Back to Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Nine � The Scribe
After
delivering the sedative that would allow Oana to separate her soul from
her body, Danka returned to the safe-house, changed into a workers'
outfit, and left Novo S�kukt T�k. She returned to the farmhouse, packed
her bucket, and went to sleep. She'd have to wait for Ernockt to return
from work before departing. He had promised to help her leave the area,
but he had to stay at his desk in the city councilmen�s building until
sunset. When Ernockt returned, he handed the stolen trial transcripts to
Danka. She could look them over if she wanted, but after reading them
she was to throw the papers into the stove. The transcripts were full of
mistakes. When Danka pointed that out, her host responded:
"The scribe for the city guards is a total idiot. If you told him that
you saw a flock of geese walking along a path, he'd put down it was
ducks or chickens. So, after you're done reading, you can burn this and
it won't trouble your conscience. I just figured you'd want to see it
first."
After a few minutes, Danka opened the door of the stove and pushed in
the report. She turned to her host.
"Now what? You said you'd help me leave."
"Yes, that's what I said. But I can't go with you. I have to go back to
work tomorrow and we shouldn't be seen together. I've brought a donkey
so you don't have to walk. I'll give you some letters so you can pursue
your Path in Life in Rika Chorna. We need another scribe to follow
events there anyway, and we're going to see if we can find a position
for you with the Vice-Duke or the city council."
"So you expect me to work as a scribe and collect information for you?"
"Yes."
"That... really wasn't what I had in mind..."
"Maybe it wasn't. But we did help you with your revenge against Oana,
didn't we? I risked my own position in this town so you could fulfill
your final orders from Defender Dalibora. I hosted you for over a month
and spent my own money buying everything you needed. I do expect you to
repay me. I don't want any silver, and I wouldn't accept it, even if you
offered. What I need from you, and expect from you, is your assistance."
"And you expect me to ride to Rika Chorna, by myself, with letters
addressed to strangers, and assume nothing will happen to me along the
way."
"Nothing will happen to you, because you'll be wearing your nun outfit.
A nun outfit is the same in the Vice-Duchy as a collar would be in the
western valley. People here don't bother nuns."
"A True Believers' nun? You expect me to travel disguised as a True
Believers' nun?"
"And what's so surprising about that? You've walked all over the western
valley wearing nothing but your collar. In the eastern valley, the only
way a woman can safely move about alone is to be dressed as a nun. Same
goal, different outfit."
Danka reluctantly put on the nun's dress. It was unbelievably hot and
cumbersome. However, outside it would protect her against the cold more
than almost anything else she could wear. Ernockt handed her a prayer
book and protocol manual so she could learn to act like a real nun.
Among other restrictions, whenever a nun was moving around and not
carrying anything, she had to keep her hands together in prayer. Also,
she was not allowed to look at the face of any man. She cringed at the
ridiculous protocol, but realized the rules would help keep her real
identity a secret, assuming she could remember to follow them.
Danka was not looking forward to the trip, because she had never
traveled in November. She had spent plenty of time outside in various
places over the winter, but never actually journeyed to a new
destination. However, her traveling conditions certainly could be worse.
She�d have a donkey to ride on and carry her belongings, and the heavy
nun habit, consisting of an under-dress, public dress, and winter cape
would protect her against the cold.
Danka left the following morning as soon as there was a hint of light in
the pre-dawn sky. The temperature had gone below freezing the night
before, making the ground solid and covering the landscape with a layer
of frost. She traveled along the main road, which, combined with the
fact she was riding, sped up her trip considerably. She had to remember
not to look back at any men who were looking at her. Occasionally a pair
or group of thuggish-looking men approached her, but as soon as they saw
she was wearing a nun's dress, they moved on. The rules for overnight
stays were similar for a nun in the Vice-Duchy as they were for a
penitent in the western valley. The nun approached a church of her
choosing, knelt until a Clergy member approached her, and was given a
meal and a place to sleep. The only disadvantage of the arrangement was
having to sing and pray with any other women who happened to be in the
church at that time. Danka was hard-pressed to learn enough True
Believers' hymns to avoid raising suspicions.
She spent a week traveling towards Novo Sumy Ris. When the town came
into sight, she was tempted to go in and return to the church, but
decided against taking that risk. She took a road bypassing the town and
headed east towards her destination, the city of Rika Chorna.
Danka arrived just in time. As she entered Rika Chorna, snow began
falling. It was the beginning of the winter's first real snowstorm, and
it would be particularly severe, dropping knee-deep snow onto the
central part of the Vice Duchy. She knew from experience that towns
closer to the foothills, such as Novo Sumy Ris and Novo S�kukt T�k,
along with the hilly roads that connected them, would receive even
deeper snow. So...that was it for the year as far as traveling or
trading were concerned. The roads were blocked and only the most
determined or fool-hardy would venture out from wherever they happened
to be when the first snow came down.
Rika Chorna, given its name for the same reason the province carried
that name, was the second-largest city in the Duchy with more than
40,000 people living there. It also was the seat of the region�s ruler,
Vice-Duke Petroickt. Like Novo Sumy Ris, the regional capitol boasted a
large church that was an exact replica of the cathedral in the original
Sumy Ris. Danka recognized replicas of other old buildings from the
former capitol, plus copies of less fortunate ancient buildings that had
since been torn down by the Ottomans over the past two centuries. She
shook her head, still wondering why, after 250 years, people were so
obsessed with the old southern capitol. The Grand Duke had nearly
suffered a disastrous defeat because of his desire for Sumy Ris. For the
exact same reason, the Defenders did suffer a disastrous defeat. Out of
three cities in the Vice-Duchy she had visited so far, Danka had seen
replicas of the Sumy Ris cathedral in two of them. The replicas of the
structures in the lost southern capitol surrounded the church, but the
rest of the city had standard European architecture and reminded Danka
of her hometown Rika H�ckt-nem�t. There was no city wall around Rika
Chorna, nor around any other town in the Vice-Duchy.
Next to the church was the governor's palace, which was by far the most
significant building in the city. It was larger and more ostentatious
than the Grand Duke's castle. Unlike the castle, which was built first
as a defensive structure, the palace did not have high walls and clearly
was not meant to serve any military purpose. It was built solely as a
seat of government and a luxury residence. Gardens surrounded it and
there was a large courtyard containing a stone bathing area for summer
swimming.
Danka examined her letters and found a name and house description for
her contact. She led the donkey to a two-story residence that was behind
the governor's palace. A woman in a merchants' guild dress answered the
door and asked the "nun" where she had come from.
"From a farmhouse, right outside Novo S�kukt T�k"
"Very well, sister. You may enter."
The residence was a safe-house belonging to Ernockt's
intelligence-gathering network. It had a basement with a secret
passageway leading to another safe-house on the same block, so it was
easy for anyone entering one residence to exit the other and evade
surveillance. Inside the house there were two other "nuns" and a couple
of older men dressed in traders' outfits. Outside the residence, the
"nuns" couldn't talk to the men, but inside the protocol was more
typical of the western valley. The men were in charge, but the women
could speak freely to them and offer their opinions and advice. One of
the men went out through the other house to deal with the donkey. He
brought in Danka's bucket and then took the animal to a stable outside
town. Meanwhile, one of the women, who introduced herself as Sister
Z�nktia, told Danka to bathe and issued her a clean nun's outfit. Danka
drew a frustrated breath when she saw the dress. Apparently she would
remain a "nun". So, the disguise was not just for traveling.
While eating dinner, the two "merchants" and the two "nuns" questioned
Danka about her general knowledge of the world and the Duchy. They were
impressed by what she knew and all the places she had visited. They
asked her to provide writing samples and practice taking dictation, then
show them what she knew about mathematics and using the abacus. They
told her to sing and pray to see what her voice sounded like. Like
everyone else, her hosts were bewildered by the contrast between Danka's
lower-class accent and her expansive knowledge of academic and
intellectual subjects. In spite of a decade of wandering and everything
that had happened to her, Danka was never able to change her intonation
and the way she pronounced her words. One of the men commented:
"It's fortunate nuns don't talk much. Listening to your voice is not at
all pleasant."
Danka came very close to tearing off her nun outfit and storming out.
Dressing up as a True Believers' nun was absolutely the last disguise
she wanted to wear, and now, on top of everything else, that idiot had
the nerve to insult her speech. However, she had long since learned to
never let her temper get the best of her. It was heavily snowing
outside, her hosts had taken back their donkey, she was in a strange
city with no money, and she did need to return the favor Ernockt had
done for her. So, she had to hold her tongue, at least for the moment.
Danka's hosts gave her the chance to sleep and did not force her to go
back out in the snowstorm. She slept alone in a bed with heavy curtains
surrounding it and didn't wake up until it was already light outside.
The room was bitterly cold, so she was torn between wanting to stay
under the blankets and being forced to get up and use the chamber pot,
thus alerting the others she was awake. She was able to resist her
bladder for a few minutes, giving herself time to think about her
situation and how best to deal with it. She began to wonder if Ernockt
really was the one who wanted her to go to Rika Chorna. Was it possible
he sent her because he was acting under orders from the Prophets in the
Great Temple? As for his group of conspirators, she didn't know anything
apart from what he had told her. They could be very powerful or not
powerful at all. For the moment it would be better to assume the former
and that she had no hope of leaving Rika Chorna without their
permission.
As soon as Danka finished a late breakfast, Z�nktia took her to the main
church to show her around and introduce her as a new nun to the Clergy.
She had to endure constant whispered reminders of how she should behave
as a nun and the complicated prayer protocol she needed to use inside a
True Believers' place of worship. She would have to spend the rest of
the month learning hymns and Latin phrases, when to cross herself (which
seemed to be continuously), and the rituals surrounding faction's weird
obsession with the execution of Jesus of Nazareth. The True Believers
seemed to really be worked up about that execution.
The True Believers in the Vice-Duchy were even more removed from
Danubian traditions than their counterparts in the western valley. One
example was the difference between the universal acceptance of collars
for Public Penance by both the Old Believers and the True Believers in
the west, and the rejection of collared penance in the east. Another
example was celibacy. In the western valley the True Believers
"encouraged" their clergy members to be celibate, but the rule could not
really be enforced. In the east, the priests had to be celibate. Another
example was the priests' focus on the deities themselves. In the west
doctrine focused on the Lord-Creator and his enemy Beelzebub the
Destroyer. In the east there was much more emphasis on praying to the
Virgin Mother and the executed son.
Celibate nuns did not exist at all in the west. In the east there was
the convent in Novo S�kukt T�k and multiple schools located in various
cities. During her stay in Novo S�kukt T�k, Danka had learned that for
any girl whose parents were not willing to pay for a private tutor, the
only way to become literate was to seek education through the True
Believers. The True Believer nuns ran several schools for girls in the
Vice-Duchy, but they "strongly encouraged" any girl entering their
schools to become a nun. That "encouragement" became a formal
requirement if the girl wanted to learn anything more apart from basic
literacy. In the western valley, most guilds included teaching their
members' daughters how to read and write as part of their services. The
Old Believers ran schools for non-guild children and taught boys and
girls alike, although the classes were separated by sex. So, in the
western valley most women had some knowledge of reading and writing,
while in the Vice-Duchy most women were completely illiterate.
Having to learn the protocol for a nun made Danka think about her
upbringing in Rika H�ckt-nem�t. The parish in her hometown was
controlled by the True Believers, or at least it was in 1750, the year
she left. Thus, she already was vaguely familiar the main points of the
True Believers� doctrine. Her family didn't pay much attention to the
Lord-Creator or the executed son, but they frequently prayed to the
Virgin Mother for favors such as making their chickens lay eggs or
making their vegetable garden grow. The town's finer residents dismissed
the S�luckts and their neighbors as worthless illiterates, so they
didn't bother taking the time to make the laborers understand the more
complicated doctrine coming out of the Christian Bible.
As Danka looked at all the Virgin Mother statues displayed around the
church in Rika Chorna, her thoughts drifted to Lilith. In her mind the
two deities, the Virgin Mother and Lilith, were both foreign goddesses.
The goddess who actually had character and did things and fought back
when the Lord-Creator mistreated her was a subject of her admiration.
The goddess who did nothing apart from having a kid, without even
bothering to have sex like a normal human being, was a subject of her
derision. As for the Son of Man and execution that was the focus of the
entire True Believers' religion, Danka thought: so what? People are
executed all the time. Why was being crucified in Jerusalem any worse
than hanging on an impalement hook in the Kingdom of the Moon? Why was
one man's execution more important than another's? Of course, she knew
the answers to most of those questions, having read the Christian Bible.
But those answers made no sense to someone who was not, and never would
be, a Christian. She considered herself a Follower of the Ancients, and
if she was the last Follower in the entire Realm of the Living, then so
be it. Z�nktia told her they understood her distaste for the True
Believer's doctrines and practices. Her hosts reminded her that their
mission was to undermine the True Believers by collecting information
and providing it to the Grand Duke and the Prophets in Dan�bikt M�skt.
Danka responded that she'd do whatever she could to undermine the True
Believers, because her hatred of their doctrine and beliefs was
visceral.
----------
Danka moved out of the safe-house at the beginning of December. Her
handlers felt she was ready to begin the next phase of training for her
clandestine life by living among the city's real nuns. Z�nktia took her
to a house adjacent to the church to live with 17 other women, all nuns
who had gone through the True Believers' school system and ordained at
the convent in Novo S�kukt T�k. Danka stood out among her companions
because she was an outsider and much more attractive than any of the
others. She was 23, but she looked considerably younger because she had
been administering herself doses of Bab�ckt Yaga's mushroom tea over the
past seven years. The others looked her over with suspicion and
jealousy. On the first night at her new home, Danka had to endure a
sermon by the leading nun talking about the danger of physical beauty
and how it led to carnal sin.
The nuns in Rika Chorna divided themselves into two groups: scribes and
instructors. The younger women spent their days transcribing endless
hymn sheets and copying or preparing church correspondence such as
letters and directives. The clergy from the main church kept meticulous
records of all happenings, which the Bishop wanted transcribed in clear,
attractive handwriting on fine parchment. Danka frequently transformed a
hastily-written note into a finely-written letter with improved
vocabulary, converting it into a document that could be sent off and
make the author look good to his reader. Meanwhile, the older and more
trusted members of the group spent their days in a less grueling manner,
giving literacy classes to local girls in a house adjacent to the one
where they lived.
Danka took notes on anything she felt was important and compiled them
into a sheet of parchment written with the smallest handwriting possible
to conserve space and paper. She kept the reports hidden in a special
pocket inside the lining of her dress. She read and memorized as much as
she could of her companions' writings, making notes and passing them to
her contact. She spent her sparse spare time reading every book in the
house, although unfortunately most of the material was about theology
and True Believers' doctrine. She received plenty of insight about the
workings of the diocese and its relationship with the Roman Church, but
not much else. Every few days Z�nktia passed by with a delivery of
washed linens and Danka slipped her the notes she had collected over the
past few days. Usually there was a small paper handed to her in return,
containing comments on what information was useful and what information
was not, along with requests for additional notes on specific topics or
persons.
Danka's handlers seemed especially interested in learning about
movements within the clergy, knowing who was traveling to different
locations and why. During the winter there was not much movement, but
Z�nktia wanted Danka to practice providing information on any traveling
to prepare her to make comprehensive reports when the True Believers
moved about in the summer. Danka sighed. Next summer. She couldn't
imagine spending an entire summer in her horrible outfit sitting at a
desk in a room full of insufferable, hostile, ugly, companions. She'd
have to figure out how to extricate herself.
----------
Danka spent four months transcribing documents. Throughout the entire
winter she never left the residence, except to go to the church for
daily prayers and hymn practice. Danka's fellow scribes did not talk
much to each other and talked even less to her. They sang and prayed as
a group, but spent their meals and their duties in silence. She slept in
a room with five other women, but never conversed with them.
The room was cold and usually Danka was so tired that she fell asleep
immediately. However, about once a week she had insomnia and would spend
hours lying awake, thinking about Ilm�tarkt. She didn't have much time
to think about him or truly grieve over his death during the past year,
but lying alone in that cold bed, tormented by loneliness and sexual
frustration, she realized how much she missed her late husband. She
could have enjoyed a happy life with him, had the Destroyer not taken
him away. He satisfied her sexually, treated her with respect, and
challenged her intellect. Also, in his own manner, detached and
intellectual as it was, he did love her. She could not share the pain of
being a widow with anyone, so she had to grieve for him in silence, by
staring into the darkness and allowing tears to run down her cheeks.
----------
When the weather started to warm up towards the end of March, Danka
wrote note to Z�nktia informing her handlers that they would have to
find her another assignment. There was no way she would tolerate staying
with the nuns over the summer. She expected the answer to be no; that
she'd have to stay in the house indefinitely. However, on the final day
of March, an official from the Vice-Duke's palace showed up with Sister
Z�nktia. He ordered the scribes from the residence to line up and for
each to hold a sample of her writing in front of her. Danka's
handwriting was not the best from the group, but her face caught the
official's attention. He looked her over and asked her some questions
about her background. She responded with a fictional biography given to
her by her handlers, that she was daughter of a devout guildsman from
Novo S�kukt T�k.
The official violated protocol by pulling off her hat to have a better
look at her head and braided hair. The other nuns quietly gasped and
flinched at the act of disrespect.
"It's a pity you'd waste your beauty like this."
Danka pretended to be extremely nervous, but inwardly she was concealing
hope that her intolerable life was about to change. The fact that
Z�nktia was with the official raised her anticipation of a transfer or
change of assignment. The official quietly spoke to the leader of the
residence. She cast a suspicious look at her young subordinate, but
nodded and put her hands together in prayer. The official motioned Danka
to follow him.
Danka left the residence without going back inside or even saying
goodbye to anyone. She kept no belongings in her room and the few items
she did have with her, such a small supply of blue powder, the
ingredients for making birth-control paste, her comb, and the thread for
cleaning her teeth were safely stored in special pockets she had sewn
into the lining of her dress. She had not seen her bucket since
November: she could only hope it was still at the safe-house.
----------
The official and the two "nuns" walked the short distance between the
scribes' residence and the entrance to the Vice-Duke's palace. Parts of
the palace exterior had been within Danka's range of view throughout the
entire winter, but she never had set foot inside. The day was grim,
rainy, and overcast, but Danka could feel a hint, just a hint, of spring
in the air.
Danka's
escorts led her through the outer door of the palace into the most
luxurious room she had ever seen. The decor was Baroque and modeled
after a palace in France. Expensive-looking vases imported from China
sat on equally-fancy tables. The corridors were filled with paintings
and statues, including multiple busts of the Vice-Duke.
Beyond the main entrance and reception area a large set of glass doors
opened up into a finely-trimmed garden. The grounds were meticulously
maintained, much more so than in the Grand Duke's castle. Actually, the
Grand Duke's residence, as luxurious as it was to a person with Danka's
upbringing, was Spartan compared to the abode of the Vice-Duke. As she
looked around at all the statues and imported decor, she wondered how
much money the Vice-Duke was spending on his residence. After seeing the
interior of the palace, it wasn't hard to understand why taxes were such
a problem for the Vice-Duchy's farmers and guildsmen.
The main section of the palace boasted a large round ballroom covered by
a dome painted with angels flying around in puffy clouds. The area under
the dome was surrounded by marble pillars and stain-glass windows.
Portraits of the Vice-Duke and his family members covered the walls and
statues stood in front of each pillar. Crystal chandeliers hung from the
ceiling. Danka was no connoisseur concerning decor, but compared with
the somewhat simpler furnishings of the Grand Duke, she felt the palace
in Rika Chorna was decorated in poor taste.
The exaggerated decor did not draw Danka's attention nearly as much as
how the palace women were dressed. To a Danubian, especially a
lower-class woman like Danka, the palace clothes were truly shocking and
scandalous. The wives of the Vice-Duke and his advisors boasted
impossibly heavy and complicated silk dresses imported from France. Like
all Danubian women, the palace residents wore their hair in braids, but
those braids were covered by over-sized wigs. Seven years before, Danka
had seen some fashionable European clothing when she traveled north of
the Danubian border with the Followers, but to see such exaggerated
get-ups in the Duchy itself was a shock. Danka later found out the elite
women did not dare go out on the street in their foreign outfits, but
the palace had unique protocol and any respectable woman had to wear
French clothes while inside to distinguish herself from the �uncouth�
commoners outside.
The group approached the area where the Vice-Duke had his conference
rooms and living quarters. They entered a luxurious reception area that
was smaller than the outer reception area, but still large and
ostentatious. The area was comfortably warm, heated by the cave-charcoal
stoves Danka had introduced to the Grand Duke a few years before. There
were several guards in the room, along with a group of noblewomen and a
couple of advisors holding rolled-up documents. Danka had never seen a
picture of Vice-Duchy�s ruler and thus not sure what he looked like.
However, in a palace full over over-dressed people he stood out, wearing
an outlandish silk outfit covered with lace and jewels, topped with a
cape made of imported white fur. His head was properly shaved, but Danka
had no way of knowing that because the ruler wore an enormous white wig.
On top of the wig he wore a crown so full of jewels that one could
barely see the gold or silk underneath. With him were three
effeminate-looking teenaged boys wearing equally effeminate clothing.
One of the boys was carrying a falcon with its head covered by a tiny
hood. Danka correctly assumed the teenagers were the Vice-Duke�s sons.
As she approached the Vice-Duke and the boys (if that�s what one chose
to call them), she tried to make sense of the bizarre spectacle in front
of her. It was very fortunate that she already had seen pictures of late
eighteenth-century western European royalty, so she understood the
Vice-Duke and the members of his entourage were attempting to model
themselves after elite fashion in places like Paris. Obviously the
eastern nobility viewed traditional Danubian culture as primitive and
uncouth. Perhaps they had to live in that inferior culture, but that
didn�t mean they had to sink to the simplistic and uncivilized behavior
of their subjects. The entire set-up would have been more pathetic than
offensive, had it not been for the crushing taxes the farmers and
guildsmen had to pay to maintain it.
The official saluted the Vice Duke and his sons while the two �nuns�
knelt and clasped their hands together in prayer. The boys were leering
at Danka. As soon as the official explained that a new scribe had been
brought from the local nuns� house, the ruler told the two women to
stand up. He examined younger nun.
�Her face is very pretty. Let me see the rest of her.�
The official turned to Z�nktia: �Strip her. Remove that habit and
whatever she�s wearing underneath.�
Danka�s companion froze, unsure that she had heard the command
correctly. Her eyes went wide and she glanced around the room, noting
there were a dozen other people present. When she opened her mouth to
object, the official slapped her hard across the face. The blow was so
hard and so unexpected she fell to the ground. The official kicked her
to get up.
�What�s wrong with you, nun? Are you stupid or just rebellious? I told
you to strip that girl! Now do it!�
Danka could tell Z�nktia was as shocked as she was, that she had not
expected to have to strip her. Reluctantly, with trembling hands, the
other woman unfastened the hooks holding Danka�s collar in place and
lifted her outer dress over her shoulders and head. She untied the stays
of her inner dress and let it fall to the floor. Danka was terrified,
but not in the way a normal nun would have been. She was not bothered
being naked in front of others, but obviously in the Vice-Duchy being
publicly stripped, especially for a nun, was meant to be a major
humiliation. Had she been in the western valley she simply would have
stood straight, with her eyes facing forward and her hands at her sides.
However, in Rika Chorna she knew that she needed to behave like a real
True Believers nun would act under the circumstances. She cowered and
tried to cover herself, and even forced tears to come to her eyes. The
official yelled at her and slapped her several times before she
�managed� to stand straight and uncover herself. Keeping up the fa�ade
of unbearable shame, she closed her eyes, clenched her fists, and
pressed her legs together. She felt a hand fondling her breasts and
heard the Vice-Duke�s voice.
�Very nice. Very nice indeed. Yes, she�ll do. She�s very young and her
bosom is firm. You did well, Sister, to bring her to me.�
�To hear is to obey, your Excellency.�
The Vice Duke further humiliated Danka by ordering her to assume the
�prisoner�s stance�, standing with her feet spread and her hands clasped
behind her head. He ordered Z�nktia to kneel while she neatly folded
Danka�s dress and under-dress so she could take them out of the palace.
For the time that she served in the Vice Duke�s residence, Danka would
be kept completely naked. The boys continued leering at her as the other
women approached. The over-dressed noblewomen surrounded the naked
newcomer and the kneeling nun, quietly whispering comments meant to be
overheard and meant to embarrass the two churchwomen. Danka wondered how
on earth the Vice-Duke could get away with so badly mistreating nuns,
but she later learned he was free to take liberties with the women
because he supported the True Believers� policies and was generous to
the Bishop with his tax revenues.
The Vice-Duke dismissed Z�nktia and ordered Danka to follow him through
another set of doors into the inner palace. She passed a library where
two naked scribes were copying letters, and another room where an
advisor was dictating a speech to another naked scribe. He clapped his
hands and a naked woman rushed out and knelt at his feet. Danka noticed
she had a large number �1� written in ink on her right shoulder.
�A newcomer. Clean her up and put her to work.�
�To hear is to obey, your Excellency.�
The Vice-Duke was ready to dismiss Danka, but one of his sons wanted to
fondle her. He granted permission and Danka was ordered to bend over and
grab her ankles. The teenager spent several minutes caressing the newest
scribe�s bottom and thighs. He then started spanking her. He spent a
long time slapping her backside, slowly turning it pink. The punishment
was humiliating, but the boy was not hitting her hard at all. She said
nothing, wondering if he was just playing with her or if he really was
not very strong. When the teenager finished, the kneeling woman
whispered to Danka to kneel next to her. Then she whispered:
�You need to thank the prince for correcting your arrogance. Thank him,
kiss his shoes, and thank him again.�
Danka did as she was told. She put her hands together in prayer, stated:
�Thank you, my Prince, for correcting my arrogance�, knelt forward to
kiss his shoes, and repeated the phrase. Satisfied they had sufficiently
humiliated their newest servant, the Vice-Duke, his sons, and their
escort left the two women and returned to the ballroom.
As soon as the door closed, the woman stood up and ordered Danka to
follow her to washroom. She introduced herself as Scribe # 1 and told
Danka that she would be known as Scribe # 8. �That is now your name.
Scribe # 8. No one here is interested in whatever name you were using
when you came in. You�re Scribe # 8.�
As the newcomer sat in a bathtub, Scribe # 1 unbraided and washed Scribe
# 8�s hair. While they waited for her hair to dry so it could be
re-braided, Scribe # 1 explained what was going on. Like Danka, she had
come to the palace as a nun. There were 10 scribes at any time, and all
except one had been a nun prior to their internment in the palace. The
Vice-Duke preferred having nuns as palace scribes because they were
clean, obedient, had the best penmanship, and most of all, were fun to
embarrass by forcing them to be naked. The forced nudity totally
humiliated them as women and made them understand how inferior they were
to anyone else in the inner palace. There was a more practical purpose
as well, to make sure the scribes couldn�t try to escape or conceal
anything they were carrying.
After the newcomer was cleaned up, Scribe #1 picked up a quill and
inkwell and carefully drew a large number �8� on Danka�s shoulder. The
two scribes then reported to a room full of books, detailed maps of
various localities in the eastern valley, and ledgers that Danka quickly
learned were tax records. Two unpleasant-looking men were in the room.
Like everyone else in the palace, they wore foreign instead of Danubian
clothing, but at least their outfits were not nearly as outlandish as
those worn by the nobility.
The two women knelt as the leading scribe introduced Scribe # 8. The men
ordered the two women to copy a series of letters and records describing
the trial and execution of two farmers for tax evasion and the eviction
of a couple of neighbors suspected of helping them. Throughout the rest
of the day the two scribes would be copying similar correspondence, and
in doing so Danka would quickly learn about the inner workings of the
Vice-Duchy�s government. It seemed the Vice-Duchy�s operations centered
upon collecting as many taxes as possible; that almost all of the
guards� activities in some way were focused on seizing revenue. The
Vice-Duke re-distributed funds to his favorites and more importantly,
the True Believers� Church hierarchy. Most of the remaining wealth went
into maintaining the palace and purchasing imported luxuries. Danka
already had noticed the eastern part of the Duchy seemed much poorer
than the western part, and now she knew why. The Vice-Duke was not
spending any of his wealth on the public�s education or infrastructure
improvements.
----------
At
the end of her first day, the ten scribes ate a silent dinner together.
After the women cleaned their teeth, Scribe # 1 escorted the newcomer to
the washroom. The scribes bathed in pairs in a special washroom that
contained not only a small tub and a stove for heating water, but also a
row of comfortable-looking chairs. The tub was too small to sit in and
had a bar hanging over it. After she and Scribe # 1 relieved themselves
in the privy, Danka found out why the washroom was set up in such a
manner. Several men and boys dressed in fancy imported clothing came in
and sat in the chairs. It turned out that the scribes had to take turns
washing each other in front of an audience. She had to hold onto the bar
and face her audience while her partner soaped and massaged her body.
That soaping included her vulva. In front of a group of males, the
scribes were required to clean and massage each other�s bottoms and
vaginas. It was a gross violation of protocol meant to express
domination over the women, in the same way the Grand Duke forced his
concubines to keep their hair unbraided.
Danka was used to enduring a lot of different indignities, but the
bathing performance was something new. Scribe # 1 not only had to run
her hands all over Scribe # 8�s bottom and pubic hair, but she also was
required to push a soap-covered finger deep into her companion�s vagina
and sphincter, �to make sure she was absolutely clean�. The women
switched places and Danka had to bathe Scribe # 1. When Danka soaped her
companion�s vulva and pushed her finger inside, she noticed tears
running down her face. After having been in the palace for nearly a
year, Scribe # 1 still could not suffer such humiliating treatment in
public without crying. After finishing their bath and drying off, the
two scribes had to present themselves to their audience. They had to
turn around and bend over to allow the men to fondle and caress their
bottoms and legs. When the treatment was finally over and the audience
left, Scribes # 1 and # 8 cleaned up the bathroom and brought in several
buckets of fresh water. The next show would be in an hour, featuring
Scribes # 4 and # 6. Scribe # 1�s eyes were still full of tears. She
commented:
�We were lucky today. Sometimes they make us� do unspeakable things in
there.�
As they walked down the hallway, Danka thought about asking her
companion for more detail, but figured she�d find out soon enough about
the �unspeakable things�. Instead, another question came into her mind.
�Does His Excellency ever� take liberties with us?�
�No. He has a couple of finely dressed mistresses running about. Those
two (and the Vice-Duchess) keep him busy. We�re not nobility, so we�re
not worth his trouble. I guess that�s fortunate. Besides, we�re
churchwomen and we�re supposed to be chaste.�
�Chaste? After what we did in the washroom?�
�The men in the palace can�t use us as women. That�s the agreement His
Excellency has with the Bishop. So, our �chastity� is safeguarded. But,
in every other way possible, they enjoy dishonoring us and mocking us.�
The scribes entered their sleeping quarters. The room was not heated,
but it had five very comfortable beds surrounded by curtains. The
scribes slept in pairs. Danka�s suspicions about the arrangement were
confirmed when she heard faint moans from behind the curtains of one of
the beds. Scribe # 1 opened the curtains to an empty bed and motioned
the newcomer to pull down the covers and get in. Danka reluctantly
obeyed. Scribe # 1 followed her in and closed the curtains.
�When I told you we have to do �unspeakable things� to each other, did
you understand what I meant by that?�
�Yes.�
�You�re lucky, because I didn�t. Anyhow, it�s best that you practice and
accustom yourself to doing what they want. They�ll whip you and put you
on the pillory, the one in the city�s main plaza, if you don�t. That�s
how I spent my second day here, on the pillory. It was cold outside and
I nearly froze to death. The only reason I didn�t was that a guard took
pity on me and set up a brazier of cave charcoal underneath me, to keep
me warm enough to stay alive.�
Danka said nothing, but she had a flashback of the horrid hours she
spent on the pillory almost a decade before. The experience was one that
a person never forgot. And hers was during the summer. She didn�t want
to imagine what spending a day on the pillory would be like if the
weather wasn�t warm. Scribe # 1 changed the subject:
�I have seniority over you. I expect you to obey me and do anything I
ask of you. Do you understand?�
�Yes, I understand.�
�Good. Then I need you to rub my body. That includes the area between my
legs. I�ll tell you when I want anything more.�
Danka knew how to give a sensual massage to another woman because of the
time she spent with Antonia. She also knew how to give a massage that
relaxed a partner and was likely to put her to sleep. She applied that
experience while massaging Scribe # 1 and had her unconscious within a
few minutes. She exhaled a huge sigh of relief when her companion�s
breathing changed to that of a sleeping person. At least that night
she�d be spared from having to do �unspeakable things� with her.
----------
No one from Ernockt�s group had yet contacted Danka about her situation,
but starting on the second day she decided to begin taking notes and
making summaries of tax collectors� correspondence, reports from the
guards, and any other papers she could look at and understand. No one in
the palace seemed to notice or care about what she was doing. The other
scribes were too mortified at their own nudity to pay attention to
anything other than their own duties, while the members of the palace
entourage were too self-absorbed with fashion and personal intrigues to
suspect a nun recruited as a female scribe might be part of a conspiracy
against them. So, Danka spent all of her spare time working on her notes
and by the end of the first week had assembled ten pages of information
written on scrap pages of parchment. As always, she wrote in the tiniest
script her quill would allow and thought about how she might invent a
system of code or shorthand to further conserve space. As for hiding the
papers, there was no need to worry about that at all. Scribe # 1 had
issued a portfolio to hold her unmarked parchment, drafts, and practice
writings, so she simply carried the collected information with her other
notes. If anyone examined them and asked her what they were, she�d
simply say she was teaching herself to write in small script and the
pages were for practice.
Danka was exposed to a lot of information about the workings of the
Vice-Duchy during her first week at the palace. She sat taking notes in
meeting after meeting for 12 hours each day. When she wasn�t taking
dictation, she was transcribing correspondence, including some letters
between the Vice-Duke and foreign leaders. She discovered the Vice-Duke
was worried about the Grand Duke�s consolidation of power over the
western half of the Duchy. The Vice-Duke also expressed in
correspondence that he was jealous of the Grand Duke�s popularity, given
that he was little more than an uncouth military leader and understood
nothing about acting like a nobleman and enjoying cultured activities.
By the end of her first week in the palace, Scribe # 8 already
understood much about the Vice-Duchy and how its ruler contrasted with
the Grand Duke. It was obvious the Vice-Duke was completely absorbed in
his own world of western royal culture. It also was obvious the
Vice-Duke had none of the Grand Duke�s virtues as a ruler. He surrounded
himself with expensive art and a ridiculous palace and was totally
cut-off from the realities of life in the Vice-Duchy. He wanted to live
a sumptuous lifestyle worthy of western kings, without understanding
that luxury and a fancy palace did not equate legitimate rule.
In contrast, the Grand Duke moved among his subjects and through
interacting with normal people was very aware of conditions around the
western valley and H�rkustk Ris province. Apart from keeping up his
castle, he did not spend much of the Duchy�s treasury on the Royal
Family. His one extravagant expenditure, maintaining a harem of
concubines, had a specific purpose, to eventually augment his control
over the outer regions of the Duchy.
Danka had always feared and hated the Grand Duke because of what he did
to her. However, seeing how odious and incompetent the Vice-Duke was,
she was able to view the Grand Duke in a more objective manner. Whatever
his flaws as a man, the Grand Duke was a competent ruler who surrounded
himself with competent advisors and was genuinely concerned about the
safety and physical well-being of his subjects. He took personal
responsibility for his actions and decisions. Whenever he could, the
Sovereign led his army into battle and had placed himself at great
physical risk on several occasions. In doing so, he had earned the
admiration of his men and the loyalty of the western half of the
country. Meanwhile, the Vice-Duke assumed he deserved the loyalty of his
subjects because of his birthright, without having to do anything to
improve their lives or earn their respect.
----------
On the eighth day of her internment in the palace, a guard she had never
seen before approached Scribe # 8 with a letter his commander needed
transcribed. Following protocol, she knelt while receiving the
assignment. To identify himself, the guard handed her a package
containing the items she had kept inside the lining of her nun�s dress.
They exchanged nods to acknowledge each other�s membership in the
conspiracy.
�My commander will be very eager to receive the transcription of his
letter. My other commander, the one to whom you owe a debt, is
anticipating the correspondence you have prepared for him. You have
prepared such correspondence, haven�t you, Scribe?�
�Yes, My Protector, I have.�
Danka reached into her portfolio and handed the guard the 10 sheets of
finely-printed notes. The guard quickly glanced at the papers and hid
them under his vest.
�You have done well, Scribe. I will return for the letter this
afternoon.�
�Yes, My Protector.�
Danka stood up, enormously relieved to have finally received
communication from her co-conspirators and verification she was where
she needed to be. She spent the rest of the day transcribing notes about
the Bishop�s efforts to identify people likely to be sympathetic to the
Old Believers, and working on the letter in her spare time. Thinking the
Church information might be important, she made an extra set of notes to
hand over to her contact when she saw him in the afternoon. The letter
for the commander was legitimate, so there would be no concern about the
guard and the scribe being seen together. The guard returned to pick up
his commander�s letter just as Scribe # 8 was leaving the conference
room for dinner. She knelt as the guard took the letter and looked it
over.
�This document will be satisfactory. Next time please leave more space
along the right margin. The other commander is quite pleased with your
efforts and wishes to thank you for your dedication. You have done well,
and your information about the Bishop and His Excellency�s troubles with
tax evaders is most useful for the future harmony of our fair land.
Also, as we all know, women are the source of much evil, especially
women with fine clothing and idle hands, which the scripture has warned
us about. Gossip and intrigues can be most harmful to a royal house. Is
that not so, Scribe?�
�Yes, My Protector.�
�Very well, Scribe. When my commander needs another letter, I will ask
you to perform the favor of transcribing it.�
�Do you know when that might be, My Protector?�
�No, Scribe, I do not. Tomorrow it might rain, or the sun might shine.
The right to make that decision belongs to the Lord-Creator, not to me.�
�Yes, My Protector.�
So, as she ate with her silent companions, Danka was satisfied that at
least she had an idea what kind of information she needed to collect.
She had been correct to gather everything she could about the Bishop and
his activities. Information about tax collection efforts turned out to
be more important than she had previously thought. She had a new
tasking, to attempt to overhear gossip among the women and report on any
feuds or intrigues among the Vice-Duchy�s favored families.
So, for the next month Danka�s life mostly centered on long hours spent
with a quill in her hand in the Vice-Duke�s study or the officials�
conference rooms. She transcribed several meetings between the Vice-Duke
and various Church officials as they negotiated how much tax money the
ruler had to pay in exchange for full support from the True Believers.
There was talk of identifying and executing sympathizers of the Old
Believers and renegade Followers of the Ancients. Whenever possible,
Scribe # 8 noted the names of targeted people, hoping her contacts would
collect the information in time to warn the suspects or take other
actions to prevent their arrests.
----------
The palace entourage continued their sexual humiliation of the former
nuns throughout the time Danka was known to Rika Chorna as �Scribe # 8�.
The women bathed every 48 hours, and every single time they entered the
washroom they had to endure soaping and fingering each other in front of
an audience of men and boys. Then, of course, they had to bend over and
submit to �inspections� and more fondling.
Danka managed to put off doing �unimaginable things� with Scribe # 1 for
a week by massaging her to sleep every night. However, two nights after
she sent off her first intelligence report, Danka�s bed partner was less
tired than normal and refused to accept a relaxing massage. Instead, she
ordered Scribe # 8 to massage her between her legs and run her fingers
through her pubic hair. She rolled over and ordered the newcomer to kiss
her bottom and lick the area around her sphincter. It was very fortunate
she had just bathed before forcing Danka to stimulate her there, or else
Danka would have become sick. Scribe # 1 then flipped on her back and
ordered Danka to put her face between her thighs.
�You�ll have to learn how to do this, and do it properly if you don�t
want the whip and the pillory. The next time we bathe, His Excellency
will want to watch us perform� to do the unspeakable for him. So, you�ll
need to do it to me. I am not doing it to you. I�ve dishonored myself
enough and now it�s someone else�s turn. Now, start kissing and licking
me. Put your tongue inside. You�ll need to figure out how to satisfy me
so you can do it again when we bathe tomorrow.�
It was fortunate Danka had so much experience with sex, because even
though she had never touched any other woman apart from Antonia, she
knew what sensations aroused a typical female. Ignoring the fact she was
doing the most dishonorable thing imaginable for a woman, she pushed
aside her disgust and misgivings and concentrated on the task of making
Scribe # 1 climax as quickly as possible. She avoided sticking her
tongue into Scribe # 1�s vagina. She used her fingers instead and
concentrated her tongue on her partner�s clitoris. Within less than two
minutes Scribe # 1 climaxed, moaning as the scent of her arousal filled
the inside of the bed�s canopy. Danka then massaged her to make her go
to sleep. She opened the curtains to let out the stench while she went
to the wash basin to rinse off her face and clean the taste from her
mouth.
No, she would not be crying or show herself as mortified the following
evening. She�d simply do as she was told, make Scribe # 1 climax in
front of their audience, and get the whole thing over with as quickly as
possible. It was nothing more to her than a disagreeable tasking, just
like everything else she had to do in that awful palace.
----------
