PART 3: ALEXIOS
Alexios, Basil, and Kassia were riding Rakhsh along the narrow Zigana Pass, crossing the half-broken stone bridges over the frozen stream that glimmered between the mountains. The thick snow made the road almost impassable, and only a few sets of old footprints showed that anyone had been here since the last blizzard.
The old compacted snow also meant that it would be difficult to sneak around. Every footstep Rakhsh took was so loud, crunching in the ice, that Alexios feared the sound would start an avalanche, or send the huge icicles that overhung the dark gaping cave mouths plunging down to shatter on the rocks. If he held his breath he could hear the crunch crunch crunch of the hooves in the snow echoing back and forth across the mountains.
The travelers passed through the death worm marsh without incident. Except for some frozen grass poking up from the snow, everything was buried. All was silent but for Rakhsh's hooves and the winter wind whirling over the drifts. Perhaps Gontran, Diaresso, and Berkyaruq had killed that death worm after all.
“Did I ever tell you,” Alexios said to Kassia and Basil, “about what my friends found here?”
The children were silent.
“Have either of you ever heard of a death worm?” Alexios said.
“No.” Kassia tensed up.
“Supposedly it’s some kind of huge creature that eats people for breakfast,” Alexios said. “My friends found one here.”
“What happened to them?” Kassia said.
“Don’t take him seriously,” Basil said. “He’s just making it up.”
“My friends aren’t liars,” Alexios said. “And neither am I. The death worm almost killed them. It picked them up in its tentacles and was about to gobble them down, when a warrior from the palace named Berkyaruq shot it with an arrow. After that, they fought with swords and crossbows, and eventually the death worm slunk off. That reminds me of when I got eaten by a sea monster—”
“Great story, Alexios,” Basil said. “Can’t you see you’re terrifying her?”
“What?” Alexios noticed that Kassia was shivering—and not necessarily from the cold.
“Oh,” he said. “Sorry.”
This isn’t doing much for your parenting skills, the game voice said.
Alexios wanted to rub Kassia’s back to calm her down, but he was afraid to touch her except to keep her from falling off Rakhsh.
Basil shook his head. “You don’t know how to relate to children, do you, Alexios?”
“I mean, I was only a child a few years ago,” he said. “Sometimes it still surprises me when people call me a man…”
“You’re a grown man,” Basil said. “But you don’t act like it. I’m a child, but you seem even more ignorant about things than I am.”
“The world’s a strange place,” Alexios said. “Stranger than you can imagine.”
“Our whole world was a house and a plot of farmland in Hebdomon,” Basil said. “We’d never left that place, never even been to Konstantinopolis.”
“Then one day, I heard papa tell mama we had to leave,” Kassia said. “It happened so fast I couldn’t even take Maria.”
“Maria?” Alexios said. “Who’s Maria?”
“Her doll,” Basil said.
“Oh,” Alexios said.
Kassia continued. “But we never heard of anything like a death worm…”
“You never know, it could still be hiding somewhere,” Alexios said. “But wherever it is, it doesn’t seem interested in us, so you don’t have to worry. Other monsters might be out here, too. Since I arrived here, I’ve run into that sea monster I mentioned—it was so big it could swallow a whale whole. There were also giant ants—”
“You aren’t helping,” Basil said. “Can’t you see you’re terrifying her again with these tall tales of yours?”
“They aren’t tall tales,” Alexios said. “They really happened.”
This time he rubbed Kassia’s back. It was the best he could do while holding Rakhsh’s reins.
“I’m sorry,” Alexios said. “I got a little carried away. You’re right, Basil. I don’t have much experience with kids.”
“Well, it’s time to learn,” Basil said.
Alexios frowned. “You know, you really can’t talk to me like that.”
“Why not?” Basil said.
“I’m the one in charge here,” Alexios said. “Neither of you can take care of yourselves, so you have to listen to me.”
“That doesn’t sound like what you and the strategos have been telling us ever since we got to Trebizond,” Basil said. “We’re supposed to destroy everything old and make a new world.”
“At the orphanage, they taught me how to read and write,” Kassia said.
“That’s nice,” Alexios said. “Yeah, that was one of the goals we agreed on—for everyone to be literate, but also for people to use their literacy. There’s no point in knowing how to read if you don’t use it. Where I come from, everyone could read, but—”
“We don’t need any more speeches, Alexios,” Basil said. “It’s just us out here. What I’m trying to tell you is, you want everything to be democratic back in Trebizond, right? But you aren’t acting democratic here.”
“You want everything to be more democratic here?”
“Of course,” Basil said. “Our world was the farm, the house, the town. Then we left and saw more than we ever dreamed of. By the time we got to Trebizond, we learned so much. We aren’t like children anymore. We might look like children, but on the inside we’re adults.”
“That’s what you think,” Alexios said. “I used to think the same when I was a kid. I was so frustrated that I was trapped at home, at school, or at summer camp or wherever. Nobody would ever let me do what I wanted. But it was for a reason. Believe me, you still have a lot to learn.”
“So do you,” Basil said.
Alexios laughed. “I thought the ideal Roman kid was supposed to be modest and respectful.”
“You thought wrong,” Basil said. “I want you to respect me the same as any adult.”
“You have to earn that respect,” Alexios said. “You have to know your place.”
“We have no place,” Basil said. “We only used to have one. We were children. We were slaves. I was a boy. She was a girl. We were Christians. That was our place. Then we moved, we lost everything, papa died, and when we got to Trebizond, people said that criminals were in charge, that they’d bring down the wrath of God because they said we didn’t have to go to church if we didn’t want to. But we had nowhere else to go. We always thought church was so boring, we only went because that’s what everyone did. You just had to go in, look at all the amazing art while the priest talked about who knows what for an hour, then cross yourself and bow twenty times, eat the host, and you’re done, you go out and have a picnic with your family. What’s so bad about that? No one even talked about skipping Sunday services. It’s like skipping food or water. But then Trebizond just kept getting stronger and stronger. You guys beat the Romans…”
“And mama died,” Kassia said.
Alexios sighed. “Just remember that her sacrifice wasn’t in vain. All of us are alive right now because of her. And it’s our duty to stay alive, to keep going, and to try and free all the people out there who are just like her. There are millions of them.”
“Not around here,” Kassia said, eyeing their desolate surroundings.
—
After three days of riding, the travelers passed the road branching east to Tabriz, and then reached Satala. Here a few ruined stone buildings jutted up from an icy valley where the snow was so bright, even in the setting sun’s red blaze, that it almost blinded the travelers. Constantly they squinted and covered their eyes.
No trees grew in the valley, only on the mountains, but Alexios had been stopping now and then to gather firewood on their journey, his ankle (sprained in the Second Siege of Trebizond) having healed, his health restored to 90/100. After the travelers had gone inside one building—what might have been an old Roman bathhouse—he set a pile of sticks and branches down on the stone floor inside and used his iron and flint to ignite flames. The air was dark and frigid, and the ceiling was open to the sky, but at least there was some shelter from the wind.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“You should teach me how to do that.” Kassia nodded to the fire. “Only Basil knows, and he won’t show me.”
“You’re always full of suggestions, aren’t you?” Alexios was taking out the fodder for Rakhsh and feeling stressed about their dwindling food supplies.
“All the other adults we’ve ever known were killed or captured by the Romans,” Kassia said. “What are we supposed to do if something happens to you?”
“Don’t get any bright ideas.” Alexios was joking, but Kassia didn’t laugh.
All of them were shivering at this point, but soon the fire warmed them. Alexios kept feeding it with the wood he had gathered during the day.
I had to stop and pick up so many sticks and break off so many branches, he thought. It slowed us down so much. But these fires are so hungry…and if they go out in temperatures like this…we’d have to get moving in the middle of the night just to keep from freezing…
“No people here,” Kassia said. “There’s never any people. We haven’t seen anyone since we left Trebizond. It’s like we’re the last people on Earth.”
“Satala definitely isn’t the most welcoming place.” Alexios looked around at the burned and broken stone walls white with bird droppings. “All the people left awhile ago.”
“Or they were killed,” Basil said. “Or enslaved.”
“There’s that positive attitude.” Alexios was brushing Rakhsh, now, having given him his fodder. “But yes, it’s true. Everyone’s fighting over these lands. Romans, Turks, Persians, Kurds, Laz, Georgians, Jews, Arabs, Armenians. Their armies are always sweeping back and forth, so—”
“Why aren’t all those armies here now?” Kassia said. “The Turks and the Romans?”
“It’s too cold,” Alexios said. “Most of the time people do their fighting in the summer. That’s part of the reason why the Latins beat us in Trebizond. We weren’t expecting them. Their leader, this Duke Robert, he’s a much better general than the last guy they sent at us, a real bastard named Narses. Anyway…with all the fighting, it’s impossible for anyone to live in a place like Satala. The moment you start growing your crops, someone swoops in and steals them. And they probably also steal you.”
“Is it impossible for us to live here?” Kassia said.
“We’re only a few days from Melitené,” Alexios said. “We’ll make it, don’t worry.”
“What’s Melitené?” Kassia said.
“A big city,” Alexios said. “With big thick walls. Lots of people live there in big warm houses. It’s safe.”
“Are Romans there?” Kassia said.
Alexios laughed. “I don’t even know who controls it now. It must be Arabs or Turks. Romans haven’t controlled it for at least a few years, as far as I know.”
“Good,” Kassia said. “I hate Romans. And Latins.”
“Well, I hate to break it to you, Kassia, but—”
“I’m not a Roman,” she said. “I don’t want to be one anymore.”
Alexios shrugged. “Fair enough, I guess. You’re still so young. Some day in the future, you can move to a new country, learn a new language, live with new people, and then one day maybe no one will think you’re Roman anymore.”
“I hope so.” She stared into the flames and held her hands up to the warmth.
Alexios divided a hard stale loaf of bread into three relatively even pieces and gave her one. “You only have to hang on a little longer until we get there.”
“How much longer?” Basil said.
Alexios swallowed drily. “Promise you won’t get angry.”
“Alexios, tell us,” Basil said.
Alexios handed him his portion of bread. “At least another week.”
The children groaned.
“It’s a big country,” Alexios said. “A big world. And it could take longer thanks to all this snow.” He reached up and patted Rakhsh’s side. “It’s a miracle we’ve made it this far to begin with. If we were stuck with an ordinary horse, who knows where we’d be?”
“We’d be dead,” Basil said. “Just like everyone else.”
“They aren’t dead,” Alexios said. “I don’t want to hear you talking like that.”
“The Latins must have killed all of them. The emperor must have told them to. He said all of us are traitors, and we deserve to die traitors’ deaths. He said God has forsaken us, and when we die, we go straight to hell no matter how much we pray.”
“You’re doing the enemy’s work for them,” Alexios said. “They want you feeling sad. They want you to give up. They want you to think everything good is impossible. That’s half the battle, right there in your head, and you’re just letting them win. We survived, Basil. That’s a victory in itself. And we’re going to live to fight another day.”
“Keep telling yourself that, Alexios.”
I wish he would stop addressing me by name, Alexios thought. I never believed it would bother me so much…but it seems to dishonor his mother’s last wishes. He seems to do it on purpose, like he wants to spit on her memory. It’s easier to be angry than to be sad.
“I wish we could go back to Hebdomon,” Kassia said.
“Well, you can’t,” Alexios said. “It’s a week to Melitené. But it would take us months to get to Hebdomon. That’s thousands of stadia away. You already did that journey once. You really want to do it again?”
The children said nothing.
“You’re here, now,” Alexios said. “And I’m not going to lie to you—things are bad. It’s hard enough for me just trying to keep everyone’s spirits up. We have to make the best of it. People have come back from worse defeats.”
“I wish mama was here,” Kassia said.
“Well, she isn’t,” Basil said. “So shut up.”
“You shut up,” Kassia said.
“Enough,” Alexios said. “Let’s just try to have our dinner in peace.”
Falling into silence, they ate their bread, which was nearly hard enough to break their teeth, and drank icy water from their flasks.
The next thing to worry about was the night. Alexios had been trying to keep watch the last few evenings—he assumed the children were too young to be trusted with this task—but now he was so tired he didn’t care anymore. The moment he finished his bread, his exhaustion overwhelmed him. The stress of fleeing the city, leaving his friends, taking care of kids for the first time in his life, and just trying to stay alive—worrying that soldiers or monsters could attack at any moment—it was a lot to deal with. His stamina was almost down to zero, though eating had replenished it a little.
He was so tired—with his fatigue compounded by the continuing lack of farr—that he rolled himself into his blanket and was soon drifting off to sleep. Rakhsh had already settled in by the fire and was snoring loudly. The children, meanwhile, kept talking.
“Remember when mama made the sign of the cross over us every night before we went to bed?” Kassia whispered.
“Why do you always talk about her?” Basil whispered back. “It’s annoying.”
“Alexios doesn’t do that,” Kassia said. “He doesn’t even say grace before we eat.”
These were the last words Alexios heard before he fell asleep.
In his dreams, hordes of Latins were charging Trebizond’s walls in the night, and he was pumping the dark full of fire from his flamethrower and killing so many, but they kept coming—climbing their ladders, jumping onto the walls, slashing the necks of his friends. Ra’isa fell with a gash in her throat. Elena slammed onto the ground, a spear in her back. And Jaqeli was thrown over the wall into the flames…
Tamar. Herakleia. All dead.
When he woke up, he was shivering, and his hands were trembling. The fire had gone out, and the air was dark and cold. It was a cloudy night, with no stars in the sky. At first Alexios needed to remind himself of where he was.
I’m in Satala. I’m not in Trebizond. It’s okay. I’m alright.
When he calmed down and his hands stopped shaking he told himself that he could just stay in his blanket and go back to sleep, but he soon found this impossible. It was too cold. Swearing, he got up and pulled his iron and flint from his pocket. They were like ice, and made his exposed fingers feel the same.
Over and over, he smashed sparks into the pile of burned wood, but no fire started. Using the light from the sparks, he found the extra wood he had left nearby and added it to the pile.
Just as he was about to try starting a fire again, he noticed that everything was silent. There was no wind, and no snoring. He struck sparks from his iron and flint once more, and saw that no one was lying under Basil and Kassia’s blankets.
“Basil,” he said. “Kassia.”
No answer. Even Rakhsh was gone. Had the children taken the horse? But why would they leave their blankets?
Alexios peered into the dark. His heart beat in his chest and throbbed in his ears.
“Is anyone there?” he said.
Something grumbled beneath him. He looked down. The cracks in the floor were glowing orange.
Bricks fell away. Blinding light shot through from the gaps. Alexios backed up to the wall. All the while, the grumbling beneath him grew loud enough to shake the building. Was it some kind of earthquake? Maybe that’s why the Roman bathhouse was built here…
“We are hungry,” a voice said in the deep.
Not an earthquake, Alexios thought.
Through the gaps in the brick floor he could see cliffs extending down to rivers of magma. These were so distant they looked like strands of shining thread, yet the heat was intense enough to sear his skin and make the air waver.
Alexios started. He had spotted Kassia and Basil. They were trapped on an outcropping of rock in the cliffside. A stone hand the size of a citadel was holding them there, its arm (as long and broad as a river) stretching out of view. Rakhsh—looking forlorn, his ears turned down—was with the two children.
“Give us food!” said the voice of stone.
Bricks were still falling from the floor and plunging into the distant magma. Alexios would fall there too if he wasn’t careful. He stepped toward the doorway of the ruined building, even though Basil and Kassia were screaming for help.
“Who am I speaking with?” Alexios stammered.
“We are the dead,” the voice said. “We were soldiers who helped the strong against the weak.”
Something vast and powerful smashed through the floor and seized Alexios. It was another gigantic stone hand—the right one—connected by a long arm to the cliffs. Before Alexios could escape, it deposited him onto the cliff face with Basil, Kassia, and Rakhsh—just as the left hand moved out of the way. As soon as Alexios fell to the rock, both hands returned to close him in.
Alexios was so terrified he could barely conceive of what was happening.
“Let us eat,” the voice said.
“Leave the kids alone!” Alexios screamed. “Let the kids and the horse go!”
“We must have food.”
Basil, Kassia, and Rakhsh huddled behind Alexios, who wished that he himself could huddle behind them. Through the gaps in the giant stone fingers, he saw something approaching—a vast stone skull emerging from the rock, its eye sockets filled with flames, its jaws gaping fire. From the skull a rock spine stretched down a long way to an enormous ribcage that was climbing out of the cliffs on the chasm’s opposite end. A pelvis emerged, and then legs. This monster was the size of a mountain.
Kassia and Basil were crying behind him. Rakhsh whimpered. Alexios felt all three of them trembling.
He drew Gedara. There was no farr for him to fight with, but the blade was fearsome enough by itself. Even an unskilled child wielding it was dangerous.
The skull laughed as it approached. “An insect cannot defeat a giant.”
No, Alexios thought. But I can fight.