“You’re alive,” he murmured into her hair, his voice husky with emotion, and then they were forced apart by the tidal wave of others rushing forward to greet Zus with hugs and handshakes and tears of gratitude. “What’s this?” Zus asked with a smile, eyeing the new baby, and as Chaim’s sons began to regale their uncle with a rapid, scattered story about their adventures, Zus looked up, his gaze meeting Yona’s again and lingering there. When the boys were done talking and Zus had greeted the new baby with gentle kisses on her tiny cheeks, and on Elizaveta’s cheeks, too, he gestured for Yona, Chaim, and Rosalia to step aside with him.
“We lost four,” he said, his voice gruff, his eyes downcast as Rosalia gasped and Chaim grunted as if he’d been punched in the gut. “I’m very sorry. I tried my best to keep everyone safe…”
“Whatever happened, it couldn’t have been your fault,” Yona said. “I am to blame for being so willing to let you go without a fight.” The weight of that realization had sat heavy on her for weeks.
He looked up at her. “Yona, you are blameless. It was the only choice. We couldn’t just protect ourselves if there was a chance to save other lives. All of you survived?”
Yona nodded.
“Praise God.” He sighed and looked down for a long time before raising his head again. “Lazare and Leib were killed by Germans when they ventured out on a food mission,” he said, his voice flat. Yona put her hand over her mouth and blinked back tears. Poor, sweet Leib, only eighteen, a man before his time, who never had the chance to reach true adulthood. Miriam must be beside herself. “I’m sorry. We were starving. I offered to go, but instead I stayed to help protect the group…” He cleared his throat. “We lost Luba, too. An illness. It’s what slowed us down, prevented us from reaching the Bielski group in good time. She became sick only a day after we left camp, and we had to move more slowly. She did not wake up on the third day.” His eyes went to Yona again, and he held her gaze as he added softly, “We also lost Aleksander. I’m sorry, Yona. He died bravely; two Belorussian policemen came upon us in the woods, and he moved to protect my cousins, who were fishing and did not hear them approaching. He saved their lives, but in the gunfight, he was shot, and he perished a day later. He was a hero in the end.”
Tears flowed down Yona’s cheeks, and the depth of her grief confused her; Aleksander had hurt her, discarded her, but she had still shared a season of her life with him. She had loved him, even if that love had been misguided. She wiped her face, drew herself up to her full height, and looked Zus in the eye. “I think he would be proud to know you feel that way.” She took a deep breath. “How is Sulia? She is grieving?”
Zus hesitated. “She seems to be.”
“I’m sorry for her.” Yona meant it. No one should know the pain of such a loss. “You reached the Bielski group?”
Zus shook his head. “We found their settlement, exactly where Shimon said it would be. But it was deserted; it appeared that they had fled a day or two before. It was a whole society in the woods, Yona; there must be a thousand of them there. It was incredible. We’ve been praying since then for their survival; it would be difficult to hide a group that large.”
Yona nodded; it was just as Jüttner had said. “When Rosalia and Chaim ventured into some villages, they learned that the Germans’ mission had not been successful. They did not find the Bielski group.”
“We heard the same. It gives us hope that they are still alive.”
“And the Zorin group? Did you reach them?”
Again Zus shook his head. “We tried. It is what kept us moving for so long in the wrong direction. But we never found them, and then we heard that the Germans had retreated. After we lost Aleksander, we began to move back here in hopes of finding you.” Zus glanced at Chaim and Rosalia before looking back at Yona. “There’s more. We have added to our group. Eight newcomers, six men and two women. They are all heavily armed, and they were wandering the forest alone, looking for a way to fight the Germans.”
“They are Jews?” Chaim asked.
“Yes.” There was awe in Zus’s voice as he added, “They came from the Nowogródek ghetto. Like the Sokolowskis and the Gulniks, they were looking for the Bielskis and did not find them. But they came upon us, and when we told them about our settlement here, they asked if they could stay. They want to help us. They came with machine guns and ammunition, taken from Germans they ambushed in the forest.”