. The way I saw it, if he had something to add, he might as well speak up. But he didn’t.

Once I had finished, Vanya gave it some thought. “This sister of yours, the one who was taken—”

“Galina.”

“She was taken by the Fraktsiya, right?”

“I’ve already told you this,” I said, growing frustrated. “Why is it so—”

Vanya lifted his hands. “I’m just trying to get my facts straight. You aren’t the most eloquent of storytellers, and I need to hear a story twice to really understand it.”

I huffed, crossing my arms. “I’m not a bad storyteller! I tell stories to Galina all the time!”

“Most people want to run away from upyri, not keep them as pets,” Vanya said. “Why would they take her?”

“Toma, I don’t think we should inconvenience Ivan with our—” Mikhail began.

“Because Mikhail is the Tsar and they needed to appease Koschei for failing to find him!” I blurted out before I could stop myself. The moment the words left my mouth, I felt a sudden horror, and wanted desperately to take them back. Mikhail rose quickly from his seat, and Vanya’s jaw came unhinged.