Pasha woke first, and wandered out of the abandoned shop in search of intelligent life or neglected homes to plunder. Grundorf had become a ghost town overnight. He took fruit, bread, jerky, clothes, blankets, and money from several unattended market stalls and stashed them among his sleeping companions.
The Guarded Inn had been razed to the ground. Pasha tip-toed through debris and bodies, looking for anything salvagable.
Something at the edge of the trees gave a disturbed honk.
“Ludmilla?” Pasha called. The honk repeated itself, and Ruslan’s donkey peeked from between the trees.
“C’mere, Luddy. C’mon.” Pasha coaxed the animal from her hiding spot. She followed him willing. Pasha fed her a handful of pink raisins from his pocket.
“That’s a good donkey. Yes, we need you.”
A few low whinnies issued from the trees and Pasha paused. He made a few more cajoling noises and two more animals came out of the woods, a grey donkey and a brown horse. The thief looked about to see if anyone was watching and allowed the donkey and the horse to eat raisins from his hand. He took hold of the rope around Ludmilla’s neck and began to guide her back to the marketplace. The grey donkey and the brown horse followed them.
Eva sat outside the building with the magician and his bunny, toasting bread and cheese over a rainbow-colored fire. Ruslan sat on the steps, polishing his dagger.
“I found Ludmilla. She brought friends.” Pasha reported. Ludmilla went immediately to Isidor and nosed at his neck. The magician rubbed the donkey’s nose and rummaged about his pockets until he found his pouch of sugar cubes. The grey donkey and the brown horse decided very quickly that Isidor was a friend.
“Baly.” Pushki reached up and patted the horse.
“Is he yours?” Pasha asked.
“Nope. Fyodor’s. Good horse, though.” Pushki took a sugar cube from Isidor and fed it to Baly.
“Found your plunderings. I helped myself to some knapsacks to hold the extra goods at a conveniently vacant stall around the corner.” Eva set the cheese toast down on a slab of broken pottery and stuck another slice of bread on the end of her fork.
“Good. Glad to see we’re eating real food.”
“Gruel is real food.” Eva protested.
“Pink raisins are not.” Pasha dumped the remaining few pink raisins into the dirt. Rats crept from around the corner and descended upon the tossed food.
“Don’t talk to me about those raisins. You and Rus- go start packing things onto our noble steeds here.” Eva requested. Pasha tramped into the abandoned store. Ruslan made no move to follow him.
Isidor handed Pushki the first slice of cheese toast, and the young man ate it with gusto.
“So where do we need to take you?” The magician asked. Pushki smiled innocently.
“Oh, anywhere you’re going. I was tired of working for my dad, anyway. This is good toast, Eva.”
“Thank you.” Eva muttered, rubbing her purple fingers together. Misha sniffed at the fire.
“We have an obligation to take you home.” Ruslan spoke up. Eva laughed.
“We’ve never had an obligation to anyone. As far as I’m concerned, the kid’s welcome to stay on.”
“I like to travel. I’m good with people. I don’t eat much.” Pushki said eagerly.
“He’s house-trained and knows how to roll over, play dead, and beg!” Pasha called from inside. He stomped out onto the porch with three bags over his shoulders.
“It’s been awhile since we brought on a new hand.” Isidor said. Ruslan ignored the magician’s comment entirely.
“Well, I suppose we should get moving when we finish breakfast. If we move fast, we should be able to get Matvei to my cousin’s house by tomorrow afternoon.” Eva broke an uncomfortable silence and dished out more cheese toast.
“Shouldn’t we look for Irina first?” Ruslan asked, ever the hero.
The entire party gave him dirty looks.
Pasha continued harnessing bags to Ludmilla and the grey donkey.
“That’s it, he’s walking this time.” The thief grumbled.