Chapter Eight
Ilya stumbled through the woods with a bright and beaming smile on her face, and a single phrase running over and over in her mind: The great silver bells have finally rung. Today was Ilya’s birthday. Her father had asked her if she would like to stay home that morning, given that so much had changed in the city over the past few months. He couldn’t give her a party or sweets, but he offered to let her stay in bed and read, which she loved to do more than almost anything. But Ilya insisted on going. She wasn’t sure how much longer she would have with her friends and she wanted to see them and spend as much time as she could with them before they were gone. She hadn’t planned on mentioning that it was her birthday, but when Anya, the young woman who’d taken on the job of teac
