The Girl with No Name Ch. 10

Chapter Ten – The Messenger

Danka felt very restless and ill-at-ease after Káloyankt departed Dagurúckt-Tók with his new wife. It was strange to consider how different the girl's life would be from that of Danka...almost completely opposite. Her parents were keen on marrying her off as soon as her hair was braided, and her very first suitor became her husband. She would never find out what falling in love with more than one man would be like, nor would she ever experience the traveling, hardships, and various adventures that had been Danka's Path in Life over the past two years. She would never be humiliated or have to run away from anything. The only hardship she'd ever have to endure would be childbirth, which was a hardship common to all women. Danka wondered if Káloyankt might become bored with his wife, but she knew him well enough to understand that if he was bored with her, he'd keep those emotions hidden.

The other Followers did not know that Danka had set up her lover's new relationship precisely to get rid of him. Initially most of her companions thought it was Káloyankt who had left Danka, to take advantage of replacing her with a girl who was much closer to his social class. By the standards of Danubian society such a move would have made sense for a young man in Káloyankt's situation. Danka figured it would be best to let people believe whatever they wanted to believe. If anyone asked her about her lover, she simply responded: "What happened was between me and him. It was the will of the Creator that forced us to separate. If you must know, consult with the Ancients, and perhaps you will receive your answer." Her attitude was misinterpreted by her companions and the townsfolk as typical peasant's stoicism.

Ermin vaguely hoped that now, with his rival out of the way, he might convince Danka to become more committed to him. She did consider him as her primary lover, but she had no intention of limiting with whom she would have sex. She made herself available to the town's most important men, starting with Káloyankt's father-in-law. Since she had introduced his daughter to her future husband, the Priest allowed Danka to use a secret hidden outdoor courtyard to rinse off after finishing her operations for the day. Danka knew the Priest was probably watching her, but she didn't mind because the courtyard was secluded and a nice quiet spot to gather her thoughts. Now that Káloyankt was gone, she wanted to see if the Clergyman was indeed watching her, and if so, would it be possible to seduce him. She spent longer periods of time in the courtyard, alternating between bathing and sunning herself while reading. She read in languid seductive positions, spreading her legs and casually running her hand over her thighs or massaging her vulva. She paid attention to the Priest whenever she talked to him, noticing he was increasingly nervous. She casually commented:

"It's really nice in the courtyard in the afternoon, Priest. I wish to thank you for letting me use it. It seems such a pity you couldn't enjoy it as well."

The next day Danka passed through the church instead of entering the courtyard from the back. She gave the Priest a seductive smile and proceeded to her bath. Overcome with desire, he looked around to make sure no one was watching at that moment, and then followed her. She entered the courtyard, leaving the door ajar and quickly undressed. She knew the Priest was watching. She approached a stone bench and placed her hands on it, with her bottom facing the door and her audience.

The Priest had gone too far to back away. The young Follower knew he had been watching her. She knew he wanted her. The man's desire took over and he entered the courtyard, shutting the door behind him. She looked over her shoulder to give him a seductive smile. He placed his hand on her bottom, massaged her backside for a moment, and pulled off his robe and hat. Already he was hard. He fondled the girl's labia and touched her clitoris. She was wet and ready. He entered her and thrust, letting out a series of strange-sounding grunts. Danka had a hard time suppressing a laugh.

She spent the night making love to Ermin, but her mind was on what she would do with the Priest the following day. Now that she had succeeded in seducing the Clergyman, her next step was to take away the illusion that he was in charge of what was happening. She figured that he'd come into the courtyard as soon as she had her dress off and that it would not be necessary to assume the submissive position. She was right about that. The moment she was naked, there he was. She did not give him a chance to take off his robe, but instead hugged him and lifted it off. His hat fell to the ground and rolled across the tiles. She hugged him and caressed his hardening penis. Holding and controlling him by his erection, she guided him to the stone bench and pushed him onto his back. She massaged his chest to keep him from trying to get up. Then she mounted him and positioned herself so he'd enter her. Again he made those weird grunting noises, but Danka was too caught up in her own fantasies to notice or care.

I'm in control. This man is doing what I want, copulating in the way I have chosen. This is what Lilith did...and this is my Path in Life. I will become Lilith...I will seduce the self-righteous and strip them of their illusion of piety.

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Danka never bathed in the courtyard again. She was done with the Priest and was ready to move on to her next target, a town councilman. He was followed by the director of the local builder's guild, two other councilmen, and the town's largest land-owner. Danka's pattern was always the same. She initially seduced her target by finding an excuse to take off her dress and assume the submissive position. During the second love-making session she silently insisted, through caresses and positioning her lover onto his back, on being on top. She became hungry for more lovers, more experiences, and finding the most powerful men.

All men are weak. It doesn't matter how pious or important they might be, they're all weak. They can't resist the vagina. I will control them...I will have power...

Ermin was aware of Danka's actions, but he failed to do anything about the situation. He was involved in his own extra affair, with the widow of a local landowner. Just like Danka, he had illusions of greatness through sex. He was hoping to assume control of the woman's estate, from which he would create a safe-haven for Cult members in the heart of the Western Valley. He let Danka have her adventures, figuring there would be no harm in allowing her to have some fun.

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During the final week of August, Danka was working on the leader of the town council, the most important man in Dagurúckt-Tók and the oldest man she had ever tried to seduce. She entered his study and flattered him into thinking that she considered him attractive. In his case she did not even bother with letting him first take her in the submissive position. He was too old to achieve a spontaneous erection, so she laid him on his back and massaged his penis until he finally managed to get hard. She mounted him and placed her hands on his chest. He smiled and grunted. She felt his penis weakly pumping into her vagina. Then her world went black, and a pair of cruel yellow eyes took over her vision. The Destroyer laughed...and faded away.

The old man suddenly jerked, let out a gurgling gasp, and went limp. His arms fell to his sides and his eyes stared blankly into space. Danka felt her heart jump into her throat when she realized her lover was not breathing. She pushed his chest and tried forcing air into his mouth. Nothing. She jumped up, realizing the councilman's soul had just separated from his body. Terror welled up inside her. She tried to revive the official several more times, but he remained inert. He was definitely dead. Danka frantically put on her Follower's outfit and dressed the corpse. The body seemed unbelievably heavy as she rolled it around and pulled on the clothes. Sweat poured down the girl's panicky face as she tried to remove all evidence of what had just happened.

Danka's mind was blank from terror. She no longer felt like the all-powerful Lilith. She ran outside, holding her head with her hands, trying to think of what to do. Ermin...she'd have to tell Ermin what happened and see if he could think of something. She ran around the town asking for him and finally found out that he was setting the broken arm of a guard who had fallen off a ladder. He handed off the operation to his assistant and followed the girl outside.

Danka frantically told Ermin about the official's death. She was so frightened that she did not try to hide any details from him. She knew that she was in deep trouble and that her only hope was to rely on him to come up with a solution. He didn't say anything to admonish her, because that would have to come later. His only response was to tell her they needed to return to the council building and confront the town's leaders with the truth.

The town's clergy, guild leaders, and council staff already were gathered outside the city hall. Several assistants angrily pointed at Danka as soon as she was in their sight. They had seen her running from the building just before they found their leader dead. The guards ran up to the Followers with their crossbows drawn, but Ermin calmly held up his hand.

"You will listen to me! We are returning, are we not? If we wished to flee as common murderers, would we be here, of all places? Would we not be running away from this city as fast as we could? We are delivering ourselves into your hands. Your elders will listen to us before you release your bolts!"

Ermin led Danka into the main council chamber. The city's leaders were sitting at their chairs, minus their senior chief. Danka trembled, partly because she had seduced the majority of the men sitting at that table. Ermin suggested they order the guards out of the room and close the doors. Fortunately the elders acquiesced.

Ermin told Danka to explain what happened. With tears in her eyes and a trembling voice she described the heart attack and her efforts to revive the councilman. The experience was unnerving and humiliating, because she had made love to several of her listeners in the exact same manner. None of the councilmen had known that she had seduced any of the others. The looked at each other and realized they all were implicated in Danka's behavior. Ermin broke the silence:

"The Senior Councilman's soul did indeed separate from his body because of a heart attack, my Lords. That is the truth; it was a simple heart attack. I deeply regret our failure as doctors, but he was 65 years old, and his time in the Realm of the Living had to end. This girl exhausted her knowledge doing what she could to revive him. When her efforts failed, she ran to advise me so I could determine if anything more could be done for the gentleman. I regret to say that nothing more can be done, that the man's soul separated from his body. I therefore request your permission to remove my subordinate from your city. It is best that we deal with her, which we will."

The council sat quietly for a moment. Finally the first member Danka had seduced spoke:

"Yes, it is best that you leave, Follower, as soon as you can pack your belongings. Be gone by sunset. Get that dishonored girl out of our sight and don't let her talk to anyone on your way out. You will understand that she is never to return to this city. We don't want you back either. Someone else in your group will take charge. Stay quiet about this and get out."

Ermin gave Danka an angry look, because now his own ambitions had been disrupted. He couldn't work on seducing the widow if he wasn't allowed in the town. He saluted the council members and left the chamber. Danka said nothing as she followed him. The Followers loaded and mounted two mules (which they had to purchase) and rode out of Dagurúckt-Tók. They were away from the town and headed north within an hour of leaving the city hall. Danka said nothing, but was terrified as she wondered how the Followers disciplined a member who had brought dishonor to the Cult.

Ermin was indeed angry at Danka. He could not fault her for having sex with other men if he was doing exactly the same thing with other women, but her behavior had been totally reckless. The Followers were extremely lucky the scandal had happened in Dagurúckt-Tók, where there was enough goodwill that the entire Cult would not be judged by the actions of a single member. Had the incident happened anywhere else, it was very likely the group, or at least Danka and Ermin, would have ended up tied to posts in the city square with five arrows sticking out of their chests. Ironically, it was also fortunate that Danka had seduced so many of the council members, men who did not want their own humiliating involvement with their guest to get out.

The official story was that the city elder had a heart attack and young Follower had been summoned to save him. She failed and the council members were angry at that failure. The locals were skeptical. Now...why would the town council be angry at a doctor who couldn't save an old man who died from natural causes typical of a person that age? Wasn't that unreasonable?

The sexual portion of the story came out, mostly as guesses and rumors. Several conflicting versions of the councilman's death at the hands of the young temptress circulated around the town. The young Follower's sexual appetite and abilities were greatly exaggerated, especially when various men who had never met her falsely claimed to have been her lovers. She became the girl-demon of Dagurúckt-Tók, the cruel seductress of the valley. Eventually the tales became totally fanciful and Danka became a semi-supernatural being, in many ways similar to her heroine Lilith.

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Ermin and his assistant rode north for three days. He was very worried that two lightly-armed civilians, sitting on a pair of slow-moving pack mules, could be easy targets for brigands. When possible, he and Danka traveled with groups of traders or anyone else who happened to be going in the same direction. The practical concern of traveling delayed anything he wanted to say concerning her behavior in Dagurúckt-Tók. Danka was extremely grateful for the respite, but all too soon the two Followers passed the final village and the wooded mountains loomed ahead. Following custom, as soon as they were out of sight from the open fields, Danka and Ermin stripped off their clothing. They rode a short distance into the trees before stopping to give the mules a chance to drink from a nearby stream. Danka, now naked and feeling very vulnerable, waited for her companion to say something. He glanced at her and commented:

"Do you remember our conversation last April, when we talked about the birch grove?"

"Yes, I remember that."

"I'm sure you'd agree it's time we pay that location a visit, don't you think?"

Danka felt a shiver running through her body. So...they would spend the promised afternoon in the grove, but it would not be an afternoon of erotic play. It was obvious Ermin planned to inflict real punishment. She understood, under the circumstances, that she deserved a whipping. She was actually relieved; if Ermin punished her, then it was less likely she'd have to endure punishment from Babáckt Yaga. She suspected chastisement from her Mistress would be infinitely worse than anything Ermin could inflict on her.

After a few moments of silence, she desolately looked at her companion.

"When you're finished, do you think you can forgive me?"

"I'll try, Danka. That's all I can promise right now. I'll try to forgive you. I'm well-aware that harboring anger won't serve either of us."

The nearest birch grove was about an hour's ride further into the forest. It was an idyllic clearing, a rare spot where the sun's light and warmth reached through the leaves and illuminated the ground. The Followers would be making camp in that location. It already was mid-day and Ermin knew that by the time he finished, there would be no point in loading up the mules only to have to unload them a couple of hours later. After the animals were unsaddled and the camp was set up, Danka quietly and sadly looked at her mentor, awaiting further instructions. He handed her a small sharp knife.

"You'll need to select 10 good rods and prepare them. Cut the pieces about a half-fathom in length, peel off the bark, and leave them in the stream to soak. Make sure there are no sharp points sticking out. That's very important, no sharp points. I don't want to cut you."

While Ermin set up a cooking fire, Danka proceeded to the willows. She searched around and found the first four suitable-looking candidates. She followed her companion's instructions by making sure the switches were properly cut on both ends. She peeled off the bark and trimmed the bumps. The implements were not heavy, but she knew the force of the blows would be concentrated along a thin line and the pain would be very sharp.

She put the prepared switches in the cold water and looked for the remaining six. As she found and cleaned additional implements, she thought about the saying "pride is greatest before the fall". She was humiliated, not by the fact a man who she cared for felt justified in switching her, but by her belief that she did deserve to be punished. She did not feel that she had done anything immoral, but she jeopardized the Followers' good standing in a friendly town through reckless behavior, which was much worse.

As her stomach churned and her bottom tingled in fear, Danka thought about her past. She had not been punished since the day she was arrested, but as an adolescent, she was used to whippings. Both her parents punished her for the slightest infraction, real or imagined. However, they never used switches. The nemesis of her backside had been a heavy leather strap that her father used to haul bundles of firewood. The loud crack of the leather and the screams of the older Síluckt daughter were a familiar sound around the day-laborers' settlement during the years prior to her departure.

After cutting the final switch, she pulled the others out of the water and carried them to the campsite. She had wondered what a whipping from birch rods would feel like. Well...she was about to find out. She approached Ermin. Near the edge of the clearing there was a thick log lying on the ground, from the remains of a large tree that had toppled over a few weeks before. Ermin was standing next to the log, indicating that was where he planned to punish his companion.

"I'd prefer not to have to tie you. If you can obey my instructions, that would be best for both of us."

Danka responded by holding out the switches. Ermin took them and gave each one a test swipe through the air. The girl flinched at the swishing sound. He tossed one switch aside because it was too thick, but was satisfied with the others. He was pleased the girl had not attempted to choose implements that would be too light. All of the rods would hurt when applied to her unprotected body.

Ermin took the first switch and tapped Danka's hands. He used the rod to point at the log, indicating he expected the girl to firmly place her hands on the top. With a couple more taps between her legs he motioned that she needed to spread her feet. She stood quietly, trembling slightly, but otherwise was motionless. The elder touched the switch to her base of her bottom and gently rubbed it on her bare skin.

He positioned himself, drew back, and delivered a sharp blow to the girl's naked bottom. Danka tensed up and held her breath as the pain mounted, but did her best not to move. Ermin watched as the welt from the first stroke rose and darkened on her skin, to gauge how hard he needed to hit. Satisfied by the first weal, he tapped her bottom and struck hard a second time. Tears welled up in Danka's eyes, but she didn't cry out or try to move. She was stoic and used to suffering, so she was able to stay quiet through blows that would have sent a city girl running and begging for mercy.