Back to Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-Two � The Scavenger
The forest is an unforgiving mistress. Yes, the Ancients can bless
those who live in the Realm of Nature by treating it with respect, but
such blessings are only available to those who know where to seek them;
and even for the wise, those blessings are usually fleeting. When one is
in the forest, the goal is to eat before sunset and survive to see
another sunrise. Perhaps it is possible to contemplate the future, but
too much thought on the future and too little on the present is vanity.
Danka took her young slave into the mountains with those thoughts in
mind. Strange to think, just a year before she had lived a pampered life
in the Grand Duke's castle, and now she was about to embark on a life as
a wanderer in the Duchy's wild country. She tried to remember all of the
training she had received when she was a Follower. She would need every
bit of that knowledge to make it through the rest of the summer and
prepare for the upcoming winter.
Danka and Isauria spent the first week traveling east, ever deeper into
the southern Danubian forest. The outcast was determined to get far away
from Mal�nkta-Gordn�ckta and anyone who had known her during her sojourn
in that town. For the rest of her life she would harbor deep resentment
against its inhabitants. She hated the men for willingly going out on
slave-capturing raids, but she even more, she loathed the town�s women.
She had spent months teaching them everything she knew about collecting
food in the forest, sharing much of the knowledge passed to her by Bab�ckt Yaga and the other Followers. However, along with distributing
practical knowledge, Danka had made the mistake of trying to pass along
the philosophical wisdom of the Cult of the Ancients. She subconsciously
wanted to influence the beliefs of her neighbors and have them reward
her by accepting her as their de facto spiritual leader. She failed to
understand that attempting to appoint herself as a spiritual guide was
an act of hubris, and the Ancients always punished hubris. Danka�s
self-appointed spiritual mission failed miserably and its only result
was for the former cultist to be accused of being strange and then to be
ignored, ridiculed, and ultimately ostracized. She felt betrayed by her
female neighbors and resented the fact they had not accepted her as part
of their community. So, she wanted nothing to do with the women of
Mal�nkta-Gordn�ckta and never wanted to see them again.
As soon as she was far enough from the town that it would be unlikely
she�d run into any of its inhabitants, Danka had an important decision
to make: which direction to continue her journey. The countryside
immediately to the east and southeast was covered with thickly-forested
low-lying hills, which contrasted with higher mountains that lay to the
north. The mountains were part of a crescent-shaped chain that separated
the southwest portion of the Duchy from the southeast part and at that
time the highland region was completely unsettled. Beyond the northern
mountains lay the Black Swamp of Misery, which was in reality a large
marshland that fed into the Rika Chorna River. Either the mountains or
the swamp would have been good places to hide, had Danka been a
fugitive. However, she considered herself a traveler, not a fugitive,
and had no desire to spend her remaining time in the Realm of the Living
in a squalid cabin with an illiterate serving-girl in a lonely, isolated
settlement. The only hope for either the woman or the girl to have a
fulfilling Path in Life was to keep moving and see where the Ancients
led them.
Danka decided to journey directly eastward and stay within a day�s walk
of the Duchy�s southern border during the entire trip. At that time she
had a vague idea of going to the Vice-Duchy of Rika Chorna and seeing if
she could settle there. Danka did not know what to expect from the
inhabitants of the Vice-Duchy, but it was away from western Danubia,
which was what she wanted at the time. So, she and Isauria would
continue working their way east, spend the summer in the forest, and
eventually emerge into the Eastern Valley.
As was customary for Followers of the Ancients, whenever they were in
the Realm of Nature and temperatures permitted, Danka and Isauria walked
completely naked, wearing nothing but their boots. Isauria was not
bothered by Danka�s order that she carry her clothing in her traveling
pack instead of on her body. She already was used to being nude: as a
collared slave she had been denied the right to wear clothing at any
time. So, the naked girl plodded behind her naked mistress, with the
heavy supply pack cutting into her bare shoulders and Danka�s uncovered
bottom and thighs always in front of her.
Danka was not a sympathetic or patient teacher, because the Realm of
Nature is not sympathetic or patient. Also, the former peasant had
experienced very little sympathy in her life, so she did not know how to
display it to anyone working under her. Danka was not kind to Isauria as
we would understand kindness in modern times. She expected Isauria to
carefully listen to everything she said and to follow her instructions
exactly. On the few occasions when Isauria did not meet her
expectations, she was harsh with her voice and as quick to use the
switch as any other impatient slave-owner.
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Isauria received her first switching from Danka only five days after
they ventured into the mountains. She had been tasked to collect some
roots and mushrooms and to start a fire to boil water while Danka
climbed several trees to get at some birds' nests. She nearly fell to
her death while trying to grab a large, almost fully-grown cuckoo chick, so she was not in a good
mood. Meanwhile, Isauria, who was extremely hungry, had ignored Danka's
warning to only start the water boiling and not to put in the mushrooms
until the mistress had a chance to check them.
Sure enough, Isauria had included some poisonous mushrooms in the soup
and the entire batch had to be discarded. Danka was furious at her
ward's disobedience. She slapped the girl hard across the face and
snapped:
"You can say you're sorry all you want, but the forest doesn't accept
apologies. I don't accept apologies either. There's no point in telling
me you regret something, because I don't care about your emotions. When
you commit a stupid act, I will punish you, just like the Realm of
Nature will punish both of us. How you feel about that doesn't matter."
Danka handed the frightened girl her dagger.
"Now, go to that thicket of willows and cut me several switches and peel
them. They need to be about half a fathom long. Make sure they are
sturdy and thick enough to hurt when I hit you."
Isauria was crying, but she dutifully spent the next several minutes
cutting and preparing five switches according to her mistress's
instructions. When she returned, Danka ordered her to place her hands on
a fallen log, and not to move until given permission. Danka said nothing
more, but she took the switches and swished each through the air to test
it. The trembling girl flinched at the sound of each swoosh, but she
kept her hands on the log.
Danka struck her servant with a cruel blow across the middle of her
bottom. The girl flinched and suppressed a painful squeal, but she did
not cry out. The woman studied the welt forming on the girl's backside
to make sure the blow had marked but did not break her skin, and struck
again.
Isauria shook and cried during her punishment, but she tried to be brave
and did not take her hands off the log. Danka was pleased by the girl's
stoic behavior, but she did not openly express approval nor consider
showing pity. She felt that she could be no different than the forest.
If the girl made a mistake, she'd have to suffer for it.
The girl's bottom and thighs were completely covered with welts before
Danka tossed the switches into the fire. She ordered her whimpering
servant to stand up and accompany her to search for mushrooms to replace
the ones that had to be discarded. Isauria was still crying, but Danka
admonished her that they still had to eat that day and the eggs and
chicks she had gathered would not be enough if they did not have
vegetables to accompany them. Therefore, they had to search the woods
for a replacement meal before sunset. Being forced to move about among
the trees with her backside covered in painful welts would be the final
part of Isauria's punishment.
Isauria's first switching would have been considered unduly severe by
modern standards, but it was typical for the time. Danka had endured
plenty of similar switchings while growing up, so she did not see
anything wrong with treating Isauria the same way her parents had
treated her. If anything, she felt that she was being somewhat lenient.
It was because of Isauria's failure to obey instructions that both she
and Danka had nearly been poisoned and that a morning's worth of food
gathering had gone to waste. Had she not had the foresight to check the
soup, they actually would have been in grave danger, without the
strength to gather food or move about, and would have been at the mercy
of unforgiving elements for several days.
They didn't get back to the campsite until sunset. Danka restarted the
soup while Isauria cleaned and gutted the chicks. There was no further
mention of the girl�s punishment, because as far as Danka was concerned
the incident was over. Isauria remained fearful of doing anything to
further offend her owner, but she had learned the lesson Danka wanted to
teach her. She never again did anything without being absolutely certain
she understood exactly what was expected of her.
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Isauria's Path in Life would be to remain Danka's servant and companion
throughout 1756. She continued to wear her slave collar, partly because
Danka did not have the tools necessary to remove it, and partly because
Danka knew it would be best for the girl to consider herself a slave
until her mistress felt she was ready to face the harsh world on her
own.
The quiet girl clearly was not ready to fend for herself when Danka
purchased her. Yes, she had endured several traumatic events during her
short life, but trauma does not necessarily prepare a person to face the
world. Isauria's only practical knowledge consisted of looking after
sheep (from the days before she was taken captive) and housework (from
her year living in Alex�ndrekt Bul�shckt�s household). As for fending
for herself in the forest, she was still a child, as naive as any
guild-master's daughter.
So, it was Danka's Path in Life to teach her ward how to survive in the
Realm of Nature. She trained the girl how to find anything that was
edible, how to hide among the trees and find shelter, how to anticipate
changes in the weather, how to identify animal tracks, and how to pack
supplies and move about undetected. Within days Isauria knew how to
forage for roots, mushrooms, and fruit. She knew how to set campfires
and prepare a campsite, while Danka was hunting or looking for promising
trails. Her daily routine was grueling, but she became invaluable to her
mistress.
During her first months in the woods Danka would teach Isauria how to
set traps, tie knots, and make snares. She showed her the basics of
fishing, which the girl picked up with ease. Isauria was fascinated with
everything having to do with fish and became much more adept at catching
fish than her mistress. Other skills learned by Isauria over the summer
included searching for springs, collecting rainwater, making and reading
maps, compass-reading, land navigation, using the stars to navigate at
night, and moving about in total silence. The girl learned quickly and
became competent at living outside. By the end of the summer Danka knew
that if anything happened to her, Isauria would be able to survive on
her own, at least for a while, and continue traveling.
In spite of her willingness to use the switch, by the standards of slave
owners in eighteenth-century Danubia, Danka was a good mistress and most
foreign captives would have been happy to exchange places with Isauria.
She never struck from anger or frustration, nor was she spiteful or
condescending. She never did anything to humiliate her ward, which was a
huge improvement in the girl's life over the treatment she had received
from Alex�ndrekt Bul�shckt and his nephew. Instead, Danka�s treatment
directly reflected on how well the girl performed her duties. As long as
Isauria followed instructions, she had nothing to fear. If she didn�t
understand something, her owner encouraged her to request clarification.
It was important that Isauria understood her responsibilities and why
she needed to perform each duty in a certain way, so the only stupid
questions were the ones she neglected to ask.
The social distance that normally would distinguish an owner from a
slave was absent in Danka�s relationship with Isauria. Danka used the
lower-class form of �you� when addressing the servant and told Isauria
to use the same form when responding. Danka�s speech reverted to her
peasant background, with Isauria expected to address her mistress in the
same way a guild apprentice would address a mentor. Whatever food was
available she shared in equal portions. She cared for the girl�s medical
needs and allowed her to rest when she was sick. As for the travelers�
sleeping arrangements, Danka had with her a single sleeping roll, which
she shared with her servant. Peasants were used to sharing beds, so
Danka shared the sleeping roll with her ward in the same way she had
shared her bed with her sister while growing up.
There were other ways Danka let Isauria know that she did not consider
her mere property. She began to teach the servant to write during the
rare occasions they weren�t occupied with wandering, hunting,
scavenging, or gathering food. Isauria recognized the importance of
writing, so on her own she practiced tracing letters in the dust
whenever she had to opportunity, to the great satisfaction of her
mentor. When Danka prayed to the Ancients, she insisted the girl
accompany her. Over the summer Isauria learned about Danka�s religious
beliefs, to include singing some of the ancient hymns and speaking a few
words in archaic Danubian.
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Danka had never been as experienced at hunting or tracking animals as
she was gathering edible plants. She had some basic information about
forest animals from her year in Bab�ckt Yaga�s settlement, but even
among the Followers hunting was a task mostly carried out by the men.
Out of necessity, her hunting skills greatly improved over the summer of
1756. She snared her first rabbit the day after she punished Isauria. A
week later she killed her first deer, a partially grown fawn. Over the
month of June there were a few more rabbits and another deer. The dead
animals were both a blessing and a hindrance. The hunts meant a better
diet and a supply of animal skins, but also considerably slowed down the
journey. Every time she killed an animal, she and her servant had to
spend time at camp preparing smoked meat, preparing tanning solution
with the animals' own brains, and scraping, stretching, and tanning the
hides.
Along with basic survival skills and reading, Danka felt that her
servant needed to know the basics of combat. She was concerned about
being a woman alone in the forest and wanted the assurance that if she
were attacked, Isauria could come to her assistance. Using the second
dead deer�s carcass for practice, she taught Isauria several maneuvers
with her dagger, making sure Isauria knew how to stab deeply and cut
muscles and arteries, in spite of her small size and relative lack of
strength. Using sticks, she taught her servant the basics of fencing and
sword fighting. The sword-fighting was the hardest skill Danka passed
along to her servant, because every time she did anything having to do
with sword fighting, she had to struggle against the flash-backs of her
final moments in Bab�ckt Yaga�s settlement.
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Danka owned two weapons: her crossbow and
the dagger given to her by Farmer Tuko Orsktackt. The crossbow would be
useless if she ever ran out of bolts. By July running out of ammunition
was becoming a real concern, in spite of her efforts to conserve and
retrieve used bolts as much as possible. She just had to find more bolts
and obtain a weapon for her servant and another for herself. The only
items she had that she was willing to part with were a few animal skins,
which would hardly suffice for what she needed to purchase. She realized
that to obtain the weapons she wanted, she�d either have to steal them,
or steal something else of value so she could purchase them. With that
thought in mind she decided to make her way back to the settlements of
eastern H�rkustk Ris province, but would try to avoid getting close to
Mal�nkta-Gordn�ckta. If she had to dishonor herself by stealing, at
least she wanted to make sure she didn�t do so around people she knew.
It turned out she did not have to venture out into the cleared area of
the province to obtain the new weapons. As the woman and the girl
silently moved through the forest, they came to a clearing where they
heard the pitiful crying of the voice of a teenaged boy. As they
approached the crying sound, it abruptly stopped. Danka crept along some
rocks and saw what had happened, a man was standing over the corpse of a
boy that he apparently had just killed. The dead boy was wearing nothing
but a pair of trousers and had his hands tied behind his back. The man
was too distracted cleaning the boy�s blood off a sword to notice that
he was not alone.
Danka decided she wanted the sword. The man was a murderer, so he
probably would not be missed. Anyhow, she would avenge the dead boy. She
armed her crossbow and crept closer to her target. She slipped behind a
bush next to the clearing, stood up, and aimed. The man turned around
just as the assailant released her bolt. He had enough time to see a
young woman, naked from the waist up, pointing a crossbow at him. He
screamed as the bolt pierced his chest. He was mortally wounded, but the
shot did not kill him immediately. The scream turned into an agonized
gurgle as he flailed on the ground and desperately grabbed at the bolt
to remove it. Danka re-armed her crossbow and stood over her victim, her
eyes full of sadistic triumph. She didn�t know why the man had killed
the boy, nor did she care. The only thought on her mind was the weird
joy of watching a person much stronger than herself helpless,
struggling, and dying on the ground. Eventually the man coughed up blood
and started shaking. His eyes rolled up as his movements slowed and
stopped.
Danka looked around to make sure no one else was nearby. She noticed
Isauria�s terrified face staring at her through the leaves. She
retrieved the sword and held it up.
�Servant Isauria. Come here.�
The terrified, trembling girl approached her.
�Here�s the weapon I promised you. Go to the stream, rinse it off, and
make sure it�s completely dry.�
�Y�yes�.Mistress Danka.�
While Isauria was occupied at the stream, Danka searched the clearing
and the corpses for anything useful. Her victim�s shirt was ruined,
which was too bad, thought Danka, because it looked expensive. However,
the man�s boots and trousers were intact, so she pulled them off the
corpse. The boy�s peasant vest and shoes were lying on the ground, which
she took, as well as the rope used to bind his hands. Best of all, the
man had an expensive dagger and a coin purse containing three silver and
seven copper coins. She pulled the crossbow bolt from his corpse. It was
broken and useless, but she did not want to leave it for anyone to find.
After having taken anything of value from the bodies, she left them. She
thought about trying to bury the boy, but abandoned that idea when she
heard a dog barking in the distance. She tapped her servant on the
shoulder and they slipped away into the brush. Danka never learned what
had happened between the man and the boy, or whether there had been any
justification for the boy�s death. The dispute between those two was of
no concern to her. What mattered was that she now had money and items to
trade for additional crossbow bolts.
Danka led her servant to the edge of the forest. She turned northward
and reconnoitered the cleared area until she spotted a large village
likely to have a blacksmith who could supply her with crossbow bolts.
She then put on her trader�s disguise and consolidated her belongings
into a single backpack that Isauria would have to carry. She took
Isauria�s sword and told the girl that, following protocol for a slave,
she would have to remain naked. The girl struggled with the heavy burden
as Danka led her into the village.
Danka replenished her depleted supply of crossbow bolts and had both her
dagger and the sword sharpened by the smith. While waiting for her
weapons, she visited the tanner to have her servant�s boots repaired and
to sell a deerskin and the stolen boots. She spent her remaining coins
on salt, a specialized hide scraper, flint for starting fires, sewing supplies, two
loaves of fresh bread, and a sweet-roll for her ward. Isauria looked at
her mistress in dumbfounded gratitude when she was handed the treat. For
an ordinary person Danka�s generosity would have been a trivial gesture,
but for a slave to be given something like a sweet-roll was a huge
signal of goodwill and approval from her owner.
The traveler was enormously relieved when she returned to the woods with
her supplies replenished. She stripped and put away her clothes, split
the load into two backpacks, retrieved her bucket, and directed her
servant to follow her to the southern border of the Duchy.
As they traveled, Danka took advantage of breaks to continue teaching
Isauria how to use her sword. She also decided it was time for the girl
to learn how to operate the crossbow. Isauria struggled with a weapon
that seemed almost as big as herself. Drawing back the bow took every
bit of strength she had and at the beginning she could barely keep
control when the trigger was released. However, she persevered and
eventually Danka felt she was ready to use a few of her precious bolts
and aim at targets.
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At the height of the summer, in the middle of July, Danka led Isauria
southward on the pair's foraging expeditions. They traveled along the
southern border, where the woods opened up to the Lord of the Blue
Moon's territory. They emerged near a village that seemed completely
deserted, with every structure in sight destroyed or burnt. The people
were gone. Danka commented that the Lord of the Red Moon must have
invaded the area.
Isauria, whose family had been massacred by the Lord of the Blue Moon's
men, glanced apprehensively towards the open country, clearly having no
desire to leave the safety of the Duchy. However, Danka wanted to
explore the settlement and a couple of nearby abandoned manors, hoping
to scavenge for useful items that had been abandoned during the
fighting. They hid the majority of their supplies and at night forded a
shallow spot in the river. Upon crossing, they both got dressed in their
trader�s guild outfits, even though no one was in sight. Unlike the
relatively casual attitude of Danubians, women in the Kingdom of the
Moon absolutely never appeared naked in public, even at night or on
their own properties or in isolated areas.
They cautiously made their way towards the ruins, their path illuminated
by moonlight. Danka was used to traveling through the forest in the
dark, so moving along an open road under a full moon was easy. The
ominous ruins loomed at the top of the embankment. The woman and her
servant slowly moved uphill, listening for footsteps and smelling the
air for anything unusual. Danka heard the light scattering of animals
moving about. There was a very slight whiff of carbon and of corpses
that had long since decomposed. Apart from that, the only smells were
those in any typical open area.
It turned out the village had been abandoned for a long time. Still, it
was not a pleasant place. The streets were a labyrinth of ruined
buildings and rubble. Much worse were all the skeletons, some still
intact and some scattered, which were
everywhere. The streets and houses were full of bones. Many more
skeletons were
hanging on the walls, the victims
of impalement. An even worse detail were the numerous skulls that were mounted on poles
stuck into the ground,
with their empty eye sockets staring at the two visitors.
Danka froze, her feet firmly anchored to the ground. Her world went
completely dark. A pair of bright yellow eyes appeared in the distance.
They were tiny at first, because they were so far away. They slowly
approached and grew much larger. The Destroyer's face filled Danka's
vision as her knees shook with terror.
"Danka... Danka S�luckt... I've been waiting for you. I knew you'd come.
I knew you'd return to me. I knew that, because I gave you no
choice."
"Wh...what do you...what do you want from me?"
"I want you to know me. I want you to know me well. You will have to
learn my ways...if you want to remain in the Realm of the Living...and
if you want your little slave to remain in the Realm of the Living. To
know me. That is all I ask of you."
"I don't want to know you. I serve the Ancients. I don't serve you."
"The Ancients are not here, Danka S�luckt. Do not concern yourself with
the Ancients, because they are not here. This is my realm, not theirs.
If you don't wish to believe me, try praying to them. They will answer
you with their silence."
"But...what do you want from me?"
"I've already told you what I want, Danka S�luckt. You will learn my
ways. And as you come to know me, I will act through you. You will
prosper, and your slave's safety is assured."
"And...you did this? Everything around me...this is your doing?"
"Mine...or the Lord of the Red Moon, if you prefer...this was a Blue
Moon village, you know...the Lord of the Red Moon paid these subjects a
visit...on my behalf, as you might guess."
"Why?"
"Yes indeed...why? Why? Why? Why?"
The eyes vanished and the ground released Danka's feet. Danka realized
that Isauria was holding onto her arm, with her small body badly
shaking.
"Mistress Danka...Mistress Danka...the owl..."
Sure enough...a large owl was sitting on a nearby ruined wall...its
unblinking eyes staring at the woman and the girl in the cold moonlight.
The bird took off and silently vanished.
"Mistress Danka...you were talking..."
"That doesn't concern you, Servant Isauria. You don't want to know..."
"Yes Mistress."
"Come along. It's getting light outside. We need to search around...see
what we can find."
"I...I'm scared, Mistress."
"Of course you're scared. And perhaps...you think I'm not? It doesn't
matter, because fear won't fill our stomachs. We can be scared all we
want, but we still have to see what's here."
So, as the sky lightened, they searched the town. It was a cool dreary
overcast morning. The forlorn weather seemed perfectly suited for the
bleak ruins and their endless supply of skeletons. Each skeleton had its
own depressing story, from being the remains of a once-living person who
died a horrible death. The woman and the girl were reluctant to go
anywhere close to the corpses, but they needed to closely examine each
one. Occasionally there would be a ring or a coin next to a set of
bones, something that was overlooked when the Lord of the Red Moon's
troops massacred and looted the town. They spent the entire day going
through the destroyed houses, finding metal items such as cutlery,
tools, and a few porcelain cups and dishes that had miraculously
survived the fires and building collapses.
By mid-afternoon Danka had collected enough objects to fill three sacks.
She was surprised the town had not been more thoroughly scavenged. She
did not know that priests from the Lord of the Red Moon's army had
officially cursed the area, which made it off-limits for anyone in the
Red Moon faction. All of the Lord of the Blue Moon's supporters had been
killed or had long since fled, so the only people who would consider
coming in were wandering Danubians, who were rightly concerned about
being captured and tortured by foreign soldiers who were still bitter
about the defeat in H�rkustk Ris.
The woman and the girl returned to the Duchy after dark, carefully
fording the river with multiple sacks of loot. Most of the items were
metal that she would trade to a blacksmith for additional crossbow
bolts. However, some of the tools she would keep in case she had to set
up a shelter to pass the upcoming winter. Some items, such as a few
rings and a necklace, would be very valuable if she could find an honest buyer
and negotiate a good price.
The wanderer and her slave stashed everything in a small cave along with
Danka's bucket. They foraged the next day's meal and rested in
preparation to cross back over and look for anything they might have
missed on the first trip. Danka already had enough for a very nice day
of trading, but she became greedy. She
wanted more. So, there would be at least one more dangerous day across
the border foraging among the ruins.
Isauria continued to be scared out of her wits, but Danka's emotions had
changed. Instead of raw fear, she felt hostility, determination, and
cold anger. She wasn't sure who to be angry at, but finally vented her
emotions against the Ancients, who had forsaken her and forced her into
her current situation. So...the Destroyer was right. The Ancients were
indeed silent and no longer watching over her. Maybe the Ancients had
departed, or maybe they were never watching over her in the first
place. What mattered was that they currently were not part of her life.
Her only reality was the Destroyer.
Danka and Isauria ventured more into the remaining houses and poked
around in the rubble. The skeletons of people who obviously had died
while being tortured were all around them. Depravity and atrocities were
the only reality the residents had faced on their final day in the Realm
of the Living. In one ruined room, the partially mummified remains of three children
hung on
hooks, facing another decomposed body that had been chained to a post. Probably
the corpses were of children impaled in front of a parent who was forced
to watch. Danka took a deep breath and continued searching.
Two coins...an axe head...a bayonet...some lead musket balls...a
buckle...another coin...some metal buttons...a pair of
shears...hooks...a piece of chain...
They moved on to a house that still had its walls, but was missing its
roof. It seemed to be a good place to seek shelter, because it had a
commanding view of the surrounding collapsed ruins. As Danka pried open
a burnt strong-box, she felt a silent tap on her arm. Isauria pointed at the window and
held up two fingers. Danka armed her crossbow and crept to a break in
the wall. Two armed men were outside, suspiciously looking around. One
of the men was wearing a bloody Danubian tunic and carrying a crossbow,
but because of his long hair it was obvious he was not Danubian. The
other man looked like a deserter from one of the Kingdom's armed
factions.
Crossbows were not commonly used in the Kingdom of the Moon, so Danka
hoped that perhaps the bowman's companion would not be able to operate
it. Anyhow, she decided that she wanted the weapon for Isauria. She knew
that her life was in grave danger and that she should have been scared,
but her thoughts focused on seizing the crossbow and whatever else those
men had on them. She calculated how best to kill the strangers. Using
sign language, she ordered Isauria to be ready to take and re-arm her
crossbow as soon as she fired it. Isauria held onto her sword, trembling
as Danka took aim. At the last second Danka decided to switch targets.
She'd not kill the man with the crossbow, but instead target his
companion. She calculated the man with the crossbow probably did not
have much practice and would miss when he fired. A missed shot would
give her precious time to reload and kill her second victim.
Danka released her bolt with deadly accuracy. Her target spun around
screaming, so his companion did not immediately know where the shot had
come from. The man frantically looked around and took cover. Danka
tightened her lips: she had not expected the bowman to hide and save his
bolt. She handed the crossbow to Isauria and took the sword. The girl
gasped and grunted as she struggled to reload the weapon. Danka ignored
her and peered through the window, only to see the bowman's head facing
in her direction...she swallowed and tried to suppress her fear. He had
figured out her position. She took the crossbow from Isauria and passed
back the sword. She motioned Isauria to move back against the wall and
guard the back door. The girl was shaking so badly that she could barely
hold her sword. Danka figured she'd be useless...and that she would have
to fight on her own.
Danka heard a frightened gasp and a crash behind her. As she spun
around, she saw that a third man had burst into the room and Isauria had
brought her sword down upon his neck. The enemy was injured with a
painful cut , but not incapacitated. He screamed, grabbed the girl, and rolled on top of her.
Fortunately his injury
gave Danka time to react before he could kill the girl. With every bit of her strength, Danka
kicked him squarely in the face. Stunned, he fell off Isauria, giving
her time to recover the sword.
"Finish him!"
Isauria hacked at the intruder while Danka turned back to the window,
just in time to see the first opponent charging towards her, armed with
a musket equipped with a bayonet. Her crossbow misfired, but she hit him in
the leg, causing him to miss when he lunged with his weapon. The
musket tumbled to the floor, but the man hit Danka in the stomach with
his fist, knocking the wind out of her. He straddled her and clenched
his hands around her throat. Danka was about to pass out when she heard
a high-pitched scream. The grip on her throat loosened as Danka's assailant turned to attack the girl who had just
tried to stab him in the back. He grabbed both the sword and the girl. Danka
recovered and grabbed her dagger and plunged it into the man's thigh.
She clenched her teeth and stabbed again, digging the blade into his
hip. Isauria pulled free, grabbed a stone block, and hurled it at the
man's head. Danka stabbed again, but the blow was ineffective. The man
grabbed Danka's wrist and tried to force the dagger from her hand.
Isauria was the one who killed the assailant. She picked up another
block, and instead of throwing at the man's head, held on to it and
brought it down on his skull with a tremendous blow that cracked the
bone. She screamed with her high-pitched voice as the rock found its
target. The man's bloody body went into convulsions as Danka held her
throat and tried to recover her breath. Isauria was on her knees,
crying.
For a moment neither the woman nor the girl could react to what had just
happened. They were winded and bruised, but fortunately neither was
injured. The enemy's convulsions stopped as both men's blood stained the
ruined floor. Finally Danka recovered enough to stand up. She stripped
the bodies of their belts, holsters, and boots. She cut off the buttons
and retrieved a coin-purse and some beef jerky, which she gave to
Isauria. She retrieved the musket and a packet of gunpowder. The musket
would not be of much use to her in the forest, but would certainly fetch
a nice price in the market.
Finally, Danka led her servant outside, to search the third body and
recover the foreigner's crossbow. It was not in the best shape, but
could easily be fixed. A sword, more boots, another dagger, and some
crossbow bolts were added to their sack of loot.
The mistress and her shaken servant made their way back to the river, weighted down with
sacks of metal and tools. Much more important were the new weapons.
Danka
now felt that they both were adequately armed for whatever awaited them
in their Paths in Life.
----------
Danka and Isauria spent several days moving their items to a safer
location away from the border. They returned to the village where they
had previously traded, sold the musket, and exchanged most of the metal
objects for more bolts and supplies needed to get them through the
winter. Danka decided to purchase a donkey from a young farmer to carry
the supplies, which she paid with her collection of scavenged
jewelry.
When they left the town, Danka formally presented Isauria with the
captured crossbow, a satchel of bolts, a canteen, and a fine dagger. The
girl quietly accepted the weapons. Her Path in Life, like that of Danka,
would include violence. She was barely twelve years old, but already had
killed two men.
They retrieved their remaining tools and supplies and traveled well to
the east of their first incursion into the Kingdom of the Moon. As they
moved through the backcountry, Danka intensified Isauria's training and
education. There were enough crossbow bolts for Isauria to use on target
practice, there was mock sword fighting, and practices with close
combat. Danka produced some parchment and ink for Isauria to practice
writing, and ordered the girl to keep a journal of their travels and
observations. Isauria's life was hard and the learning was frustrating,
but she did as she was told and never complained. She did not understand
what type of life her mistress was preparing her for, but obviously it
was not to be a house servant or a sex slave.
Throughout the trip, the donkey turned out to be a bothersome necessity.
Yes, they needed help carrying their supplies, but having a large animal
slowed their progress and made them much more visible in the forest.
Danka had to give up the idea of traveling to Rika Chorna that year:
she announced that she and Isauria would winter in the mountains and go
east the following spring. They'd build a comfortable shelter, sell or
butcher the donkey in the fall, and continue their journey on foot after
the snow melted in the higher elevations.
Meanwhile, Danka calculated they would continue to scavenge the ruins of
the Kingdom of the Moon for valuable items. The Danubian outcast and her
servant kept close to the edge of the forest, leaving behind the donkey
and crossing the river at night to search the ruins for items that might
be useful. However, when they returned south, nothing awaited them but
disappointment. They continued looking for anything they could scavenge,
but apart from some rusted metal, they found very little in the ruins.
No...from the villages to the east, nothing remained.
As Danka and Isauria wandered the edges of the Kingdom of the Moon, all
they could see was the work of the Destroyer. It was true that two years
before Danka had witnessed plenty of cruelty and devastation on the
Grand Duke's campaign, but what she had seen in 1754 came nowhere close
to the absolute desolation that had swept across the southern kingdom.
It was all the same, everywhere they went. It seemed that both the Lord
of the Red Moon and the Lord of the Blue Moon had completely lost their
sanity. As a result, the Kingdom of the Moon was dying.
The civil war had been going on for just two years. At that time Danka
and Isauria had no way of knowing there would be eight more years of war
to go.
----------
At the end of August, the journey of Danka and Isauria paralleled
territory that was more firmly under the control of the Lord of the Blue
Moon. The villages had not yet been invaded and that section of the
Kingdom seemed intact, at least for the time-being. As a lone Danubian,
Danka was much more at risk if she attempted to cross into the hostile
territory, so the explorations would have to cease. She considered
moving well to the north of the border, to avoid risk of running into
bands of Blue Moon troops that might want to cross and forage in the
Duchy's territory.
She changed her mind when she came across a group of foreign woodcutters
who had crossed the river to exploit the Danubian forest. The
lumberjacks had cleared a sizable area, leaving it exposed to the south.
As anyone from the Duchy would have viewed it, the men were invaders who
were stealing Danubian resources and usurping Danubian land.
Danka decided to take it upon herself to "defend the Duchy", as she put
it. In reality what she wanted was the foreigners' equipment and camping
supplies, after having spent a month wandering ruined villages searching
for items to scavenge in vain. "Defending the Duchy" was pure fiction,
but it justified the fact she was about to attack the woodcutters so she
could take their belongings.
The Danubian wanderer directed her servant to lead their donkey to a
watering hole, secure him with some food so he would not be tempted to
wander off, and to off-load and hide their supplies. Meanwhile, Danka
scouted the logging camp. It seemed there were about 20 men working in
the area, some were cutting down trees, some preparing charcoal, and
four others were cutting boards. When she saw all of their equipment and
supplies, Danka's mouth watered. Axes, saws, hammers, nails, a small
forge, weapons, four oxen, chickens, leather, finished boards, ale,
glassware...all for the taking. The only thing that stood between her
and all that loot was 20 men, who she'd have to figure out how to kill.
The loggers posted a guard throughout the night, but otherwise their
security was completely deficient. Danka figured the most difficult task
would be killing the sentry in silence. She had plenty of training and
experience moving through a hostile area in silence and killing with a
dagger, so the other men she could kill in their sleep. There would be
some danger, because she'd have to move among the loggers. A single
mistake, or a chance awakening, would ruin her plan and most likely end
her life.
As she observed the foreigners, Danka realized it would be better to go
after them at dusk, after they finished working but before they went to
bed. Towards the end of every afternoon several wagon teams arrived from
the south, loaded boards and charcoal, and left behind a supply of fresh
meat and ale. The men feasted and usually became obscenely drunk.
One-by-one they wandered into the bushes to urinate, often becoming lost
as they tried to get back to the camp in their drunken stupor. As they
stumbled into the woods, they could be killed individually, without
their companions knowing anything was wrong.
Danka and Isauria put on their boots and leather peasant skirts. Like
the legendary nymphs, the female guerrilla archers from two centuries
before, they carried nothing but their weapons and were completely naked
from the waist up.
Isauria slept curled up at the base of a large tree while Danka crept
forward to watch the final hours of the loggers' routine. As always, the
wagons from the south arrived to take away boards and leave behind a
supply of ale and fresh meat. The smell of the cooking tormented the
Danubian, who was used to the Spartan diet provided by the forest. The
tree cutters and charcoal burners drifted in from the edges of the
encampment towards a large fire. They took their first portion of strong
ale, one full bottle per man.
As she crouched in the darkness, Danka counted 22 foreigners altogether.
She felt the Destroyer's presence, like a hand on her shoulder. Greed
and hatred filled her soul as she watched her future victims finish
their first round of ale and take a second round. They consumed vast
quantities of meat as they became drunk. Danka slipped back to the tree
to summon Isauria, who was sitting in the darkness and cradling her
crossbow with a terrified expression. Danka explained what was about to
happen as they returned to the camp. She would pick each target and have
Isauria accompany her as backup, knowing that she was proficient enough
with the crossbow that she could rely on her to fire the second bolt at
each enemy.
When they returned, they heard bushes rustling and the distinct sound of
a man relieving himself. Danka tapped her servant's arm and aimed her
weapon at the silhouette. They fired silently and killed silently, as
befitting of Followers, woods-women, and Danubian nymphs. The man fell
to the ground without making a sound. Isauria performed with her
crossbow as Danka expected, but she was terrified at the turn of events
and her mistress's merciless behavior.
They crept around the encampment in the dark, waiting for the next
drunkard. Within a few minutes a second man was lying in the brush, dead
from bolts he never saw coming. Within an hour, half of the loggers had
been dispatched in the woods. Those remaining at the fire were too drunk
to defend themselves. Danka led Isauria into the camp itself, planning
to dispatch the cook next, since he seemed to be more sober and alert
than his companions. Two bolts finished off the cook, and when his
assistant discovered his body and frantically looked around, he was
next.
The men remaining at the fire began to realize something was not right.
No one who had gotten up had come back. Two went out to investigate, as
Danka and her slave slipped out ahead to intercept them in the bushes.
They staggered around, the alcohol blunting their awareness to the
silent danger that awaited. Two more shots...four more bolts...two less
men in the camp. Another man stumbled into the darkness and was stopped
by the two assailants.
The men remaining in the camp now were standing up and reaching for
their muskets. Finally they realized the camp was under attack. Danka
decided to act quickly against the surviving foreigners. She and her
assistant fired rapidly at a young man with a large musket. He fired as
he fell, the noise from his firearm adding to the confusion of the
others. Danka and Isauria re-loaded and fired again. Four remaining men
now realized where the bolts were coming from and incoherently shot in
unison. Danka and Isauria rolled to the side just in time to be clear of
the musket balls that whizzed past them. They slipped through the trees
as the men came after them. They snuck around to the opposite side of
the camp and shot into the back of a logger who was facing in the
opposite direction. They had just enough time to reload their crossbows
to take out another man charging in their direction. By now the
remaining pair of loggers were in a pure state of drunken panic, calling
out to companions who no longer were alive. They fled back into the camp
towards the oxen, trying to reload their muskets. Danka scuttled through
piles of lumber in pursuit. She stood up and aimed at one of the men. He
turned and frantically aimed his musket, but it was too late. Danka
released her bolt and her victim fell screaming. Isauria caught up to
her and fired a finishing shot into his chest.
Only one logger remained alive, but it turned out he was the most
difficult to kill. By now he had sobered up enough to stay hidden and
listen for the enemy's footsteps. Danka had to order Isauria to go out
into the woods and throw rocks to flush him out while she moved about
the camp. The man saw her and for the next hour they chased each other
around wood piles as the fire slowly died. Finally Isauria, who had
remained hidden, ambushed and shot the man in the stomach, and it was
Danka's turn to finish him off with a second shot.
The woman and the girl did not have time to think about anything apart
from surviving the fight while it was happening. Now that the loggers
had been exterminated, the enormity of what they had just done began to
sink in. A young peasant woman and her adolescent servant had committed
a massacre of 22 human beings. Danka felt nothing but cold triumph, but
Isauria was clearly distressed. As they looked around at the bodies,
Danka noted the girl's bewildered and frightened expression.
"In the forest, the wolf must kill to eat, and it's better to be a wolf
than a sheep. Is that not so, Servant Isauria?"
Isauria took a deep breath. She was trembling, but she forced herself to
answer:
"Yes, Mistress Danka."
"I am a wolf. A vicious she-wolf. You're a wolf too. A smaller wolf, not
much more than a cub, but a wolf nonetheless. Is that not so, Servant
Isauria?"
"Yes, Mistress Danka. That is so."
"Very good. With your help, I have re-taken this land for the Duchy. You
did well tonight and pleased me with your performance."
"Thank you, Mistress."
When Danka looked towards the moon, an owl, that owl, was perched
on a branch watching her. The Destroyer said nothing. The bird simply
sat for a while, observing the campsite, before flying off.
----------
Danka and Isauria feasted on the remains of their victims' beef and
pork. As much as she also wanted to indulge in their ale, she avoided
it, knowing that she needed to keep her wits about her. For lighting she
told Isauria to re-stoke the fire as she began looting the camp. The
first priority was to examine all of the visible corpses, to make sure
they were dead, retrieve any bolts that were not damaged, and look for
small valuable items such as coins, daggers, rings, and medallions. At
daybreak she'd have to explore the woods to look at the other corpses,
the ones hidden in the bushes.
Next, she gathered all the weapons she could find and moved them to the
edge of the clearing. She piled axes and saws near the weapons. She
gathered up all the cooking utensils. Her heart jumped into her throat
when she saw a large barrel of salt and several bags of flour. The
tools...the supplies...the weapons...if she could just take all those
items and secure them, not only would she be rich by Danubian standards,
but she'd also have everything she and Isauria would need to live in
comfort throughout the winter. As the day broke and there was enough
light, she ransacked the sleeping cabin while Isauria stood guard.
Isauria appeared at the entrance and silently called her mentor's
attention to a noise she had heard outside. Danka looked out, noticing
that the birds had gone silent. She and Isauria armed their crossbows.
She could hear movement in the bushes as a woman's voice called out to
her in Danubian:
"Come out and put your crossbows on the ground. There are
only two of you and there are a lot more of us. We want to meet with
you, but you must disarm your weapon and step away from it."
Danka exchanged glances with Isauria. When she hesitated, the voice
continued: "Don't be a fool. Put down your crossbow and stand where we
can properly see you. We're not planning to take it from you."
"Who are you?"
"We're Defenders of the Duchy. Now put down your crossbow. Then we'll
talk."
Very reluctantly, Danka disarmed her crossbow and set it on the ground.
Isauria followed suit. The woman and the girl moved forward two fathoms
and stood in the open. Ten Danubians, three women and seven men, stepped
into the clearing through the bushes. The women were dressed like Danka:
in short leather skirts and boots. The carried crossbows and the only
item each wore above her waist was a satchel for bolts. The men wore
green tunics that were open on the sides. They wore nothing underneath
apart from sturdy boots. Two of the men had short swords, two had
muskets, and the others had crossbows. The oldest man in the group
stepped forward. The woman who had called out to Danka from the trees
continued:
"Please salute our commander. And we will show you the same respect you
choose to show us."
Danka tapped her servant's shoulder and reluctantly saluted the stranger
by tapping her right fist to her left shoulder. Isauria copied her
mistress's actions and saluted as well. The older man returned the
salute.
"Greetings. My name is Commander S�upeckt. I lead military operations in
this region. As you've already been told, we are Defenders of the Duchy.
Now, what is your name?"
"Danka, Commander S�upeckt. My name is Danka S�luckt."
"Excellent. So you weren't stupid enough to lie about your name. And
your companion? What's her name?"
"Isauria."
The commander looked over the servant.
"You're not Danubian..."
"No, Master. I'm from a manor south of Mal�nkta-Gordn�ckta."
"Commander. I'm not a 'Master', I am a Commander."
"Yes...Commander... Commander S�upeckt."
"That's much better." Commander S�upeckt directed his next comment at
Danka: "We've been watching you for several days. You're a competent
woods-woman, but if you were as good as you think you are, you would
have noticed our presence. We'll have to work on that. You obviously
know how to operate a crossbow. I congratulate you on your success
here."
"Thank you, Commander."
"I may congratulate your success, but that is not to say I'm pleased
with what you did. Because of this massacre, this area will be full of
Blue Moon troops, seeking to find out what happened to these loggers and
avenge them. There are three nearby villages to the east that we'll have
to evacuate and defend. Because of the time of year, you've just placed
the region's fall harvest at risk. We'll spend the fall in combat
instead of strengthening our defense network, which is not what I was
planning. I did want to confront these loggers, but they were not a top
priority. Not now...not at this time of the year."
"Yes, Commander."
"So...the question in front of us is not what has been done, but where
do we go from here. With your experience, you'll have an easy time
redeeming yourself. You will do so as a nymph under my command. As of
now...you are members of Oana's squad..." the commander pointed at the
oldest of the three women, the one who had called out to her... "both
you and the girl."
Danka said nothing...trying to think how she could stall for time and
slip away. The sharp-witted commander saw the doubt in her eyes and
continued:
"We've already secured your belongings and are taking them to the main
winter camp. You'll find them waiting for you in your sleeping quarters.
They were not as well-hidden as you thought."
Danka gave up on any thoughts of escape. Without her equipment and
supplies she could not hope to survive the winter in the mountains. She
and Isauria had been drafted into the militia and that was the end of
it. She'd have to make the best of her situation, just as she had to
make the best out of being a concubine for the Grand Duke.
"As for what's here...everything in this campsite belongs to the Duchy.
I will give you first pick at choosing one dagger and one short-sword.
You can keep one medallion, one ring, and a fourth of the coins. The
coins are compensation for your efforts and reimbursement for selling us
your donkey."
"Yes, Commander S�upeckt."
"Good. Now, report to your squad leader."
Danka and Isauria turned to Oana. She gave Danka a sharp look, until the
newcomer realized that she needed to salute. By saluting, she
acknowledged that she was under Oana's command and obligated to obey her
orders.
Additional Defenders arrived to help clean out the logging camp. They
picked up all the tools, bedding, and cooking utensils, cleaned out the
bunk house, and drove away the four oxen. Meanwhile, Oana led Danka and
eleven other female archers to the road, where they would ambush and
kill the wagon drivers tasked with resupplying the loggers for the day.
As they set up, Oana treated Danka the same as she treated any of the
other archers in her squad. She was expected to follow orders,
coordinate with her peers, and perform her duty with her crossbow. The
fact she had joined the unit just minutes before meant nothing. For the
time being, she'd be able to keep Isauria as her assistant, but the
squad leader hinted Isauria's role and her relationship with her
mistress would change within a few days.
The ambush of the teamsters later that afternoon was anti-climactic.
There were eight of them: when Oana ordered her nymphs to fire their
crossbows, the foreigners all died instantly. The Danubian women took
control of the mules, picked up the bodies, loaded them into the wagons,
and continued the journey to the camp. By the time nymphs arrived, the
logging compound had been completely dismantled. The Defenders already
had made off with the best wood: the rest was used to create a funeral
pyre to dispose of the victims from the night before, as well as the
eight new corpses. The bodies were laid out in a neat row, ready to be
thrown onto the fire from a wagon that was being used as a platform.
A poorly-dressed Priest from the Old Believers' sect arrived to say a
prayer for the dead foreigners. As soon as he finished, several men came
out with flutes and a drum. Oana's nymphs, including Danka and Isauria,
stripped off their skirts and boots. The women spent the next hour
dancing naked while the musicians played and the men took turns mounting
the wagon to toss corpses into the fire. It was an ancient and sinister
celebration of death and victory, an acknowledgement of the Destroyer
and the power that "the Profane One" held over the Realm of the Living.
Danka learned the dance and repeated it as best she could. She now was a
member of Oana's squad of nymphs and a Defender of the Duchy. As such,
she had her duties, which she would perform as well as possible.
She glanced upward at the tree tops. After a scanning the branches for a
few seconds she found what she was looking for. Sure enough, from a
distance two unblinking yellow eyes were staring back at her.
----------
