Back to Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Three � The Nymph
After the celebratory dance had ended and Commander S�upeckt�s troops
had the chance to rest, the militia evacuated the camp at daybreak.
Danka was amazed by how completely the place had been stripped when she
had the chance to see it in the light. She put on her skirt, but her
squad leader
ordered her to take it off and hand it to another nymph
who had, up until that moment, been naked. Danka already had noticed
that one of her companions had been wearing nothing but her boots, but
didn�t have time to ask why during the previous day�s fighting. It
turned out the newest member of any squad among the Defenders, male or
female, had to endure an initiation process which included not wearing
any clothing, to symbolically strip the recruit of their previous life
and to identify that person to the world as �the newcomer�. Squad leader Oana,
irritated that Danka was a slave-owner, did not order Isauria to give up
her skirt. Oana justified the decision by telling Danka that, since
Isauria was only an apprentice, the initiation rule did not apply to
her. It was a humbling experience for Danka to be naked while Isauria
stayed dressed, partially intended to force Danka and Isauria to see
each other as equals.
Danka did not have much time to think about her nudity. She and Isauria
spent the end of August and the first half of September following Oana
and the rest of her squad of nymphs, going from one
skirmish against the Kingdom's soldiers
to another. There were so many raids that she lost count, all of them
seemingly the same. Oana�s squad provided cover for the men during the
initial attack, then fell back to a secondary ambush location to launch a quick series
of volleys of bolts at the enemy. When the Defenders' men moved to the
next ambush site, the archers fired again to cover their movements, then ran away at full speed through an escape
route already selected by their squad leader.
In spite of the initiation requirement, Oana quickly earned the respect
of Danka. She knew the countryside in detail and knew how to support the
men while minimizing risk to her own squad members. Every day she
inspected her subordinates and looked over their bodies and equipment.
She conducted frequent drills and target practice; making sure that each
of her women knew her role in every operation, how to withdraw from a
possible defeat without panicking, and how to maximize cover for not
only the men, but also for the other squad members. She knew some forest
survival and concealment techniques that Danka had not yet learned.
When Oana discovered that Danka had been a Follower of the Ancients, she
interrogated the newcomer about her knowledge of both medicine and
foraging, making note of things she did not yet know. She then ordered
Danka to share her knowledge with the others. The Defenders seemed more
appreciative of Danka�s information than had been the women of
Mal�nkta-Gordn�ckta, partly because she did not repeat her mistake of
trying to impose her religious beliefs on anyone.
The squad members completely accepted Danka as part of their group as
soon as she proved herself with her crossbow and her knowledge. She was
much more valuable than most recruits and enjoyed the respect of her
peers, something she had not experienced since she had been with the
Followers of the Ancients. She fit in so much that the others regretted
that she had to run around as a naked recruit, but like everyone else,
she had to endure the initiation routine and would get her skirt back
only when Oana managed to recruit a newer member for her squad.
----------
Commander S�upeckt�s main responsibility
was to safeguard the southern approaches to three settlements of Danubian
homesteaders who had set up their farms a decade before. The villages
were isolated, wretched places, but vital to the well-being of the
Danubian militia because of the food they produced. As September passed
and the villagers harvested their grain, the Defenders needed to hold
off several attacks from the Lord of the Blue Moon. The enemy commanders
already knew about the villages and occasionally had made half-hearted attempts to
destroy them. Danka�s raid against the logging camp and the follow-up
raid on the wagon team were considered provocations, thus making the enemy
more determined than ever to attack the villages in retaliation.
Commander S�upeckt normally led a force of 80 raiders. However, the
fighters under his command could vary between 40 and 200, depending on
what was happening along the border at that moment. As soon as Commander S�upeckt saw the dead
loggers, he dispatched messengers to the other area commanders
explaining what happened and that the focus of the fighting was about to
shift to protecting the settlements against a sustained attack from the
south. Within days after Danka's raid, he had
200 militia members under his command: the 80 troops who were
permanently under his control, plus 120 other militia members
who had been lent to him by other commanders. Commander S�upeckt�s
counterpart, who was guarding the eastern approaches to the villages,
also commanded a temporary force of 200 militia members.
The most serious incursion took place during the week of the Fall
Equinox, when several companies of foreign musket men marched towards
the settlements. The Danubian militia fought with desperation and there
were numerous casualties on both sides. The enemy�s advance certainly
was slowed, but the column was too large to force back. By September 22,
the Blue Moon troops were less than a day�s journey from the
settlements. Assuming they took the area and burnt the harvest, the Danubians would have a very hard time campaigning in that region over
the following year due to lack of food.
Weather came to the Defenders� aid that night, in a manner similar to
the way it aided the Grand Duke two years before in the hills
surrounding the border fortress in Iy�shnyakt-Krep�ckt. A heavy
thunderstorm swept over the area, making the Blue Moons� muskets almost
useless. Commander S�upeckt ordered a full-scale midnight assault in the
middle of the storm, which turned into a bloody melee of hand-to-hand
clashes. The Defenders sustained heavy casualties, but the situation was
completely to their advantage. They knew the area, were used to fighting
in the forest, and had trained to fight in the dark. By daybreak the
numerical advantage of the Blue Moon troops was greatly reduced.
As soon there was enough light, the Defenders withdrew, trying to take
as many of their injured as possible. Still, dozens of Danubians had
been taken captive. The prisoners would be impaled if they could not be
quickly rescued, so Commander S�upeckt needed to press the next attack.
The Danubians launched a follow-up assault with every crossbow they had
available. Although the crossbows were less effective in wet conditions,
at least they functioned. The return fire from the waterlogged muskets was
only sporadic. The continuing rain put the enemy at a huge disadvantage.
Oana led her squad very close to an enemy squad of musketeers. Danka
felt the short range was reckless, but her leader wanted to make sure
every crossbow found its target. Danka�s doubts seemed vindicated when
the woman fighting next her took a fatal musket-ball to the chest.
However, the enemy squad was completely wiped out after the second
volley of bolts. By mid-morning the commander of the Blue Moon column
realized he was not going to be able to continue advancing. In fact, he
would be very lucky if he managed to return to the Kingdom of the Moon
with his remaining men.
The enemy commander knew enough about the Danubians and their concept of
honor that he was able to arrange a retreat. He left some of the
Danubian prisoners tied up but alive as his troops pulled back. To
abandon prisoners instead of impaling them was considered a humiliation for a commander from the Kingdom of the Moon, but this
particular opponent was more worried about having his troops surviving
to fight another day than a personal humiliation. As the Blue Moon
troops departed further south, they left behind more captives. Over the
next two days, the Blue Moon troops continued their slow withdrawal with
the Defenders surrounding them, but withholding another attack in
anticipation of having more prisoners left behind.
The Danubians were grateful enough for the gesture that they did not
launch any further assaults. The enemy soldiers forded the river, with
their commander standing on the Danubian bank, watching his men complete
their retreat. The five final Danubian prisoners were left on the
northern shore with their hands tied. As soon as the last of the
defeated troops crossed, the enemy commander concluded the withdrawal by
shooting himself in the head. He didn�t have much choice: had he crossed
back into the Kingdom of the Moon, it was likely he would have been
arrested and impaled as soon as the Lord of the Blue Moon was made aware
of the defeat.
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Danka did not have the opportunity to see the final part of the battle
and the release of the prisoners. There was a second casualty from
Oana�s squad, a nymph who had been injured in one of her shoulders by a
musket-ball. It was fortunate the ball missed her collarbone, but
there was a huge risk of bleeding and infection. Because Oana knew that
Danka had medical training, she placed her in charge of the injured
woman and allowed her to take Isauria as her messenger and assistant.
For the entire day Isauria was frantically scouring the woods for herbs
and keeping a pot of boiling water so her mistress could prepare
disinfectant. The squad members crowded around as Danka sedated her
companion, removed the musket-ball, cleaned out the wound, applied her
improvised disinfectant, and did what she could to prevent excessive
bleeding. She fed the patient a weird mold solution which, to everyone�s
surprise, actually worked. Within three days it was apparent Oana�s
squad member would survive, recover, and eventually return to service,
although she�d have a nasty scar on her chest for the rest of her
existence in the Realm of the Living.
----------
Fall was quickly approaching, which meant the end to fighting for the
year. Commander S�upeckt released his temporary troops to their
permanent units and the focus of his unit�s activities would be
surviving the winter. The majority of the Defenders of the Duchy would
pull back from the border and return to their main winter quarters to
rest, repair their weapons and build new ones, and train for the
following year�s battles.
Before departing from the conflict zone, the Defenders converged on the
largest of the three villages to bury their dead, organize captured
weapons, feast, and celebrate their victory. The village included a
cemetery containing hundreds of recent graves. The question of how
such a small settlement could have so many dead was easily answered when Danka saw 77 new graves and 77 corpses ready to fill them. The recent
battle had been particularly bloody: a tenth of the Defenders
participating in it had been killed and another tenth had been wounded
and were recovering. Each squad was responsible for the funeral of its
own casualties: there was not enough time for all the Defenders to honor
everyone who was being buried.
Oana�s squad had to bury the woman who had been killed in front of Danka.
The squad�s newest member had to accept the fact she was indirectly
responsible for her death, because it was the attack on the logging camp
that provoked the Lord of the Blue Moon�s troops to invade and attempt
to destroy the villages. Oana emphasized that point by ordering Danka to
place a mirror in the corpse�s hands, which she would hold up before the
Creator when facing judgment in the Afterlife.
Danka tried to push aside the guilt by justifying to herself what had
happened. Yes, the villages had been attacked, but wasn�t that
inevitable anyway? And� didn�t the Defenders win? Weren�t the
settlements even safer than they had been before? And� hadn�t she been
the one to save another of her companions by successfully operating on
her? Hadn�t she fought bravely and killed several of the enemy? So�
there was nothing for her to feel guilty about. She had more than
redeemed herself. And yet�as she looked at her dead companion for the
last time, a young peasant woman whose time in the Realm of the Living
had been cut short, Danka could not completely suppress her feelings of
remorse. She didn�t feel any guilt about the Kingdom of the Moon�s
troops, but she did feel bad about her Danubian companion.
----------
When Oana�s squad left the cemetery to bathe and indulge themselves in a
spiritual cleansing ceremony, they passed the village square, which
contained an enormous funeral pyre built to dispose of the Kingdom of
the Moon�s casualties. There were more than a hundred enemy corpses
piled in the square, plus dozens of severed heads taken from enemy
bodies that had been killed too far from the villages to be transported
intact.
The respect given to the Danubian dead was totally lacking for the
enemy corpses. As the villagers and lower-ranking men among the Defenders
prepared the funeral pyre, the local children curiously poked at the
heads, jammed sticks into their eyes, and rolled them around in the
dirt. No one faulted the children for their disrespect: had the
Defenders lost and had those kids been captured, they would have been
impaled by the men who were now lying dead, most likely in front of
their mothers.
Oana�s squad-members found a safe place to stash their weapons and
clothing and, like all of the women among the Defenders, completely
stripped in anticipation of the upcoming ceremony. It was the role of
the women to dance in honor of the Destroyer while the men stoked the
pyre with corpses. It was the first time that Danka fully understood she
and her companions were indeed dancing to honor the Destroyer, not the
Creator, nor the Ancients. Oana noted the worry and doubt in her
recruit�s face concerning doing anything to honor �the Profane One�.
Danka had been a Follower of the Ancients, so her hostility towards the
Destroyer would be especially intense. Oana took Danka aside while the
other women indulged in ale to prepare themselves for the dance.
�Everything you see here�and everything that we�ve accomplished�is
because the Destroyer helped us. This is war�and it was the Destroyer
who brought war to the Realm of the Living. To honor the Creator for
this victory would be like thanking the village potter for a sword given
to you by the village blacksmith.�
�But� the Grand Duke� he conducted war� I was with him in H�rkustk Ris�
Sumy Ris� Iy�shnyakt-Krep�ckt� and he� never honored the Destroyer.�
�I wouldn�t know about that. I never met His Majesty. I can only tell
you that here - we are honest with ourselves and the spirit who
determines our Path in Life. That spirit is the Destroyer.�
�I�m not going to submit to the Profane One. I will not��
�Oh yes you will. You already have. The Destroyer owns you� just like the
Destroyer owns me and everyone else in this campaign. We have to honor
the Destroyer and serve the Destroyer. If we don�t, the Destroyer will
simply find someone else to serve the cause of destruction, and instead
of us destroying the lives of others, we will be destroyed� and if that
happens, the Duchy will be destroyed. No one is asking you to love the
Destroyer. The Destroyer cannot be loved because the Destroyer will
never bring you any joy. But as a nymph and a member of my squad, you
must honor the Destroyer. We all must. It is our Path in Life.�
�But�what about�what about when we hold up our mirror before the
Creator? How can we justify��
�We can�t justify any of our actions before the Creator. We will suffer
for what we�ve done. I�ve already told you the Destroyer brings no
joy, and that will be true many times over after our souls separate from
our bodies. But that is our Path in Life. At least we�re being honest
about it. Most people spend their time in the Realm of the Living
serving the Destroyer simply for their own pleasure, but are not honest
about it at all, not even to themselves.�
Danka said nothing more. She and Isauria joined the other naked nymphs
as they knelt in front of the funeral pyre. While it was being lit, the
poorly dressed Priest gave thanks to the Destroyer. The women responded
to each of his lines with a wailing chant. When the burning of the
bodies got underway, dozens of women and girls began dancing while the
drummers and flutists played in the dark. Nymphs and villagers, young
and old, mothers and daughters, danced for hours as the fire illuminated
their bare sweaty figures and the sinister drums beat in celebration of
death. The destruction of the foreigners� bodies took hours as the smell
of burning flesh permeated the entire area. After all the corpses were
burnt, the exhausted Defenders remembered the pile of severed heads and
tossed them into the pyre as an afterthought.
The burning, dancing, and chanting continued throughout the night. Danka
was disgusted with herself as she joined the others dancing with her
uncovered body and singing with her exhausted voice. So� the Destroyer
had won after-all. She should have known that it was the Destroyer who
had laid out her destiny� her Path in Life. The Destroyer had taken the
trouble to visit her and tell her that reality many times over, but she
had refused to believe it. The Ancients were nowhere in sight. Like
everyone else in the Realm of the Living, the Ancients had forsaken her.
----------
Before departing for the winter headquarters, the Defenders bathed in
preparation for the journey that lay ahead. For the women, bathing
included cleaning and re-braiding their hair. Normally Danka tasked
Isauria with arranging her braids. However, while she and her slave were
relaxing in the water, Oana came up to Danka and dismissed the
adolescent. Oana would wash and braid her hair with the new recruit,
which was an honor considering that Danka had been under her command for
only a few weeks.
As they washed each other�s hair, the two women talked about the recent
fighting, the squad member who had been killed, and Danka�s medical
training. Oana provided Danka with some additional details of the
history of the southern border, describing how the Defenders had
organized in 1752 in anticipation of the growing conflict in neighboring
H�rkustk Ris province. As they talked, Danka was able to update and
correct some of Oana�s information about the siege of the city and its
subsequent destruction.
Eventually the squad leader moved to the topic she needed to discuss
with Danka: the fact she owned a slave and that slavery was prohibited
among the Defenders of the Duchy. Danka responded by explaining why she
had taken ownership of Isauria and that it was not her intention to keep
her collared indefinitely.
�Then you should be very happy to hear that we have a blacksmith who
knows how to remove slave collars. Your servant cannot keep her collar
in the winter camp. Within a day of our return, I expect you to take
your girl to the blacksmith and get the collar off her neck. What you
decide to tell her about it will be up to you.�
Danka thought about how to explain de-collaring to her servant. Finally
she decided the best way to handle Isauria�s situation would be to
formally emancipate her.
�I�d like for her to pay me for her slave-owner�s certificate, to
purchase her freedom. I�ll take my name off the paper and put hers on
it. Then she�ll own herself and no one will be able to challenge the
legality of her freedom.�
�Does she have any money?�
�No, of course she doesn�t. Until a month ago, I didn�t have any money.
Now I do� some silver and copper from the loggers.�
�Then here�s a thought. Why don�t you give me the money she�ll need to
purchase her certificate? I�ll pay her for her service over the past
month plus her wages for next year, and then she can pay you to purchase
herself.�
�Pay you� to pay her� to pay me��
�Yes.�
�But I did spend three-and-a-half gold to buy her. That was my own
money� it was all I had� from a property title I sold.�
�And, as I understand, you�ve since earned it back. Or at least most of
it. So there�s no problem��
�No. I suppose there�s no problem.�
�Then give me all your coins. I�ll borrow whatever�s missing from the
commander. You�ll have your part of the money returned when you
surrender your servant�s paper.�
When Oana finished braiding Danka�s hair, the two women emerged from the
water and dried each other�s bodies. Danka then retrieved her coin-purse
and emptied out the stash of coins taken from the logging camp. There
were 14 silver pieces and 18 copper coins altogether. She handed them to
her commander. Thus, she had to give up any hope of somehow recovering
part of the gold she had originally invested in Isauria when she
purchased her.
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For the trip into the mountains, Oana temporarily returned Danka�s
donkey to use as a pack animal. Danka and Isauria loaded all of their
weapons and campaign supplies onto the beast. Danka decided to allow the
girl to ride as well, given that she was not very heavy and there was no
point wearing her out unnecessarily. So, the quiet dark-haired servant
rode perched on top of the animal while Danka took turns leading him
with another member of her squad. As her squad�s new recruit, Danka
remained naked, even though the weather no longer was suited for being
undressed. Although in the fall it was customary for nymphs to wear
capes, Oana and the other squad members remained topless. They did so in
solidarity with their newest companion, since by custom Danka would not
be able to get dressed until she had arrived at the winter encampment.
Chilly breezes whipped around the long column of Defenders when they
left the settlements and traveled upstream towards their seasonal
destination. As she walked and shivered in the increasingly cold air,
Danka had the consolation of knowing where and how she and Isauria would
spend the winter. They would be in a warm, safe place with plenty to
eat. However, the independent life she had hoped for would elude her.
Her existence would revolve around the needs of Oana and the other
nymphs, preparing for the next summer�s campaign� and, of course, the
whims of the Destroyer.
The settlement turned out to be more comfortable than Danka had
anticipated. At first glance it appeared to be very little: nothing more
than some obscure huts scattered around a wooded hillside. However, the huts
were spread over a large area, some of which had hidden
passageways in their floors. The tunnels lead to a large natural cave,
in which the Defenders kept their weapons, food, supplies, and records.
The cave�s temperature was constant throughout the year: it was cold
inside but never close to freezing. Best of all, the stream that had
formed the cavern provided the Defenders a steady and unlimited supply
of pure water. The Defenders did not actually live in the cave, because
they knew that too many occupants at a time would spoil the air inside.
However, as a place to safeguard their food and belongings, the cavern
served the militia much better than any man-made structure.
Danka reported to the squad�s bunkhouse and selected a bunk large enough
to accommodate both herself and her ward. There was nothing unusual
about the arrangement, since most of the nymphs had a sleeping partner
to conserve warmth during cold weather. They would be fairly comfortable
over the winter: instead of sharing a cramped bedroll on hard ground,
they�d be sleeping on a real mattress with real blankets. Isauria made
the bed on the assumption she�d be sharing it with Danka.
Oana showed up at the door and directed Danka to go into the cave, find
her belongings, and retrieve Isauria�s slave certificate. To her
enormous relief, her bucket and its contents were intact, including the
Merchants� Guild collar, her writings and notes, and her supply of blue
powder and birth-control paste. Oh yes� birth control paste. She�d need
that for herself, because with all the young men running around, it was
inevitable that she�d have a sexual relationship with at least one of
them. Equally important would be her ability to supply her fellow
squad-members with the paste. Babies were not welcome intruders in the
lives of Oana�s squad, so anything that could safely prevent them would
be very welcome among her peers.
When Danka emerged with the paper, she saw her squad leader talking to
Isauria and handing her a bag of coins. The girl looked very nervous at
the thought of holding so much money. Oana gave Danka a look clearly
signaling that she needed to resolve Isauria�s slavery situation
immediately. She exchanged salutes with the girl and walked towards the
blacksmith�s hut.
Danka approached her servant and handed her the paper.
�Servant Isauria, do you know what this paper is?�
�Yes, Mistress Danka. It�s� the proof� the proof that you own me.�
�Well, in a moment it�s going to be yours. The only owner you will have
will be yourself. Oana paid your wages, and you�ll use that money to buy
yourself from me.�
�You� don�t want me� as your servant, Mistress?�
�No. I never wanted you as my servant. I only bought you to take you
away from Master Now�ckt. He dishonored himself with his treatment of
you, and I wanted to put a stop to it before I left Alex�ndrekt
Bul�shckt�s house. The only way I could do that was to take you with me,
and the only way I could take you with me was to buy you. So, that�s
what I did. Now, you have the money to pay me back. As soon as that
happens, you�ll receive your certificate and I�ll take you to the
blacksmith to remove your collar. Then, you�ll be just like anyone else
in the Duchy.�
Danka paused and continued: �Actually, you won�t really be free, not in
the way I was hoping. We�ve both been drafted into the militia and
you�ll be under Oana�s command. That�s why she paid you for service you
have not yet performed. I�m just a member of her squad. You�re just a
member of her squad. That�ll be our Path in Life until Commander
S�upeckt releases us� or, until we�re killed in battle.�
Isauria didn�t know how to respond. It was obvious she was not at
all happy about being emancipated, that in fact she was extremely
scared. She was used to being Danka�s ward, used to following Danka�s
orders, and used to living under Danka�s protection. She had her
assigned place in society and really had not given much thought about
the future. The idea of living alone in a country she still considered
enemy territory totally frightened her. Danka realized she needed to
reassure her.
�Obviously you�re a bit young to be on your own; although I was just a
couple of years older then you are when I started my travels. I�d
imagine you�ll join the squad as an apprentice, and I�ll be the one
responsible for training you. So� I�m not completely done dealing with
you, Apprentice Isauria. Apprentice Isauria. That�s now your title, and
it�s what I�ll be calling you. My title is different as well. I�m now a Defender of the Duchy, so you�ll call me Defender S�luckt.�
Danka led her servant to the blacksmith�s hut, which was one of the few
structures in the area made from stone instead of wood. Commander
S�upeckt, the ragged Priest, a scribe, Oana, and three squad members
were waiting for her. The blacksmith directed Isauria to lie on a table
that had a vice at one end. He positioned her so that her collar could
be clamped into the vice, examined the latch and locking mechanism, and
selected a metal punch he would drive into the latch to break it. He tapped the
punch several times with a hammer, pried at it, and slipped a thin wedge
into a narrow opening that he had created in the collar. Two more taps
of the hammer, more prying, and the device opened up. Isauria sat up and
with her fingertips explored her newly exposed neck, which was stained
from the collar�s metal. The blacksmith tossed the broken collar into a
pile of scrap iron.
The scribe laid out Isauria�s original slave bill-of-sale and added a
line that Isauria had paid 35 silver pieces (the equivalent of
three-and-a-half gold) to purchase her freedom from the peasant Danka
S�luckt. Oana ordered Isauria to hand over 35 silver coins and Danka to
count them in front of everyone present. Isauria and Danka signed the
certificate, with Danka�s commander, squad leader, and three nymphs
signing as official witnesses. The scribe had prepared a copy of the
transaction for the Defenders� permanent records, which everyone present
had to sign before it was stamped. To make absolutely sure there was no
doubt in anyone�s mind that Danka was surrendering her claim of
ownership over Isauria, she had to kneel before the Priest and swear
that she had accepted the coins as payment for Isauria�s slave
certificate.
Danka later found out that Oana had made the emancipation arrangement to
obligate not only her, but also Isauria, into years of service. The
nymphs received a silver piece for each month they served, which was a
respectable wage for a lower-class Danubian, especially a woman.
Isauria�s sale price was the equivalent of 35 silver pieces, paid in
advance so she could purchase her slave certificate. The arrangement
forced her to borrow the money against her future earnings, obligating
her to remain with the Defenders for 35 months until the debt was paid
off. A detail left out of the written agreement was that Danka would
only keep 16 of the silver coins. The rest would have to be returned to
her squad leader, who in turn would return them to the encampment�s
paymaster.
When Danka left the blacksmith�s hut, Isauria followed her, unsure what
else she should do. Oana carefully observed the girl�s behavior to
determine whether to leave her with her former mistress or to appoint
her as an apprentice directly under her command. Collar or no collar, it
seemed Isauria felt more comfortable staying with Danka. So� at least
for the time-being, Danka would remain more in charge of Isauria than
anyone else.
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By October 1, the weather was cold enough that remaining naked was no
longer and option for any of the Defenders. Therefore, Oana ordered
Danka and Isauria to pick up their winter uniforms, which consisted of a
wool tunic and trousers. As much as she was used to running around in
the nude, Danka was very happy to finally be protect herself from
the elements and the increasingly frigid nights.
The Defenders passed October hauling in food and preparing it for
preservation over the winter. As newcomers, Danka and Isauria had to
report to the cooks to assist in meal preparation, to learn the process
of food preservation, and to share any new ideas or recipes. The cooks
were very interested in Danka�s knowledge of spices and herbs, some of
which they previously had not known. They instructed the newcomers to
find and bring in samples, so Danka and Isauria spent much of October
foraging, which was fine with them. It was much better to be wandering
the woods than to be stuck in a smoke-filled kitchen.
Danka and Isauria rarely foraged in the woods alone. Usually one or more
of Oana�s other squad members accompanied them to learn what Danka could
teach about finding roots and mushrooms. Whenever they were near a
stream or pond, the women relaxed while Isauria fished. Danka put forth
the effort to know and get along with her peers.
Many of Oana�s squad members were from the Vice Duchy of Rika Chorna, so
they were able to provide Danka with information about a region which
she had never seen and was still a mystery to her. For a woman who had
lived independently, the new information did not make Rika Chorna sound
appealing. It seemed that women in the eastern valley did not have
nearly as much freedom or as many rights as women in the western valley.
For example, women could not purchase property, only inherit it, and
even then they could inherit land only if a close male relative was not
available as an heir. The entire region was loyal to the True Believer
faction of the Danubian Church, so women�s access to the Priesthood was
as restricted as their access to property. Priestesses did exist in the
eastern valley, but they only held moral authority over other women and
were required to lead lives of celibacy. Priests were married, but never
to Priestesses. Marriage restrictions for young women were even more
restricted in the east than in the west. Two of Danka's peers openly
admitted they had willingly joined the Defenders to escape the
restrained existence they would have endured had they stayed behind in
their villages.
After hearing descriptions of the Vice Duchy, Danka started to have real
doubts about going there with Isauria and trying to settle. She was
actually glad her journey had been interrupted. As bad as military
service might be, for the time-being it seemed the least onerous of her
options. She didn�t want to return to any of the places she already had
visited in the west, but her goal of going east did not seem any better.
At least among the Defenders she was respected and would be treated
according to how well she performed her duties. So� for the time-being
she was not tempted to desert: it was just easier to stay where she was.
----------
The relationship between Danka and Isauria changed after the girl�s
collar was taken off. Danka had never really thought of Isauria as being
her property: she treated her more as though she were a troublesome
younger sister or niece. However, while she was collared, Isauria viewed
Danka as her owner and herself as purchased, and thus less than human.
As the fall progressed and Isauria became used to not having a collar on
her neck, she started treating her former mistress as she would treat an
older relative. Everyone accepted that the girl�s education and training
remained Danka�s responsibility. She was much more responsive around her
mentor than she was around anyone else; preferring to follow her around
whenever she had the opportunity. Danka increasingly appreciated having
the girl as her companion and looked forward to teaching her more of
what she knew about life. Isauria was competent in the forest and could
handle weapons, but there was plenty more that she needed to learn. Now
that traveling and survival had ceased taking up all their time, Danka
had opportunity to teach her ward the basics of alchemy, simple surgical
procedures, mathematics, and even dining etiquette.
It helped that by the end of the year Isauria�s ability to speak
Danubian had greatly improved, which gave her confidence talking to
people and made her less shy. It was good to see her open up. It also
helped that her hair was growing out nicely, so every passing week she
came closer to the appearance considered proper for an adolescent girl
in Danubian society. Danka noticed yet another detail; that Isauria had
grown over the past six months. The top of the girl�s head came up to
Danka�s nose by the first snowfall. Another year� it was likely she�d be
Danka�s height, or perhaps even taller. Danka had to give up thinking of
Isauria as �little�.
----------
Commander S�upeckt brought a peasant woman to Oana�s hut during the
first week of Novermber. She had been recruited along with several male
debtors fleeing a money lender in the eastern town of Novo S�kukt T�k.
The new arrival meant that Danka no longer was the newest member of her
squad. By that time Danka was a fully accepted member of Oana�s group
anyway, having proved herself with not only her crossbow, but also with
her contribution to the group�s knowledge about foraging. As she had
anticipated, her birth-control paste recipe made her even more popular
among her peers than her food-gathering skills.
The women spent their days at target practice, negotiating obstacle
courses, practicing drills in the woods, and practicing sword fighting
with the men. They also practiced making cartridges and shooting with
captured enemy muskets, in case they ever had to fight using
conventional instead of traditional weapons. The women practiced moving
in formation and covering each other for both advancing and retreating.
As Oana explained to both Danka and the new woman:
�The Kingdom of the Moon soldiers have a major flaw in their strategy.
They like to fight by overwhelming the enemy and pushing forward all the
time. They�re brave� too much for their own good. They consider it
dishonorable and treasonous to retreat, so they don�t normally pull
back, no matter how badly things are going for them. You�ve already seen
what happens when a commander does have to order a retreat: he�s
expected to kill himself. We� whether it�s the Grand Duke�s Protectors
or the Defenders of the Duchy� have no problem moving in any direction.
If we have to pull back, we do. So you have a large enemy moving in only
one direction fighting a smaller enemy who can move in any direction.
The only objective for them is winning. The first objective for us is
staying alive to keep fighting.�
In spite of the Defenders� emphasis on mobility, Oana noted that the
Danubian strategy relied on being behind concealment and cover, always.
As she put it: �The day we expose ourselves to a musket volley, even
once, will be the day we lose the battle� and probably the entire
campaign. So, that�s our weakness. We can�t fight in the open.�
Because she was younger, Isauria practiced hand-to-hand combat with some
adolescent boys serving under various squads as apprentices. As she hung
out with the boys, singing war songs and sitting with them at campfires,
Isauria slowly began to talk to people besides Danka. At the beginning,
when dealing with Danubian boys she was troubled by memories of her
former master Now�ckt. However, the Defender apprentices treated her
well from the day she was introduced to them. In spite of being
foreign-born and a former slave, the boys admired her and accepted her
as part of their group when they found out she already had killed two
men with a sword and helped kill two dozen others with a crossbow.
----------
Danka�s birth-control paste transformed the lives of the nymphs in
Oana�s squad. Prior to Danka�s arrival, pregnancies were a major concern
among the women. Oana responded by trying to impose a regimen of
celibacy among her subordinates. Any member of her squad caught having
sex with one of the men was publicly stripped and faced a severe
switching on her bottom and thighs. Punished offenders endured being
naked (or bottomless during the winter) for several days until the welts
faded, so the encampment could see the results of their whipping and
their shame. The squad members spent much of their idle time trying to
time their menstruations and having affairs behind their leader�s back.
As soon as she was convinced Danka�s paste actually worked, Oana lifted
the prohibition and the ongoing conflict within the squad abruptly
ended. Every woman in the squad immediately found a male partner.
Oana seduced Commander S�upeckt and became his lover, in spite of the
fact he had a wife and children. During one of her foraging trips with
Isauria, she stumbled across her commanders in a small clearing. The air
was too cold to undress completely, but both had taken off their
trousers. Oana was bent over a fallen log in the submissive position,
while the commander was fondling and slapping her bottom. Finally he
slipped his fingers between her legs, while using his free hand to
stimulate himself. When both were ready, he entered her. He was
surprisingly gentle, but Danka wondered if that was because of his age
as opposed to any feelings of tenderness towards his subordinate.
Danka glanced at Isauria, who stared at the commanders with a transfixed
expression. She was amused, more than anything else, that Isauria�s
first real introduction to sex would be watching her commanders, a woman
in her mid-30s and a man in his mid-50�s, having a tryst in the woods.
She had no intention of pulling Isauria away or trying to �protect her
innocence�. The girl needed to grow up quickly, so there was no point in
keeping any of life�s secrets from her.
She�s bound to learn about it anyway, so it�s better that it�s sooner
than later�
Anyhow, Danka was no moral purist. She had known about the �facts of
life� from a very early age, because it was hard for parents living
in a single-room hovel to hide anything from their children. The elder S�luckts didn�t even bother to try. Besides her parents, Danka had
witnessed various neighbors having liaisons during her wanderings around
the laborers� settlement as she was growing up. There was no curiosity
about sex from Danka� no mystery that she wanted to resolve. The
encounters disgusted her more than anything else, which was part of the
reason her virginity was still intact when her hair was braided.
As soon as the commanders finished, Danka and her apprentice slipped
away. The girl�s face was full of bewildered questions. Danka commented:
�It�s the same with your father�s sheep, wouldn�t you agree Apprentice?�
�Yes, Defender S�luckt.�
�There are other positions. A lot of them. Try to avoid using that one�
the position you just saw. It�s the �submissive� position, when you�re
admitting the man is superior to you. Whether or not that is true, it�s
best not to admit it.�
�I�I don�t understand, Defender��
�I don�t really know how to explain it� but life is all about fighting
for control. Do you control, or does the other person control you? If
you use the submissive position for sex, you�re giving up control over
your body. I suppose that�s acceptable if you give yourself to a man who
truly loves you. But thinking a man truly loves you, and that love being
real� well� the Realm of the Living and the Realm of Fantasy are two
very different places.�
Danka could see that Isauria was more confused than ever.
�Listen. Just try to avoid using the submissive position. Try to avoid
getting pregnant. Put off having sex as long as you can. And never�
ever� try to �reward� a man by letting him use your body. That�s what
you need to know for now. And there�s one more thing. I know how to
prevent the moon from paying you a visit. At your age� you don�t want
the moon to visit you.�
Danka decided that the time had come to educate Isauria about birth
control. She spent the rest of the afternoon teaching her how to prepare
and use the paste, and also how babies were formed in the womb. Isauria
came from a different culture than Danka, a culture in which sex
was a dark and sinful secret, and people were amazingly ignorant about
the topic. By learning about sex and birth control well before being
ready to marry, Isauria was making an important break with her family�s
values and the culture in which she had been raised.
----------
Danka thought about her own options as she looked around at the men in
the camp. She was desperate for sex, but unable to make up her mind what
kind of lover she wanted. She liked the attractiveness and vigor of
younger men, but they quickly bored her because she did not find young
men intellectually challenging. She preferred the intellect and
experience of older men, but older men had their own faults, vices, and
problems. To avoid having to settle on a permanent partner, she was
tempted to have sex with any man who was interested in her, like she had
done at the university in Seb�rnekt Ris. However, by the end of 1756 she
had matured enough to realize the militia was not the university, and
the community of the Defenders was very different from the one created
by the Followers. Being promiscuous would compromise her honor, threaten
her reputation in the Defenders� community, and possibly cause conflict
among the men. She did not want to risk her standing among her peers.
She was respected and well-liked throughout the encampment, even more so
than when she had been with the Followers of the Ancients.
Perhaps it was pure hubris, but she enjoyed being respected and
well-liked.
----------
Note: Throughout the 1750s, the
central and eastern portion of the border between the Grand Duchy of
Upper Danubia and the Kingdom of the Moon suffered from continuous
combat. However, the fighting differed significantly from the Grand
Duke�s campaign to the west in H�rkustk Ris. Instead of a large army
defending the Duchy against another large army, the fighting to the east
involved much smaller units skirmishing over much smaller objectives.
The conflict was not over the fate of the Duchy, but over small sections
of the border and the foreigners� desire to access natural resources
located in Danubian territory. Instead of regular troops,
semi-independent militias loosely united under the title �Defenders of
the Duchy� launched quick small-scale raids against intruders. Almost
all militia operations followed a general pattern: the area commander
identified a group of combatants from the Kingdom of the Moon that were
either in the Duchy or likely to cross the border, goad them to enter an
area that favored Danubian fighting techniques, then launch an ambush.
If the enemy was forced to withdraw upon the first ambush, there would
be a follow-up ambush to inflict as many casualties as possible. If the
ambush was inconclusive or likely to result in a defeat, the Danubians
withdrew to launch a new effort to goad the enemy into another ambush in
a more favorable location.
Usually the objective was not to protect territory, but to inflict as
many casualties as possible to sap the enemy�s desire to cross into the
Duchy and threaten Danubians. The militia leaders carefully selected
targets to ensure either victory or minimal losses. They also wanted to
send a clear message to both Lords� warring factions through their
selection of places where fighting took place. The Danubians focused
exclusively on military targets they considered were directly
threatening the Duchy. The Defenders did frequently conduct raids across
the border, but the objectives were always units that were about to
cross into the Duchy, or men who had returned from the Duchy to be
re-supplied. Unlike the Kingdom of the Moon factions, the Danubians left
the civilian population alone.
The strategy had a long-term focus: to demoralize the Kingdom of the
Moon�s fighting men. The men became well-aware that the Danubians were
not a threat if citizens of the Kingdom of the Moon stayed on their side
of the border. As soon as the foreigners crossed or prepared to cross,
they could expect to be attacked. Over time the enemy soldiers would
view what they were doing in the Duchy as unnecessary and futile,
although in 1756 the morale of the invaders had not yet deteriorated to
the point the men would dare challenge their commanders. The first large
mutiny among the Lord of the Blue Moon�s men would not happen until
1758.
- Maritza Ortskt-Dukovna -
