The two of them opened the door to the small church in the village and walked in. The building was simple. It was a rather tiny place of worship and resembled a church in the southern United States except the steeples were replaced with onion domes, two of them. The exterior of the wooden building was bathed in a light blue color. The altar and vestments highlighted the front of the church, and a small number of tapestries were aligned towards the head of the space. There were icons adorning the walls, and gold-leafed religious instruments were everywhere to be seen. Highlighted by the light streaming through the windows was a single elderly man on his knees in prayer at the head of the church. He said nothing nor did he move as they entered and the door slammed shut with a bang. A few minutes later, he spoke without turning to look at them. "I knew you were coming. It is nice to have you here," the old man said.
"Thank you, Brother, it is nice to be here," responded Roman. The man stood and turned to meet the strangers. He walked the short distance that separated them and embraced them both, kissing three times as per the Russian tradition of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost.
"I have felt you were on your way. I have felt what you have been through. We are all in God's hands now."
"Yes, I feel the same way. This is your nephew, Sasha." The old man gave Rafe a hug. "I was very close to your father, and forgive me for saying I was in love with your mother. She was very beautiful Welcome. I am Mikhail."
"Thank you, Uncle," responded Rafe, respectfully. "I barely remember them."
"Come, let us join the others and eat. Have no fear, you are home. I am the priest here now. The village reinstituted the priesthood in 1983. We had been without priests for hundreds of years; however, we thought it was time. Although, it did cause a little bit of anxiety within the community. Some thought it was the wrong thing to do." Rafe and Roman followed Mikhail out into the sunshine and towards the homes of the village. The town was not large but seemed to have everything the population needed in terms of what was required to support the small, rural community; the expected businesses dotted the main street, such as a small grocery store, gas station, et cetera. Rafe guessed three hundred plus people lived there. The buildings were spread out over the tundra and of similar construction to keep out the cold, arctic winters and placed between groves of evergreen trees. Many of the town's residents were clothed in traditional Russian garb, especially the women. They wore brightly colored, hand-made dresses down to their ankles. The men wore embroidered shirts and belts.
After a nice meal of halibut chowder and beer, where Rafe and Roman got to meet many of the families in the town, Mikhail took them on a walk out into the fields behind the church onto the grounds of the cemetery. They walked leisurely on a small path between the graves as he talked. The white Russian Orthodox crosses dotted the landscape of headstones. Rafe listened intently. He had a hard time fully understanding the old man, as he spoke a kind of Slavonic dialect that had been long lost to the ages, except among the community.
"The visitors, as you call them, have been around since the dawn of time. I know this because my grandparents told me and their parents told them before that. The knowledge has been passed down throughout Russian Orthodox history among the leaders of our church. No one knows where they came from or why they exist, but we do know that they are evil. We know that they helped destroy the first Roman Empire of the East. They fostered corruption, greed, and were active in weakening their defenses. They were instrumental in destroying the pillars of their civilization. People became more interested in stealing from their countrymen than serving their country. The peace that had existed in the Roman lands for a thousand years, or the Pax Romana, was destroyed. War flourished and killed millions. The Dark Ages raged, and the human population still doesn't even know what was forgotten that the Romans had learned. Construction techniques, science, astrology, et cetera."
The man who called himself Mikhail stopped walking and faced them. His eyes seemed to be on fire as he remembered events of the past and regurgitated what had been passed down to him through the generations of Old Believers. He seemed now to be unaware of his surroundings as he spoke, as if he was in another place in time, translating to them the things that the younger generation should hear. Roman was nodding as if in agreement but Rafe said nothing. He just listened, hoping to find some tidbit of information he could use to save his daughter.
"The second Roman Empire of the East lasted another thousand years. But it too grew weak with corruption, fostered by the visitors. They lost the will to defend themselves, to focus on their society, their civilization. They created groups of favored subjects, who received the gifts of the emperor ahead of the others; their economy and society suffered. In the end, the empire died, and the visitors laughed. The visitors had succeeded in destroying two great civilizations. Who knows how many they had destroyed prior to that throughout the millennia.
"However, a new empire was growing to the north. The kingdom of Kievan Rus' was the first version of this new great civilization. But the visitors worked with the Mongols, the Golden Horde of the East, to completely destroy this kingdom a few years before Byzantium fell to the Ottomans. But the princes of Rus' moved farther north to the new city of Moscow. They built a grand empire that ruled from the Black Sea to the Nordic lands. Ivan the Terrible was the first tsar to unite all of the eastern Slavic tribes and defeat the invaders from the steppe, the vast plains of Asia. He grew the empire throughout Eastern Europe, and to the eastern coast of Siberia. Pushed on by the Russian Orthodox Church, he strove to create the third Holy Roman Empire. The Christian relics, saved from the Muslim invaders of Byzantium, were held in safekeeping and used to justify this new Christian empire. But the visitors could not let this happen. So they found a way to stop him, to stop Ivan, and to stop the human progress. They knew Ivan loved his wife Anastasia very much, so they had her poisoned. This drove Ivan quite crazy, and he killed his son and his son's unborn baby in a fit of rage. So the Rurik Dynasty was ended. The empire would not live. The follow-on tsars weakened the influence of the church and destroyed the ‘Russianness’ of the new empire. They destroyed what had made her great in order to emulate the West. Peter the Great openly mocked the church and the traditions Russians had developed over the centuries. However, the Old Believers continued on in their traditional beliefs. They continued worshipping in the old ways.
"To put the nail in the coffin of the third Holy Roman Empire, the visitors helped create the Soviet Union, who almost destroyed the church altogether. The greatness of Russian society was destroyed. The intellectuals were killed in order to make everyone the same. People were taught to denounce each other. Children denounced their parents. Friends hurt each other out of fear. The fabric of the society was torn. The human spirit was decimated. The desire to better yourself was killed. Now the visitors are after us, the Old Believers. They know we remember the old ways. We stand in the way of their goals, their evil deeds."
As he spoke, Rafe noticed the sun was setting on the horizon and the shadows were falling in the cemetery. The patriarch's words made clear many of the events that had happened to Rafe over the last several weeks, but it did not explain the disappearance of Clare. His uncle's words continued to drone on as Rafe watched the gray shapes appear and spread across the green grass among the headstones. The words did not explain what the visitors wanted with him. He had gained some knowledge of what he was dealing with but still was in the dark on Clare, which filled him with a familiar, intense anxiety. The hour is getting close, I can feel it. My last chance to save her will be coming soon. I hope I am ready. As Rafe listened to his uncle, another sound entered his consciousness. It was like a low moaning sound, and it grew louder. Rafe looked around to try to find the sound's origin. It was coming from everywhere. Eventually Roman looked about as well, as he also heard the sound. Roman looked at Mikhail and said, "What is this, Brother?"
Rafe soon saw a golden crucifix of the Russian Orthodox style break the horizon from the village below. It was held on a long pole in front of a procession of people, dressed in the traditional religious garb of the Old Believers. Rafe then noticed the same type of group was approaching from all four sides of the cemetery. The entire village was moving towards them and chanting. Soon the three men were surrounded. Mikhail was smiling and he finally answered Roman's question. "They are here to support you on your journey, Rafe. They know the evil you are facing. They are here to pray for you, for your journey will be difficult. Your uncle Roman will be staying here with us. He has been in Moscow too long. It is time for him to join the rest of his family. However, you will be leaving tonight. Your presence here is too dangerous for all of us. You have to unfortunately move on with your journey. You will be on your own but we will be with you in spirit.”
At that moment, Rafe heard the neigh of horses. The crowd of Old Believers parted, and an opening was formed in their circle around Rafe. He saw a carriage being drawn by three horses approaching. Mikhail spoke again. "This man will take you back towards Anchorage, so you may find a way to leave us here in Alaska to fend for ourselves."
Rafe remembered what he had been told as a child about Russians and how they loved the number three. They kissed three times, and there were always three horses on the troika, or horse-drawn carriage, again referencing the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost of their beliefs.
"Where shall I go from here?" Rafe asked.
"If I were you," answered Mikhail, “I would go to the farthest point of the former Russian Imperial Empire. I would go to California. There you will discover more of your destiny in this life. Go to Fort Ross in San Francisco and find out why the Russians abandoned her. That is where you will find your answers."
"Will I see you again, Uncle?" asked Rafe.
"I think not, my nephew. Not in this life. You may not see any of us again, but we don't believe in good-byes. It is time for you to leave." Rafe turned one last time to look at all of them then mounted the carriage and did not look back as the driver started his way north towards Anchorage.