The Girl with No Name Ch. 20

The couple pushed their way off the crowded dock and ran along the river's edge. Fortunately, the crews of the first boats to ferry passengers across were returning for a second trip. Protector Buláshckt shouted: "Kids...kids...we've got kids! This way! Please!"

A small boat turned in their direction. They waded into the river, passed up the children, and then were helped out of the water by one of the rowers. More panicked residents waded into the water to pass up children and climb aboard. The rowers turned their boat southwards and slowly took the passengers to the safety of the opposite shore.

As she crossed the river, Silvítya watched the death of the Danubian capitol. The entire city was engulfed in towering flames. The roar of the fire and the sound of crashing buildings were just as bad as the battle noise from Hórkustk Ris...different, but just as bad. As the fire drew closer, people continued pouring through the gate, although the crowd was starting to diminish. Along the walls people were climbing down ladders. Silvítya watched the residents clustered on the wall near each ladder, waiting and praying there would be enough time to get off before the flames engulfed them.

They got off the boat and stood on the shore, but could not take their eyes off the inferno on the other side. Silvítya muttered:

"The Duke isn't just mad. He serves the Destroyer. No...he is the Destroyer. Now I understand...now I can see him for what he is...he's not an Ancient trapped in a human body at all...he's the Destroyer trapped in a human body."

Protector Buláshckt, holding a stranger's child in each of his arms as he watched people still trying to get across the river, had no response.

----------

Danúbikt Móskt burned to the ground in four hours. By the time the sun came up the flames already had died down, leaving nothing but piles of smoldering ashes and smoking ruins. Not a single wooden structure within the city walls remained standing. Over time a new city would rise in its place, a city that would come to be considered one of the most beautiful of Europe, but that would be in the future. The reality of the moment was a pile of ashes and a mob of homeless Danubians standing on the southern shore of the Rika Chorna river, wondering what the future held for them.

Silvítya spent the morning looking for the mother of the baby she was carrying. It was mid-day before the two women found each other. Protector Buláshckt located the parents of one of the children he was carrying, but told Silvítya to hand-off the third child to a Priest. They had to cut short their efforts to find his parents because a large group of Royal Guards showed up with several wagons loaded with food from the capitol's main garrison. With so many of his fellow Royal Guards roaming among the refugees, he and Silvítya couldn't wait around any longer. Even with their disguises, there was the risk of someone recognizing them. The road soon would be crowded with tens of thousands of migrants, so Protector Buláshckt wanted to get out as soon as possible and stay ahead of the others. More importantly, his family was waiting

By Divine Fortune the garrison had just moved to a new location outside the old city wall in anticipation of having more space when the new wall was built, so the Royal Guards and their storerooms were unaffected by the fire. That was a blessing indeed, because the Royal Army had plenty of food to pass out to the now-homeless refugees of the capitol. The meals, however, came with a price. The Royal Guards interviewed every man coming up to them to request food: anyone who was not a craftsman in a building trade or the relative of a Royal Guard would need to leave the area. But...where would all the displaced people go? South, of course. There were plenty of empty houses and vacant farms, completely free for whoever arrived to occupy them first. The Guards gave each refugee family a letter from the Grand Duke granting them title to whatever vacant land they could find and occupy, on the condition that no other Danubian family was already there. Any remaining foreigners could be evicted if Danubians needed their property.

The Royal Army set up an encampment just north of the ruins of Hórkustk Ris to pass out yet more food to refugees travelling into the province and to maintain order. The promise of more food helped lure the capitol's homeless residents towards the southern border. Several other military encampments helped move the refugees further south and prevented anyone from turning back. Within a month the massive migration of 90,000 people would be completed, in an amazingly efficient operation considering that it took place in the mid-1700s.

----------

They spent the remainder of the day walking south, trying to stay ahead of the crowd. He commented:

"You know what we are, now? Refugees. Vagrants. Wanderers. We're no better than anyone else on this road. No different. Someday we'll be something, but now we're just a couple of drifters, just like all the others. So, we need to change something."

"What's that, Protector Buláshckt?"

"What you just called me. That's no longer my name. Before I was known as "Protector", my name was Alexándrekt. That's what you'll call me, because I have forsaken the right to use 'Protector'."

Silvítya was silent as she worked up the nerve to call a man who had always been Royal official by his first name. A question came to her mind, and she forced herself to address him as requested:

"Al... Alexándrekt...I was wondering if...you have any regrets about...any of this...what we're doing...what you had to give up..."

"I'd have to be mad not to have any regrets. I'm full of them right now. Maybe we should have tried to stop the burning of the city. Maybe we would have succeeded and maybe not. Maybe I should have just accepted my daughter's path in life and kept my position...I don't know. Maybe my Path in Life was to serve the Grand Duke, and I am going against the will of the Lord-Creator by running off like a scared rat. Yes, I have my doubts. I can tell you the Duke is right about the Duchy. Most of what he's doing has to be done. It's just that...I don't know...your comment about the Destroyer dwelling inside his soul is accurate. It does seem he carries the Destroyer in his soul; that he brings destruction to everything he touches. I don't know what to think about that. Maybe he feels coerced, by the times...the constant threats to our people...and maybe his conscience is just as bothered by what he must do as mine has been following his orders. I'd like to think that."

"Then you'd be wrong, Alexándrekt. The Grand Duke's conscience is not troubled by anything he's done. I have never seen him reflect on what's good and what is evil. For him, everything in his Path in Life consists of what will serve him and what won't. That's all that worries him; what will serve his plans and what won't."

They walked in silence, giving Silvítya time to think about her escape. She wondered what measures the Grand Duke would take to find her. Given that everyone in the castle had seen her talking to Alexándrekt Buláshckt, it wouldn't be hard for the Grand Duke to connect her disappearance with that of the Royal Guard and his family. She decided to express her concern and the prospect the entire Royal Army would be looking for them. Alexándrekt did not seem overly concerned about that, which struck her as odd, given his caution and worries about everything else. When she pressed him, he provided an explanation that sounded more like a pained confession:

"My house was within the old city walls and was burnt along with everything else. It burned quite thoroughly, I can assure you. Moreover, anyone searching the ruins will soon discover that my wife, my children, and I did not escape the fire."

"You mean...there're bodies in your house?"

"Yes. I placed corpses in there before I left."

"But...where'd you get them?"

"I robbed graves, Silvítya. Over the past year I took note of the funerals the refugees were having. Whenever I saw a corpse whose appearance corresponded with a member of my family, I dug it up, preserved it, and concealed it. I don't want to go into details, because the faces of those four dead children trouble me. But the Lord-Creator, or perhaps the Destroyer, mandated that I must sacrifice my own honor to preserve the honor of my daughter. I did what I needed to do, just as in war I did what I needed to do. In war I sacrificed my honor so the men around me could live and the Duchy could live. In peace I sacrificed my honor so that my family could live. It seems that, no matter what, I must sacrifice my honor so others can live. So, there's your answer, Silvítya. We did not survive the inferno, and my companions will find the bodies to prove it."

Silvítya wasn't sure how to respond. Robbing graves was one of the most dishonorable things a person could do in the Duchy. She wondered what he had seen of the Grand Duke to make him take such a desperate and extreme measure to assure his step-daughter's escape. Alexándrekt continued:

"I presume the charred corpses of my family and I will be buried with honors. Strange to think those poor souls will have to hold up their mirrors twice. As for us...you, me, my family...we're all dead, and our names now mean nothing."

"My name hasn't meant anything for a long time. I don't think it ever meant anything. I can have any name I choose; or no name at all, and it doesn't matter."