Lazar put a hand on Maxim’s shoulder:

– It would be better if you returned to the theological seminar and denounced us. Since we’re going to be arrested the denunciation would only serve to distance you from us. Maxim, you’re a young man. No one will think worse of you for leaving.

Coming from Lazar, the offer to run was a loaded proposition. Lazar considered such pragmatic behavior beneath him, suitable for others, weaker men and women. His moral superiority was stifling. Far from offering Maxim a way out, it trapped him.

Anisya interjected, trying to keep her voice friendly:

– Maxim, you must go.

He reacted sharply:

– I want to stay.

Slighted by her earlier laugh, he was stubborn and indignant. Speaking in a double meaning invisible to her husband, she said:

– Please Maxim, forget everything that has happened, you will achieve nothing by staying.

Maxim shook his head:

– I’ve made my decision.

Anisya noticed Lazar smile. There was no doubt her husband was fond of Maxim. He’d taken him under his wing, blind to his protege’s infatuation with her, alert only to the deficiencies in his knowledge of scripture and philosophy. He was pleased with Maxim’s decision to stay, believing that it had something to do with him. Anisya moved closer to Lazar:

– We cannot allow him risk to his life.

– We cannot force him to leave.

– Lazar, this is not his fight.

It was not her fight either.

– He has made it his. I respect that. You must too.

– It is senseless!

In modeling Maxim on himself, the martyr, her husband had chosen to humiliate her and condemn him. Lazar exclaimed:

– Enough! We don’t have time! You wish him to be safe. I do too. But if Maxim wants to stay, he stays.

Lazar hurried toward the stone altar, hastily stripping it bare. Every person connected to his church was in danger. He could do little for his wife or Maxim: they were too closely connected to him. But his congregation, the people who’d confided in him, shared their fears-it was essential their names remain a secret.