The Forest of Vanishing Stars(87)

“Praise God.” He sighed and looked down for a long time before raising his head again. “Lazare and Leib were killed by Germans when they ventured out on a food mission,” he said, his voice flat. Yona put her hand over her mouth and blinked back tears. Poor, sweet Leib, only eighteen, a man before his time, who never had the chance to reach true adulthood. Miriam must be beside herself. “I’m sorry. We were starving. I offered to go, but instead I stayed to help protect the group…” He cleared his throat. “We lost Luba, too. An illness. It’s what slowed us down, prevented us from reaching the Bielski group in good time. She became sick only a day after we left camp, and we had to move more slowly. She did not wake up on the third day.” His eyes went to Yona again, and he held her gaze as he added softly, “We also lost Aleksander. I’m sorry, Yona. He died bravely; two Belorussian policemen came upon us in the woods, and he moved to protect my cousins, who were fishing and did not hear them approaching. He saved their lives, but in the gunfight, he was shot, and he perished a day later. He was a hero in the end.”

Tears flowed down Yona’s cheeks, and the depth of her grief confused her; Aleksander had hurt her, discarded her, but she had still shared a season of her life with him. She had loved him, even if that love had been misguided. She wiped her face, drew herself up to her full height, and looked Zus in the eye. “I think he would be proud to know you feel that way.” She took a deep breath. “How is Sulia? She is grieving?”

Zus hesitated. “She seems to be.”

“I’m sorry for her.” Yona meant it. No one should know the pain of such a loss. “You reached the Bielski group?”

Zus shook his head. “We found their settlement, exactly where Shimon said it would be. But it was deserted; it appeared that they had fled a day or two before. It was a whole society in the woods, Yona; there must be a thousand of them there. It was incredible. We’ve been praying since then for their survival; it would be difficult to hide a group that large.”

Yona nodded; it was just as Jüttner had said. “When Rosalia and Chaim ventured into some villages, they learned that the Germans’ mission had not been successful. They did not find the Bielski group.”

“We heard the same. It gives us hope that they are still alive.”

“And the Zorin group? Did you reach them?”

Again Zus shook his head. “We tried. It is what kept us moving for so long in the wrong direction. But we never found them, and then we heard that the Germans had retreated. After we lost Aleksander, we began to move back here in hopes of finding you.” Zus glanced at Chaim and Rosalia before looking back at Yona. “There’s more. We have added to our group. Eight newcomers, six men and two women. They are all heavily armed, and they were wandering the forest alone, looking for a way to fight the Germans.”

“They are Jews?” Chaim asked.

“Yes.” There was awe in Zus’s voice as he added, “They came from the Nowogródek ghetto. Like the Sokolowskis and the Gulniks, they were looking for the Bielskis and did not find them. But they came upon us, and when we told them about our settlement here, they asked if they could stay. They want to help us. They came with machine guns and ammunition, taken from Germans they ambushed in the forest.”

“If they bring their own guns, they are very welcome to stay,” Chaim said, and he and his brother shared a weary smile.

“Come,” Zus said, raising his voice to address the whole group. “There is much to tell all of you, and I want to hear everything about what happened to you, too. Shall we go have a meal?”

Laughing and chattering, with the clouds overhead temporarily parting to let in the light, the group that had followed Yona into the swamps began to walk back toward the place they had come to know as home.



* * *



That night, after meeting the eight newcomers—all between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four, and all bright-eyed with anger and grief for loved ones slain by the Germans—Yona walked a hundred meters away from their camp and found herself alone in the woods for the first time in weeks. It was safe here in the camp, as safe as it could be, and even Chaim and Rosalia had let down their guard and crawled off to sleep. Israel and Wenzel, who had come back with Zus’s group a week before and were well rested, were on patrol tonight, and Yona could hear their distant footsteps moving through the trees. But still she was able to close her eyes and block out the sound as she sat by the edge of a burbling stream.

The soft rushing of the water comforted her, gave her leave to let go, and before she knew it, tears were running down her face, and then she was sobbing, her body heaving with the sudden effort of drawing a breath. The moon shone down, peaceful and quiet, the stars twinkled overhead, and Yona wept at last for all the things that had been lost: for the people who should still be here, for the father she’d never see again, for the death of Aleksander, for the senseless loss of young Leib’s life, even for Jerusza, who seemed farther away than ever. The Germans, they don’t just wipe out our people, Aleksander had said to her long ago. They wipe out our future. Aleksander’s family line, and Leib’s, were forever erased now. How many futures had the Germans snuffed out the same way?

She was crying so hard that she didn’t hear anyone approaching until warm, callous fingers touched her arm. She jumped up, whirling around, and found herself face-to-face with Zus. The scream in her throat melted into a whimper, and without a word, he folded her into his arms and simply held her as her shoulders shook. When she finally pulled away, she knew that her face was streaked with salt and dirt, and her eyes were bloodshot, but when Zus reached out and gently tucked an errant fall of hair behind her ear, she saw herself reflected in his eyes, and she saw none of those flaws.