The Forest of Vanishing Stars(26)

“Amkha?” one of the young women with Leib asked, her expression unreadable. It was the same word Aleksander had said to Yona the first day she saw him trying to fish.

“Yes, she is one of us, Sulia,” Aleksander answered firmly.

The woman’s eyes flicked back to Yona. Her hair was the color of burned acorns, hanging to the middle of her back, and her waist was narrow beneath an ample bosom. After a long pause, she smiled. “Yona, is it?”

Yona nodded. She had been prepared for the strangeness of being around a group of people, but she hadn’t expected the look of judgment in so many eyes. They were all assessing her, trying to read her, trying to see if she belonged, even the two little girls, who had stopped playing and were whispering to each other as they stared.

It was Sulia’s gaze that seemed to penetrate the most deeply, though, so Yona was relieved when the other woman finally stepped away from Leib and walked across the clearing. She extended her hand. “Welcome,” she said to Yona.

Yona had seen handshakes before from afar, but she had never engaged in one herself. As she reached out and let Sulia’s hand encircle hers, she was surprised to feel how hard the other woman’s fingers squeezed, folding Yona’s fingers into an uneasy U. Yona tried to squeeze back with equal force, and Sulia blinked rapidly a few times before pulling away.

“So, Yona, you are from the area near Mir, too?” Sulia asked.

“No.”

Sulia seemed to be waiting for Yona to say more, but she didn’t.

“Yona, meet Ruth.” Aleksander nodded to the young mother, who nodded back and gave Yona a smile that was small but full of light. “That’s Daniel, and over there are Pessia and Leah, her other two children. Against the trees there, you see Leon and Oscher.”

The old men both raised a hand in greeting as Aleksander continued. “You know Leib, and the women with him are Miriam, his mother; Bina, who is Oscher’s wife; and Luba.” A woman in her forties with dark hair framed by graying streaks—who must have been Miriam—nodded at Yona. The other two women—one with long, straight white hair, the other with twisted hair the color of silverfish—smiled and waved.

“And that’s Moshe with them,” Aleksander concluded. The man beside the older women nodded at Yona, his arms full of clothing. He appeared to be in his sixties and was nearly bald, with a pair of thick spectacles perched on the tip of his nose. He was the tailor, Yona recalled. She nodded back.

“Rosalia is still out on patrol?” Aleksander asked Leib, who nodded. “Can you go find her and bring her back?”

Leib’s eyes flicked to Yona. “Why?”

Aleksander hesitated, his eyes roaming the small encampment. Everyone remained still, watching. It felt to Yona as if they were all holding one long, collective breath. “Because we need to move,” Aleksander said at last, and there was a chorus of exhales, punctuated by a few soft gasps. “At once. We aren’t safe here.”

Leib tensed. “You’ve seen Germans? Where? How close?”

“No. Nothing like that. Still, we need to be on our way as soon as we can.”

Frowning, Leib glanced at Yona, then nodded and slipped off into the woods without another word.

“What are you saying, Aleksander?” one of the old men asked, the one Aleksander had introduced as Oscher, using the tree he’d been leaning on for support as he stood. The white-haired woman, Oscher’s wife, Bina, moved to his side, taking his hand and squeezing, as he added, “We need to move? From this spot that is comfortable and safe? Why?”

Aleksander hesitated and glanced at Yona. “Because we are too obvious here.”

“But you said the Germans aren’t coming,” murmured Ruth, her eyes round with fear as she rocked Daniel. The little boy’s eyelids were drooping, almost closed, his mouth slightly open, and Yona felt a pang of sudden fury at the thought that there were people out there hunting this defenseless child.

“Perhaps not today.” Aleksander’s voice was heavy with grief and exhaustion, and before Yona could stop herself, she reached out and touched his arm. The gesture of comfort seemed to surprise him; he blinked at her a few times before nodding and giving her a small smile. “But they will come.” His tone was resolute now. “They will come, and we cannot be here waiting for them.”

“You are being too cautious. We are fine here,” Sulia said. She glanced at Yona and added, “Aleksander is too worried sometimes, too careful.”

The words felt proprietary somehow, but that hardly mattered, because they were so incorrect. “There is no such thing as being too careful in the forest,” Yona said. “There is always danger.”

“Ah.” Sulia crossed her arms and glanced around at a few of the others in the group, her gaze resting on Aleksander for a few seconds before settling on Yona. “So this is your doing, yes? You have told Aleksander that we need to move our camp? And he believes you because you helped him catch a few fish?”

“Sulia,” one of the other women murmured in warning, but no one else spoke.

Yona could feel her cheeks heating again. Her palms were sweaty. She wanted to run, but if she did that, she’d be abandoning these people to the same sort of future Chana’s family had met. So she drew a deep breath. “Right now, you have been here too long. If your enemies come close enough by chance, they will find you.”