"Moscow is burning!" Katya cried. Mikhail, Sonya and Dmitri followed her outside and saw the black clouds of smoke rising above the city. In some sections, they could see the flames as the taller buildings burned.

"Holy Mother of God," Mikhail whispered. He looked at Dmitri and said, "We're going to have to go into that hell tonight."

"No!" Katya protested, but Dmitri nodded grimly. They had to have food.

Later, Mikhail and Dmitri gathered their scavenging bags and prepared to leave. As they did, Katya touched Dmitri's hand and said quietly, "If you can, see if Novodevichy is burning."

Inside the city, Mikhail and Dmitri looked into a scene from Dante's Inferno. Fire raged along the streets. Soldiers and citizens alike fled screaming. Looking around, Dmitri pointed north. "It doesn't look as bad that way," he told Mikhail. "Let's try to get around the fire."

As they found a quieter part of town where the fires had not spread, they scavenged what they could but as they turned to leave, the wind shifted and a wall of flame blocked their way. As they turned to seek another way out, they heard a woman screaming for help. They looked around and Dmitri pointed to a building ahead. "There!" he said, grabbing Mikhail's arm as they both started to run toward it. It was a two-story wooden building. The lower story was engulfed in flames but at a window on the second floor, a woman was standing, holding a small child.

Mikhail rushed to stand under the window. "Drop the child!" he called to the woman. "I swear to God I will catch it!"

The woman shook her head, sobbing, but as the flames shot up higher, in desperation she dangled the screaming child from the window above Mikhail's head and dropped it. Mikhail caught the child and called to the woman, "Safe!" Turning, he said, "Dmitri, we have to help her!" but Dmitri wasn't there. As he looked around, he heard the woman scream and saw her pulled away from the window. Then Dmitri staggered out of the burning building with her and they collapsed in the street.

The woman struggled to her feet and ran toward Mikhail, crying, "My baby! My baby!" Mikhail placed the child in her arms and then ran toward Dmitri, who was coughing and clasping his arm. Mikhail saw a burn the length of his forearm.

"Dmitri! Are you all right?" he asked, helping Dmitri to stand.

"I'm okay," Dmitri gasped, coughing. "The woman?"

Mikhail pointed to where the woman was running away from them. "Come on, we have to get out of here," he said.

Supporting Dmitri, the two men made it out of the burning section of town and headed toward the walls. As they left the city, they joined streams of fleeing people.

"Some are saying that our own people started the fires to keep the French from having Moscow!"

"The soldiers are shooting people, saying they are arsonists!"

"Napoleon has been driven out of the Kremlin!"

"The streets are full of the dead and dying!"

Soon Dmitri and Mikhail quietly left the groups of refugees and slipped into the forest. As they did, Dmitri looked back and from what he could see, it did not appear that the fire had reached Novodevichy. At least he would have one good thing to tell Katya.

As the men reached their hiding place, Mikhail knocked their coded knock – two long, three short, one long – and opened the door. As he and Dmitri entered, Katya cried out, "Papa! Dmitri!" and ran to hug them but stopped, aghast, crying out, "Dmitri! Your arm!"

"He got that saving a woman's life," Mikhail told her. "Mama, we are going to need some medical attention here."

Sonya quickly gathered supplies and began applying cold compresses to the livid burn on Dmitri's arm as he began coughing. Katya stood nearby, in tears.

"I'm okay, Katya," Dmitri said, catching her arm. "And from what I could see, Novodevichy is not burning."

"I'm glad," Katya said, "but better Novodevichy should burn than that you should be hurt."

vVvVv

A month later, Mikhail burst in, exclaiming, "The French are leaving! Our victories at Tarutino and Polotsk have turned the tide! They are retreating!"

He and Dmitri went out to reconnoiter. They saw soldiers making a disorderly exit from the city and talked to several people who swore that Moscow was being emptied of the French.

"What about Novodevichy?" Katya asked when they returned. "Will the French be leaving it as well?"

"I do not think the French would leave their wounded behind," Mikhail said. "I'm sure all will be well. We will need to be careful. The French will be desperate and hungry, since the fires destroyed much of the food supply. We need to stay hidden."

A few nights later, Katya stayed awake, lying quietly in her bed as her parents and Dmitri went to sleep. Rising, she dressed and put a note on the table, then left in the dark. When Sonya rose at her regular time to prepare the morning meal, she called for Katya to wake up and help her, then saw that the girl was missing and found the note.

"Mikhail!" she cried out in a panic. As her husband started up out of bed, she thrust the note at him. "It's Katya! She's gone!"

As Mikhail scanned the note, he said, "That foolish, foolish girl! Dmitri, she has gone to Novodevichy. She claims she heard God telling her that she had to go and help the nuns. We have to find her!"

Dmitri was already dressing. "We'll find her, Sonya," he told Katya's frantic mother. "We'll bring her back."

Mikhail and Dmitri did not catch up to Katya until they reached the gates of Novodevichy. There they found her with a young man. "Katya!" Mikhail cried out, catching her to him and hugging her, then shaking her. "What were you thinking? It is too dangerous to be out here!"

"I'm sorry, Papa," Katya said. "I didn't want to worry you, but God spoke to me and told me I should come here and help the nuns. I'm also supposed to help you, Dmitri," she said, turning to the other man, "although I don't know how."

"This is Alexei," she said, introducing the young man who had been standing quietly nearby. "He also came to help the nuns so we traveled together."

Mikhail shook the young man's hand. "Thank you," he said, "thank you for watching over my wayward daughter."

"She has great spirit," Alexei said admiringly.

Just then, a voice called to Mikhail and Dmitri from within the convent walls and they looked up to see Sister Irina rushing toward them. "God must have sent you!" she said fervently.

"Are all of you all right?" Dmitri asked. "Have the French left?"

"Most of them," Sister Irina said. "And they took their wounded with them. But Sister Sarah heard them say that Napoleon has left orders that many important sites in Moscow are to be destroyed by explosives and one of them is Novodevichy! Some of us want to stay and try to find the explosives and disarm them, but some think we should leave. What should we do?"

Dmitri and Mikhail exchanged glances. "Evacuate," Dmitri said firmly. "Right now. Go gather everyone together and we'll take you out."

Sister Irina looked relieved. "That was my thought," she admitted. "Wait here and I'll bring the rest of the sisters."

In just a few minutes, she returned with a group of frightened nuns but cried out, "We cannot find Sister Sarah!"

"Mikhail, you and Katya take the sisters to safety," Dmitri said. "I'll stay and find Sister Sarah."

"I'll help you," Alexei said.

Dmitri and Alexei were searching the buildings when they heard male voices coming from Our Lady of Smolensk cathedral. As they hurriedly hid, they saw a small battalion of French soldiers rushing out. "Hurry!" one said. "It won't take long!"

As the soldiers left, Dmitri and Alexei ran into the cathedral. They saw an elderly nun struggling down the stairs to the building's basement and hurried to her. "Sister Sarah?" Dmitri called.

Turning to the two men, Sister Sarah said, "Hurry! The explosives are down here! We have to stop them!"

"Wait here!" Dmitri said as he and Alexei hurried down the stairs, but Sister Sarah followed. In the basement, Dmitri saw several barrels of powder with slow-burning fuses lit and sparking. "Quick!" he yelled. "Put out the fuses and pull them from the barrels!" He, Alexei and Sister Sarah managed to get all the fuses stamped out and pulled them from the barrels for safety.

"Thank you!" Sister Sarah said, weeping. "I could not have done it alone."

Dmitri led the elderly woman up the stairs and out of the church. "That was very brave, Sister," he said gently, "but you could have been killed."

"If I had," Sister Sarah said, "I would have gone to be with my Savior. But I had to try, because Novodevichy needs to survive to bring hope to the people. It may still be futile, though. I heard the soldiers say that Napoleon is waiting by the Desna River to see Novodevichy burn before he leaves. What will he do when he does not see a fire?"

Alexei straightened himself up determinedly. "Don't worry, Sister," Alexei said. "My house is near the walls of Novodevichy, looking toward the river. If I burn it, Napoleon will think it is Novodevichy itself."

"God bless you, sir!" Sister Sarah said fervently, reaching out to hold his hands. Tears streamed down her face. "God will reward you for your sacrifice!"

Dmitri looked at the young man. "Are you sure, Alexei?" he asked.

"Yes," Alexei said resolutely. "Novodevichy's continued existence is worth it."

"I know someone else who would agree with you," Dmitri said. "I'll make sure Katya knows what you did."