Ivan started to run. Sophie ran, too, though she soon fell behind and her chest burned as the ice-cold air went into her lungs.
They reached the bank of the ice road just behind Dmitri. Thevozoklay on its side, Viflyanka struggling in the harness. The princess had fallen from her seat and onto the ice. She looked dazed, a cut on the side of her head already oozing blood. The general was clambering over the side of thevozok,the diamonds looped around his neck. The wolves were on the bank, pacing and snarling, but staying away from the ice.
Ivan stared in horror at the frozen road. “It’s cracking! The wolves won’t go on the ice — they know.”
Dmitri, sliding down the bank to reach the horse, tried to slow himself by digging his heels into the snow.
“Get off!” Ivan yelled at him as large black lines appeared on the ice with frightening speed.
Dmitri threw himself back and lay full-length in the snow. “Viflyanka!” he wailed, and beat the snow with his fist. Everything was happening so fast.
Then a hugeboomthat sounded like a cannon cut through the sky, violent as the breaks cleaving through the ice.
The general ran swiftly across the ice away from the wolves, causing more black lines to appear. He disappeared into the trees, not once looking back.
Over the creaking noise of the moving ice, they heard Anna Feodorovna call feebly, “Grigor …” She managed to stand up and staggered a step or two, but slipped. She saw the wolves, howling and snarling on the bank, and cried out in terror. She slid away from them, toward the center of the ice.
Dmitri now slipped down onto the ice road. It was no longer solid.
Boom!
“Dmitri!” Ivan looked stricken, torn between trying to help the boy and the woman. “Come back! Your weight will make it worse.”
But Dmitri was sliding toward the thrashing horse now, still trapped by thevozokon the fast-cracking ice.
“Sophie!” Dmitri shouted. “Help me!”
Sophie was too quick for Ivan, although she felt his arm brush her shoulder as he lunged to pull her back. She skittered down onto the ice and, trying hard to keep her balance, trod gingerly toward the horse, her arms in front of her. She could feel the water tilting the ice, and that dreadful grinding noise filled her head.
“Hold Viflyanka’s head!” Dmitri shouted. “We must get him out of harness.”
The way the ice would suddenly shift was like sitting on a train when it jolts abruptly to a halt. Sophie could see they had so little time. The black water licked at the white ice, sucking thevozokdown. Viflyanka, snorting, eyes white, foaming with sweat, tried to pull himself forward.
“He will drown …” Dmitri worked with furious concentration at the leather buckles.
Sophie tried to catch the horse’s bridle, but he swung his head around and tried to bite her.
“Dmitri … I can’t get his head …” she called desperately.
Dmitri said nothing; he was still working on the buckles and straps. With one last gesture, he freed the props, thevozoksliding back into the black water with a sickening gurgle. Viflyanka, snorting and with a terrified whinny, pulled himself free. Sophie had to put her hand up to catch the panicked horse’s bridle; if he stepped back he, too, would be in the water and their attempt to save him would be in vain.
She swiped at the reins and then, somehow, caught the bridle. She saw Dmitri, on the other side now, holding the horse’s head as well. He was stroking him and talking to him and gently getting the animal to walk toward the bank and away from the black hole in the ice.
“Go slowly …” Dmitri could have been talking to Viflyanka or to her. They half slid, half skated back to the bank.
“Where’s Ivan?”
Sophie looked around her for the first time since racing after thevozok. Through Viflyanka’s hot steaming breath, she saw something she wished she hadn’t.
Ivan had stepped onto the ice and, fixing his gaze on Anna Feodorovna, was walking calmly and slowly toward her, talking to her in Russian. It sounded as if he were telling her a story, and she did seem to be listening, even though her head was half turned away, to the path through the woods where the general had gone.
“Can he save her?” Sophie asked Dmitri.
Ivan reached out his hand, using the same calming movements Sophie had noticed Dmitri using with Viflyanka. She was saved! Sophie held her breath as Ivan’s fingers wrapped themselves around the woman’s white hands.
“He’s got her, Dmitri!” she gasped.
But then two things happened. Just as Ivan was pulling Anna Feodorovna toward him, there was the shrill whistle of a train and theshusssshof brakes. The second thing to happen was that Anna Feodorovna cried out, “Grigor!” and leaped backward as if Ivan’s hand had burned her, toward the bank. But she hadn’t leaped far enough. Sophie heard the dull sound of her breath thudding out of her chest as she fell heavily on the ice.
