By the end of 1753, The Grand Duke was becoming increasingly concerned about the disappearance of the Cult of the Ancients. Their absence meant an end to the vaccination campaigns against smallpox and other illnesses. The mortality rate among the villages due to lack of medical services already was worsening, according to reports he was receiving. Contemporary European medical practices that had been discredited in the Duchy, such as bleeding, were making a comeback in some areas of the country. Meanwhile, the True Believers were encouraging their adherents to accept sickness as punishment from God and turn away from medical treatment altogether. The True Believer priests gleefully filled the void of medical services with the idea that physical suffering was the result of Divine Judgment for sin and idolatry, and for the Duchy’s refusal to submit to the Roman Church.
The Grand Duke pondered how to confront the deteriorating situation of public health in the Duchy and counteract the ignorance being spewed by the True Believers. He had seen the horrid conditions in neighboring countries and did not want his realm to resemble the rest of Europe. The Cult of the Ancients had been the main reason the Duchy’s people were relatively healthy. Well, the Cult was now gone, so their services would have to be replaced. Replaced by whom?
The ruler first considered trying to convince the Prophets of the Old Believers to fill the void left by the Followers of the Ancients. Their attitude towards the cosmos and to role of science certainly was better than that of the True Believers. However, relying on the Old Believers to expand their activities into medicine would increase their control of the Duchy’s society at the expense of the Royal Family. The Old Believers were strong enough as it was, the Grand Duke had no desire to see them become even stronger. The only other Danubian entity organized enough to provide health services was the Crown itself.
Over time the Grand Duke would come up with a solution that would seem perfectly logical in the 20th Century, but in the middle of the 18th Century was a radical idea. Why not have the Crown control the nation’s health services? If the nation’s best medical staff were working under the direction of the Grand Duke, the True Believers would not be in a position to oppose modern medicine, because to do so would entail rebelling against the government itself. Choosing which cities would receive medical services would allow the Grand Duke to leverage support from the town councils: if a town council did not support him, he simply wouldn’t send any medical staff.
The Grand Duke faced a dilemma with his idea: he did not have any precedent to provide guidance concerning how he could organize the Duchy’s doctors and bring medicinal services under his control. He understood that he needed to hire a large number of doctors as government employees, which would involve creating an organization to control their services and travels, pay them, provide supplies, compile records, and conduct medical research. The ruler would need to create a Ministry of Health, but he did not yet understand the concept in those terms, since such a project had never been attempted by any other ruler in Central Europe.
The Grand Duke spent restless nights thinking about the Duchy’s medical dilemma. The problem was simple: the Cult of the Ancients was gone, the medical services they provided needed to be replaced, and it was up to the Crown to figure out how to replace those services. But… how? The sovereign desperately cast about for ideas; talking to his advisors and sending letters to his ambassadors asking how medical services were provided in the countries where they were stationed.
At the same time he was seeking ideas from foreign capitols, he thought about the most unusual member of his concubine group, the educated peasant girl. He continued probing her knowledge of medicine and alchemy throughout November. He ordered her to assist with the delivery of some babies, including the children of several ex-concubines who had moved to the maternity area before Silvitya was brought to the castle. He was impressed with her skills and knowledge. When workers were injured from falls or soldiers were injured during combat practice, he ordered her to tie her hair and cover it with a scarf and assist with surgeries and setting broken bones. He observed her as she performed her duties with confidence. There was no doubt about it: Silvitya had received training to be a doctor from the Cult of the Ancients.
At the end of November, the Grand Duke ordered Silvitya to kneel in front of him in the throne room and talk in detail about the university in Sebernekt Ris. Then he stunned her by commenting:
“I find it very interesting that you did not start your medical studies in the university. You were an advanced student, which means you were already trained by the Followers of the Ancients. I understand that you traveled with the Cult as a doctor before you ever set foot in Sebernekt Ris. I presume you must have spent the summer of last year in Nagoronkti-Serifkti and Daguruckt-Tok, marking the people against the pox. Before that, you spent the previous winter in the forest, receiving training and practicing your skills. Is that not so?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Your humble serving girl was there, marking the people against the pox.”
“And, I am correct about your winter in the forest?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Your humble serving girl received medical training in the forest.”
“And, when you were in the towns, you showed yourself to the public and performed your duties wearing a Follower’s dress?”
“Yes, Your Majesty, your humble serving girl was wearing a Follower’s dress.”
“And, you carried a skull staff. The Followers did not let members practice medicine if they were uninitiated and had not received their staffs. Is that not so?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Your humble serving girl carried a staff.”
The Grand Duke switched to archaic Danubian. He didn’t speak it fluently, but did speak well enough make himself understood:
“Excellent. So, I have, in my castle and under my command, a Follower of the Cult of the Ancients. A witness to the Old World. A woman with knowledge of the Old Ways. And, most importantly, a woman who can train my staff and teach me the secrets of the Cult’s alchemy.”
Silvitya went white and tried to catch her breath. There was no point in trying to deny anything. As much as she hated the Grand Duke, she had to admire his perception, his patience, and his talent for uncovering people’s secrets. Silvitya had taken oaths not to disclose anything about her activities as a Follower. The ruler was well-aware of her oaths, so he gathered information and clues through casual comments and waited until he needed to do nothing more than force her to confirm what he already knew.
The Grand Duke continued, still struggling to express himself in archaic Danubian:
“I know your secrets, but not because you betrayed your oath. You remained loyal to your beliefs and your fellow Cultists. I simply outsmarted you. There are other details about your life that I know, which I will reveal to you when the moment suits me. Do you understand me, Follower Danka?”
“Yes, Your Majesty, your humble serving girl understands.”
The Grand Duke switched back to speaking modern Danubian.
“Excellent. I am sworn to serve the needs of the people of the Duchy and, as my humble serving girl, you will assist me. We will begin by having you tell me about the pox mark. I want to know how the scarring works. I understand there is a paste that you put on the knife before you cut a patient. So, I need to know how you create the paste, what ingredients go into it, and how you prepare the knife and the paste for making the mark. You will first tell me; then you will write the instructions on a sheet of parchment.”
In a trembling voice, Silvitya obeyed, explaining how the vaccine was created, using pox from sick cows. The Grand Duke was delighted.
“So, that’s the secret. Cows. Who would have thought, cows? No wonder no one else could figure it out. Now, Follower Danka, you will sit at my desk and write your formula and instructions in detail. I will re-create the pox remedy, so if you need to add any research or outside sources, you’d best include them in your report.”
The Grand Duke spoke with an implied threat in his tone of voice. Silvitya suspected he knew about her relationship with Antonia and was perfectly willing to use that vulnerability against her. It would be best to avoid risking any mention of Antonia, so Silvitya humbly responded: “To hear is to obey, Your Majesty.”
For several weeks the Grand Duke continued questioning Silvitya, as she knelt on hard stone floors in the cold throne room, with a shivering body and aching knees. He forced her to give up everything she knew about the Followers’ medical knowledge and Babackt Yaga’s research. Finally he sent her into his study to write about the information she had given him. She knew that she needed to provide him with reports that were completely accurate, so she included references to Babackt Yaga’s studies and research, which were locked in the dean’s office at the university in Sebernekt Ris. The Grand Duke ordered soldiers to go to the university and demand the current dean surrender the Followers’ writings. When the shipment of secret documents arrived, the Grand Duke built a hidden annex to the Royal library in which to store them. He kept the only key to the room with him at all times.
For months Silvitya wrote her reports, wondering what the Grand Duke planned to do with them. She answered his questions, only to be rewarded with yet more questions or a writing assignment. She dreaded the thought of the ruler asking her about Antonia, but fortunately she kept him pleased enough that he never felt a need to use that weakness against her. She also wondered if anyone from the Cult of the Ancients would attempt to retaliate for the information she was giving up. It seemed unlikely, with Fitoreckt dead and no successor taking his place, but really she had no way of knowing what was going on in Sebernekt Ris. All she could hope was that she would be forgotten and that the Cult of the Ancients truly was defunct.
———-
Although he knew part of her real name, the ruler continued calling his concubine Servant Silvitya. It turned out he wanted to conceal her identity from outsiders as much as she did, and had no interest in letting anyone else in the castle know that her real name was Danka or that she had been a Follower. He was not interested in protecting her, but instead protecting his own reputation and plans.
Years later Silvitya would discover the sovereign copied her reports into his own handwriting so he could present them to the public and claim credit for the Followers’ discoveries. The Grand Duke impressed his ministers and foreign ambassadors with his “research”, his amazing intellect, and his understanding of science. Throughout the winter of 1753-1754, it seemed that every week he emerged from his study with a new discovery to benefit the Duchy’s people. One of his most impressive works was an account of the rat-plague that struck down the citizens of Rika Heckt-nemat, in which he speculated that it was not rats, but instead fleas, that were the culprits transmitting blood poison from person to person, which would explain why people not in direct contact with rats were still getting sick. He concluded by noting sanitation and measures to control rats (and their fleas) would prevent a similar tragedy from happening to another city.
Drawing upon his tireless hours with medical journals, dedicated research, and amazing discoveries; the Grand Duke set up field hospitals and alchemy labs on the outskirts of the capitol to produce medicine and potions. As the Royal Ministry of Health and Alchemy began to take shape, the Crown hired medical students to resume the Followers’ abandoned vaccination campaign. The Grand Duke’s employees fearlessly entered towns and villages still under the control of the True Believers. Unlike the Followers, they did not have to appease town councilmen or negotiate with clergy members. They simply entered where they were ordered to go, conducted their vaccinations, and moved on. Any clergyman who objected quickly received five arrows to the chest. The townsfolk were impressed with the medical care provided by their ruler, which gained their loyalty and made them more willing to pay taxes and provide soldiers for upcoming military campaigns.
The former Followers of the Ancients were not in a position to object to the Danubian ruler’s actions, claims, and plagiarisms. They were scattered, not in frequent contact with each other, and would have had to emerge from hiding to say anything. The Grand Duke’s claims that the research was his thus went uncontested. As the years passed and the Crown’s efforts to address the Duchy’s public health concerns improved, ordinary Danubians gave praise to the Creator for having granted them such a wise ruler who had taken so much trouble to become an expert in medical research. He became known as the “Great Visionary”, an unofficial title he would keep throughout the 18th and 19th Centuries.
The Grand Duke’s priority was securing the Cult of the Ancients’ medical studies, but he was aware the Followers had some other interesting achievements that could benefit both the Royal Household and the people of the Duchy. Over the ensuing decade the “Great Visionary” would claim responsibility for inventing some soil management and water conservation practices, a cast-iron stove, removable wooden panels for utility buildings, and the introduction of cave-charcoal as a source of heating.
The cave-charcoal was the most significant innovation introduced by the “Great Visionary”, one that would greatly reduce the unnecessary destruction of trees. As a child he had heard stories about the Followers burning magical black rocks instead of firewood. He questioned his concubine about the rocks and found out that, sure enough, the rocks really existed and there were several places in the mountains where they could be dug out. During the summer of 1754, a Royal expedition would locate the Followers’ abandoned mines and bring back the first samples of cave-charcoal to Danubikt Moskt, allowing the Grand Duke to claim credit for introducing the Duchy to coal.
———-
During her internment in the Royal Residence, Silvitya didn’t have much news from the outside world, apart from what little the ruler chose to tell her. Every day she saw dozens, or even hundreds of castle servants, Royal Guards, ministers, scribes, soldiers, and ordinary workers, but she felt unable to talk to them about anything going on outside the fortress walls. The only source of news from the outside came whenever a new concubine was brought in to replace one who had become pregnant. The new girls rarely had anything to say that was of interest to Silvitya, since for the most part they only knew about their respective towns and families.
Magdala continued leading the group and introducing newcomers to the lifestyle and shared community of the concubines. However, her stomach continued to grow, a constant reminder of her pending departure from the group and her replacement with another spokeswoman. The women were not looking forward to her exit, because she had been an excellent leader that kept problems and disputes to a minimum. It seemed that even the Grand Duke was reluctant to pull her from the concubine group and assign her to the maternity ward. She was obviously pregnant and the ruler had long since stopped having sex with her, but he left her in her position until her pregnancy had completed five months.
Meanwhile, Silvitya spent endless hours with the sovereign, bathing him, massaging him, allowing him to run his hands over her body and through her hair, and submitting to his sexual desires. He enjoyed teasing her. He knew that she did not like being sodomized, so he made her bend over and traced his fingertip around her sphincter. And yet, as much as he teased her and silently threatened her, he did not actually enter her bottom. Even when having normal sex with her, he treated her decently. He did not make her participate in group sex sessions with other concubines or overtly humiliate her. He shared his supply of imported treats such as Turkish delight, flavored honey, and dried fruit. He talked to her in a perfectly normal manner, although Silvitya continued to refer to herself as “your humble serving girl”.
It was obvious, to both Silvitya and the other concubines, that she had become the Grand Duke’s favorite. She suspected she would become the group’s next spokeswoman. Assuming the role of leader was not something she anticipated with happiness. She would have to deal with nine other personalities, of young women whose backgrounds were totally different from hers, and keep them out of trouble in an environment that was very stressful and very artificial. Her only recourse was to talk to Magdala about leading the concubines and speaking on their behalf.
Magdala appreciated that her likely successor was seeking her insight instead of trying to do everything according to her own wishes.
“The most important rule is to remember that you are responsible for everything that goes on in the group. Never try to shift blame for a problem away from yourself, even if you feel another sister is at fault or has acted foolishly. Be prepared to face the switch for someone else’s mistake. Make everyone feel included, but at the same time, make sure everyone conforms to the practices of the group. Don’t be afraid to discipline a sister for errant behavior or to correct ignorance. Do you remember how I handled you, when you dishonored yourself at the dinner table?”
“Yes, Sister Magdala.”
“I didn’t strike you or humiliate you or raise my voice at you, but I spoke to you in a firm manner, telling you that you needed to correct your eating habits. You will remember that I told you how to correct them, to go into the kitchen and request instruction. You always need to do that when a sister shows ignorance. Point out the problem, tell her how to correct it, and make her understand that she is responsible for doing what is needed to conform. Remember that our Paths in Life are, in some ways, very difficult, and that we must do what is needed to conform and get along with each other.”
Magdala shifted uncomfortably, trying to adjust her growing stomach. She continued:
“With every decision you make, every single thought that passes through your head, ask yourself: ‘how will what I’m doing benefit my fellow sisters? How will my actions and words make their Paths in Life easier?'”
Silvitya interjected: “I had an idea, not to make the sisters’ lives easier, but to make our lives more useful. When you leave, there is something different that I’m planning to do, a change from the way you do things, and I want to hear your opinion. If His Majesty does indeed place me in charge of the others, I think everyone should read more and be able to discuss what they’ve read. Also, I’d like to provide some medical training.”
“Medical training? You know medicine?”
“Yes. And I want to teach the others.”
“Where did you learn medicine, Sister Silvitya?”
“Well, I didn’t tell you this earlier, but His Majesty has figured out my previous Path in Life, so I see no harm in sharing it with you. I remember you telling me that when you were in your grandfather’s house, you wanted to meet a young female Follower who was working in Daguruckt-Tok. You’ve met her.”
“You, Sister? You were a Follower?”
“Yes, I was a Follower.”
Silvitya could see from Magdala’s expression that a hoard of questions had crowded into her brain. It was too much to explain, to painful to have to re-tell. She didn’t want to go into detail about her time as a Follower: she had just wanted Magdala to know she was a competent field doctor. She forestalled the pending barrage of questions by giving up another piece of information.
“I have a question for you, Sister Magdala. When the Followers marked you with the pox scar; who did it? Was it a young nobleman, or an older man?”
“The older man.”
“The older man gave up his life, a few weeks after he marked you. I was close to him when it happened. And when he died, a lot of me died with him. My Path in Life never recovered.” Silvitya paused, fighting off a sudden surge of emotion. “And now I’m here. I’m just, here.”
———-
Magdala left the concubine group the very next day. The hairdresser braided her hair, handed her a maternity dress, and the young woman departed to lead a more normal existence in the maternity wing of the castle. Her Path in Life would return her to Daguruckt-Tok, where she would have her own house and live on the Grand Duke’s coin as compensation for raising his child. Silvitya could tell that she was happy to be leaving behind her life as a concubine. For a moment she was envious.
The Grand Duke called the nine remaining concubines into the throne room. Their naked bodies trembled in the cold, drafty chamber. Ignoring their discomfort, he ordered them to kneel in the traditional submissive posture, with the exception of Silvitya, who had to stand at attention in front of the others.
“Servant Silvitya, you are now the spokeswoman for your companions. You are responsible for ensuring compliance with my wishes. You will speak on behalf of the others. You will receive and relay my orders. Do you understand?”
“To hear is to obey, Your Majesty.”
“Everyone else! I have made my decision concerning who speaks for you! Understood?”
“To hear is to obey, Your Majesty.”
———-
Silvitya knew that she needed to start out leading the group in the same way Magdala had lead. Conformity with etiquette and protocol was important, disputes between the women needed to be avoided or settled as harmoniously as possible, and every member of the group had to look upon herself as a guardian of the well-being of the others. Silvitya did not care for the “sisters” title, but she decided to leave it in place out of deference to her predecessor.
Magdala never spoke badly of another concubine, nor did she tolerate criticism of any “sister” by any other “sister”. For that reason, it was not until she left that Silvitya found out why the Grand Duke took away the position of favored concubine from Desislava. Through some comments from the other “sisters”, Silvitya found out that Desislava had not been able to keep conflict within the group under control. One personality conflict became so bad that a girl who felt wronged actually went to a matron with a complaint. The older women quickly took advantage of the situation and used the disputes as justification to whip three concubines. The Grand Duke regretted his decision of appointing Desislava to lead the group and decided to remove her. Desislava continued to be his favorite woman in bed, but she was not suited to be a leader. So, he handed to position to Magdala, a girl who he liked considerably less than Desislava, but one who was smarter and better at handling others. He replaced Magdala with Silvitya as his favorite because of her intellect, but was not sure if she would be as good a leader.
Silvitya had no illusions that she could turn her companions into intellectuals and field doctors overnight. She suspected that the concubines were so set in their ways that encouraging them to alter their daily routine in any way would have to be handled with extreme tact. So, she would start out with having her companions read novels. The Royal library included a collection of light reading, which was mostly used by the matrons and some of the guards’ wives. It had never occurred to anyone to make that reading available to the concubines.
She wanted to make sure the Grand Duke did not have any objections, so she openly asked if the library could provide the “sisters” with some novels and poetry. The sovereign responded that Silvitya, because she already had access, could sign-out novels just as easily as she could sign out the works she used to write her reports.
She figured that she’d start by making reading voluntary, then eventually apply group pressure to force any holdouts to start reading. Her plan was to have the concubines discuss and critique novels before eventually moving on to topics such as history and religion, and finally, to medicine.
———-
Two concubines, including a girl who had been in the group before Magdala arrived, became pregnant at the beginning of 1754. That brought the number of women down to seven, the lowest number of concubines in years. The ruler continued to moderate his sexual demands with his current favorite, which meant that only six women were available to satisfy his sexual cravings. The morale of the concubine group deteriorated due to not being able to take turns resting from his rough treatment and constant demands for sex.
The ruler’s guards looked around the Duchy for possible candidates to re-supply the concubine pool. They found four new girls: an indebted guildsman’s daughter, a peasant girl who was spotted taking a pair of sheep to market, the illegitimate daughter of a True Believer priest, and a girl seen traveling with her family among a group of refugees. The Grand Duke’s men paid silver for the guildsman’s daughter and the peasant girl. The True Believer Priest simply handed over his daughter as a way to prevent a scandal within his church. The guards took the refugee girl in exchange allowing her family and their companions to stay in the squalid camp outside the capitol.
The matrons processed the four new concubines during the last week of January. They were delighted to have the opportunity to bully and humiliate the young women, especially the peasant girl. Silvitya and Antonia stood shivering on the balcony that overlooked the castle courtyard, watching the matrons yell at and switch the newcomers. Silvitya noted the older women seemed to have become rougher and crueler in their treatment of the new recruits.
Silvitya took advantage of the Grand Duke’s absence and the arrival of four new women to implement changes in the concubine group. She realized that having four new girls entering the same week gave her the opportunity to change the dynamics of the “sisters” and the small world in which they lived. She decided to keep Magdala’s “sister” for addressing the others, even though she found it annoying. However, the idle afternoons sitting in the bath and playing chess were about to end. The spokeswoman was determined that her companions could talk about outside topics, partly because she was hideously bored with the daily routine. The concubines’ Path in Life was to sit around and wait to become pregnant, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t use their time trying to improve their minds. Three of the new girls were literate, so their spokeswoman showed them a stack of novels, told them to select one, and to be ready to discuss it with the group within two weeks. A couple of the other concubines already had started reading fiction, so their leader’s plan to start a literature discussion group was about to implemented.
———-
The new peasant girl didn’t know how to read, so it would be up to the other women to correct that deficiency. When the others argued they didn’t have any experience teaching, Silvitya handed them some children’s literacy manuals borrowed from the Grand Duke’s library. She tasked Antonia with teaching the peasant girl how to eat with proper etiquette.
The guildsman’s daughter was the most “typical” newcomer to the concubine group, so she fit in with no problem. She was from Starivktaki Moskt, so Silvitya was able to receive an update on the news from that city. The Senior Priest had become too sick to work and the Temple had to replace him. The scandal over what happened to his son Bagaturckt had not died down at all. The entire province had immortalized the saga of the sophisticated but flawed young man, a man who had fallen in love with a beautiful temptress and was handed over to the Destroyer. The tragic tale and outlandish descriptions of the beauty of the seductress had become a popular topic of tavern songs and campfire poems.
Silvitya thought to herself: well, I guess I won’t be returning to Starivktaki Moskt anytime soon.
The priest’s daughter brought news from Severckt nad Goradki. The True Believers in that city were in crisis. A group of elite families, lead by a young nobleman called Kaloyankt, had publicly re-affirmed allegiance to the Grand Duke. They took their oath from a Priest and Priestess from the Great Temple in Danubikt Moskt, which meant they had officially declared themselves Old Believers. It turned out the True Believers faction of the Danubian Church was about to lose its influence in the entire western half of the Duchy. They had been chased out of Nagoronkti-Serifkti, several leading citizens of Severckt nad Goradki had defected, and no one had any news from the True Believers’ other stronghold, Rika Heckt-nemat.
Silvitya sat quietly in the bath, staring at the water and lost in thought. Antonia was occupied trying to teach the peasant girl proper table manners, and thus was not with her. She was glad to be alone and have the opportunity to reflect on her memories of the Cult of the Ancients and her lovers Kaloyankt and Ermin. They had been so different from each other, and her relationship with each was so different. She loved them both, in different ways and for different reasons. She missed them. Ermin was dead, and as far as she was concerned, Kaloyankt also was dead. The Kaloyankt she had known and shared a winter with no longer existed. He was gone, nothing more than a memory.
Silvitya thought about her former lover and pondered how he must have changed over the past 18 months. From the way the priest’s daughter had described him, it seemed he had become a leading voice among the town’s aristocracy. So, he had indeed found his Path in Life. She tried to imagine Kaloyankt, standing in his best clothing, speaking with confidence in the city hall or from a platform in the main plaza, discussing the most important issues of the day and persuading others to follow his decisions.
How different he must be from when I knew him. How different. So, Babackt Yaga was right. It was not my Path in Life to stay with him. I would have prevented him from fulfilling his destiny.
I wonder how often he thinks of me, what he remembers.
I won’t ever see him again. I want Kaloyankt to always remember me as I was when I wore my Follower’s dress and carried my staff. I don’t want him to think about me in any other way. I can be grateful, I guess, that he can’t see me now. I certainly wouldn’t want him to see me like this. as a concubine…
———-
The fourth new concubine’s name was Crysankta. She was a nervous and jumpy girl, who looked around whenever she heard shouting or loud noises. Crysankta’s family originally lived in the southernmost province of the Duchy, to the southeast of the regional capitol Horkustk Ris and very close to the Duchy’s southern border.
Crysankta brought news from the outside, but it was news of the Duchy’s future, not of Silvitya’s past. From her reading, Silvitya was aware that the southern province of the Duchy was different from the central and eastern regions because it was not inhabited entirely by ethnic Danubians. Horkustk Ris was a Danubian city, but the villages to the east and south were a mixture of Danubians and people who had entered from the Ottoman Empire and more recently from the Kingdom of the Moon. Danubian writers generally agreed there was likely to be a crisis in the region and that it was possible the Duchy could lose the province if nothing was done to address the rising number of foreigners. However, until late 1753, talk of a crisis was nothing more than speculation.
During the 1740s and 1750s the Royal Family had been complacent about the Horkustk Ris region because at the time, the Duchy did not share a border with the Ottoman Empire. A Christian rebellion in the northern Ottoman territories of the Balkan Peninsula resulted in the independence of new nation called the Kingdom of the Moon. The Grand Duke’s father had welcomed the new Kingdom and even offered to send some troops to help secure its independence. However, relations between the Danubian Royal Family and the House of the Red Moon quickly deteriorated when the Kingdom’s first ruler died and one of his sons took control of the throne, after killing his two older brothers and families of several lords who supported them. The new Lord of the Kingdom earned the nickname “Blood-Moon”, which he took as a complement.
Lord “Blood-Moon” turned against the Duchy after eliminating the rival heirs to his father’s throne. After consolidating power in the Kingdom, the neighboring ruler demanded that the new Danubian Grand Duke swear subservience to the House of the Red Moon, pay tribute, and cede some territory. When the Grand Duke refused, Lord Blood-Moon quickly turned hostile. If the Danubians wouldn’t cede the territory he wanted, he’d simply take it.
During late 1753, the Kingdom of the Moon sent troops into Horkustk Ris province to seize villages along the border and drive out ethnic Danubians. Crysankta’s village was invaded at the beginning of December and nearly half of the Danubian civilians living in the area were massacred. The survivors fled, first to Horkustk Ris, but then Crysankta’s uncle decided to take the surviving members of her family to the capitol.
The Grand Duke took an interest in Crysankta and the information she provided concerning the loss of her village and the deteriorating military situation along the border. He angrily confronted his commanders for not telling him how dire things were the south. Finally, when they failed to convince him things were not as bad as he thought, the ruler decided to see for himself what was going on around Horkustk Ris. He ordered one of his generals and two Royal Guards to disguise themselves as messengers and accompany him on a scouting trip. The Grand Duke burned with resentment that he had to ride disguised through territory he supposedly controlled. He was gone for a month, which gave the concubines a welcome break from his maniacal sex drive.
———-
Silvitya decided to take initiative with the concubines’ duty of posing for portraits. She requested an audience with the castle’s two painters to suggest they produce as many pictures as possible while the Grand Duke was absent. She hoped that if the pictures were already painted before the ruler returned, posing for portraits would be one less duty for her and her companions to worry about in the future. Silvitya took it for granted the painters knew the ruler’s preferences for art and would create paintings that pleased him. The artists agreed the idea was a good one and were happy to create works according to their own criteria and without worrying about the Grand Duke impatiently awaiting their completion.
One of the paintings created that month later became the most famous piece from the Grand Duke’s collection. It was a simple image of Silvitya posing with Antonia, in which the artist captured the intimacy between the two women through their expressions. The image remained in the Grand Duke’s private study and out of public view throughout his life. It was made known to the public only after his death. While popular among foreign art fans, the picture’s portrayal of the concubines’ attachment to each other has remained controversial within Danubia.
When they were not posing for portraits, the concubines spent their month-long break locked in their assigned area of the castle. Silvitya took advantage of their boredom and seclusion to implement the changes she wanted for the group. Everyone started reading and discussing novels. It was an activity the women enjoyed, so their spokeswoman decided to make them draft written reports to present to the others. It was a chance for the women to place their thoughts on paper and talk about them to a sympathetic audience. Even Antonia, who by then was sufficiently fluent in Danubian to participate, was able to give presentations to her “sisters”.
Silvitya also began teaching introductory medicine, starting with the basics of childbirth and caring for common illnesses. She was pleasantly surprised when most of her companions displayed interest in what she wanted to teach. She went to the library and brought back the illustrated medical guides that were not locked away with the Followers’ books. As she led and instructed, her confidence in herself returned. She could see herself as more than the Grand Duke’s sex servant; she was actually training and guiding others.
———-
The Grand Duke returned to the castle in a foul mood. During his trip he had discovered the awful news that the entire western half of the Duchy was under threat and that most of Horkustk Ris province was not under Danubian control at all. The only enclave remaining was the provincial capitol, and the only reason that city was still under the Duchy’s control was that the Kingdom of the Moon had not yet sent an army large enough to conquer it. Horkustk Ris was the only major Danubian city to the south of the Duchy’s capitol. After that city was taken, there would be nothing standing between the Army of the Moon and the Duchy’s people.
The city was packed with Danubian refugees who had been denied permission to move north, precisely to prevent the people of Danubikt Moskt from knowing how bad the situation was immediately to the south. There was inadequate food for the crowd and a lot of the refugees had become sick.
The Grand Duke rounded up his military advisors and demanded to know why no one had told him about the foreign occupation of Horkustk Ris province and the plight of tens of thousands of sick refugees. It turned out the advisors had been divided about telling their ruler the truth. Some advisors did want to tell him about Horkustk Ris as early as the previous summer, but they were overruled by the advisors who were determined to procrastinate. The advisors remained loyal to each other because of oaths they had taken as a group, so the ones who wanted to talk to the Grand Duke about the occupation were stuck in a dilemma. They either had to betray the ruler, or betray their peers. In Danubian culture, betraying one’s companions is considered extremely dishonorable, so the more honest advisors’ actions were restrained by cultural taboos.
The Grand Duke was angry at himself for not realizing his advisors were lying to him. Now that he knew what was going on, he needed to find out why he had been deceived. The ruler summoned the Grand Prophet of the Great Temple to assist his interrogation of his subordinates. With the Prophet present, the advisors would have to lie in front of the leading Clergyman from the Danubian Church if they wanted to continue protecting each other. The presence of the Prophet, coupled with the Grand Duke’s insight and ability to extract information through simple conversation forced the full story out of them. He already understood that it was not simple fear or procrastination that had motivated some of his subordinates to cover up the invasion and force their companions to go along with the deception. It turned out that the traitors had made arrangements with the Lord Blood-Moon to be spared, along with their families and properties, when the Kingdom invaded the Duchy. All they had to do was facilitate the capture of Horkustk Ris by withholding intelligence and delaying any response from the Danubian Crown.
The Grand Duke did not want the public to know that he had been deceived by his own advisors. So, there was no public trial of the traitors, no retaliation against their families, no public spectacle at all. He simply grabbed a long bow and ordered Royal Guards to take the traitors to the execution post. He ordered them tied to the post one-by-one and shocked his spectators by conducting the executions himself. The castle staff, the Royal Guards, and the matrons watched with dumbfounded expressions as their ruler launched five arrows into a traitor, checked to make sure he was dead, ordered the body taken away, and then proceeded with the next execution.
Before ordering the bodies taken out of the castle and returned to their relatives, the ruler wrote the following for each household:
If you value your lives and the safety of your children, you will not ask why this happened. I assure you my action was justified. Bury your relative, say nothing, and your Path in Life will continue in peace. Disobey my command, and the Destroyer will visit you. The choice is yours.
The Grand Duke of the Duchy of Upper Danubia
———-
From their balcony the concubines watched their master killing his subordinates. They were terrified, because they did not yet know what was going on and assumed the sovereign had gone mad. His behavior over the next several days did not reassure them. He vented his anger and fear through sex and copulated with the eleven women as though he were possessed. He did not spare the group’s spokeswoman: she had to join her companions in the Royal bed-chamber and endure his rough treatment.
After spending a week calming his nerves with his women, the ruler re-emerged, determined to meet the impending threat coming from the south. He had several months to prepare for the upcoming military campaign, because during the 18th Century it was very difficult for any country to invade any other country during the winter. Large-scale military operations usually took place in the summer, when it was easier for invading armies to live off the land.
The Grand Duke replaced his executed advisors with field commanders from the Royal Army. He ordered the commanders to familiarize themselves with standard military strategies and drills commonly used in Europe at the time. He did not plan to emulate those strategies, but needed to know how to counter them. The Danubian Royal Army, especially the cavalry, would have to adapt to fighting on open ground and abandon the traditional strategy of using forested areas for concealment and protection.
The most significant decision facing the Grand Duke was his country’s reliance on crossbows. The crossbow had served the Duchy admirably over the past several centuries, but it was an archaic weapon suited for guerrilla skirmishes and silent raids. It was not a weapon suited for confronting a large modern enemy army on open ground. Like it or not, the Grand Duke’s army, or at least many of its troops, would have to switch over to using muskets. The Danubian ruler wrote to a Vienna arms dealer to speed up the purchase of modern muskets. He cringed at the cost of the cumbersome weapons and their ammunition, but he had no choice.
———-
Most rulers would have despaired knowing what the Grand Duke and his Army was up against, but the Danubian ruler’s personality was not prone to despair. He knew that, no matter how bad the situation facing him might be, he still had some decisions to make and options available. None of the choices were very good ones, but they were choices nonetheless. Besides, not all of the news coming from the south was bad. The Kingdom of the Moon did have some significant weaknesses that could, under the right circumstances, work in favor of the Duchy.
The most important potential vulnerability was a rival heir contesting the Kingdom’s throne. The now deceased Lord of the Red Moon had a brother who advised him, who had taken the title of “Lord of the Blue Moon.” While the brothers were both still alive, they complimented each other’s talents and made a very effective team. After-all, they had maintained their independence from the Ottoman Empire and even managed to annex some additional Ottoman lands. Trouble began, however, after Lord Blood-Moon seized the Crown and banished his uncle to the other side of the Kingdom. The Lord of the Blue Moon shortly died under suspicious circumstances and his oldest son, who was a first-cousin of Lord Blood-Moon, took the title as the new Lord of the Blue Moon.
To avoid both the fate of his father and his older cousins, the younger Lord of the Blue Moon consolidated support of several nearby noble families and started planning to contest the Throne. Under current conditions, there was no way the Lord of the Blue Moon could openly confront the Kingdom’s current ruler, but if the Lord Blood-Moon’s forces suffered some defeats, it was possible the situation to the south could change.
The Grand Duke considered the news of the rival House of the Blue Moon important. He did not plan to make an alliance with the alternate heir, but the prospect of a civil war in the southern Kingdom, should the Lord Blood-Moon’s forces be weakened, would play into his plans if he could win some battles on Danubian territory.
The Danubian ruler did not harbor any illusions his Army could possibly match the Kingdom of the Moon’s army in a traditional battle on open ground. The only hope of winning a fight with the enemy would be to combine modern and traditional Danubian tactics, which would entail luring the invaders into a location favorable to the Danubians. How many such locations were there in Horkustk Ris Province? Well, in the past there would have been plenty. During the reign of King Vladik the Defender, the area was heavily forested, allowing the last Danubian King to fight the Ottomans using guerrilla tactics. For a century after the King’s victories, the trees remained as the Duchy’s most important line of defense. However, settlers, both Danubian and foreign, had since cut down most of the forest, leaving only a narrow strip between the capitol and Horkustk Ris. Now the only feature marking the official southern border was a small river and a low-lying range of hills. The hills were still partially forested, but the land immediately to the north was not. The Grand Duke studied maps and pondered from where his army could launch raids. He found very few suitable locations, of which most were away from the main road leading though Horkustk Ris and thus could be bypassed very easily. Still, there were some possibilities, including some areas along the East Danube River, or possibly the city of Horkustk Ris itself. However, for any such plan to work the Grand Duke had to have a full understanding of his enemies and the way command decisions were implemented in the Kingdom of the Moon.
Fortunately for the Duchy, one of the Danubian Grand Duke’s remaining advisors had an excellent network of informants in both the House of the Red Moon and the House of the Blue Moon, including a spy with direct access to Lord Blood-Moon and two of his top generals. The Danubian ruler was interested in the Kingdom’s battle tactics, equipment, and troop strength, but he was even more interested in understanding the thinking and psychology of his enemies. He knew from the beginning the only hope he had of winning the upcoming war would be to find out about any psychological vulnerabilities of the enemy leader and try to outsmart him.
The Kingdom of the Moon had an excellent army and cavalry. They were seasoned veterans that had humiliated the Sultan’s army over the past two decades, men who were proud, competent, and well-trained. They totally disdained their opponents and enjoyed killing and torturing “inferior” prisoners. They had done some horrible things to Turkish captives, so it was safe to assume if they ever seized control of the Duchy, its people would suffer tremendously. The Army of the Kingdom of the Moon had never suffered a defeat, so they were confident to a fault.
The Army of the Moon’s tactics usually focused on charging into an enemy’s position with massive force to overwhelm any opposition, following an initial artillery barrage. Much of the strategy relied on speed and terror. The strategy had been employed against Ottoman and rival lords’ cities, forts, castles, and hilltop positions over the past two decades. It had always worked, so it was predictable. As the Grand Duke and his commanders studied battle after battle won by the Army of the Moon, the over-all pattern of the fighting was always the same: the artillery barrage, the overwhelming charge, and then atrocities against the conquered.
The Danubian leader pondered his enemy’s strategy: always the same: predictable, overwhelming force, terror, confidence, and maybe, over-confidence?
There was another clue provided by an informant as he repeated a couple of jokes and mocking comments made by the Lord of the Red Moon to his commanders about the Duchy’s towns and the fact most Danubian settlements still had city walls. The Lord of the Red Moon had mentioned how much fun it would be to blast away every city wall in the Duchy, for the cowardly Danubians to watch in terror as their medieval defenses fell, and give them time to think about their fates before they were slaughtered.
The Grand Duke fully understood that his enemy was planning genocide against the Danubian people. Lord Blood-Moon viewed the inhabitants of the Duchy as inferior and as illegitimate occupiers of land he needed for the great Kingdom he was putting together. Only “great countries” had the right to exist in Europe and the Duchy was not a “great country”. So, it needed to be obliterated.
The Grand Duke knew that any effort to counter an invasion from the south had only one chance of succeeding. The Danubians absolutely had to win their first battle. If they did not, there would be no opportunity to withdraw and fight a second battle: they would be overwhelmed. Everything the Grand Duke had read or heard about Lord Blood-Moon indicated his army would come to any location the Danubians chose to defend, with the expectation of overrunning their positions and inflicting a crushing defeat. That knowledge gave the Danubian ruler a critical advantage: he could choose any location he wanted for his army to make its stand. So, the question would be: where to fight that critical battle? What location in Horkustk Ris province would give the Danubians their greatest advantage?
———-
Silvitya spent much of March kneeling by the Grand Duke’s side at his throne, cringing as he ran his fingers through her hair. He spent day after day talking to his military commanders about the Duchy’s preparations. He also spent hours with councilmen from villages that had been attacked and over-run by the Kingdom of the Moon, with the hope of gathering additional information about the Kingdom and how its army operated. In spite of the uncomfortable posture and humiliating situation she had to endure, she carefully listened to everything being said. No one was bothered by her presence: she was just a naked concubine and certainly could pose no threat.
Whenever she had any free time at all, Silvitya perused the Royal Library’s books and maps to fully understand what was going on to the south. She quickly realized the Duchy was in very grave danger. At first she wondered about trying to escape the castle with Antonia and fleeing north, but she knew that her Path in Life was not to live as a refugee from a defeated country. She was a Danubian, sworn to serve the Duchy and its ruler, whether she liked him or not. Fitoreckt’s final words came back to haunt her thoughts:
“That is not to say the Ancients will not call upon you to serve. I firmly believe they will, but the manner in which you serve will be different from what your Mistress and I envisioned. Be patient and continue learning. Perhaps you will find yourself in a position to temper and influence the actions and decisions of our nation’s leader. How many of us can make such a claim?”
The next time the Grand Duke called his favorite concubine to his bed-chamber, the Grand Duke forced her to have sex by forcing her to assume the submissive posture and taking her from behind. He conducted his usual routine of fingering her anus and silently threatening to sodomize her, but as usual, did not carry out that threat. She bathed him and allowed him to fondle her scalp. The humiliating treatment would make what she had to do much harder, but she forced herself to speak:
“Your Majesty, your humble serving girl wishes to know if you need her to do anything to assist or prepare for the Duchy’s defense.”
At first the Grand Duke was surprised by the question. It means she has been paying attention to the conversations but, what am I thinking? Of course she is paying attention. This girl is different from the others, smarter and more aware of her surroundings. Indeed, she can be of use to me.
“You mentioned training your companions in medicine, is that not so, my favorite minx?”
“Yes, Your Majesty, that is so.”
“That training is no longer optional. You will teach your companions to become field doctors. I will see about sending some of the castle’s other women to you. Write down an instruction plan and tell me what supplies you will need.”
“Your humble serving girl will need some of the books from the Followers’ collection, Your Majesty, along with parchment and ink. Your humble serving girl will need alchemy ingredients and medical instruments. Your humble serving girl will need some dead bodies, and later your humble serving girl will need some live pigs for practices and a person willing to injure them.”
“Yes. I will supply you with what you need. Train your sisters. Tell them that anyone who fails to learn will face the switch and the pillory. A motivated student is an attentive student, is that not so?”
“Yes, Your Majesty, that is so.”
———-
The Grand Duke tasked one of his most trusted soldiers to help Silvitya gather what she would need to train the castle women as field doctors. The man was Protector Alexandrekt Bulashckt, the Royal Guard responsible for bringing her to the castle the previous summer. She felt apprehensive having to face him after the rough and condescending treatment she had endured during the first day she was with him. However, she hoped to find out what happened to her bucket and to have a source of news from the outside.
She expected him to treat her in the same rude manner he had treated her before. However, Protector Bulashckt seemed completely different, addressing her with courtesy and speaking to her in a normal manner. She told him what she needed and what the items were for. He sent for a couple of horses and told her she’d be leaving the castle with him. While they waited, the concubine and the Protector discussed medicine at length, including emergency field operations. He was impressed with her knowledge upon hearing about some of the operations she performed during the summer of 1752.
He was even more impressed to learn she had been a Follower of the Ancients. She was not the ignorant peasant girl that he imagined when she was taken into custody. He did something no one had ever done in her life: he apologized, asking her pardon for calling her an “idiot” and a “dumb peasant girl” the previous year. She was surprised, because no one had ever apologized to her about anything.
When the horses were ready, one of the castle matrons brought a red scarf and wrapped Silvitya’s hair. Although concubines were not allowed to braid their hair, it would not be acceptable to have one of the Grand Duke’s women wandering outside the castle with her hair loose. The red scarf also protected her by identifying her as a concubine and therefore as property of the Grand Duke. The matron also handed over a pair of red shoes to protect her feet. Silvitya would go out with her head covered and her feet protected, but otherwise would remain naked.
The day was overcast and chilly, but to a young woman who was used to being naked, the temperature was bearable. She ignored the chill, happy to have the chance to see something besides the interior of the castle. She followed her escort to the main city market and to several alchemy shops to search for potion ingredients and other medical supplies, such as metal instruments and wood for splints. She selected several small pigs that would be used for live practices. Protector Bulashckt paid the seller to take them to the castle.
Everywhere she went in the city, Silvitya had to endure the stares of everyone around her. She was not in any physical danger, but her red scarf and uncovered body subjected her to curious glances from the women and lustful stares from the men and boys. Her escort took the shortest routes possible and tried to move quickly to minimize the time she had to spend outside, but several thousand residents saw the naked concubine as she rode through the narrow streets and walked around the marketplaces. It seemed that every one of her spectators had to stare at her. She never imagined she’d actually be glad to return to the castle, but after being gawked at all day she was really looking forward to getting back.
The final stop was at the Temple of the Ancients, where she would have to go to obtain cadavers. Purchasing the bodies would not be difficult: there were plenty of destitute refugee families living outside the capitol who were unable to give their dead relatives proper burials. Many desperate families would be happy to release their relatives’ corpses in exchange for having money to buy food for several weeks.
Silvitya approached a Priest, who told her to kneel and wait until an Apprentice could deal with her request. After several minutes of kneeling with her face to the ground and being forced to completely expose herself to Protector Bulashckt, a pair of female Temple Apprentices dressed in ragged black seminary robes approached to take her request. By very unfortunate coincidence one of the women had been one of her fellow initiates during her year in Babackt Yaga’s settlement. Silvitya’s former companion was totally shocked to see her in the capitol and wearing, of all things, a concubine’s scarf.
The former Followers badly wanted to catch up on each other’s news, but Silvitya’s embarrassing predicament prevented them from having any meaningful conversation. Silvitya explained about purchasing cadavers and having them delivered to the castle. The Apprentice wrote down the request. They were about to part ways when she commented:
“Follower Danka, I need to ask, what, I mean, what happened to you? How did you enter His Majesty’s service, as a concubine?”
Tears welled up in Silvitya’s eyes, but she forced herself to respond:
“Hubris, Apprentice. My soul was full of hubris and the Ancients chose to punish me. Things like this happen when hubris makes a person stupid and that person acts on her stupidity. I was a fool, with my head full of pride and foolish thoughts. If you knew what I was thinking at the time my Path in Life crossed with that of His Majesty, you would agree the punishment the Ancients gave me was just.”
———-
Silvitya set up a make-shift medical school in an empty Royal Guard barracks located in the city at the base of the hill where the castle was located. The location forced the concubines to leave the castle each day. The classes started at the beginning of April. Fortunately, spring that year had come early to the Duchy, so the weather was warm enough for the women to walk down the hill in relative comfort. They put on their red scarves and shoes and, under the escort of Protector Bulashckt and one of his squad members, cheerfully made the trek. Although their days no longer were spent in idle relaxation, they enjoyed the walks and the chance to get away from the confines of the castle. It was nice to have the chance to exercise and see the East Danube River and a portion of the city.
The Grand Duke originally had planned for the concubines to conduct their medical training inside the castle, but Silvitya reminded him about the cadavers and pigs. She persuaded him to move the teaching venue when she asked:
“You humble serving girl wishes to know if Your Majesty truly wants dead bodies and screaming pigs inside the Royal Household. Perhaps Your Majesty would prefer a different location?”
The concubines already had received some medical training from their spokeswoman, but it was mostly related to women’s healthcare, potion-making, and disease prevention. The women now would receive training that would be totally different: treating injuries. On the first day Silvitya started the lesson by killing and dissecting a pig. The cadavers had not yet arrived, and the spokeswoman figured it would be less traumatic for her class to be used to looking at dead animals before having to deal with looking at dead humans.
Silvitya wondered about the castle doctors. The Royal Household did have several doctors, but none of them had come to the class to assist with the teaching or monitor what was going on. It turned out the Grand Duke had sent the rest of his medical staff to be with his troops while they were training. There was another reason no castle doctors were present: the Grand Duke wanted the women trained according to the practices of the Followers of the Ancients, with no interference from his staff, whose training had been very different.
On the second day of class, the concubines were joined by six wives of Royal Guards. The six newcomers totally ruined the day for the instructor by assuming they were superior to their naked instructor and ten naked classmates. No, that would not do. Silvitya would have to remove them from the class or force them to behave if she were to teach.
The sovereign’s solution was simple: the wives would have to strip before leaving the castle and accompany the concubines as they walked in the nude down the hill. The wives would spend the entire day as naked as their classmates. The Grand Duke added two more rules to make sure there was no more friction among the students. Any student, whether she was a concubine or castle wife, would have to kneel when talking to the instructor. Also, the instructor would carry a leather switch and had the Grand Duke’s explicit authority to use it on any student causing trouble or failing to perform.
The six wives were aghast the next morning when Protector Bulashckt ordered them to undress, while Silvitya tapped the switch in her hand. Their pride and arrogance vanished immediately. They huddled together and walked very slowly down the hill. Silvitya realized she had the chance to exercise her authority by demanding they uncover themselves and walk normally. After several warnings, she ordered the worst offender to place her hands on a fence. When the woman desperately looked at Protector Bulashckt, he responded:
“You heard His Majesty’s orders, just as well as I did. You are commanded to obey your instructor. Disobedience merits the switch. What part of that can’t you comprehend? Now, you will place your hands on the fence and accept punishment. If you don’t, I will report your disobedience to His Majesty and he will deal with you directly.”
The woman started to cry, but she reluctantly placed her hands on the fence and stuck out her bottom. Silvitya struck a hard blow across both sides. The woman shrieked and pulled away, holding her injured backside with her hands. Protector Bulashckt pulled out his sword.
“Hands on the fence, bottom out. Quit dishonoring yourself with your cowardice.”
Silvitya delivered four additional hard strokes. The wife shrieked and pulled away with each new welt, only to face the Royal Guard’s sword and a warning to resume her position. After the fifth stroke, Silvitya ordered all six wives to kneel and concluded with:
“Now, you’ve heard your orders and you will comply with them. You will continue walking, at a normal pace, with a normal posture, and with your hands at your sides. You might as well pretend you’re concubines, because as long as you are with me, you are no better than any of your classmates. Remember, if you had just treated us with respect yesterday, none of this would be happening to you.”
Silvitya could tell that Protector Bulashckt and his squad member were thoroughly enjoying the spectacle. They knew the arrogant wives and relished the sight of them being humbled by, of all people, a concubine.
———-
Silvitya realized that she had a gift for explaining things such as complicated medical procedures and operations. Her peasant background assisted her, because she felt much more comfortable demonstrating with her hands instead of just talking and pointing to pictures in her medical texts. Every lesson revolved around hands-on practice with cadavers or injured pigs; from the very first day the women were expected to get their hands dirty.
The instructor had proven her willingness to use the switch with the Guards’ wives. Knowing that they would have no recourse if they misbehaved, none of the visiting women dared test their instructor again. They were afraid of Silvitya, but all they had to do was follow her instructions to the best of their ability and nothing would happen to them.
Oddly, the next woman in the group to face the switch was Antonia. Silvitya’s lover did not understand that when she was instructing, the personal relationship they shared was irrelevant. Antonia had to learn field surgery just as much as any other student, but Silvitya could tell that she was taking the class for granted and not paying attention to the careful calculations needed to administer anesthesia. When it was her turn to anesthetize and operate on a pig that had been shot with two arrows and had a broken leg, Antonia totally botched the assignment. The pig died from an overdose because Antonia had improperly prepared the formulas for both the general anesthesia and the local pain-killer.
Silvitya was furious, partly because a pig had been wasted and partly because by slacking off, Antonia was inadvertently challenging her authority. She ordered her student to bend over the instruction table. At first Antonia was bewildered by the command; not yet realizing the instructor was dead serious.
“If that pig had been a Royal Guard, what would have happened, Sister Antonia? What would have happened?”
“Well, uh, Sister, I would have been more careful, but it was just a pig.”
“It was practice for reality! It was not ‘just a pig’! I can tolerate mistakes… those happen! But I will not tolerate a person who dishonors herself through negligence! That I will not tolerate! You will suffer the consequences of your negligence, you will learn from your dishonor, you will try the operation again, and the next time you will succeed! And now, you will suffer the consequences! Bend over the table, with your bottom facing the class. Hold the edge with your hands… ”
“Sister Silvitya… seriously… you can’t… ”
“Oh… you think I can’t? I believe I can, because His Majesty clearly gave me the authority to discipline you. And so, what makes you special, Sister Antonia?”
Antonia’s expression reflected total shock and hurt at the instructor’s last comment. Her eyes met Silvitya’s, silently begging to be let off. You know what makes me special, she plead with her look. I love you. Doesn’t that matter?
Silvitya tapped the table with her switch. No, it does not matter, she silently replied with her unyielding expression. You love me at night. You are my student during the day. You’re no different than anyone else.
“You’re already facing 15 strokes for incompetence, inattention, and disobedience, Sister Antonia. If I need to tie you, I will make it 25. Do as I say. Bend over and hold the edge.”
Silvitya banged the table with her switch. Tears welled up in Antonia’s eyes. She couldn’t believe the person she most loved could do this to her. Trembling, she bent over the table, with her face towards the wall and her bottom in clear view of 15 classmates and two Royal Guards.
Silvitya faced her task with very conflicted thoughts. She was furious about the wasted pig, but even more angry that Antonia had placed her in such a difficult situation. Everyone knew that Antonia was the person closest to Silvitya. Therefore, the students, especially the six military wives, were carefully watching to see how their instructor would handle her. Silvitya knew she would have to be harsh with her lover if she wanted the others to take her seriously. It was an opportunity to make everyone, including Antonia, understand she was not about to show any favoritism.
Silvitya also knew her relationship with Antonia would be forever changed. Until that moment, there had been nothing but tenderness between the two women. Silvitya knew that Antonia would be devastated for days, and that it was very possible the relationship would end. Silvitya did not want to lose her lover, but she couldn’t jeopardize her standing with the Grand Duke or her class.
Silvitya felt something else as she rubbed the switch over her lover’s trembling bottom. She was aroused. She very surprised and felt guilty about it, but she realized she was becoming wet between her legs.
Silvitya struck hard with a severe blow that was even more severe than the first stroke she gave to the guard’s wife. Antonia cried out from the shock of the blow. Her hands immediately covered her injured bottom. Silvitya shouted:
“Lie down, Sister Antonia, and do not try covering yourself again! If you dare disobey me a second time, I will hit you 25 times. Now, is that what you want?”
Antonia sobbed: “No Sister.”
“The lie down. Face forward, hands on the table, feet on the floor, legs spread. DO IT!”
Shaking with fear, hurt, and humiliation, Antonia complied. She sobbed throughout the rest of the punishment, but did not dare move. Silvitya struck, waited for each welt to rise so she could clearly see it and avoid crossing it, and struck again. Although she was not used to wielding the leather switch, she had witnessed enough punishments in Sebernekt Ris to know how they needed to be carried out.
After finishing with the 15th stroke, the instructor ordered Antonia to stand in front of the class, with her hands on the wall and her back arched to display the darkening welts on her punished bottom. The girl’s body shook with sobs. Fortunately, she did not have to stay in that position for very long, because the day was almost over. Silvitya ordered the other students to clean the room and carve up the dead pig so the meat could be delivered to the castle’s main kitchen. As they went about their duties, the students constantly glanced at Antonia’s trembling bottom, watching as the welts grew darker.
Antonia’s face was still streaked with tears as the group trudged up the hill towards the castle. When the concubines bathed for the night, Antonia sat silently in the water, soaking her injured bottom. Silvitya did not approach her, but some of the other women tried to comfort her. Silvitya slept alone that night. Antonia slept in her own bed.
Antonia did not speak to Silvitya for three days. During that time she practiced preparing anesthesia and making sure the measurements were correct. When Silvitya felt she was ready for another hands-on test, she managed to sedate and successfully operate on the injured pig. The second animal survived its ordeal.
That night, Antonia shyly returned to Silvitya’s bedchamber. She didn’t say anything, but she allowed Silvitya to take her in her arms and comfort her in bed. Silvitya sat on her bed and pulled Antonia over her thighs so she could gently caress the bruises and massage her still-tender backside. Antonia greatly enjoyed lying across her lover’s lap with her hand gently caressing her bottom. The submissive position became part of their nightly routine: Antonia lying across Silvitya’s lap and enjoying having her bottom gently traced with her lover’s fingertips and massaged. Silvitya enjoyed the new routine as well. As much as punishing Antonia had excited her, she hoped she’d never have to mark those lovely bottom-cheeks a second time.
The two women never spoke about the discipline incident. On the surface it appeared their relationship had returned to normal. However, Antonia’s personality changed: she became quieter and even more submissive than she had been before. During their remaining time together, she was careful to obey Silvitya and comply with anything she wanted. Silvitya realized she could have converted Antonia into her personal servant had she so desired. She wanted to talk to her lover about the switching, but that conversation never happened.
———-
Throughout the late spring, the Grand Duke kept Silvitya in his bed chamber to share his bath, after he had satisfied himself with his other concubines and she had finished her medical instruction for the day. He spent countless hours with his favorite servant, talking about the Duchy’s military dilemma and possible options. He really was not talking to her at all: he was just thinking out loud and needed another person in the room; one who was presumably harmless, to allow his mind to work through the thinking process. It indeed was true that she would never do anything to counter his plans or betray him. She was his subject after-all but, more importantly, she was a Danubian who wanted her nation and her people to survive. It sounded like the Lord of the Red Moon was a very frightening enemy. It was unlikely anyone in the castle, not even the concubines, would be spared if the Army of the Moon took over Danubikt Moskt. She would do whatever she could to assist her ruler. As flawed a man as he might be, the Grand Duke was the Duchy’s only hope for surviving the looming crisis.
About two weeks after she punished Antonia, Silvitya spent a normal evening with the Grand Duke, first satisfying him sexually in the company of two other concubines, and then sitting alone with him in his bath. She massaged his back and legs. He became hard and ordered her to bend over the side of the bath so he could take her from behind. Then she dried him off and he took her to his bed so she could give him a final massage for the night. The ruler was not able to relax. He suddenly sat up and turned to his servant:
“I have a question and you will answer. When you fled from the mountains and went to Sebernekt Ris, what exactly happened to the Followers’ settlement? I understand that it exploded, at a great cost to the True Believers I believe, but I need to know the details of how that happened. How exactly did the settlement explode? How did your Elders prepare for it?”
Silvitya told her master what she knew, which was frustratingly little. She believed there must have been a series of tubes connecting holes in the ground with hollowed-out spaces in the buildings that contained musket powder. The Grand Duke countered that musket powder could not have made such violent explosions: it had to be something else, or at least special musket powder that had somehow been altered to produce an enhanced detonation.
“I am commanding you to figure out how those explosions were created. I have settled on a plan to defend the Duchy, but that plan depends on you finding out how your Elders managed to create those blasts. I will give you free access to the papers I’ve taken from the Cult and anything else you need, but you absolutely have to find that formula and replicate it. And the fuses as well. I need to know how those fuses were created. Your life depends on it. The Duchy’s life depends on it. And if you need further convincing, you might consider what the Lord of the Red Moon would do to Servant Antonia, if he ever gets his hands on her.”
Silvitya felt sick to her stomach. So, the Grand Duke did know about her relationship with Antonia. However, that didn’t matter. What mattered was he had touched on the one person Silvitya would do anything to protect. He couldn’t have chosen a better way to motivate her to figure out the mystery of the Followers’ explosive powder and how to replicate it.
“Yes, Your Majesty. To hear is to obey.”
Silvitya spent an entire afternoon of frantic searching in the secret annex of the Royal Library. She suspected the formula would be written in archaic Danubian in Babackt Yaga’s coded script, which narrowed her quest considerably. Sure enough, after sunset she found what she was looking for, a diagram of the settlement with coded images of the fuse lines. A few minutes later she found the formula for making the fuses and waterproofing them. She later found several versions of the explosives recipe, all written in archaic Danubian. She realized the variations were designed to focus blasts depending on where they were located and what needed to be blown up. Although she already had what she needed, she continued searching to see if there was anything else that could be useful to the Royal Army. She was rewarded by finding the recipe for making the Followers’ explosive goose eggs.
Silvitya spent the next several days in the Grand Duke’s study, dictating Babackt Yaga’s coded script into modern Danubian while he wrote down the formulas in his own hand. Unknowingly, she was providing him with yet more inventions he would eventually claim credit for. Upon assuring himself the formulas were accurate and would provide the explosions he needed, he would burn Babackt Yaga’s texts and retain only what was in his handwriting. Even in an hour of grave danger, the ruler’s thoughts never strayed from shameless plagiarism.
———-
The Royal Army of the Grand Duchy of Upper Danubia was at full strength by the middle of May. The Austrian muskets had arrived, so the men spent countless hours practicing with their new weapons. The cavalry units rode around the countryside to the east of the capitol practicing maneuvers and leading enemy horsemen into ambushes and traps. Meanwhile, traditional archers with crossbows practiced around the buildings of the capitol, which was something the men thought was very strange. Wouldn’t it make more sense to go into the forest and practice there, since that was the place from which the Duchy had always been defended?
The Grand Duke vanished for a couple of days with several alchemists and explosives experts. There were a series of very loud explosions that terrorized local villagers and could be heard as muffled booms in the capitol. The ruler returned, satisfied that his experimental new explosives and ingenious fuses had worked exactly as he had hoped. His chemists immediately set to work creating wagons-full of the new explosives, countless fathoms of fuse line, and large containers shaped like bowls. The mood of the troops improved when rumors spread that the Grand Duke had invented a secret weapon and was planning to use it in the upcoming campaign.
One of the Grand Duke’s final tasks before starting the campaign was to pick his most trusted medical team. Yes, he had the castle medics and field doctors, but now he also had 17 women with knowledge of the practices of the Followers of the Ancients. He decided to split the women. The majority of the concubines would stay behind in the castle to take care of any needs arising in the Royal Household, while four military wives and three concubines would accompany the Royal Army. His favorite concubine would lead the group. Fortunately for Silvitya’s peace of mind, Antonia was among those remaining behind at the castle.
———-
The Grand Duke and his top generals received blessings from the Grand Prophet of the Danubian Church in the Great Temple of the Ancients on the final day of May in 1754. Silvitya and her two fellow concubines were among the Royal entourage, dressed in lavender dresses and wearing the red headscarves that marked them as the Grand Duke’s women. It felt strange to be wearing clothing again after having spent nearly a year in the nude.
It was also strange to watch the Grand Duke kneeling to receive a benediction. She knew he was not the least bit religious, but he had to put on a performance to satisfy his soldiers and the people of the capitol. Immediately after the blessing, the Duke’s men would start their journey south. Many of the men, perhaps most of them, perhaps all of them, would never see the capitol again.
The Grand Duke had received information Lord Blood-Moon had assembled his army and was preparing to move northward. The enemy had received assurances from other European countries that no one would send aid to the Duchy. Throughout the rest of Europe, rulers and advisors had written-off the Grand Duchy of Upper Danubia. Within a few weeks the country would cease to exist and the rest of Europe could move forward with grand international plans to attack the Ottoman Empire. The Duchy was looked upon as a stone in the road that needed to be kicked aside.
The Grand Duke had to give a speech: everyone expected that from him. However, he did not want the world to remember him for bombastic words of victory, should that victory elude him. He gave a very short statement:
“Today we march: tomorrow we will discover where our Paths in Life will lead us, and how much longer our Paths will continue. I do not know our fate, anymore than any other soul in this city would know our fate. We will either lose and die by our enemy’s hand, or we will win and return. The Creator and the Ancients will make that decision.”
The Grand Duke looked around at his subjects and concluded:
“I will not see any of you again if we are not victorious. My Path in Life is the same as the Duchy’s Path in Life. Without the Duchy and the men who are defending it, I am nothing. I will show my face to this city only when I think the Duchy’s fate is secure. So, for those of you who remain behind, I ask that you pray for us, and you pray that I, and the men standing with me, will once again see our fair land. When that moment comes, it will be a happy one for all of us.”
There was no cheering, because the Duchy’s citizens knew how serious their situation had become. Instead, as the Grand Duke and his entourage departed, the entire city sang an ancient ballad of farewell. It was the same song the residents of the capitol sang in 1531, when King Vladik the Defender left the city for the last time in his life, to fight his final battle against the invading Ottomans.
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Thank you. I have enjoyed reading your tale even though I usually enjoy much more humiliation in a tale.