next corner and skidded to a halt. Two men carrying clubs advanced from different doorways.
Dragan swore beneath his breath, possibly in Hungarian, for she couldn’t make out the words.
“Psst!” A boy in a red cap hissed at them from the gap in a wooden fence, beckoning wildly.
Griz exchanged glances with Dragan, but there was no other option. They had no idea who they would run into if they ran back the way they had come. As one, they dived across the road and through the plank in the fence.
Nick was already haring into the tumbled-down building behind it, so they followed. At least they were out of sight of the men with clubs.
“Follow me,” Nick said cheerfully. “Short cut to the cab stand. You’ll be safe there.”
“Will you?” Dragan asked bluntly. “If they know you helped us—”
Nick cast him a pitying glance. “Don’t be daft. Who’d suspect me? Told you, I can take care of myself.” As he spoke, he led them out the other end of the building, through a maze of passages and the remains of buildings that seemed to have been knocked down, with no attempt to replace them. Some of them smelled still of smoke.
“Do you suppose they’re still following?” Griz asked nervously, though she could not hear any sounds of pursuit.
“Nah, they’ll never come this way,” Nick assured her. “Enemy territory, isn’t it?”
“Enemy?” Dragan repeated.
“The law got most of ’em,” Nick said. “But there’s enough left to do our lot some damage if they stray into the wrong place.”
“But you aren’t afraid?” Griz said anxiously.
He grinned. “Who notices me? I’m just a kid.”
And then, without warning, Dragan cannoned into her, with far more force than their first encounter. His hard arm at her back, she seemed to fly through the air and land with a thud. The world was exploding, shaking in a rising cloud of opaque, choking dust.
Dazed and winded, her brain too numb to think, Griz flung out her hand to Dragan, sprawled half on top of her, touching his face, feeling his breath.
“Christ!” Nick’s childish voice whispered, more like a prayer than blasphemy. “Christ…”
She moved, twisting her head. The boy lay dazed and staring on Dragan’s other side. Through the dust, she made out a huge chunk of masonry on the ground, only feet away from them. Almost exactly where they had been, surely, when Dragan hurled them all to safety.
The cloud drifted and parted further. And on top of the nearest half-demolished building, she saw four men peering toward them. Somehow, she understood at once that it had taken all four to push the masonry down on them. That all three of them would have been dead if Dragan had not seen or heard it coming.
She had heard nothing, no warning…
But one of the men was pointing. Angry voices reached her ears as their survival was discovered. And she knew they were not yet safe.
She hauled herself out from under Dragan, staggering to her feet. “Hurry! Nick, run!”
Nick was standing, his eyes wide and staring in his dirty face. Dragan sat up, and she grasped his shoulder urgently. It jerked and trembled but otherwise, he didn’t move.
“Dragan!” Terrified for his injury, she crouched beside him, grasping his face between her hands. “Dragan, can you stand? Can you run? They’re coming for us.”
His eyes stared at her, frighteningly blank. Helpless.
Dear God. “Dragan, get up!” With both hands, she hauled at his shoulder and, at last, he moved, stumbling upright. She grasped his arm in one hand, seized Nick with the other, and lurched away from the building.
“Nick, you have to lead the way,” she said urgently. “We’re lost.”
Nick nodded, and they ran together, stumbling over stones and slates and what must once have been a road of some kind. Dragan moved without her support, but it was almost as if he was not there, which for some reason frightened her more than anything.
At last, they broke into a wider road. Griz glanced wildly around her, searching for landmarks. Behind a loaded cart, a hackney was coming toward them. They should follow it, hopefully to a stand, or at least to civilization. But even as she turned to do so, Nick darted out into the road to stop it.
The horses screamed and reared. The driver cursed, and Grizelda’s heart rose into her mouth. But somehow, Nick survived. And the carriage was empty.
“They’re hurt!” he yelled to the driver. “You have to take them home.”
Which is when Dragan suddenly blinked and strode after him,