Free Sky Knights by Alex Powell

slowed down eventually, and Ira pulled Dounia around the corner of an anti-aircraft gun turret and waited to see if the German officer was still following them. The explosions rocked the encampment, and a bomb dropped on the other side of the turret, throwing snow and earth up into the air in a wet spray.
    " Hey you !" someone yelled, and it took Ira a moment to realize this yell was being directed at them.
    She turned, hoping that Dounia's ears weren't too noticeable in the dark, and that Meow was staying out of sight. Another officer, not the same one, thankfully, was coming toward them.
    He squinted at them through a pair of glasses that had lost one lens and said, " You're very young to be on the front, lad. Where are you two off to in such a hurry? "
    " We ..." Ira said, but couldn't think of anything.
    " Running from the Witches, aren't you ," the officer continued. " You can't have been here long then. They're no different than any other enemy, for all that they are women. They're not mythical or anything like that, just ordinary soldiers. Their terror tactics work well, I'll grant you that. Come on, then, no more running. We have to help put out some of those fires. "
    Ira looked at Dounia helplessly before remembering that Dounia didn't even know what the man was saying. There wasn't much choice but to follow the man, however, and she beckoned for Dounia to come with her.
    The German officer recruited a few more troops that didn't have any tasks, and got them to form a chain. Ira couldn't believe that they were going to waste precious water on fires when she realized that the bucket she'd been handed was full of snow.
    " Hurry, pass it down ," the officer instructed them, and Ira complied as fast as she could.
    Dounia didn't ask anything out loud, but her eyes were wide and questioning. Obviously she couldn't say anything, just in case someone in the line overheard her speaking Russian.
    Ira's arm throbbed in reminder that she couldn't use it, and Ira lifted the buckets with only one arm while pretending she was actually lifting with two. She bit her lip at the strain, and her good arm started burning in protest. Her arm muscles started shaking, and lancing pain began shooting up her broken arm with all the movement.
    Just when she thought she would drop the next bucket, the officer raised his arm and brought their operation to a halt.
    " Good work, boys ," the officer said, dismissing them all.
    Just as Ira thought that maybe they could finally sneak away, he turned to them and said to Ira, " I noticed that your arm was injured. I must insist you go to the medical tent. I will escort you. "
    " Sir ," Ira said, trying to make her voice as low as possible. She had a low voice for a woman, but for a man it was still somewhat high. " My friend ..."
    She hurriedly checked the name on Dounia's breast pocket.
    " My friend Cpl. Weiss will take me there ," Ira said slowly, making sure not to pronounce her German with an accent.
    Hopefully the officer would think she was just trying to be heard over the yelling and explosions going on around them. She didn't think she was speaking with a noticeable Russian accent, but she'd never actually spoken with a native German speaker, so it was possible her pronunciation was off.
    Ira had never thought that she would end up in a situation where she had to speak German convincingly enough to sneak through enemy lines, and now she wished she'd studied harder when she'd had the chance.
    She waited, hardly daring to breathe.
    " I will escort you to the tent, and Weiss can stay with you ," the officer pronounced. " Now don't think you can get out of manning the lines like this every time. You might just be lads, but we must all do our part. "
    Ira didn't argue, following the man to the medical tent. Dounia grabbed onto her arm and shot her another look, eyebrows furrowed, but Ira could only shake her head and gesture for them to follow. There was no time to explain, and Ira hoped desperately