Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo (z-lib.org).mobi

morning light gleaming off his rifle barrel, and for a moment, I thought he might
be looking right at me. A call sounded from deep in the woods. The soldier
shouted back to them. “Nichyevo!” Nothing.
And then, to my amazement, he turned and walked away from me.
I listened as the sounds faded, the voices growing more distant, the footfalls
more faint. Could I possibly be so lucky? Had they somehow mistaken an
animal’s trail or another traveller’s for mine? Or was it some kind of trick? I
waited, my body trembling, until all I could hear was the relative quiet of the
wood, the calls of insects and birds, the rustle of the wind in the trees.
At last, I slid the mirror back into my glove and took a deep, shuddering
breath. I returned my knife to its sheath and slowly rose out of my crouch. I
reached for my still-damp coat lying in a crumpled heap on the ground and froze
at the unmistakable sound of a soft step behind me.
I spun on my heel, my heart in my throat, and saw a figure partially hidden by
branches, only a few feet from me. I’d been so focused on the bearded soldier
that I hadn’t realised there was someone behind me. In an instant, the knife was
back in my hand, the mirror held high as the figure emerged silently from the
trees. I stared, sure I must be hallucinating.
Mal.
I opened my mouth to speak, but he put his finger to his lips in warning, his
gaze locked onto mine. He waited a moment, listening, then gestured to me to
follow and melted back into the woods. I grabbed my coat and hurried after him,
doing my best to keep up. It was no easy task. He moved silently, slipping like a
shadow through the branches, as if he could see paths invisible to others’ eyes.
He led me back to the stream, to a shallow bend where we were able to slog
across. I cringed as the icy water poured into my boots again. When we emerged
on the other side, he circled back to cover our tracks.
I was bursting with questions, and my mind kept jumping from one thought to
the next. How had Mal found me? Had he been tracking me with the other
soldiers? What did it mean that he was helping me? I wanted to reach out and
touch him to make sure he was real. I wanted to throw my arms around him in
gratitude. I wanted to punch him in the eye for the things he’d said to me that
night at the Little Palace.
We walked for hours in complete silence. Periodically, he would gesture for
me to stop, and I would wait as he disappeared into the underbrush to hide our
tracks. Some time in the afternoon, we began climbing a rocky path. I wasn’t
sure where the stream had deposited me, but I felt fairly certain that he must be
leading me into the Petrazoi.
Each step was agony. My boots were still wet, and fresh blisters formed on