Gregor’s attack on the fugitives is a street ambush in Buda that turns their flight into a desperate struggle over who will reach the haven alive. It exposes the danger of pursuing safety while weakened and forces Glynis to defend the people fleeing beside her.

The Ambush in Buda

As the horses wound through Buda’s lanes, Gregor, a Dhampir vampire hunter dressed in black, suddenly appeared in the street before Ignatius’s horse. He accused the fugitives of killing his sister, then struck. The horse reared and fell, throwing Ignatius and Magda to the road; Magda held on to the child and used her own body to cushion the fall. Gregor pressed toward Ignatius with daggers in both hands, apparently focused on his target and unaware that Glynis was approaching from behind. Glynis swept past on horseback, caught Gregor by the throat, and dragged him along the street with the reins looped around him. Remembering his earlier assault and fearing for Magda and the child, she tightened the reins in an attempt to strangle him. Gregor recognized her as she attacked. The confrontation had abruptly reversed: the hunter who had chosen the moment and target was now being hauled through the street by one of the fugitives.

Flight to the Haven

After Glynis dragged Gregor from his feet, the hunter cut himself free and tried to rise. Her horse struck him with its hooves, knocking him back to the ground before it bolted. The reprieve was brief. Vlad ordered the fugitives to run for the haven, and Ignatius seized Glynis’s hand and led her through Buda’s streets, carrying Magda and her child across his shoulders. Their escape meant leaving Vlad behind to face Gregor alone. Ignatius did not know whether Vlad could win: the fugitives were weakened by lack of blood, while Gregor was glutted with it.

The haven received the fleeing group at its massive doorway. Once inside, Ignatius took a silver sword from a servant who was already waiting with it and immediately went back into the street. Vlad staggered toward the entrance, bleeding heavily; Glynis initially believed he had beaten Gregor, until the hunter appeared behind him and plunged both daggers into his back several times. Gregor vanished, but Vlad fell to his knees, and the attack had left him struggling to stand.

Ignatius then made a consequential choice. Rather than let Gregor finish Vlad, he darted across the street and raised his sword to block the hunter’s downward, decapitating blow. Gregor mocked him before launching a furious attack, and the two fought at the haven’s open doorway, their swords ringing together. Vlad, badly wounded by the daggers, slowly made his way to the threshold and demanded a sword. The refuge thus became the scene of a renewed confrontation: it had sheltered the fugitives, but Ignatius’s intervention brought the fight back to its entrance and placed him between Gregor and the wounded Vlad.

Personal Stakes and Divided Loyalties

The attack unfolds through Glynis’s fear for the people around her, not from a detached view of the street. Before Gregor appears, she watches Ignatius as they ride, loving him but unable to touch or speak to him because Vlad’s anger presses close and she suspects he knows of their relationship. Tears escape her as the horses race through Buda. Gregor’s accusation that the fugitives killed his sister therefore turns their flight into more than a contest of speed: his pursuit is driven by vengeance, while Glynis’s intervention is sharpened by the memory of his earlier assault and by her belief that he would have killed Magda and the child.

The encounter also exposes a fracture in the fugitives’ alliances. Ignatius’s defense of Vlad is not presented as an uncomplicated decision: Glynis reflects that, had Ignatius allowed the blow to fall, they would have been free. She cannot determine whether loyalty or instinct moved him, but his action makes their escape inseparable from the survival of the wounded man who holds power over them. At the haven’s doorway, protection and danger occupy the same threshold: the refuge shelters the fugitives, yet Ignatius’s choice to intervene leaves him fighting Gregor while Vlad demands a weapon. The scene ends with that confrontation still unresolved, its immediate suspense resting on the divided loyalties and unequal physical condition of those caught in the street.

The Haven’s Unstable Threshold

The fugitives reach Astir’s haven in a tumble rather than a composed retreat: Glynis leaps through the massive doorway, is blinded by the light, and falls onto the soft carpet, while Magda and her child slide from Ignatius’s shoulders beside her. The brief contrast between the street’s violence and the cushioned interior offers no lasting shelter. Ignatius takes the silver sword held ready by a servant and immediately returns outside; from within, Glynis sees Vlad stagger toward the entrance, covered in blood, and only then realizes Gregor is behind him. The doorway becomes a precarious boundary, crossed repeatedly as the fugitives seek safety and Ignatius re-enters danger. The account ends with Gregor and Ignatius still fighting and Vlad demanding a sword, leaving the outcome of the attack unresolved.