The Girl with No Name Ch. 20

"Your Majesty, your humble serving girl wishes to know about the fate of the wooden city...and the residents."

"Wood burns, does it not?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"...and it burns even faster at the end of a very hot summer when everything has dried out. So there is your answer, my loyal one. Just two days from now we will clear all of the wooden structures once and for all. The residents are away, so they will be powerless to save their houses. It will all burn...all of it, and a new Danube City will rise from the ashes...the Danube City that is my Path in Life to create."

Silvítya went pale, wondering if she truly understood what the Grand Duke had just told her. Was he really planning to destroy the entire capitol? She tried to remain calm as she asked her next question.

"Your Majesty, your humble serving girl wishes to know your intentions for the people here."

"Those who can serve the Duchy's new capitol will stay. I have already collected the building materials they will need to build new houses outside the city walls."

The sovereign smiled mischievously, as though he was plotting a simple prank, and not the destruction of an entire city and the disruption of tens of thousands of lives. "As for the rest, they will also serve the Duchy, by going south. The province of Hórkustk Ris awaits. It is crying out for help, and for people. I will send both."

Silvítya remembered her friend's words: "And now...something terrible...and I don't yet know what it is...will happen to our people, so the Duke's plans for Hórkustk Ris can be fulfilled." Protector Buláshckt was right. Indeed, something terrible was about to happen, and now Silvítya knew what it was.

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The next day Silvítya spent wandering the garden and even ventured into the stables looking for Protector Buláshckt. She had to find him as quickly as possible. She spent the entire day in frantic futility, but just as she was about to give up her search for the day, she saw him riding in with the ruler and a contingent of other guards. She knelt in clear sight as the entourage passed by. She exchanged glances with her friend, letting him know with a slight jerk of her head and a wide-eyed fearful expression that she needed to talk to him. He answered with a quick nod. She'd have to wait for him in the garden, but he'd try to get to her as quickly as possible.

She didn't bother to talk to her companions. Instead, she passed her time picking a flower arrangement to present to the Grand Duke, slowly and carefully plucking the thorns off roses. Finally Protector Buláshckt showed up. Silvítya told him what she thought was about to happen. To her relief, the guard believed every word of her story.

"Very good. Now I understand the orders he's given around the city. He took actions that to me didn't make any sense, but now they do. For example, he took down the gates so the hinges could be replaced...all of them at once. Just a few days ago, he ordered a check of the walls, so there are ladders everywhere. And it would explain all the boats. The docks along the Rika Chorna river are full of boats."

"What does all that have to do with a fire?"

"You don't understand? Everything he's done will make it easy to get out of the city. To escape the inferno, all a citizen would have to do is make it as far as the city wall and climb over. The gates are open...easy to run out. The docks are full of boats...easy to row away. Simple plan, really. Set the city on fire and evacuate it. No one dies, so the Duchy is too busy praising the Lord-Creator for sparing the people to understand what really happened. Brilliant. His Majesty may be mad, but he's no fool."

"So what can we do to stop it?"

"Stop it? We don't. Tomorrow night the city will burn and that's when we escape. You, me, my family. For us, this couldn't possibly be any better. The Grand Duke will have no way of knowing we didn't perish in the blaze. I'll have my family pack up and leave tomorrow afternoon. They'll wait on the road going south. They'll be safe. The only problem will be getting you out of the castle. There're several options, but they're all risky. Some of it will depend on luck, and I hate depending on luck."

"Protector Buláshckt...I don't...I mean...I want you to get your family out...save your daughter...maybe I can go later..."

"You're having second thoughts about leaving His Majesty?"

"No. I want to get away from him more than ever. But...you're more important. It'd be a lot harder for you to worry about me, than to simply take your family and run."

"It would be, but that doesn't mean anything to me. You stood by me in battle, which makes you my sister. You are not any less important to me than the other members of my family. If you want to leave, tomorrow night will be your only chance, unless you want to wait another year and depart with the Duke's baby."

Protector Buláshckt looked hard at the concubine. She shook her head.

"Then it's settled. Tomorrow night we leave together. There's several secret passageways dug through the hill that we can choose from, to get out of the castle and into the city. We run through the Merchant's Gate, get on a boat, and disappear into the crowd. That's the plan."

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That night Silvítya spent what she hoped would be her last night with the Grand Duke. She put on all the jewelry that he had given her and presented herself to his study with the bouquet of flowers she had picked while waiting for Protector Buláshckt.

She could tell that the Danubian ruler was totally exhausted. He had been up for days finalizing his plans to burn the city, get as many of its residents out as possible, and then arrange to force anyone who was not a guard, an employee of the Royal House, or a mason or craftsman, to move south. She casually glanced at the pile of documents on his drafting table to see if there was anything useful among all those papers. She noticed a map of the castle, which she would try to examine more closely before leaving the Royal Chamber.

The night would be a very long one for the Duke's favorite concubine. He wanted to relax and have a bath before settling in bed with her. She massaged him and treated him with sympathy. Oddly enough, as much as she hated him, at that moment she felt somewhat sorry for him. It was strange to think she was unlikely to ever see him again.

Finally, the sovereign went to sleep. As always, he did not gradually doze off like most men: his energy suddenly vanished and he passed out. Silvítya figured he must have gone three days with no rest and finally it caught up with him. He would not have let down his guard with any of his other concubines, but because he was so enamored with Silvítya, he had been so careless around her. Strange to think, had she wanted to, she could have assassinated him with no problem.

Instead, with her Master unconscious and being in the room with no supervision, she took advantage to have a thorough look at the huge collection of plans, drawings, and maps piled around his desk. Most of the papers were blueprints of the future Danube City, but the item that had drawn her attention was a map of the castle. The map had several pages, each showing a different level of the Royal residence. The bottom pages proved to be invaluable to Silvítya's plans, because they contained diagrams of the passageways that Protector Buláshckt had talked about. The most important detail was discovering the access points in the castle. It turned out there was an access point in the kitchen, one in the Duke's study, and another from one of the guard towers.

Silvítya spent a good part of the night trying to memorize the labyrinth under the Royal residence. If she knew the layout of the tunnels, that would help her plans tremendously. She knew that Protector Buláshckt had calculated that he'd have to come up into the castle and escort her out. However, Silvítya felt that no longer would be necessary. She'd be able to meet up with her friend somewhere underground. The further she could go on her own, the better. She knew that the best choice would be a tunnel that she could access from either the Duke's study or from the kitchen, and yes, there was such a tunnel. The conspirator sketched out a rough copy of the route she planned to take, with several spots where she might meet up with Protector Buláshckt. She marked off several alternatives and would let him pick the one she thought would be best. She didn't worry about the exit routes into the city. She took it for granted the guard would have the information he needed to make the best choice.

She looked under the rug near the fireplace. Sure enough, the rug hid an escape hatch. She checked to make sure there was no lock. There were some heavy bolts, but no lock. She slowly eased the bolts into the open position and lifted the hatch. It was heavy and creaked terribly. There was another problem; the rug. How could she get the rug back over the hatch to hide it once she passed through? That would entail trusting another person to replace the rug, and she had no such confidant in the castle. Maybe it would be better to check the kitchen.

It turned out the kitchen hatch was a better option. It was built into a wall, not the floor, so there was no rug to put back into place. Instead, it was hidden behind a tapestry. Like the Duke's study, she slid out the bolts to save herself the worry of doing that the next day. The kitchen was the riskier of the two choices because of the cooking staff. However, it was the better choice because once she got past the tapestry, it would not be so obvious someone had just slipped through. Also, far more people had access to the kitchen than to the Duke's study, thus when the cooks discovered the unbolted door, they'd have a much harder time guessing who went through it. So...that was settled. She'd have to go out through the kitchen without being seen by the cooking staff.

Before she went to bed, Silvítya carefully put away all of the jewelry the Grand Duke had given her. She knew better than to try to take a single piece of it. She calculated that if she took anything, the sovereign would know for sure she was still alive. Also, simply leaving the castle without permission was not really a crime, but attempting to take anything with her would be. She didn't want to imagine what the punishment would be for stealing Royal jewelry.

However, none of that mattered to Silvítya nearly as much as her own sense of honor. She had entered the castle with nothing, and she would leave with nothing. For two years the Grand Duke had housed her in comfort, fed her the best food, and given her the education she needed to pass as a woman from the upper class. For all that she would give him nothing, not even return his love for her. The time had come for her to go, but she would try her best to respect him.

The next morning she found Protector Buláshckt near the Royal Stables, overseeing the re-shoeing of his horse. They exchanged glances and she went to the garden. A few minutes later he caught up to her and she handed him the pages of her manuscript about the war and a package containing her stash of secret alchemy ingredients. Then she showed him the rough map she made of the upper passageway.

"I figure there's three spots we can meet up. This intersection, or maybe this turn with the pillar...but I think the drainage grid would work best, because it's set back and whoever gets there first can hide."

Protector Buláshckt was more than impressed with her planning. As much as he admired her calm assistance during the battle of Hórkustk Ris, he did not think she'd be capable of memorizing the underground tunnel system and thinking ahead on hiding places.

"The drainage grid it is, Silvítya. We'll meet up there, just like you said. Whoever gets there first will wait."

"Another question. What'll I do about something to wear?"

"We're both going out in caravan trader's outfits. That'll be our disguise, at least until we get away from the city. Don't take any castle clothing; it's too easy to recognize."

"I'm not taking anything from the castle."

"Very well. I don't know where His Majesty is planning to be, but do I know what time he'll set the city on fire. It'll be when the Moon is straight overhead. He's very predictable that way. At night he always uses the Moon as a signal, because, as he puts it: 'the Moon never lies and the Moon never forgets where it's supposed to be.' What that means is we need to be in the tunnel before the Moon is directly overhead, but not too far in advance. You need to wait until your companions are asleep so you won't be missed. Probably I'll be at the grid first, because I fully expect you to have delays trying to sneak out of the kitchen."

"Do you think we'll get out before the city's on fire?"

"No. You'll see it burn, Silvítya. You'll have a story to tell your grandkids."

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Silvítya never saw the Grand Duke the following day. He was nowhere in the castle; his disappearance a mystery to everyone. The concubines wondered about him the most, given that he never missed an opportunity, even if it was for a few minutes, to indulge himself. No one noticed him in his study, nor in the throne room, nor in the dining hall, nor at the stables.

Silvítya had dinner with the other concubines. She tried to be extra cautious with her dinner etiquette, so her companions would have a good last memory of her. She had a final bath with the others in the bath house, and then bid good night. And...that was it. If she did manage to escape, she'd never see any of the women again, women who had been her constant companions for two years. Strange to think, she now was the member of the group with the most seniority: everyone else had changed. So many women had come and gone over the past two years. Now, she too was leaving.

She took a small oil lamp from her bed chamber, the only item that she would remove from the castle. She walked past the latrine and down a flight of stairs. She had to wait hidden for several minutes to avoid a couple of guards. She walked along another corridor, passed the Duke's art gallery where several of her pictures were hung, and continued past the throne room. The room was deserted and completely dark. Just two doors to go: the banquet hall and the kitchen.

Protector Buláshckt had said that part of Silvítya's escape would depend on luck. Well, that night she had it. When she entered the kitchen she heard a man's grunts and a woman's moans from the storage pantry. The kitchen night staff was busy, but not with their duties to the Grand Duke's breakfast. Silvítya lifted up the tapestry. The bolts were still pushed open. She opened the heavy door. The squeaking of the hinges startled her and she heard voices from the store room. She quickly slipped through the door and pushed it shut. She edged around a corner and hid her lamp, just in time.

"What was that?"

"The door...check behind the tapestry."

"Ha! No wonder! Someone left the bolts undone! Door's swinging loose! Idiot!"

"Please...put 'em back! ...If this gets out!"

"I know...the pillory...well, I'll fix it...and tomorrow I'll find out who the dishonored idiot was..."

Silvítya heard several pieces of metal sliding behind the door. She was both relieved and completely frightened. She had escaped, but with no chance to change her mind and go back. Words could not describe Silvítya's fright as she made her way along the pitch-black corridor. The stones were cold and slimy on her bare feet and her unprotected body shivered in the clammy air. She was frightened of slipping and breaking her lamp. She realized, with her return to the kitchen now cut off, if she lost her light source or if Protector Buláshckt did not show up, it was very possible she could get lost and no one would find her until it was too late.

She passed her first two landmarks, the intersection and the turn with the pillar. An animal jumped out and scurried into the darkness, frightening Silvítya so much that her knees shook. She worked up the nerve to continue, cursing herself for being a dishonored coward. The tunnel now sloped downwards and Silvítya had trouble keeping her balance on the slick stones. It seemed to take forever to reach the drainage grid. But she did reach it, and Protector Buláshckt was there, sitting in the darkness and drinking from a wine bottle.

"Ha! You naughty girl...didn't even give a man time to finish his wine!"

He held up the bottle, which Silvítya gratefully accepted. After the frightening descent into the dark unknown, she needed a drink. He handed her the dress and a pair of work shoes. After two years of almost always being nude, the rough fabric felt very strange on her skin. The dress was a practical worker's outfit: short, made of thick cloth, and designed for the harsh and active lifestyle of a caravan trader's wife. She tied her hair and he gave her a hat to hide the fact she didn't have it braided. Finally, he handed her a short sword, "just in case".

The two fugitives made their way down a maze of tunnels. Now that Silvítya was dressed, armed, and united with her companion, she felt totally different about her escape. She was not frightened at all. She knew that the greatest danger still lay ahead, but it is much easier to face danger when one doesn't have to do it alone.

Down...down...down... Silvítya was surprised by how far they had to go. She didn't realize that, because the castle maps did not show the descent, the tunnels would be much longer than they appeared on paper. Finally the passage leveled out. They climbed a ladder and Protector Buláshckt groped for a door handle. He tapped several metal bolts with a special tool and pushed open a concealed hatch door. They entered a stone room that was completely dark. Protector Buláshckt told Silvítya to hold her lantern near the outer door while he opened several locks. They pushed open the exit and emerged into a city that was not yet dying, but just about to. Protector Buláshckt closed the secret room and the couple snuck along a deserted alleyway. The place stunk horribly and several rats ran fled across piles of rotting vegetable debris. The garbage smell was the least of the escapees' worries. They could smell smoke, and the smoke was rapidly getting thicker.

They emerged onto a chaotic street, where guards were desperately banging on doors and chasing residents towards the gates. Dozens of confused civilians milled around, carrying children and bundles of belongings. Protector Buláshckt shouted:

"To the gate, dishonored fools! The gate! Go to the merchants' gate!"

The civilians started shuffling towards the wall and safety beyond. Silvítya took a screaming baby from a woman loaded down with another child and a bundle of clothing. Protector Buláshckt picked up an older child and the fugitives joined a stream of people being herded like cattle towards the Merchants' Gate and the Rika Chorna river.

The path became increasingly smoky. Gusts of wind blew sparks and burning bits of debris past the fleeing crowd. Silvítya looked back, and wished she hadn't. The street glowed orange beyond the smoke and sparks pouring in the direction of the crowd. Now some of the civilians panicked and ran. Protector Buláshckt picked up another screaming, disoriented child and hoisted the kid onto his shoulders. With three kids and dressed as caravan traders, the former guard and the former concubine walked right by several guards who knew them both, without being recognized.

Finally they pushed through the city gate, surging forward with the panicked mass of other residents. All three children were screaming and Silvítya had lost track of the baby's mother. They ran along the docks towards boats that already were packed.

"No good! The boats are full! We'll have to wait it out on the shore!"