Sky Knights (2 page)

"I was lying, I hate this part more," Meow said darkly, ears flat against his skull.

The ground rose up in front of them, and Meow clenched his eyes shut as they came in for their landing. The controls jarred in Dounia's hands, but the plane stayed steady, slowing down in spite of the ice that was building up on the runway.

"Are we down?" Meow asked plaintively.

"We're down," Dounia said, taxiing their plane off the runway and finding her berth through the rising storm.

The ground crew came to strap their plane down, and Dounia climbed out of the front cockpit. She walked carefully across the wing to the back cockpit where Ira struggled to climb out while using only one arm. Dounia rushed to help her, and Ira let her with a fond smile.

"Come on, we need to get to the medical bay," Dounia urged, getting an arm under Ira's uninjured arm.

"I got blood on my map," Ira complained. "Do you think supply will let me have a new one?"

"I wouldn't count on it," Dounia sighed and shook her head.

When they the best pilots received second-hand male uniforms that didn't fit properly and open-cockpit planes, getting a new map was probably out of the question. Speaking of their plane... Dounia checked their
kukuruznik
over for damage. The thing was held together with bits of Ira's constructive magic and determination. It was a few more bullet holes the worse for wear, but still mostly in one piece. Their little planes were tough, for all they were old and made of wood and canvas.

Ira removed her bomber hat, and her thick, brown hair fluffed up as it was freed from its confines. Dounia and Ira had met the day when all the women in the regiment were ordered to cut their hair to military regulations. It had grown a bit since then, but when it had been sheared off by the military barbers, it had been long enough for Ira to sit on.

Dounia hadn't cared when her hair had been cut, and had actually enjoyed the freedom of movement it gave her. She kept it cropped short, like the male aviators. Ira, on the other hand, had been upset for the entire week after her hair had been cut. However, a haircut was a small price to pay in exchange for being allowed to fight for their homeland.

There was a line-up for the surgery when they arrived. Ira wasn't the only one to come away scored from the battle.

"Look, mine's not so bad," Ira pointed out cheerfully.

"I would prefer it if your face remained unmarred by bullet shrapnel," Dounia replied dryly.

"At least I can still use this arm," Ira said, laughing.

Dounia didn't think that any of their comrades being injured was a laughing matter, especially not Ira, and stiffened silently. Ira noticed immediately and grasped Dounia's upper arm in a tight grip.

"Dounia, dear one, I'm fine. The doctor will see me soon."

Before either of them could speak, another pilot, Svetlana Romanovna, popped her head in and said, "Dounia, you'll never guess who's here!"

Dounia looked and raised her eyebrows questioningly. She was in no mood for guessing right now.

Sveta sighed and said, "Tanya is here."

Dounia thought she'd been on edge before, but her stomach lurched at the words and then her gut tied itself into a knot. Tanya wasn't supposed to be here. Tanya was supposed to be back in Moscow, where it was safe.

Torn, Dounia looked back and forth between Sveta and Ira.

"Go," Ira said. "You need to see her. Meow will look after me, won't you?"

Meow answered by uncurling from around Dounia's shoulders and jumping across to Ira's.

That was all Dounia needed to hear. She rushed after Sveta, out into the growing storm, shoulders tight with tension and stomach churning.

One Tsareva sister was enough of a sacrifice to the motherland. Why was Tanya here?

*~*~*

Ira watched Dounia stride out of the tent and smiled to herself. Dounia always wanted to take care of everybody so much, and although most people found her vigilance stifling, Ira found it comforting. Somebody had to look after everyone, after all.

"Ira, you're up next," the girl behind her said.

Ira looked over her shoulder and said, "Oh, Zina, are you sure? That looks broken."

Zina shook her head. "It's my own fault. I jumped out of my plane and slipped on the ice. I wasn't injured in battle. This was just me being clumsy! You keep your place in line."

Ira was about to protest, but now that she was paying attention, she felt slightly light-headed from blood loss. Meow noticed her slightly off-balance stance and growled low in his throat in worry.

"Lieutenant Sverzhenskaya, you're up," one of the nurses said, pursing her lip.

Ira sat down and waited for the doctor to come see her. It didn't take long, and in a moment her sleeve was cut away, her wound was rinsed out with vodka, and the doctor was stitching her up. Ira stayed as still as possible, wincing with each pass of the needle.

"I can't look," Meow said, shoving his head behind her ear, tail twitching in agitation.

Ira put a hand up to stroke his head soothingly.

"If you had just become a doctor, you wouldn't have to put up with this," the doctor said unsympathetically.

"Doctor Glazova, I'll kindly thank you not to question my choices," Ira said flatly, feeling the prick of Meow's claws as he bristled defensively.

"Your constructive magic is wasted on planes! Just think of the lives you could save with the proper training. You could just knit your own flesh back together in a moment, and poor Lieutenant Kuzmina's wrist would be fixed up in a heartbeat."

Ira smiled tightly. "Thank you for your work, doctor."

She left the tent quickly. Every single time she came into the medical tent, it was the same thing. Somehow, Ira always had the bad luck of running into Doctor Glazova whenever she was there. It was as if the woman was constantly working! She was glad Dounia hadn't been there. The last time this had happened, Dounia had almost gotten into a yelling match with the doctor.

Ira knew that she could have gone to university. They accepted very few women, but a woman with constructive magic could be a doctor. She was smart, and dedicated, and any university would have been happy to take her. Instead, she'd gone and joined a flying club and become a flying instructor and a part-time plane mechanic.

"She's just afraid of flying," Meow hissed, curling up around her shoulders again.

Ira didn't point out that Meow was also afraid of flying. Their valiant comrade insisted on coming up every single bombing run anyway, terror notwithstanding.

The storm was raging as she left the medical bay and went to look for Dounia. If she knew anything, it was that aviators always ended up at the mess tent, so that's where she headed first. She poked her head in, and there was a group already assembled. Ira smiled. Dounia was talking heatedly with a young woman that bore a striking resemblance to herself, and in her ardour, had completely forgotten to take off her bomber cap.

"Dounia, sweet one, take off your cap," she called as she entered.

Dounia looked up and came over, pushing the others aside to get to Ira. Meow jumped back across to Dounia's shoulders when they were in reach.

"Is your arm alright?" Dounia asked in concern.

"Nothing a few stitches couldn't fix," Ira said firmly, and then reached up to remove Dounia's cap.

As soon as the cap was off, Dounia shook her head, and two large triangular shapes sprung up as they were set free from the cap's confines. Dounia flexed her ears, a matching pair to Meow's, and groaned.

"They always feel funny after being stuffed under my hat like that," Dounia complained.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to that," a new voice joined them. Tanya, Dounia's younger sister, came up beside them, staring at her sister's cat-like ears. "I haven't told mama about them, and I assume you haven't either."

"I've been busy," Dounia said defensively.

"What's wrong with her ears?" Meow asked, sitting up straight on Dounia's shoulder. "I can tell you right now they are far superior to human ears."

"He's just saying that because you shared his blood," Tanya huffed.

"And what noble blood it is," Ira said. "When did you get here, Tanya?"

Tanya bounced on the balls of her feet and answered, "I just got here an hour ago, but all of you were still up in the air. I was worried about you, you know. I saw that there was a storm coming in, and I thought it might be dangerous, but I know that Dounia's the best pilot, so obviously you would be fine. I was still worried though. Did you get hurt, Ira? You know Dounia always gets really grumpy and snappish when you're hurt."

She babbled the words out so fast that Ira could hardly process what she was saying.

Dounia, no doubt used to the barrage of words replied first. "You've met Ira all of three times. That doesn't count as 'always.'"

"It does when she's been injured all three times that I met her!" Tanya trilled, still bouncing up on her toes. "And you've been grumpy all three times, too."

Ira tried to recount in her head these three times. The first week after they'd been assigned to a team, they'd met Tanya because she'd come to try and apply to the air force, like Dounia. She'd been rejected because her eyesight was bad and she had to wear glasses. Ira had managed to accidentally temporarily blind herself with a mirror spell that she hadn't perfected yet. How was she supposed to know that the angle of the sun and the angle of the mirror spell would align like that?

The second time, it was just after Dounia had volunteered for the experimental magic operation that had given her perfect night vision, cat ears, and Meow. Perfect night vision had been what they were going for, and the scientists had decided that the ears were a side effect that wasn't really worth the perks of being able to see at night. Ira had a sprained ankle, because Meow used to have a bad habit of pacing around when he was anxious and Ira had tripped on him.

The third time was right now.

"She's right, I was injured," Ira reported. "All three times."

"That makes it sound like you're always injured," Dounia grumbled. "Which is completely untrue; you've only been injured when Tanya was here. Tanya, you're bad luck. Go back to Moscow, and then we'll all be safe."

"That can't be true," Tanya protested. "People get hurt all the time."

"Not so much as a stubbed toe any other time," Ira smiled. "I've only been injured when you're around."

"That does make me sound like bad luck!" Tanya said, sounding thrilled at the idea. "Anyway, I came to tell Dounia my good news."

"You're going back to Moscow tonight," Dounia said.

"No, don't make fun of me, Dounia!" Tanya finally stopped bouncing on the spot. "You know how I wrote and said I was training to be a radio officer? Well, I finally got a placement."

"Back in Moscow."

"No, near the front," Tanya said. "I'm very good under pressure, they said. That's why I was given such a useful position."

"Useful."

Oh, dear, Ira recognized that tone of voice. It usually led to an hours-long argument that was carried out at roughly the volume of a Messerschmitt taking off. She braced herself and waited for the inevitable.

"Yes, useful," Tanya said, a hint of hardness entering her voice. Evidently she also recognized Dounia's tone, and was aware of what usually ensued. "They offered me the position and I accepted."

"Didn't you think of what our parents would want? You'll be in danger that close to the front!" Dounia's voice was already rising.

"You didn't care what our parents said," Tanya said. "You just signed up, and I know it's a lot more dangerous than sitting behind the lines and radioing out bombing targets."

"We can't both be in danger!"

"Our whole country is in danger. That's the whole point of this war," Tanya snapped back in reply.

"I don't think you understand."

"No, I don't think
you
understand!"

The two of them faced off, nose to nose. They were both short, stocky women, and the image was a funny one. Generally, Ira liked watching Dounia argue with someone, for this reason alone. But the conversation topic did not bode well for the future.

"You can't go to the front. You said you were going to ask to be stationed here! Or Moscow! Did you lie to me?"

"You can't tell me what to do anymore, Dounia. We're both adults now."

"Fine!" Dounia snapped, shaking with anger. "Do what you like. But I'm not going to support you on this, because I don't agree. You said you'd stay away from the front lines."

"I only said that so that mama and pap wouldn't try and stop me," Tanya said. The
and you
part of the statement was left silent and implied.

"I refuse to argue with someone who lies to get her way!" Dounia yelled and stormed out of the mess tent.

Tanya watched her go sadly.

"Was I a fool to hope that she'd be happy for me?" Tanya asked.

Ira patted her shoulder. "I'll try and talk her around, but she is very hard to convince once she has an opinion. As you know already, I'm guessing. How long will you be here?"

Tanya looked at the ground. "Only long enough for everybody else assigned to the front to report in, and then we all have to move. Probably a few days."

"I'll see what I can do," Ira said, but she wasn't sure that Dounia would come around anytime soon, not when it came to her baby sister being in danger.

Dounia and Ira shared sleeping quarters, and Dounia was already curled up and pretending to be asleep when Ira got back. Ira pretended she didn't realize Dounia was pretending and undressed as quietly as possible, before slipping into bed behind her. She fit her longer body up behind Dounia's short frame snuggly.

Ira smiled as she felt Dounia shift back into the cradle of Ira's body and slung an arm around her waist, tangling their legs together. She placed a soft kiss right at the nape of her neck and nuzzled her head into the back of her shoulder.

Dounia shifted in her arms, turning her head slightly so that Ira could kiss behind her ear and the side of her face. Ira leaned up onto her elbow to give herself some leverage so that she could finally press her mouth against Dounia's.