Chapter Thirteen – The “Sisters”

Silvitya was startled awake by the sound of the door’s bolt sliding, just a few hours after she managed to fall asleep. The door opened and three naked young women presented themselves. Silvitya had not seen them before, but like the women from the previous evening, their hair was not braided. The newcomer stood up, but didn’t know what else to do. The women did not react or reprimand her. Each had endured a first night in the castle and had experienced what Silvitya was experiencing.

The leader of the group introduced herself as Magdala. She invited Silvitya to accompany her to morning tea, during which she would explain the newcomer’s duties and what she could expect from her new life in the Grand Duke’s castle. She handed Silvitya a set of velvet slippers, which she would have to wear whenever walking through the hallways of the castle. With that, the four naked young women silently walked to the end of the hallway and entered a small dining room. As she followed the others, she noticed that one of the women had lines of fading welts from switch-marks crossing her bottom, thighs, and shoulders. Silvitya guessed the girl must have been severely punished about a week before. She also noticed the punished concubine had a completely miserable expression on her face and never spoke. She communicated with nods and hand gestures, leading Silvitya to wonder if she was mute.

The room had large curtained windows and fancy furniture that Danka later learned had been imported from a foreign country called France. An elderly castle servant had just finished setting up a small table with cups of tea and strange-looking bread-rolls called croissants. As soon as the women were seated, Magdala explained what was going on.

“In case you haven’t guessed, we’re Royal concubines. In this castle His Majesty keeps 10 women for his pleasure. Sometimes it’s one more or one less than that, but most of the time there are 10 sisters here. That’s how we usually address each other: ‘Sister’. You can call me ‘Sister Magdala’, or just ‘Sister’, that choice is yours. My understanding is that your name is Sister Silvitya?”

“Yes, Sister Magdala.”

“Very well, Sister Silvitya. As I said, our Paths in Life are to serve the Grand Duke. It is really the duty of every citizen of the Duchy to serve the Grand Duke, but the Creator has called upon us to serve His Majesty in a special way. We are not soldiers, or advisors, or scribes, or Clergy, but we are just as important for His Majesty as anyone else in this castle.”

Silvitya interjected: “The way the senior women treated me yesterday, that didn’t make me feel very special.”

“They treated all of us in a similar manner when we came here. There’s a reason why they’re so strict with any Sister called upon to be a Royal concubine. Remember, our Path in Life is to serve. That doesn’t just mean presenting our bodies for His Majesty’s satisfaction when asked. It means conducting ourselves with dignity and humility at all times, to make ourselves pleasing in the eyes of the entire Royal House.”

“Then, I have another question. If it’s about dignity and humility, what about our hair? Why can’t we braid our hair?”

“Those are the wishes of the Grand Duke. He has the power to demand to see what is forbidden for most men. He loves to pass his hands through our hair, to bury his fingers in what is prohibited for anyone else. He does it because he can.”

The group finished their tea and croissants. As soon as Magdala stood up, the others immediately joined her. “Come along. Let us relieve ourselves and then we will bathe.”

The toilet-room was the nicest privy Danka had ever seen. There were marble seats built to conceal the chamber-pots and an attendant was responsible for collecting and emptying them. It was the first time Silvitya did not take care of disposing of her own waste. She followed the others into a large communal tub filled with cool water. As she entered, again she noticed the faded bruises on the mute woman’s backside. Magdala noticed where the newcomer was looking. She exchanged glances with the punished concubine, who gave a sad nod granting her permission to explain:

“His Majesty always has a preferred girl, the one he likes better than any of the others. He makes that choice; we have no say in the matter. Right now I am the Royal favorite. As the favorite, I am the spokeswoman for the concubines and have privileges that no other sister can enjoy at the moment. For example, I can walk unescorted in the Royal garden. If I lose my status as His Majesty’s favorite, I will lose the extra privileges, such as access to the outdoor grounds. That’s what happened to Sister Desislava. She used to be the Grand Duke’s favorite, but on a whim His Majesty took that status away and gave it to me. Sister Desislava had been watching a rose bush that His Majesty planted last year, because it has blooms that are yellow and red on the same flower, and she wanted to see them. After she lost the right to go into the garden, she thought she’d sneak out one last time. She figured the gardeners wouldn’t realize she wasn’t supposed to be there. Even if they did, they wouldn’t have said anything. Sadly, one of the castle matrons was out there and saw her. Even more sadly, Sister Desislava lied about her status, so she received a criminal’s switching and had to spend an afternoon on the pillory. We were forced to watch.”

Sister Magdala exchanged another glance with Desislava and continued: “Sister Desislava’s story has some important lessons for you. First, you might think that something as trivial as checking on a rose bush is a ridiculous thing to risk punishment over. For us, it isn’t. You will discover that your perspective on things changes after you’ve spent weeks and months in confinement. Another thing to remember is that most of the castle commoners wouldn’t do anything against us, but that’s not true for the castle matrons. Their youth and beauty has passed, and every time the see us they are jealous. So, it is best to avoid them.”

There was a pause while the four women rubbed soap on each other’s backs. Sister Magdala handed Silvitya a bar of soap. The newcomer hesitated because, apart from practicing medicine, she had never touched another woman. Sharp glances from her companions warned her to comply. Communal bathing was an important part of the concubines’ daily routine and a way they established trust and intimacy with each other. After Silvitya had soaped the backs of the others, Magdala continued:

“You must remember, even though we are favored by His Majesty, our punishments are severe for any transgression. Sister Desislava did nothing more than tell a simple lie in a moment of panic, but she will suffer for it as long as she remains in the castle. His Majesty dictated that, because she proved herself untrustworthy, she is prohibited from ever speaking again. She had to take an oath to never use her voice while in his service. If anyone hears any sound from her throat, she will be tied to the execution stake and receive five arrows to the chest. Let that be a lesson for you. Do you understand me, Sister Silvitya?”

“Yes, Sister.”

“Another thing to remember is we try to take care of each other. We are a household, the ten of us. We call each other ‘Sister’ for a reason. You will never speak poorly of another Sister to His Majesty or to any of the matrons. Never think you have anything to gain by betraying one of us, because the Grand Duke understands that if you can betray one of us, you can just as easily betray him. The matrons will test your loyalty. And when one of us falls, the rest of us gather around her. An example is Sister Desislava. Because she is prohibited from using her voice, I have decided that at no time, and for no reason, is she ever to be left alone. One of us will always accompany her and speak on her behalf.”

After finishing their bath, Magdala, Desislava, and Silvitya put on their velvet slippers and stood on a balcony that overlooked the interior of the castle. For a few minutes they watched the daily routine of the Royal staff working in the courtyard below. They were interrupted by one of the concubines Silvitya had seen the previous night:

“Sister Magdala! The service bell just rang five times!”

“Thank you, Sister. Stay here with Sister Desislava. I’ll fetch the others. Sister Silvitya, you’re coming with me. Better for you to learn your duties sooner than later.”

The two concubines went back inside and entered a parlor, where six naked young women wearing velvet slippers were waiting. From the group, Magdala selected three companions and dismissed the rest. As the five women shuffled towards the Royal chamber, the favored girl explained that the Grand Duke had rung the bell five times because he wanted five concubines. The group ran up to a castle matron dressed in a white gown and carrying a leather switch. With a smug expression she used the switch to point towards the throne room.

The throne room had remained unchanged since 1531, the year King Vladik the Defender was killed, which meant that every item in there was at least 220 years old. The single exception was a large tapestry mounted behind the throne, portraying a crow sitting inside a cage with a white dove sitting on top. The gaudy colors of the new tapestry looked out of place among the drab medieval decor of the rest of the chamber. The Grand Duke was seated on the throne. The only other people present were four Royal Guards. Silvitya recognized one of the men as Protector Alexandrekt Bulashckt, the guard who had brought her to the castle the previous day.

Ignoring the guards, the five concubines immediately positioned themselves in front of their master. The current favorite knelt upright in front, while the others knelt in a row, assuming the more submissive posture with their hands extended out front, their foreheads touching the floor, and their knees spread with their backs arched to expose themselves as much as possible. The Grand Duke gave his guards time to look over the young women before dismissing them. Because she was the new girl, she knew the guards were most interested in seeing her. As she felt the cool air blowing against her exposed vulva and sphincter, she could feel four sets of eyes carefully studying her crotch. She remembered that she still had seven welts crossing her backside, a detail that added to her embarrassment.

After the guards left, the Grand Duke called Magdala to his throne while the other women waited. She knelt next to him and placed her hands on one of his thighs. She smiled and looked up at him while he absent-mindedly ran his fingers through her hair.

“Your Majesty. Your humble serving girl wishes to know if the day has been pleasant for you so far.”

“Yes, my favorite minx. Very much so. I see that you’ve brought the new girl. You’ve instructed her, I trust?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Like all of your humble serving girls, our newest sister is looking forward to making Your Majesty’s life pleasant and fulfilling your wishes.”

“Then you will go to my chamber and wait for me there. To be honest, the morning has been stressful for me.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. To hear is to obey.”

Magdala kissed the Master’s hand and quickly stood up. With a faint whistle she ordered her companions to stand up and follow her to the Grand Duke’s bedroom. She knew him well enough to know what he wanted. She pulled down the covers and ordered Silvitya and another girl to get on their elbows and knees, with their feet hanging over the edge of the mattress. She ordered the other two women to kneel on the floor, facing the bed. She kicked off her slippers and assumed her place on the bed, kneeling between her two companions. As they waited, with their bottoms in the air and their vulvas exposed, Magdala gave Silvitya’s hand a quick squeeze to try to comfort her.

The Grand Duke entered the room and stood facing the three women on the bed. The women on the floor stood up to undress their sovereign. They removed his clothes item by item and massaged his chest and thighs to arouse him. Not that he really needed to be aroused: by the time they took down his inner trousers, the Duke already had a huge erection. He entered Magdala first, pushing into her as roughly as he could. Magdala moaned and gasped as though she was having an orgasm, but Silvitya could tell she was faking it. As soon as he climaxed, the Duke pulled out and ordered his favorite girl to kneel on the floor. He ran his fingers over Silvitya’s welts and fondled her exposed vulva while Magdala licked and sucked him to get another erection. As soon as he was hard, he grabbed Silvitya’s thighs and pushed into her. Magdala massaged and caressed his bottom and thighs as he climaxed inside his newest acquisition. He pulled out of Silvitya, but Magdala did not stop licking him and massaging his thighs. Within a few minutes her efforts were rewarded with another erection. He climaxed into the third concubine while Silvitya watched out of the corner of her eye from her kneeling position.

As soon as he finished, the Grand Duke dismissed all of the concubines except Magdala, who would have to stay behind to help him bathe and dress to meet with his ministers.

———-

After getting cleaned up from their latest round of sex with their Master, the concubines gathered for their main meal of the day. They had their own dining room and normally ate around 3:00 pm, which was the hour the Grand Duke was least likely to want their services. If any of the women was absent, the others waited until she showed up.

The table was set with fine imported china and a bewildering array of silverware. Silvitya looked dumbly at all the fancy objects in front of her. Unfortunately, her learning so far had not included anything about table etiquette. The meal started badly when she slouched in her seat as the others sat upright. Then she picked up her bowl of soup with both hands and drank from it. Instead of cutting her dinner roll, she tore it open and poured the remains of her soup into the hole, then bit off half. When soup dribbled down her chest, the other concubines had stopped eating and stared at the newcomer. Magdala stood up.

“Sister Silvitya, you need to leave this table. Get out of this room, now. Go to the kitchen and eat in there.”

Silvitya looked up, her mouth still filled with an oversized chunk of bread. She noticed the hostile and bewildered stares of her companions.

“I mean it. Leave this table immediately. I don’t know where you think you are, but I can tell you, we are not an encampment of ditch-diggers.”

Silvitya sadly stood up. Magdala pointed at the door.

“You can return when you learn to eat without dishonoring yourself. Ask the kitchen staff to enlighten you.”

Silvitya ate alone in the kitchen, with the serving staff instructing her about the proper use of forks and knives. She had to learn how to sit properly, how organize and use silverware, and even how to properly chew her food. She was very clumsy with the utensils at the beginning, finding them difficult to hold onto and manipulate. She became horribly frustrated, but she knew that she had to persevere if she was to be accepted by her peers. She also realized the strange skill of eating etiquette was an important part of upper-class living. If she could master the use of dining utensils, that knowledge would set her apart from her upbringing as a peasant.

———-

After spending her second afternoon in the kitchen struggling in frustration with those horrid utensils, Silvitya returned to her sleeping chamber to pick up her salt and toothbrush. A very unpleasant surprise was waiting for her: an envelope sitting on her nightstand. She wondered who on Earth would write her in the castle, or who would even know where she was. Her hands shook when she noticed the wax seal was imprinted with a university seal. She opened the letter. Sure enough, it was in Dean Fitoreckt’s handwriting. She read:

When you departed on your journey to the capitol, I had one of my assistants follow, in case there was any hope of extracting you from whatever dilemma you were destined to get yourself into. That was hubris on my part, because I now understand that it was not my Path in Life to rescue you. The Ancients placed you in the one location where I cannot come to your assistance without placing the university at risk.

Your Mistress and I both advised you that hubris, thwarting the will of the Ancients, and the pursuit of vulgar worldly desires would lead you to grief. You can never claim we didn’t try to warn you. Now your Path in Life has changed and you will suffer the consequences of your decisions.

We will move forward with our Paths in Life, both you and I, but from this point our Paths must diverge. You understand that you are dis-enrolled from your studies and no longer have a home to return to in Sebernekt Ris. 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?

Although I will never see you again, I wish you the best. I expect and hope that your new Path in Life will permit you to draw upon the knowledge you acquired with us to serve the people of Danubia.

P.S. If you check under your bed, you will see that I sent jars of birth-control paste and some of the tea-mixture your Mistress bequeathed to you. I provided these items out of respect for the memory I have of her, not because I think you deserve them.

The letter was a hard blow to Silvitya’s hopes but, in a way, receiving it was a relief. She was indeed starting over. There was nothing to connect her to the past two years of her life with the Cult of the Ancients and the university. Her world now consisted of pleasing the Grand Duke and getting along with her “sisters”.

———-

Silvitya’s first test of loyalty took place when she stepped out of her room to use the privy. Upon exiting the concubines’ sleeping chambers, Danka was confronted by two angry-looking castle matrons carrying switches.

“What did Magdala tell you about Desislava?”

“Sister Desislava, Mistress?”

“Yes. His Majesty demands to know what Magdala said about her.”

“I, I mean, you need to talk to Sister Magdala, Mistress.”

“Right now I’m not talking to her. I’m talking to you. In the name of His Majesty, you will answer.”

“Mistress, I don’t speak on behalf of the sisters. I can’t tell you anything about Sister Desislava. You need to talk to Sister Magdala. She is our spokeswoman, not me.”

“I’m just asking you if Magdala said anything about her. Judging by your answer, she did. Now, in the name of His Majesty, you will tell us what she said.”

Silvitya’s heart pounded. However, she realized what was happening. The castle matrons had assumed, because her accent was lower-class, that she was an uneducated simpleton and thus easily intimidated. Her vocabulary should have given them a clue their initial impression was erroneous, but they were paying so much attention to her accent that they had ignored her educated words and correct grammar.

“Mistress, you really must first speak to Sister Magdala. I can’t say anything to you. I can’t speak on behalf of anyone except myself.”

“Then you’re coming with us. We’ll show you what happens to ‘sisters’ who are disobedient.”

“Did you talk to Sister Magdala, Mistress? My understanding is that all of His Majesty’s orders are relayed through her, our spokeswoman. I’ll come with you, but not until Sister Magdala has passed that command. Please, Mistress, she’s right here, in her chamber.”

The matrons made no move towards Magdala’s chamber. Silvitya’s suspicions that she was being tested were confirmed. She noted the matrons no longer seemed so confident.

“Very well, you’re failure to obey a command will be passed to His Majesty. He will deal with you appropriately.”

With that, the matrons turned away. Silvitya immediately ran to Magdala’s sleeping chamber and woke her up. When she described the confrontation, the other woman replied:

“They won’t tell His Majesty anything. You did what you were supposed to do, and as you saw for yourself, they did not relay the order to me. There was nothing from His Majesty to relay. I guess they underestimated you. They’re normally not so direct.”

“They try this with everyone?”

“Yes, but they’re usually more subtle about it. It must have been your accent, making them think it would be easy to turn you into an informant against the rest of us.”

Silvitya thought about her accent. She had wanted to get rid of it the previous year, precisely because it gave such a bad impression among the educated when she first opened her mouth. However, in a place like the Grand Duke’s castle, having the combination of education and a peasant’s accent could be a huge asset. The Royal staff and advisors would tend to underestimate her, which would be extremely useful when she needed to gather information.

———-

With his women the Grand Duke was cruel, dominating, and egotistical, but he never assumed he had nothing to learn from them. He was curious about their backgrounds and their lives prior to being taken into the castle. Each of the women under his control had a unique life story and could provide him with perspective about the Duchy’s society that he could not obtain through his advisors. As a group they were an important asset, not just for providing pleasure, but as a way to keep his view of his subjects grounded in reality. The concubines provided him with a good sampling of the population from the western half of the Duchy, a way he could obtain unfiltered information about the lives and attitudes of ordinary citizens.

When the girls entered his service, most were terrified and eager to please him, which was the way it should be. However, after the concubines became accustomed to their circumstances and understood how they needed to behave, the sovereign encouraged them to converse with him and talk about themselves. His ministers would have wondered why he was interested in listening to trivia about the girls’ families and daily routines. While it was true that the majority of the women had little of importance to tell him as individuals, the over-all picture of the Duchy’s society they provided was extremely valuable for setting realistic policies that actually addressed the needs of the public.

Unlike the castle matrons and most of his advisors, the Grand Duke never underestimated Silvitya. From the beginning he noticed the contrast between her accent and her vocabulary. He correctly assumed that his newest acquisition was born into poverty but had somehow managed to receive some education. He could tell right away she was intelligent and curious. Judging by the way she had been behaving in the plaza when he first noticed her, it seemed that she was unfamiliar with the protocol of the capitol, which meant she came from some other place and was visiting. He also had noticed the smallpox vaccination scar on the girl’s shoulder. He could tell the scar was relatively recent: she had been vaccinated as an adult within the last couple of years.

At the end of her first week in the castle, the Danubian sovereign ordered Silvitya to go to his bed-chamber alone. Magdala explained:

“He does this with all of us. He likes to hear about our lives. He’ll ask you things, and will expect you to answer honestly. Please don’t try lying to him, about anything. You’ve seen what happens to a Sister who was caught telling a lie, so don’t do it, even if you think if you’re telling him something that sounds bad. And, he’ll give you some really nice treats if you talk to him enough and tell him something interesting.”

Silvitya nervously accompanied a matron to the Royal bed-chamber. As usual, the older woman was carrying a leather switch, which she used to direct the concubine with taps to her hips and shoulders. Silvitya bitterly reflected that she was being trained and directed in the same manner as a horse, responding to taps of the switch instead of verbal commands.

She was surprised to see the Grand Duke completely naked when she entered his chamber. Normally he liked to be ritually undressed before indulging himself with his women. However, Silvitya had come up alone and he did not want to bother with having her undress him. He grabbed her, pushed her onto his bed and, with no foreplay whatsoever, vigorously thrust into her body. When he finished, he ordered the girl onto her knees and deliberately humiliated her in two ways. She had to lick his penis while it was still sticky from the first round of sex, which was disgusting for the concubine and meant to be. While she was working on trying to achieve a second erection, the sovereign ran his fingers through her hair. She cringed as she felt her scalp being violated by her master’s rough explorations. When the Grand Duke became hard again, he ordered her to get on her elbows and knees. He entered her from behind and thrust in his usual obsessive manner. However, Silvitya was hugely relieved that he had not entered her sphincter.

The routine changed when he was finished. Instead of ordering her out of the room, the Grand Duke told his servant to follow him into an adjoining chamber containing a sunken stone bath large enough to comfortably fit three people. As he settled into the water, he directed her attention to a washbasin with salt and a fresh toothbrush. After she cleaned her mouth she was to join him in the bath.

She knew that she had to push aside her anger and bitterness over having her body violated in so many ways. Like it or not, the country’s ruler was now her owner. Throughout her life she had been indoctrinated that the Grand Duke was the supreme worldly authority in the Duchy. Nothing in her background or her studies indicated that an average citizen, and much less a woman, had the right to object to a ruler’s orders. Like every other Danubian, she owed him absolute and unquestioning obedience.

The bath relaxed her slightly, even though she was sitting with a man she feared and hated. He touched her shoulder and ran his finger around the vaccination scar.

“I can see that you bear the Follower’s mark, the one that protects you from the pox.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Your humble serving girl bears the mark.”

“Excellent. I see it is recent. Where were you when the Followers marked you?”

Silvitya was terrified, but she decided to follow Magdala’s advice and tell the Grand Duke the truth. Already, through nothing more than looking at a scar, he had figured out a lot about her. If she lied about something as basic as her past and he caught her, the consequences would be too terrible to contemplate.

“Your humble servant was in Nagoronkti-Serifkti when she was marked, Your Majesty.”

“Then you must have been there when the Followers visited in the summer of last year. That scar is too new for you to have received from the previous visit three years ago.”

“That is correct, Your Majesty.”

“But your accent, it is not from the Nagoronkti-Serifkti region. You’re not from that area.”

“I… your humble serving girl, is from… ”

“You’re from the river valley. A laborer’s daughter, no doubt, judging by the way you pronounce your words. I find it interesting, a girl from the river valley receiving the Followers’ mark in Nagoronkti-Serifkti. So, you seem to be well-traveled, is that not so?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Your humble serving girl has traveled.”

The Grand Duke continued his probing comments and questions, gathering information that he needed to work out the details of Silvitya’s life. She was impressed and worried by her master’s talent of figuring things out about a person’s life through nothing more than casual comments. His memory was excellent and he was quick to catch any contradictions in what a person was telling him. Within a very short time, and without asking her directly, the Grand Duke had reconstructed her travels: starting in Rika Heckt-nemat (through her accent), Starivktaki Moskt (through vocabulary unique to the Old Believers of the Danubian Church and a couple of references to the seminary), Severckt nad Goradki (through some comments about the northern mountain region), and Sebernekt Ris (through her correct grammar and the fact she had attended the university). She later found out he did the same with all of his concubines, practicing his skill deducing details of a person’s life through clues instead of through relying on deliberately spoken words.

The Grand Duke was extremely pleased with the newest addition to his collection of girls. This one had seen many places and had experienced life from the perspective of several social groups. It was very likely he’d learn some interesting facts from her and obtain a unique view of his realm. The majority of his concubines were daughters of guild members. In a few cases, like Silvitya, they had been randomly chosen off the street, but most of them had been handed over as bribes by professional tradesmen who had run afoul of the Duchy’s laws, were hopelessly in debt, or had in some way offended the Grand Duke and needed to placate him. So, the girls’ backgrounds were similar: the daughters of middle-class tradesmen who had led irresponsible lives and needed to extricate themselves from legal trouble. Few of the concubines had an expansive view of the world. They had grown up in a single location and had known the same people throughout their lives. Their levels of education varied, but none had university-level training. Silvitya (if that was really her name) was different, more interesting, and potentially much more useful.

———-

During the first weeks of her internment in the Duke’s castle, Silvitya discovered that life as a concubine consisted of much more than having sex, bathing, and sleeping. The Grand Duke wanted his women to have good etiquette and to have a basic understanding of the skills expected of any upper-class woman. When she was not with the Duke or in the bathhouse, she was with one of the Royal tutors. Over the next few months she would improve her penmanship, learn how to knit and embroider, and learn how to prepare and present upper-class meals.

Ten days went by before the kitchen staff felt that Silvitya was ready to rejoin the other concubines in the dining hall. She was extremely nervous as she sat down and the others carefully watched her eat. The women were still critical of her table etiquette, but they decided that the newcomer’s manners had improved just enough that they would let her stay with them. That moment marked an important accomplishment, not just because Silvitya could eat like a woman from the upper class, but also because being accepted at the dinner table meant that she was officially accepted as part of the concubine group.

———-

The concubines led a strange life together, as they spent their days waiting for the bell to ring. They had to pass their time engaged in activities they could break away from at a moment’s notice. They played chess and cards, practiced music and embroidery, gossiped about events and people in the castle, and groomed each other in the bath. They chatted about their families, their respective towns, food, pregnancy, and compared notes on their experiences with babies and small children. They were artificially polite to each other, determined to avoid anything that hinted at conflict or discord. They knew the matrons were watching and would be quick to exploit any disputes among the group. The obsession with politeness meant the concubines did everything they could to conform to the small culture they had created. The obsession with etiquette and conformity explained their hostility towards breaches of group protocol such as Silvitya’s table manners.

Silvitya did everything she could to get along with the others. Whether or not she liked them, and regardless of whether she would have wanted to be friends with them in the outside world, for the moment the other concubines were all she had. She had to establish trust with them. Her lowly background, her travels, and her education set her apart, as did her curiosity about the world. Of the group, Silvitya was by far the most traveled and intellectual. If she couldn’t travel, then she wanted to go back to reading, which was an activity most of the other women did not seem to miss. She felt that the constant conversation among the women could have been much more useful to everyone if they could be discussing educational topics and books instead of the inane trivia that filled up their days.

The detail about the other concubines that secretly grated on Silvitya was their lack of interest in anything not directly related to their daily lives. Fortunately, the newcomer had passed through the hometowns of nearly all of her companions, so at least she had an introductory conversation topic to work with. She was curious about the towns, so she questioned the others to fill in information about places that she had visited only in passing.

During her first months of internment, Silvitya gravitated towards Magdala. The spokeswoman seemed a bit smarter than the other “sisters” and was good at analyzing and explaining things. She originally was from a village south of Daguruckt-Tok, an area where Ermin and Kaloyankt had vaccinated the local population the previous year. Magdala had the “mark of the Followers” on her shoulder, which meant that one of Silvitya’s lovers at that time must have vaccinated her.

“The Followers of the Ancients always fascinated me. I remember people talking about a young female medical practitioner working in the town of Daguruckt-Tok itself, and I was hoping to talk to her, see if I could join the Cult and become like her.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“My grandfather. He wouldn’t let me go, and I didn’t find out why until later. I was living in his household and he was dealing with my father’s debts.”

Magdala talked about her family for a while, focusing on her parents’ complete irresponsibility handling their affairs. She concluded with: “So the Royal Guards came to my grandfather’s house, looking for my father. The money-lenders wanted to take control of the house, but my grandfather offered me instead of the house. I was shocked, because I couldn’t imagine my grandfather dishonoring me by offering me as collateral to save his home. But he did. And the Guards took me to the moneylenders and asked them what they wanted to do with me. I was convinced they wanted to use me for their own pleasure. However, when they decided that my appearance was very pleasing to a man’s eye, they offered to sell me to the Grand Duke. The Guards agreed. The Guards paid off my father’s debts, brought me to the Royal Castle, and were in turn paid off by the matrons. So, that’s my story. The Grand Duke bought me from my father’s money-lenders.”

“Are most of the sisters’ stories similar to yours?”

“Each of us has her own story, how she came to the castle. Some of us were purchased with silver, and some of us were captured. You were captured, I was purchased.”

———-

About a month after she entered the castle, Silvitya noticed that Desislava’s stomach was starting to swell. There wasn’t any doubt why: the woman was pregnant. This is going to be interesting, thought Silvitya, to see how they handle pregnancies. As soon as the Grand Duke realized the concubine was pregnant, he stopped having sex with her. A few days later the castle’s hair-dresser visited the concubines’ quarters and braided her hair. Then Desislava left. Silvitya asked Magdala what would happen to her.

“She carries the His Majesty’s seed. She will stay in the castle until she has the child. Then she’ll return to her home.”

“The Grand Duke will just kick her out? With a baby?”

“No, not just kick her out. His Majesty will build her a house and send her a silver piece each month. The man delivering the coin is a doctor, and he will check the child each time he visits. She will have to make her own life, but will do so on the Grand Duke’s coin.”

“And this happens to everyone who gets pregnant?”

“Yes, it is our Path in Life. We stay and please His Majesty until he plants his seed. Then we go home, but we continue to serve him by raising his child.”

“But, even with the Duke’s coin, that seems awful, to just sit in a house, alone… ”

“Alone? Sister, how naive are you? A woman favored by His Majesty and living on his coin? Many men greatly desire such a wife. She’ll have her choice of men. She’ll be the wife of an Army officer or a city official within a year of her return.”

———-

A few minutes later Silvitya stood on a balcony, studying the Moon and thinking over what her companion had told her. She realized that she was much closer to achieving her teenaged dream than she had ever been before. If the Grand Duke made her pregnant, and then sent her back to her home in Rika Heckt-nemat, she’d have that nice house and nice husband she always wanted. She could return to Rika Heckt-nemat in triumph and seek revenge on that city guard who had been so cruel to her. She’d be much better off than her sister ever could be, and she’d taunt her parents for having treated her so badly. The dream, the one that had ended so badly with a bucket of stolen apples and a horrid day on the pillory, was within reach.

The strange thing about a dream or a goal is that a person can spend a lifetime pursuing it, but the moment it is within reach, one realizes that dream is no longer desired. That was what Silvitya realized, as she stood staring at the moon and thinking about her old life in Rika Heckt-nemat and a possible new life there. She no longer wanted to live in her old hometown and spend her time taunting her mother. She really had no desire to go back at all. She had moved beyond that. She didn’t know what she wanted, but now she knew that she would not find it in Rika Heckt-nemat, even if she could spend the rest of her life “living on the Grand Duke’s coin”.

She looked under her bed and checked her supply of birth-control paste. She very grateful for Dean Fitoreckt’s parting gift and would use it to prevent the Grand Duke from “planting his seed” for as long as she could. The paste would give her some time to figure out how to avoid leaving the castle burdened with the responsibility of bearing and caring for a Royal child.

———-

For the first time during her internment, Silvitya performed another duty she had as a concubine the day after Desislava left the group. She had to spend several afternoons in a parlor posing for two portraits. The pair of paintings were the first out of many the Grand Duke commissioned of her: in modern times there are 26 confirmed paintings portraying Silvitya alone and another 8 of her posing with a companion, housed in various museums and art collections around the country. All of the images are nude figure studies.

The Grand Duke was a generous patron of painting, but his taste in themes was limited to pictures of his women. He had two painters who worked full-time in the castle, doing nothing but painting pictures of concubines. Besides employing the two full-time painters, the ruler also provided temporary work for any reasonably-talented artist passing through the capitol. Traveling painters could count on earning some silver in Danubikt Moskt if they paid a visit to the castle and the Grand Duke liked samples of their work.

The paintings were extremely explicit for their time. Rulers throughout Europe sometimes commissioned nude portraits of their mistresses or models, but in most cases the pictures did not portray the woman’s private area in detail. The Grand Duke of Danubia would have none of that. He insisted that his concubines’ pubic hair be included in any picture portraying them from the front, and if their genitalia were visible in their pose, that had to be detailed in the picture as well. The images created in the Grand Duke’s castle were as explicit as any high-resolution photograph taken in the late 20th Century.

The paintings from the Royal Residence were popular among visiting dignitaries, and the sovereign had an ample supply to pass out as gifts. There are over 500 surviving concubine portraits scattered around Danubia and neighboring countries, of which we have information on only half of the models. Fortunately, art historians have identified the images of Silvitya, so we have a very good idea of what she looked like in the mid-1700s. It is interesting to note that the Grand Duke never gave away any of the portraits he had commissioned of Sister Silvitya.

———-

As August passed and the summer days grew shorter, Silvitya spent more time with the Grand Duke than any of her fellow “sisters”. He continued to treat her roughly in bed, but afterwards he comforted her in his bath and calmed her nerves with wine. Her life story fascinated him. He started by questioning her about university life in Sebernekt Ris. It was obvious he already knew a lot about the university and, in fact, had met Dean Fitoreckt. Several castle doctors and scribes had been trained at the university, but the Duke was interested in hearing Silvitya’s perspective as a student. She dreaded the thought of the ruler checking university records and discovering there was no student at the university using her current name. Through her conversations she found out that Dean Fitoreckt had died only two weeks after she left for the capitol; a fact that saddened, but did not surprise her.

The ruler questioned the concubine at length about her studies, probing to see how much she knew about medicine, history, and the Duchy in general. He was impressed with her knowledge. He pondered how to use the girl’s brain to his advantage. He decided to start by giving her a complicated task that could potentially be useful. He ordered her to go into the Royal Library, write summaries of the books she considered the most important, the most interesting, or the most useful, and provide recommendations for new acquisitions. The ruler admitted that he did not have much time for leisure reading, so when he did have a chance to read, he wanted to make sure he was spending his time with the best his collection had to offer. So, not only would Silvitya have access to the Royal Library; she would be tasked with knowing and describing its contents.

The Grand Duke escorted Silvitya to the library, to make sure the matrons and librarians knew that she was supposed to be there and was acting in his orders. The library contained many books on military equipment and strategy, religious works, maps, Danubian history, poetry, and translations of foreign novels, but was sorely lacking works on medicine, chemistry, and hard sciences such as botany. Silvitya was surprised by the collection of architecture studies and blue prints of buildings from foreign cities around Europe. Those were the most recent purchases, a reflection of the fascination the Grand Duke had with architecture.

Silvitya entered the library at day-break and stayed until noon, Monday through Saturday. She started by trying to remember the titles and authors of books she had read during her year in Sebernekt Ris. As various books came to her mind, she compiled the titles into a list of proposed acquisitions. She began her summaries with the history and theology books. She did not feel qualified to assess the value of the military studies and figured that the Grand Duke would be least interested in knowing about the novels and poetry. She buried herself into her work, relieved to have her mind occupied and to spend her mornings not having to listen to the chatter of her “sisters”.

During the afternoons Silvitya did spend her time with the other women: eating, practicing etiquette, embroidering, bathing, and waiting for the bell to ring. During the month of September the pregnancies of two women became evident. The matrons braided their hair, they were provided with maternity dresses, and they left the group. The ruler replaced them with two new concubines, one of whom had been purchased from an indebted guildsman and the other from an independent farmer. A third girl appeared; a foreigner who was totally different in appearance from a typical Danubian. Her hair was completely black and her skin was considerably darker than anyone previously seen in the Grand Duke’s castle.

The foreigner’s name was Antonia. She was a gift from the Grand Duke’s ambassador to Constantinople. Originally she had lived on an island in the Adriatic Sea, but her family had been captured during a pirates’ raid against her village. She had seen some terrible things during her voyage to Constantinople, but her captors had kept her in good physical condition to maintain her value. As he was getting ready to return home, the Danubian ambassador bought her and another Adriatic girl and brought them to the Duchy. He kept the other girl for himself and presented Antonia to the Grand Duke. The Grand Duke had mixed feelings about the newest member of his collection. Her appearance fascinated him, but she knew nothing about protocol and was unable to understand and follow orders. She did not speak a word of Danubian and was mortified at being forced to be naked. Her failure to obey orders and her constant efforts to cover herself already had earned her a severe switching from the matrons. Magdala decided to task Silvitya with teaching the foreigner how to communicate and, whenever she was not in the library, to not let her out of her sight.

Silvitya spent the last half of September and all of October and November working with Antonia. She taught the foreigner to speak in the same way she had been taught how to read by the Church apprentice in Starivktaki Moskt; starting with the names of simple objects and later moving on to actions and commands. She broke Antonia’s habit of trying to cover herself by gently touching her arms and forcing her to move her hands to her sides. Antonia came from a culture in which women never appeared naked in public, so covering her body was a reflexive reaction to her situation, something she did by instinct and without thinking. The culture of the Duchy, and especially in places like the castle where nudity was required, was different. Oddly, Antonia was not bothered in the least by having her hair unbraided and her scalp touched by the Grand Duke. Silvitya still was made very uneasy by the feeling of her loose hair brushing around her bare shoulders, while being naked around the castle staff was not nearly as much of an issue.

Antonia followed Silvitya around the castle whenever her mentor was not attending to her duties in the library. She became psychologically dependent on Silvitya: being in such a strange place, forced to constantly be naked, being subjected to rough sex with an arrogant master, and not being able to properly communicate with anyone. Because they were together constantly, the Silvitya and Antonia washed each other’s hair and bodies, ignoring the unspoken protocol of sharing their baths and grooming with the other concubines. They moved on to giving each other soapy massages in the bath, and then to caressing each other in Silvitya’s bed-chamber. In the middle of October, Antonia quit sleeping in her own bed-chamber and joined Silvitya in hers.

Silvitya and Antonia were not the only concubines to share a bed. During the winter it was common for unmarried Danubians, especially women, to sleep together to be warmer at night, even if they were not romantically involved. Magdala, for example, slept with one of the new girls. So, the other concubines did not question the arrangement Silvitya had made with Antonia. However, as they lay naked together, sleeping in each other’s arms and caressing each other’s bodies, the peasant girl and the foreigner developed a relationship that came very close to being a sexual romance. Neither would have defined what they were doing in those terms, because an overt physical relationship between two people of the same sex was strictly forbidden by both Danubian society and by their respective churches. They never kissed and never touched each other’s vulvas, so they could claim to others and justify to themselves their relationship was nothing more than friendly intimacy and had nothing to do with sex. However, the emotional attachment between Silvitya and Antonia was very strong, going way beyond simple friendship. They were not “in love” as the term would be understood in the 20th and 21st Centuries, but they shared a unique emotional bond that was part friendship, part sisterly love, and part sexual desire.

———-

Silvitya provided the Grand Duke with reports and summaries about the contents of his library throughout the final months of 1753. She had to kneel in the throne room and do formal presentations with scribes and matrons watching. The Grand Duke took her reading lists and recommendations seriously. If she recommended acquiring a new title for the Royal Library, she could count on seeing it added to the collection within about three weeks. The Grand Duke also paid attention to her summaries. He actually read some of the titles she recommended and discussed them with her.

Silvitya’s relationship with her master changed as a result of the conversations he held with her. He continued to want sex with her and to have her with him in his bath, but he called her to his bed-chamber by herself, not with the others. He stopped forcing her to lick his penis and no longer wanted to enter her sphincter. Silvitya was hugely grateful to have her bottom spared from the Grand Duke’s attention: she found anal sex painful and did not enjoy it in the least.

The Grand Duke carefully calculated how much freedom to give Silvitya. He wanted her to understand that she was still his property and he could do with her as he pleased, but he also wanted to take advantage of her intelligence, education, and experiences. He couldn’t do so if she was totally terrified of him: she had to have enough self-confidence around him to express her opinions and talk freely. He considered taking the “favored concubine” position away from Magdala and giving it to Silvitya, but realized that would not serve his needs. Silvitya’s duties required her to be away from her “sisters” during much of the day, and Magdala seemed to be a good leader for the group. The Grand Duke had learned that if a person was performing well in an appointed position, especially a position that entailed relaying orders, making changes usually did more harm than good. So, Silvitya would continue her work in the Royal Library and Magdala would continue speaking on behalf of the concubine group.

———-

The Danubian ruler continued asking Silvitya about her travels and her past. By the end of October he realized that she had been a member of the Cult of the Ancients. That was an extremely useful detail about the girl’s past life, but one he did not plan to question her about directly. Her training as a Follower meant that she would have medical experience and could perform field surgery. It also meant she probably had a good idea what happened to the Followers: why they so suddenly and mysteriously vanished at the end of the summer of the previous year. The Grand Duke was patient with such topics. He would bide his time, wait for Silvitya to make casual comments and then, when he already knew too much for her to deny anything, force her to tell him the full story of what happened to the Cult and its members.

In the meantime, the Grand Duke was interested in other parts of Silvitya’s former life. He was particularly interested in hearing about the Senior Priest of Starivktaki Moskt and his wayward son Bagaturckt. The ruler knew that Bagaturckt had been killed (the incident was a regional scandal) and realized that his concubine knew what actually happened to him. Another interesting detail he’d have to extract from her when the right moment came.

The Grand Duke pressed his servant for details about her life as a day-laborer’s daughter in her hometown of Rika Heckt-nemat. The rivalry between her and her sister and the intrigue within her family interested the Master, as did details about the irrigation project. He was especially curious to know the exact date of the girl’s departure. When she answered that she had left in early June of 1750, he responded:

“Then the Creator was indeed watching over you. You do know that within weeks of your departure, almost everyone in Rika Heckt-nemat held up his mirror in the Afterlife?”

Silvitya’s heart jumped into her throat. “No, Your Majesty. Your humble serving girl did not know that.”

“Yes, indeed. The Destroyer passed through your city with the rat-plague. It was the worst epidemic anyone has ever seen in recent times. It’s possible it was the worst epidemic ever, considering how many people died and how quickly. I have read about the rat-plague throughout history and I never encountered a case as severe as the one in Rika Heckt-nemat. I had to order your city cut-off from the rest of the Duchy to safeguard the neighboring towns. A painful decision that condemned that city, but spared the others.”

“Your humble serving girl wishes to know if anyone survived, Your Majesty.”

“A few people. Some starving survivors came up to the roadblocks the following spring. I ordered them quarantined until we could determine they did not carry the plague, then the guards fed them and let them pass.”

“Your humble serving girl wishes to know how many, Your Majesty.”

“No more than 600, I would estimate. I presume there are a few people still in the town, but I don’t know how many. I’ve maintained the blockade. I don’t want people going in there. You know, your city was cursed by the Destroyer.”

“No, Your Majesty, your humble serving girl did not know that.”

“Yes, indeed. The place is cursed. The story I heard was that some city guards tied up a girl and threw her into the Rika Chorna river to drown. She cried out to to the True Believers’ Beelzebub to save her. ‘Beelzebub’ did save her, but at the cost of her soul and the lives of the town’s other citizens. The whole region was dead within days. You were very lucky to get out before the Destroyer seized the city.”

“My family, my brothers… ”

“Most likely their souls separated from their bodies. There were no day-laborers reported among the survivors, at least none that I am aware of. But, as I said, it doesn’t matter. Rika Heckt-nemat carries a curse, and I will not risk the lives of any more of the Duchy’s citizens trying to determine what happened. The city died, the rest of the Duchy lives, and we must avoid the curse and confront other problems.”

———-

Silvitya tightly held Antonia that night. For a while she didn’t say anything, but she needed to be comforted. Her thoughts wandered to the cold rational mentality of the Grand Duke. For fifteen years Rika Heckt-nemat had been Silvitya’s entire world. She still spoke with an accent from that location. That world now was gone, its people taken away by the rat-plague, or by Beelzebub, or the Destroyer, depending on who one talked to.

To the Grand Duke the city was just one out of many, one minor issue among a myriad of problems facing his realm. The death of an entire city was an unfortunate incident, but not one that loomed large among his worries. The city died: there was nothing he could do about it apart from sealing off whatever problems remained, and the Duchy would move forward. It seemed the Grand Duke was no more disturbed about the deaths of 20,000 people than he would be upon encountering a flock of dead birds along the roadway.

Through the language barrier Silvitya explained to her lover what had happened to her family, that most likely they all were dead. Her thoughts were conflicted and she really didn’t know how to take the news. Yes, she had hated her sister Katrinckta and resented the way her parents had treated her. But she had loved her younger brothers. Also, she had entertained ideas of eventually returning home in triumph and somehow using her new status to set things right. There was nothing to set right, because it was very unlikely anyone from her family was still alive.

She wondered about Farmer Tuko Orsktackt and his large family and happy estate. Did any of them survive? She hoped so, but was not optimistic. She had hoped to return the farmer’s estate in triumph and reconcile with him, a hope similar to the one she had for her family. Perhaps he survived the rat-plague: more likely he didn’t.

Antonia carefully listened to Silvitya and understood most of what she said. She now spoke Danubian well enough to relay her own painful memories; that she had witnessed the killing of her parents, along with most of the other older captives from her village. The raiders did not consider the older people worth transporting. They could have simply been released, but the captors instead chose to kill them and dump their bodies into the Adriatic Sea.

Silvitya realized she was more fortunate than her lover. At least she had not been forced to witness the death of her family. There was that terrifying vision of her sister’s death, but that was not the same as what Antonia must have felt, watching the killings in real life and seeing her parents’ lifeless bodies disappear into the water.

———-

The next day, while eating dinner with her group, Sister Magdala became violently sick. She barely made it out of the dining hall before throwing up. Over the next several days she became sick at random times with spontaneous vomiting spells. For a group of women who spent their days waiting to become pregnant, it was obvious what was happening to their spokeswoman. The moon had paid her a visit. Now, it was Magdala’s turn to carry the Grand Duke’s seed. Within a few weeks her stomach would start to swell, she would depart the concubine group, and would spend the rest of her time in the castle living in the maternity ward.

The news of Magdala’s pending departure greatly depressed Silvitya. Besides being a good leader for the “sisters” and maintaining harmony among them, Magdala was the only woman among the concubines Silvitya felt she could really talk to and share her feelings. She would be sorely missed.

The spokeswoman’s pregnancy reminded Silvitya of the reality of her relationship with Antonia; that if Antonia became pregnant, they would be separated. She now faced a moral dilemma with her lover. She kept her supply of birth-control paste and longevity potion hidden in a box tied to the underside of the bed. She loved Antonia enough to seriously consider giving her both. She did not want her partner to become pregnant and taken away from her, nor did she want to see Antonia age. However, she realized that to let Antonia know anything about her secrets would place both women at huge risk by involving them in a conspiracy. Conspiracy against the Grand Duke or his wishes was a capital offense. Also, there was not a chance Silvitya could escape the castle and take Antonia with her. Under the right circumstances, she could escape on her own, but Antonia’s foreign physical appearance was sure to draw attention. The only Path in Life open to Silvitya’s partner was to wait until she became pregnant, have the Grand Duke’s baby, and hope that she could have an acceptable life upon leaving the castle, “living on His Majesty’s coin”. Silvitya rationalized that perhaps she could reunite with Antonia and they could continue their relationship after both left the castle. Subconsciously she knew that hope was completely unrealistic.

As she lay with Antonia, gently running her hand over her partner’s bottom and thighs, Silvitya sadly reflected that her relationship with Antonia was a lot like her relationship with Kaloyankt. Whatever love she felt for the person currently in her arms didn’t matter. Their time together was doomed to come to an end as soon as “the moon paid Antonia a visit”. Their Paths in Life would not permit them to stay together.

———-

Historian’s Note: It is difficult for a non-Danubian to understand the humiliation the concubines had to endure by allowing their Master to run his fingers through their hair. Braided hair is a tradition that goes back to the very beginnings of the Danubian nation and is a woman’s primary symbol of honor. According to Danubian protocol, the top of a woman’s head is considered her “space” and a forbidden zone for men. Religious traditions, among both the Followers of the Ancients and among Danubia’s Christian denominations, strictly prohibited men from touching women’s hair and prohibited women from allowing men to see their hair unbraided. The Grand Duke, by fondling the women’s scalps and breaking the most fundamental sexual taboo of Danubian culture, was demonstrating absolute dominance over his concubines and stripping of all their dignity.