Child Thief (15 page)

‘How long would it take to make this?' Dimitri asked.

‘It's not big,' I said, turning onto my stomach and pushing myself out. ‘An hour maybe. The snow should be left to harden, stop it from collapsing, but …' I stood up and shrugged. ‘He would have been in a hurry; perhaps he would've taken a risk.'

‘Over here, Papa. A fire, I think.'

I went over to where Viktor was standing, kicking at a place where the snow had been disturbed. There was blackened wood beneath.

‘He had to keep warm,' I said. ‘Eat something.' As I spoke, I looked up at Dimitri. What we had both seen on the sled was now in our minds, the way the girl's flesh had been cut, and I wished I hadn't said anything about eating. ‘She's safe,' I said. ‘I know it. Look.' I held up the single hair.

‘Is that Dariya's?' Dimitri asked, coming closer.

‘Unless we're looking for someone else with long black hair,' Viktor said.

I waved a hand to silence him, let him know he'd spoken out of turn. ‘And this man knows how to survive out here,' I said. ‘He kept her safe last night. He built a fire and a shelter. She's alive and we'll find her.'

Dimitri took the hair between his finger and thumb. ‘It's hers. I know it.' He removed one glove and touched the hair with his own skin. ‘I know it.' He snapped his head up to look at me. ‘We should go; come on.'

‘Wait. Let me—'

‘Wait?' said Dimitri. ‘We haven't got time to wait.'

‘Another minute,' I said. ‘Let me look for any more signs.'

‘Like what?' Dimitri put the hair in his pocket and pulled his glove back on. ‘What kind of signs? There are the prints.' He pointed. ‘Let's go.'

‘Those aren't the prints. Not the right ones, anyway. Those are the tracks he left when he looked for firewood.'

‘How do you know that?' Dimitri asked me. ‘How can you be sure?'

‘Because they come and go?' Petro suggested. ‘And because you can see places down there where wood has been snapped away from dead branches.'

‘That's right,' I said.

‘Well, we can't wait any longer,' Dimitri said. ‘We have to go. We've delayed long enough. I shouldn't have listened to you; we should've gone last night. If we'd gone last night we'd have found her by now.'

I didn't answer him.

‘Already he stopped back there.' Dimitri looked behind us. ‘And now this? An hour he was here, making this? We would have found him, right here.'

‘Maybe,' I said. ‘Or maybe we'd have lost our way in the dark.'

‘
He
didn't get lost coming here.'

‘No. But he wasn't following tracks. We made the right decision.'

‘And he had a fire,' Dimitri went on. ‘We'd have seen it.'

‘The fire is right back here, away from the shelter. It would have been almost invisible in the trees.'

‘I would have seen it,' Dimitri said.

‘We probably wouldn't have even got this far,' I told him.

Dimitri stared at him. ‘You're enjoying this, aren't you?'

‘What?'

‘
This
. Being out here. Tracking. It's what you like to do. All that hunting. I know you go out alone, sometimes for days. It's in your blood – the only thing that makes you happy.'

‘You don't know anything about me.'

‘I know you're a brutal Russian who fought in more armies than you can probably remember. Killed more men than hunger. This excites you. You're enjoying this. It's probably the only thing that makes you feel alive.'

I stared at him, angry and guilty because there was a scent of truth in his words.

‘And you're enjoying making me look stupid.'

‘If you look stupid, it's nothing to do with me. Even if we
had
got this far last night, this fire would've been deep in these trees. Why d'you think he came in here, where the trees are so thick? We could've walked within five metres of it and not known it was there.'

‘We would've seen the tracks.'

‘In the dark?' I pushed my doubts aside. ‘At best we'd have ruined the trail, killed any chance of following, and at worst we'd be lying frozen in the snow, dead, while he walks away with your daughter.'

‘You're punishing me,' Dimitri said. ‘Punishing me for what happened yesterday.'

‘Punishing you? You're punishing yourself, Dimitri. What happened yesterday was shameful, but has no bearing on this. You think I'd delay finding Dariya because of what you did yesterday? This isn't about you.'

He said nothing.

‘Don't ever doubt that I will do all I can to find your daughter,' I told him.

Dimitri nodded.

‘OK, then, come and look at this.' I grabbed his coat and pulled him, but Dimitri knocked my hand away.

‘Don't pull me around.'

‘Then stop being an ass. Now, come with me.'

I took him round the shelter and into the trees on the other side from where we had come into this place. I stood on the edge of the disturbance where our prey had dragged the snow into a pile to make his shelter and I pointed at the ground.

‘You see,' I said. ‘Still alive. And my guess is they set out just before dawn – like we did.'

In front of us, leading out into the trees, the trail continued. Two sets of footprints. One large, one small.

12

We followed the prints which led on and on through the trees, avoiding the open spaces. The trail remained within the forest wherever possible, staying where the snow was most shallow, and we were glad not to have to venture out where it would be much deeper. On the open steppe, the snow would be over our boots, maybe higher in the places where the wind had swept it into drifts and whipped the land into a pale desert of dunes and ripples so beautiful and white one could hardly believe this weather could kill a man in just a few moments.

We'd been walking most of the morning and were all tired now, wondering if we were gaining on our quarry. Dimitri was silent, and I knew his mind would be focused on Dariya, so that all other thought would be consumed. I'd hoped we would find her early, while all the tracks were fresh and we were well rested from a good night's sleep, but the child thief had been more resourceful than I expected and I was worried there was too much distance between us.

The shelter had surprised me. That the child thief had found a good spot for a fire, well hidden, concerned me. Whoever we were following was knowledgeable and able to survive outside in conditions that would close around most people in no time at all. And yet, with all his ability, he had left an easy trail to follow, and that troubled me. Putting myself in the place of the kidnapper, I knew that covering the tracks would be difficult. The only sure way to erase them would be under another snowfall, but even then it would need to be heavy. Under light snow, prints are still
distinguishable. It would be possible to create false trails, but that would take time and I guessed the man must have decided to move quickly, keep ahead of us until he found a place to adequately erase the signs he left behind. It made no sense, otherwise. There hadn't been any attempt to confuse potential pursuers.

We had come a few kilometres from the village, and there were other settlements in the area where we were travelling. North of our position now, the village of Uroz hid in a shallow valley much like our own, but it might as well have not existed at all. For us, there was only the snow and the trees and the wind. Nothing else. Whoever we were following, he had stayed clear of anywhere there might be people. He had skirted around Vyriv, seizing an opportunity, and then continued into the wilderness.

‘We should stop,' I said.

‘Stop?' Dimitri was by my side and I sensed his tension increase. He needed an enemy and, although I was helping him, I was the closest he had.

‘Rest for a moment, regain our strength. We've been walking all morning.'

‘I'm not tired,' Viktor said. ‘I can walk further.'

‘Me too,' Petro agreed as the boys came to join us.

I pulled the scarf away from my mouth and nose, allowing the cold air to bite at my face.

‘We can't wait. We don't need to rest,' Dimitri said. ‘What we need is to find Dariya. How can you even—'

‘Is anybody thirsty?' I asked. ‘We need to keep fresh.'

Dimitri turned and walked away from me. Just a few steps to show his displeasure.

I looked at Viktor and Petro. ‘Thirsty?'

They shook their heads.

‘All right then. We'll go on.' I pulled the scarf back over my face and began moving again. I could feel the cold creeping into my joints. My knees were stiff and there was a faint pain with each step, but my resolve was strong.

I went on ahead, walking alongside the marks in the snow, watching the land in front, squinting into the distance, trying to
see any sign of movement in the trees. I knew the kidnapper would be well out of sight, but I watched anyway. Something might have happened to slow him down, and if that were the case, I needed to be vigilant.

Behind me the others followed in single file, keeping the disturbance to a minimum.

I turned when I heard footsteps quicken behind me and I nodded to Petro, who fell in step with me, walking by my side. His back was straight despite his pack and the heavy rifle he carried over his shoulder. As if he were showing me how strong he was.

‘Do you think she's all right?' he asked. His voice was muffled behind his scarf and he spoke quietly so Dimitri wouldn't hear.

‘I hope so,' I said. ‘I can't do anything more than that.'

Petro was quiet for a moment.

‘There's something on your mind?' I asked, shifting the weight of my rifle. The strap was catching on the shoulder of my coat, pulling it to one side.

Petro looked at me. ‘Does Dimitri blame me?'

‘Blame you for what?'

‘For what's happened?'

‘Why should he blame you?'

‘Because I brought Lara home but left Dariya to play.'

‘No one blames you for anything. And I don't want you to blame yourself. No one is to blame but whoever took her. No one.'

‘And you really believe we'll find her?'

‘Yes, I really believe that.'

‘And this man. Or whoever it is …'

‘Yes?'

‘What will you do?'

‘What would
you
do?'

‘I don't know.'

Petro and I were alike in many ways – many more than I understood – but this was something that made us very different. Petro didn't know what he would do. I, on the other hand, knew
exactly what I would do. I would take whatever weapon was to hand, whether it was my rifle or my fingers, and I would take the man's life from him. I would punish him for what he had done to the two children I buried yesterday. I would punish him for taking Dariya. And I would punish him for turning the people of Vyriv into frightened animals.

Petro lowered his head to watch his feet. ‘I hope she's all right, Papa.'

I shifted my rifle again and stared ahead.

When we came to the edge of the trees and emerged onto the open steppe, the first thing I noticed was the red stain on the ground. It lay there like an insult. A single splash, no bigger than a man's fist, surrounded by spots that had sunk just below the surface of the disturbed snow. It was striking, the bright red against the bright white. Like the bold red of the communist flag flapping against a white winter sky.

From this spot, the land sloped up for a short distance, coming to a ridge, concealing the rest of the steppe beyond. There were tracks moving up the ridge, but there was also a mess of tracks running off to the right, along the line of the trees.

I held up a hand to stop the others from coming closer, waving them to one side, showing them not to disturb the tracks.

‘Is that blood?' Dimitri asked, stepping forward.

‘Stay back.'

‘Is it blood?' he asked again.

‘Yes, but it's not much.' I moved closer for a better look. The ground was a mess here, much like it was back at the shelter.

‘Is it Dariya's?' Dimitri said.

‘I don't know.'

‘You think she tried to get away again?' Viktor asked.

‘Maybe.' I studied the area. ‘But if she did, that's good. It means she's still strong.' I looked up at Dimitri. ‘She's a strong girl. The more I see, the more I know she'll be fine. I think—'

‘You're enjoying yourself.'

‘What? Not this again, Dimitri.'

‘I can see it in your eyes,' he said. ‘This is thrilling for you. That could be my daughter's blood and it's exciting you. If you could see yourself …'

‘I'm just trying to find Dariya.'

‘But it makes you feel alive, doesn't it? Being a farmer could never be enough for you. For God's sake, how many times did you change sides in the war? Imperial, revolutionary, anarchist. You were looking for excitement.'

I wasn't sure what to say. There was truth in his accusation. There were times when being a farmer wasn't enough for me. It was a very different life from the one I'd had before coming to Vyriv, and, as much as I hated to acknowledge it, I sometimes craved the exhilaration of adrenalin, the closeness to danger and the camaraderie that had carried me through the worst of times. There was no bond like the one between men who had fought together; no other experience could sharpen and focus you the way combat did. But it was more like a drug than anything else. My rational mind wanted to distance itself from those things, to think only of family and duty, but a part of me needed that stimulation.

‘You're wrong,' I said. ‘I joined the revolution because I believed in it, but when I saw what they did to their own soldiers, I couldn't be a part of it.'

‘Don't expect me to feel sympathy for you …'