Back to Chapter 14
Chapter Fifteen � The Grand Duke's Favorite
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 Silv�tya 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: Silv�tya had received training
to be a doctor from the Cult of the Ancients.
At the end of November, the Grand Duke ordered Silv�tya to kneel in
front of him in the throne room and talk in detail about the university
in Seb�rnekt 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 Seb�rnekt
Ris. I presume you must have spent the summer of last year in
Nagor�nkti-Ser�fkti and Dagur�ckt-T�k, 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.�
Silv�tya 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. Silv�tya 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?�
�Y� 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, Silv�tya 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.
Silv�tya 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 Silv�tya humbly
responded: �To hear is to obey, Your Majesty.�
For several weeks the Grand Duke continued questioning Silv�tya, 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 Bab�ckt 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 Bab�ckt Yaga�s
studies and research, which were locked in the dean�s office at the
university in Seb�rnekt 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 Silv�tya 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 F�toreckt dead and no successor taking his place, but
really she had no way of knowing what was going on in Seb�rnekt Ris. All
she could hope was that she would be forgotten and that the Cult of the
Ancients truly was defunct.
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Although he knew part of her real name, the ruler continued calling his
concubine Servant Silv�tya. It turned out he wanted her 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 Silv�tya 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 H�ckt-nem�t, 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 Dan�bikt M�skt, allowing the Grand Duke to claim
credit for introducing the Duchy to coal.
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During her internment in the Royal Residence, Silv�tya 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 Silv�tya,
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, Silv�tya 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 Silv�tya continued
to refer to herself as �your humble serving girl�.
It was obvious, to both Silv�tya 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?��
Silv�tya 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 Silv�tya?�
�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
Dagur�ckt-T�k. You�ve met her.�
�You, Sister? You were a Follower?�
�Yes, I was a Follower.�
Silv�tya 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.� Silv�tya paused, fighting off a
sudden surge of emotion. �� and now I�m here. I�m just� here� �
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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 Dagur�ckt-T�k, where she
would have her own house and live on the Grand Duke�s coin as
compensation for raising his child. Silv�tya 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 Silv�tya, who had to stand at attention
in front of the others.
�Servant Silv�tya, 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.�
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Silv�tya 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. Silv�tya 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 Silv�tya found out why the Grand Duke took away
the position of favored concubine from Desislava. Through some comments
from the other �sisters�, Silv�tya 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 Silv�tya as his favorite
because of her intellect, but was not sure if she would be as good a
leader.
Silv�tya 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 Silv�tya, 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.
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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. Silv�tya and
Antonia stood shivering on the balcony that overlooked the castle
courtyard, watching the matrons yell at and switch the newcomers.
Silv�tya noted the older women seemed to have become rougher and crueler
in their treatment of the new recruits.
Silv�tya 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.
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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, Silv�tya 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 Star�vktaki
M�skt, so Silv�tya 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 Bagat�rckt 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.
Silv�tya thought to herself: well, I guess I won�t be returning to
Star�vktaki M�skt anytime soon�
The priest�s daughter brought news from Sev�rckt nad Gor�dki. The True
Believers in that city were in crisis. A group of elite families, lead
by a young nobleman called K�loyankt, had publicly re-affirmed
allegiance to the Grand Duke. They took their oath from a Priest and
Priestess from the Great Temple in Dan�bikt M�skt, 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
Nagor�nkti-Ser�fkti, several leading citizens of Sev�rckt nad Gor�dki
had defected, and no one had any news from the True Believers� other
stronghold, Rika H�ckt-nem�t.
Silv�tya 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 K�loyankt 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, K�loyankt also was dead. The
K�loyankt she had known and shared a winter with no longer existed. He
was gone, nothing more than a memory.
Silv�tya 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 K�loyankt, 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� Bab�ckt
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 K�loyankt 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�
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The fourth new concubine�s name was Crys�nkta. She was a nervous and
jumpy girl, who looked around whenever she heard shouting or loud
noises. Crys�nkta�s family originally lived in the southernmost province
of the Duchy, to the southeast of the regional capitol H�rkustk Ris and
very close to the Duchy�s southern border.
Crys�nkta brought news from the outside, but it was news of the Duchy�s
future, not of Silv�tya�s past. From her reading, Silv�tya 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. H�rkustk 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 H�rkustk 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 H�rkustk Ris
province to seize villages along the border and drive out ethnic
Danubians. Crys�nkta�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 H�rkustk Ris, but then
Crys�nkta�s uncle decided to take the surviving members of her family to
the capitol.
The Grand Duke took an interest in Crys�nkta 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 H�rkustk
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.
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Silv�tya 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. Silv�tya 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
Silv�tya 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. Silv�tya
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�.
Silv�tya 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.
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