Chapter VIII

Everyone stared at the blond boy and the baby, confused. Brunet and his companions eyed each other and followed him. The first acted leader, who screamed something and tried to hit him. The blond turned around quickly and grasped his right hand, moved a step backward and without even putting the kid down, swung the boy’s hand and threw him down on the ground.

Everything happened so quickly and unexpectedly that not only Michael but the brunet and his friends were dumbfounded as well. The stranger put down Laili and moved towards one of the gang member if he was going to attack him, but suddenly he hit the other one, who did not expect it at all. Next, he got hold of the first boy and it took him only a couple of seconds to throw him on the ground like a piece of rug. Meanwhile, the brunet came round and tried to hit the blond, but it took only one leg kick to bring him back to the ground unconscious.

Michael was still dumbfounded because of this unexpected end of the fight when he saw the blond help Lucius up and whispered to Michael that he had fought well.

Lucius was holding Laili, calming her down.

“Is she your sister?” asked the blond boy.

“Yes, she is our sister,” answered Michael, before Lucius would.

Michael was bleeding from the nose. His lip was swollen, and his nose was bruised again. “It’s nothing I’m used to it,” he mumbled.

“The fountain is near follow me,” said the blond. The stranger walked proudly, holding his shoulders upright. He was well-dressed simply and cleanly, except for the bloody trousers, of course. He radiated such self-confidence in everything that it was enough for Michael to feel respect towards him.

“What did they want?” asked the stranger when they left the alley.

“To take the money,” answered Lucius.

“Did you have any?” smirked the blond boy.

“Three copper coins.” Michael could hear the anger in his voice.

“Sorry, I meant nothing bad,” said the blond boy. The smile lifted the corner of his lip. But eyes…

Michael had never seen eyes like that before… Melted gold…

“Do you have parents?” asked the blond.

“No”.

“Do you have a home?”

“No”.

“I see,” mumbled the blond after some time.

Alleys, dead ends, wide streets alternated… and the fountain was getting closer. There were few people in the square. The doves moved in groups; they were hungry just like quite a big fraction of the Mondelay citizens.

“I don’t know why you helped, but thank you anyway,” said Lucius to the blond boy.

“I have done little, they provoked me to beat their asses.”

“Still, thank you,” said Lucius, and introduced himself and Michael to the boy.

“My name is Uriel, but you can call me Blondy,” was the answer.

They cleaned themselves and the bloody clothes with the freezing cold water. Lucius and Michael were already talking when Michael dried his wet hands on the clothes and soon joined them.

Uriel asked lots of questions, he was interested in where they spent nights, how they found food, etc. Lucius and Michael talked about sleeping under the bridge and finding food, they also mentioned stealing the pan and exchanging it for money, which was followed by the pursuit in the streets and the fight in the alley. Next, it was Blondy’s turn to tell the boys his story, and he also told the boys a little about him. He did not have a home either and spent nights anywhere available. His mother had died a long time ago; as for his father, he had not seen him for a year. Blondy claimed living under the bridge would be difficult because of the spring rain, which would raise the level of the water and the river would overflow. He suggested finding a hut, or a collapsed building, whose owners were dead and find shelter there. He was also in search of such a place and offered to live together. The boys agreed happily to that. When he heard they needed these three coppers to buy a coat and some food for, he offered to accompany them to the clothing market.

Ruined streets, broken fountains, hanging clothes, alleys stinking of the piss and smoke. Burned-down traditional landmarks replaced one another on the way to market. Blondy did not interfere with the bargaining and stood several steps away from Michael and Lucius. The coat that cost them two coins was big for Lucius, but it was of excellent quality and pretty warm, so it outweighed its first disadvantage.

“What are you planning to do now?” asked Uriel after shopping.

“We thought we would buy some food with the remaining money, we can share whatever we can get,” suggested Michael, but Blondy refused, “I have to go, I will come to the bridge in the morning, as we have agreed, we can go to the city and look for the shelter”…

Uriel did not break his word and came to the bridge at the break of the dawn. Michael found it difficult to get up. His sides were hurting from lying on the ground, but he got up eventually. They had nothing left from the food they had bought the day before, except for the milk bottle for Laili, which was already half empty. It was unbearably cold at night. They slept hugging one another, with Laili in the middle, but it helped little.

“We might have to walk a lot today. I don’t think the baby can walk that much. We should leave her somewhere,” he said.

“Where can we leave her?” one could feel a tension in Lucius’s voice.

“I know one person. She looks after the babies,” answered Blondy. “I will tell you all about her on the way.”

Michael picked up the baby and the bottle of milk. Laili was already used to him and no longer cried when he took her up.

“There are a lot of orphaned kids after the attack on the city, and many of them are the same age as your sister, or even younger. I know one woman, who has sheltered the kids, and she takes care of them. We can leave the girl to her till the evening and when we come back, we can collect her,” Uriel explained his plan. Lucius did not answer for a while.

“Let’s see the woman first,” he said at last.

“She is a beauty,” Uriel petted Laili on her head, who instantly hid her face in Michael’s arms. The kid was really beautiful - with a pink face, chubby cheeks, a cute, small, turned-up nose, reddish curly hair, and huge green eyes.

They passed by the pillared hall, from which one could either go to the main square of the city or to the arch bridge, which was the largest among the city’s bridges, in front of them was the downhill towards the shipyard of the city.

They turned to the burned theater and went towards the arch bridge.

“Where did you learn to fight like this?” asked Lucius unexpectedly. Michael wanted to learn about that too, but did not have the guts to ask.

“My brother taught me,” answered Uriel. “I was really lucky with those three. I knew they would follow me and hit me from the back, so I had to turn round at the right moment and use their own power and other tricks to beat them. This was unexpected for them and I saw fear in their eyes. That’s why they could not defend themselves. I was lucky, but if I met them again, I guess they would beat me for sure. If they had fought me together, or the first one who hit me had been more careful, and the other two not that scared, they would have won. First, their boldness, then their fear, defeated them. I watched your fight too. You seem experienced, but Lucius must be a newbie,” told Blondy to Michael.

“I can say it was my first fight. I mostly got beaten before that,” said Lucius ironically.

“I did not get less than you either,” Michael tried to encourage his friend, but realized that did not really sound like one. Lucius only smiled as an answer.

“What did I do incorrectly while fighting?” continued Michael.

“You should not have wrestled, because that’s not your strongest side; and also your opponent was much bigger than you. You would have had much more advantages if you had fought with your hands, even better if you had moved quicker. You don’t use your fists correctly either, use the whole body and the shot will be stronger.” Uriel stopped talking.

“What have I done correctly, then…,” mumbled Michael to himself, but as Uriel smiled at him, he must have said it louder.

“Let’s turn right here,” said Blondy, as soon as they passed the Rahail temple. Until Michael had seen the Big Temple during one of his trips in the rich neighborhood, he never understood why the temple one in front of them was called the small one. It was twice as big as the other buildings around. The golden dome of the temple and statues of warriors carved on the walls took one’s breath away when seen even from afar; the arch on the marble pillar had just been damaged and a dozen people were working on repairing it.

A middle-aged, thin woman in black came out. The boys greeted her.

“We want to leave the kid with you,” said Uriel.

“I remember that.” The woman kneeled and tried to caress the little girl, but Laili felt shy as usual when seeing a stranger, and hid behind Lucius’ leg.

“I will take care of her,” said the woman, but Laili had other plans and despite a lot of requests and caresses, she did not stay with her. Thus, the boys apologized and left.

“What should we do now?” asked Lucius. Michael felt it relieved Lucius that Laili did not want to stay with the woman.

“We will have to stay with her, alternatively. One of us till the afternoon, then others after the noon,” answered Blondy after a brief silence.

They set the meeting point at the Rahail temple and went in different directions. After voting, it was Michael’s turn to look after Laili. Lucius wanted to have Laili for the entire day, but then they still stuck to Uriel’s plan. They voted to see who would take Laili first and where they would go.

Michael went to the harbor, but he knew he could not find any shelter there. There was not even a slight chance to find a shelter in this part of the town. However, he continued their search for the shelter and visited the places he loved to wander around on Sundays. While doing so, a strange feeling started worrying him. Everything was so different that it felt like he had never been there before. The place he had loved so much, where he dreamed about becoming a captain, the sails waving in the wind. That was the most beautiful thing for him. All had disappeared.

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Michael had seen and felt a lot of terrible things after escaping from the shelter, dead and mutilated bodies, pains of their parents, children, siblings, and spouses. But despite everything, seeing the harbor in this condition made him sadder. He could not explain why that harbor was so special to him. Having experienced all after seeing so much pain, he realized that after the attack on Mondelay, he not only gained but also lost something very important, personal to him, something that meant a lot to him.

He was walking around with the kid in his arms and soon realized that noon was approaching and he had to leave soon. He had to meet Lucius on the third strike of the clock; the temple, however, was quite far, he had to hurry.

He quickly went uphill, and after the clock struck for the second time, he started running. He was almost at the temple when he finally heard the third strike of the clock.

He could hardly breathe when he finally got to the destination. Lucius and Uriel were already there.

“How is it going?” he asked as soon as he got there, but before they would answer, he realized they had found no available shelter.

“I have seen nothing either,” said Michael, panting. Lucius took the baby up and hugged her.

“You must be tired, it’s my turn now,” he whispered.

“I have got some food.” Uriel took some bread and meat out of the bag.

They made themselves comfortable behind the temple walls and started eating, trying to remain invisible to others, as, in Mondelay, where the third of the population was starving, one could easily cut people’s throats for food.

Food was not much, but they still filled up on that a little. Before they started looking for a house, Lucius asked, “Where did you find meat? Maybe we can get some more too.”

“I stole it,” answered Blondy so simply that it was enough to guess he had been occupied with that his whole life.

Michael got interested too. “From whom?” he asked, still chewing on some meat, and when he heard Blondy’s answer that he had stolen it from the guardsman, he almost choked on it.

Uriel smiled and hit him on the back. “Careful!,” he said. Before Michael could breathe, Lucius asked with his eyes wide open, “How did you manage that?.”

“To tell the truth, I did not steal meat from the guardsman. I stole some money and then bought meat with it. So, I stole it from the guardsman.”

“It’s better to steal money than food. You have more options,” continued Blondy when he saw the surprised faces of the boys.

“How did you dare to steal from the guardsman?” asked Michael. “If caught, you would have your finger cut off.”

“That’s exactly why it’s more interesting to steal from the guardsman,” Uriel smiled, but after still seeing the surprised faces, he explained what he meant to them:

“When there are so many starving people, theft and begging is the only way to get food; merchants and other people are more careful about what they have, but guardsmen think they are safe from thieves, as few dare to pick their pockets. That’s why they often leave their things unattended, making them easier targets compared to others. Also, the guardsmen don’t really know the city that well, they find it difficult to orientate here, compared to the locals. So it’s better to rob them, they will learn their lesson.”

“It’s obvious you have extensive experience in the field,” said Lucius after a while.

“Not big, but not little, either,” said Uriel, “you should not steal from one guardsman twice,’ he added as a piece of advice, “Thank god there are a lot of them in the city,” mumbled Lucius, but Michael still heard it.

“We have nothing else to say but thank you,” said Michael.

“Forget that,” answered Blondy. “I still have some money left and we can use it in the evening, but before that, we have to find a shelter, or else I think it’s going to rain tonight.”

Michael looked up. The Sun only rarely showed itself through the gloomy sky and when it did, it still hid instantly behind the clouds, as if was embarrassed about what was happening on the ground.

“We have to continue our search in another part of the city, so the Rahail Temple will no longer be a good meeting point. Let’s move to the other side of the river, maybe we can find something there,” said Uriel and the boys agreed.

The arch bridge was the largest amongst the city bridges. According to Uriel, it would be a great place to meet. When they crossed the bridge, they acted according to the plan. Laili was with Lucius now, and they were just going in different directions. When Michael noticed something strange, a boy was spying on them at the corner of the house and as soon as Michael realized he was being watched, he quickly hid. Michael looked at Uriel, and he nodded as a sign that he had also noticed the boy.

“Let’s go over the bridge,” whispered Blondy and turned to the arch bridge. Lucius looked surprised at both of them, but he realized something was wrong and followed them without uttering a word. Uriel walked in no visible hurry. He must have been trying not to attract a lot of attention from the people standing on the bridge. Lucius caught up with them. “Don’t look back,” he whispered to him. When they had already walked over the half of the bridge, Uriel invisibly turned his head around and whispered they were being followed. They started walking a little faster.

“When we get to the end of the bridge, I will turn left and hide, you go straight ahead and before reaching the first building, Michael, you kneel as if you are fastening the shoe, Lucius, you go on and hide Laili somewhere.”

“How many of them are there?” asked Michael.

“I counted four,” answered Blondy. ‘One of them is the guy I beat up yesterday.”

“That brunet?” asked Michael.

“No, another one,” Blondy answered and turned left (they had already reached the end of the bridge). Many people were swamping on the bridge and in the streets and the followers must have had trouble following them. Michael and Lucius continued their way. There was a little distance left until the first house, so Michael kneeled while Lucius went on walking. Michael’s heart started beating faster. That terrible feeling came back, and he could not help but look back. He saw four boys running towards him, not taking their eyes off him. They seemed to startle a bit. They did not expect him to turn round or even notice he was being followed. The leader seemed familiar to Michael. He was one of them who had beaten him and Lucius the day before.

When approaching, the boys slowed down. They did not expect the situation to develop this way. Michael saw Uriel behind them and realized it was time to act. As soon as the boy standing in the back got hit by Uriel’s stick, Michael hit the one in the face (following Uriel’s instructions). The things processed quicker than Michael expected. The boy he had hit in the face fell, covering his face up, but he continued fighting, not wanting the boy to have any time to gather his strength. Uriel hit his adversary with the stick again and did not let him fall and hit him in the air. As for the remaining three attackers, one was unconscious, another was holding his stomach, crouching on the pavement, and the third one was groaning and moaning about his knee. Michael saw the boys moving towards them from three different directions, and Lucius approaching the place with Laili in his arms.

“Let’s go over the bridge!”, shouted Blondy and the boys rushed toward the bridge immediately. They were circled from three sides. The arch bridge was the only way to escape from the attackers. Michael looked back. The entire crowd was following them. There could have been at least fifteen people from what he could make out. He did not even want to think what would happen to them if they got caught.

They ran as fast as they could, crossed the bridge, passed by the houses, some of which were burned or destroyed while others were still standing. The temples, former institutions, unidentifiable ruins, and other landmarks of Mondelay. Lucius was lagging, so the boys slowed down a bit. Uriel took Laili and all of them ran again. The pursuers were getting closer, anyway.

“They are trying to trap us”, said Blondy and stopped so unexpectedly that Michael could not avoid him and almost tipped him over. Luckily, Lucius stopped on time. Otherwise, they would all have fallen down. Uriel handed Laili to Michael.

“Run”, he told them, “Run! I will hold them for a while” and with these words, he uncovered his cudgel.

“Are you mad?”, screamed Michael. “They will kill you!”

“Quickly hide the girl somewhere”, he shouted and looked at the followers

“Take the girl away! Quick!,” Micheal froze for a second, then handed Laili over to Lucius.

“I am staying, hiding the baby does not need two people,” he said for both of them to hear.

“Why should I always be the one looking after Laili while you are fighting?!,” protested Lucius angrily, but he soon realized there was no time and disappeared. Only several seconds had passed when the first group of followers approached Michael and Uriel. They did not dare attack them instantly, as they had not gathered yet and looked at each other, hoping anyone would start fighting first. Uriel was waiting for that hesitation. He stormed into the group and started hitting everybody with his cudgel. Michael could not have even imagined anyone could use a piece of wood that professionally. He stood there dumbfounded, staring at Blondy, who used his cudgel so quickly that Michael could not properly follow his movements. One would have thought he wanted to hit the opponent in the head, but it would turn out he was really aiming at his legs, or at someone else’s side. He moved so amazingly that no one would predict what his next move would be. Michael stared at this stunning scene and realized it was his turn to do something. He attacked the well-built boy standing a little further, who turned out to be quite strong, unsurprisingly beating Michael up well. However, Michael left his own trace on his face, too. Despite Uriel’s skills and Michael’s attempts, other boys kept joining their adversaries. Michael felt fists hitting him from every direction, but he would not give up helping Blondy as much as he could. Now Uriel was not in a pleasant state, either. He had his nose broken and lips cracked and bleeding, but he still fought bravely. Meanwhile, Michael was already sprawled on the ground and tried in vain to stand up while getting kicked from above. Michael had heard the phrase ‘fighting like a tiger' before, however, he had never seen a real one. Even if he did, he would not be more surprised than seeing Uriel attack the boys. The cudgel was broken and Blondy continued fighting with his bare hands. However, although he was better than his opponents, he ended up laying on the ground soon.

Michael guessed there was no point continuing fighting, so he just covered his head, so he would not get any more cuts and wounds. Kicks and fists hailed on them. He now only thought what would happen first, he would lose his consciousness or the boys would tire of beating him and Blondy up. And then kicks suddenly stopped. He looked up surprised and saw Lucius with a spear in his hands fighting against the gang and screaming something (supposedly ‘don’t touch us’), spinning around and around, so no one would sneak up on him from behind his back. Then he helped Uriel out with only one hand, who tried to help Michael, but before Blondy got to him, he himself stood up. The gang boys were standing in a circle around them. There was no way of getting away from them. Lucius span like a spinner to prevent anyone from getting close to them. Using the spear was useful now, but he did not know how long it would help them. Michael could barely stand on his feet. Blondy was not in a better state, either.

“Guardsmen”, heard Michael gang boys’ screams, and the boys scattered around. Soon several guardsmen and one red- uniform soldier appeared.

“I wonder who they are looking for?” asked Michael, but seeing Lucius’ spear, it was more than obvious. He also noticed the spear holder was trying to sneak away. He had only several seconds left to escape. Michael became hopeful he could make it, but the red uniform soldier’s scream, “It’s them!”, brought him back to reality. Despite his injuries, he ran quickly after Lucius, who had already discarded the spear and was also running quickly away. Blondy outstripped them in seconds. As in everything else, he was much quicker in running, too. He caught up with Lucius too, and left him behind. “Follow me”, he screamed. The boys had no other option but to do as they were told. Blondy changed the direction in order to puzzle the guardsmen.

Finally, when Michael thought he would lose his strength after all these fights and running, Blondy went to a stall, said something to the seller, who, in his turn, hid all of them under his stall. The attackers heard them running and started looking for them…

“Where is Laili?” asked Blondy and Lucius, after gathering his breath, told him how he had hidden Laili under the staircases of the entrance of the house, then he snatched the spear from one of the stumbling red- uniform soldiers (he hit him with a stone).

“Do you remember where that house is?” Uriel asked Lucius. Lucius nodded, but said nothing. “It’s time we went back, then.”

They crawled out of the stall carefully, thanked the seller, and followed Lucius.

They soon found the house. Laili was quietly crying under the stairs with her face on her knees. As soon as she saw the familiar faces, she started crying so loudly that before they could calm her down, the soldier together with the guardsman heard and saw them. The boys had to run away, even though they could barely stand on their feet. Michael used all the swearing words he had heard from the night watchman to curse his fate. There were red-uniform soldiers among the guardsmen. Uriel still advanced. It was amazing; he was holding the baby, but he was still the fastest. Michael could not get how and why they ended up on the bridge. The guardsmen must have blocked every other way, and the only way that remained was to approach the bridge. This bridge was much shorter and narrower than the arched one. They were about to go to the end, but the guardsmen appeared there, so they had to go back to the middle. The limping soldier had a wicked smile on his face. He knew he had won. “Since when does a person with a limp run so fast,” groaned Lucius.

“What should we do now?” asked Michael, observing how the distance in between the soldiers them got smaller and smaller.

“We have to jump,” said Uriel calmly.

“From where?” Michael felt his heart sink.

“Have a lucky guess,” Uriel climbed on the stone banister together with Laili.

“No!,” howled Michael.

“I’m afraid of heights!” screamed Lucius while climbing up on the banister.

Michael stared at them, stupefied. But he was not alone.

“What are you doing?” they heard from the limping soldier.

Guardsmen froze, but Michael knew they would not be puzzled for long, so he climbed the banister quickly. He did not know he had the fear of heights. Lucius kept his eyes closed. Uriel’s smile was frozen on his face.

“Let’s go!” He screamed and pushed Lucius. Michael wanted to say he did not know how to swim, but he jumped so quickly he could not utter the words.

The guardsmen ran towards the bridge, hoping they could at least catch Michael.

Michael stood on the banister. “Rahail, damn my fate!” He screamed and jumped in the river.