The Girl with No Name Ch. 14

The paintings were extremely explicit for their time. Rulers throughout Europe sometimes commissioned nude portraits of their mistresses or models, but in most cases the pictures did not portray the woman's private area in detail. The Grand Duke of Danubia would have none of that. He insisted that his concubines' pubic hair be included in any picture portraying them from the front, and if their genitalia were visible in their pose, that had to be detailed in the picture as well. The images created in the Grand Duke's castle were as explicit as any high-resolution photograph taken in the late 20th Century.

The paintings from the Royal Residence were popular among visiting dignitaries, and the sovereign had an ample supply to pass out as gifts. There are over 500 surviving concubine portraits scattered around Danubia and neighboring countries, of which we have information on only half of the models. Fortunately, art historians have identified the images of Silvítya, so we have a very good idea of what she looked like in the mid-1700s. It is interesting to note that the Grand Duke never gave away any of the portraits he had commissioned of Sister Silvítya.

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As August passed and the summer days grew shorter, Silvítya spent more time with the Grand Duke than any of her fellow "sisters". He continued to treat her roughly in bed, but afterwards he comforted her in his bath and calmed her nerves with wine. Her life story fascinated him. He started by questioning her about university life in Sebérnekt Ris. It was obvious he already knew a lot about the university and, in fact, had met Dean Fítoreckt. Several castle doctors and scribes had been trained at the university, but the Duke was interested in hearing Silvítya's perspective as a student. She dreaded the thought of the ruler checking university records and discovering there was no student at the university using her current name. Through her conversations she found out that Dean Fítoreckt had died only two weeks after she left for the capitol; a fact that saddened, but did not surprise her.

The ruler questioned the concubine at length about her studies, probing to see how much she knew about medicine, history, and the Duchy in general. He was impressed with her knowledge. He pondered how to use the girl's brain to his advantage. He decided to start by giving her a complicated task that could potentially be useful. He ordered her to go into the Royal Library, write summaries of the books she considered the most important, the most interesting, or the most useful, and provide recommendations for new acquisitions. The ruler admitted that he did not have much time for leisure reading, so when he did have a chance to read, he wanted to make sure he was spending his time with the best his collection had to offer. So, not only would Silvítya have access to the Royal Library; she would be tasked with knowing and describing its contents.

The Grand Duke escorted Silvítya to the library, to make sure the matrons and librarians knew that she was supposed to be there and was acting in his orders. The library contained many books on military equipment and strategy, religious works, maps, Danubian history, poetry, and translations of foreign novels, but was sorely lacking works on medicine, chemistry, and hard sciences such as botany. Silvítya was surprised by the collection of architecture studies and blue prints of buildings from foreign cities around Europe. Those were the most recent purchases, a reflection of the fascination the Grand Duke had with architecture.

Silvítya entered the library at day-break and stayed until noon, Monday through Saturday. She started by trying to remember the titles and authors of books she had read during her year in Sebérnekt Ris. As various books came to her mind, she compiled the titles into a list of proposed acquisitions. She began her summaries with the history and theology books. She did not feel qualified to assess the value of the military studies and figured that the Grand Duke would be least interested in knowing about the novels and poetry. She buried herself into her work, relieved to have her mind occupied and to spend her mornings not having to listen to the chatter of her "sisters".

During the afternoons Silvítya did spend her time with the other women: eating, practicing etiquette, embroidering, bathing, and waiting for the bell to ring. During the month of September the pregnancies of two women became evident. The matrons braided their hair, they were provided with maternity dresses, and they left the group. The ruler replaced them with two new concubines, one of whom had been purchased from an indebted guildsman and the other from an independent farmer. A third girl appeared; a foreigner who was totally different in appearance from a typical Danubian. Her hair was completely black and her skin was considerably darker than anyone previously seen in the Grand Duke's castle.

The foreigner's name was Antonia. She was a gift from the Grand Duke's ambassador to Constantinople. Originally she had lived on an island in the Adriatic Sea, but her family had been captured during a pirates' raid against her village. She had seen some terrible things during her voyage to Constantinople, but her captors had kept her in good physical condition to maintain her value. As he was getting ready to return home, the Danubian ambassador bought her and another Adriatic girl and brought them to the Duchy. He kept the other girl for himself and presented Antonia to the Grand Duke. The Grand Duke had mixed feelings about the newest member of his collection. Her appearance fascinated him, but she knew nothing about protocol and was unable to understand and follow orders. She did not speak a word of Danubian and was mortified at being forced to be naked. Her failure to obey orders and her constant efforts to cover herself already had earned her a severe switching from the matrons. Magdala decided to task Silvítya with teaching the foreigner how to communicate and, whenever she was not in the library, to not let her out of her sight.

Silvítya spent the last half of September and all of October and November working with Antonia. She taught the foreigner to speak in the same way she had been taught how to read by the Church apprentice in Starívktaki Móskt; starting with the names of simple objects and later moving on to actions and commands. She broke Antonia's habit of trying to cover herself by gently touching her arms and forcing her to move her hands to her sides. Antonia came from a culture in which women never appeared naked in public, so covering her body was a reflexive reaction to her situation, something she did by instinct and without thinking. The culture of the Duchy, and especially in places like the castle where nudity was required, was different. Oddly, Antonia was not bothered in the least by having her hair unbraided and her scalp touched by the Grand Duke. Silvítya still was made very uneasy by the feeling of her loose hair brushing around her bare shoulders, while being naked around the castle staff was not nearly as much of an issue.

Antonia followed Silvítya around the castle whenever her mentor was not attending to her duties in the library. She became psychologically dependent on Silvítya: being in such a strange place, forced to constantly be naked, being subjected to rough sex with an arrogant master, and not being able to properly communicate with anyone. Because they were together constantly, the Silvítya and Antonia washed each other's hair and bodies, ignoring the unspoken protocol of sharing their baths and grooming with the other concubines. They moved on to giving each other soapy massages in the bath, and then to caressing each other in Silvítya's bed-chamber. In the middle of October, Antonia quit sleeping in her own bed-chamber and joined Silvítya in hers.

Silvítya and Antonia were not the only concubines to share a bed. During the winter it was common for unmarried Danubians, especially women, to sleep together to be warmer at night, even if they were not romantically involved. Magdala, for example, slept with one of the new girls. So, the other concubines did not question the arrangement Silvítya had made with Antonia. However, as they lay naked together, sleeping in each other's arms and caressing each other's bodies, the peasant girl and the foreigner developed a relationship that came very close to being a sexual romance. Neither would have defined what they were doing in those terms, because an overt physical relationship between two people of the same sex was strictly forbidden by both Danubian society and by their respective churches. They never kissed and never touched each other's vulvas, so they could claim to others and justify to themselves their relationship was nothing more than friendly intimacy and had nothing to do with sex. However, the emotional attachment between Silvítya and Antonia was very strong, going way beyond simple friendship. They were not "in love" as the term would be understood in the 20th and 21st Centuries, but they shared a unique emotional bond that was part friendship, part sisterly love, and part sexual desire.

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Silvítya provided the Grand Duke with reports and summaries about the contents of his library throughout the final months of 1753. She had to kneel in the throne room and do formal presentations with scribes and matrons watching. The Grand Duke took her reading lists and recommendations seriously. If she recommended acquiring a new title for the Royal Library, she could count on seeing it added to the collection within about three weeks. The Grand Duke also paid attention to her summaries. He actually read some of the titles she recommended and discussed them with her.

Silvítya's relationship with her master changed as a result of the conversations he held with her. He continued to want sex with her and to have her with him in his bath, but he called her to his bed-chamber by herself, not with the others. He stopped forcing her to lick his penis and no longer wanted to enter her sphincter. Silvítya was hugely grateful to have her bottom spared from the Grand Duke's attention: she found anal sex painful and did not enjoy it in the least.

The Grand Duke carefully calculated how much freedom to give Silvítya. He wanted her to understand that she was still his property and he could do with her as he pleased, but he also wanted to take advantage of her intelligence, education, and experiences. He couldn't do so if she was totally terrified of him: she had to have enough self-confidence around him to express her opinions and talk freely. He considered taking the "favored concubine" position away from Magdala and giving it to Silvítya, but realized that would not serve his needs. Silvítya's duties required her to be away from her "sisters" during much of the day, and Magdala seemed to be a good leader for the group. The Grand Duke had learned that if a person was performing well in an appointed position, especially a position that entailed relaying orders, making changes usually did more harm than good. So, Silvítya would continue her work in the Royal Library and Magdala would continue speaking on behalf of the concubine group.

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The Danubian ruler continued asking Silvítya about her travels and her past. By the end of October he realized that she had been a member of the Cult of the Ancients. That was an extremely useful detail about the girl's past life, but one he did not plan to question her about directly. Her training as a Follower meant that she would have medical experience and could perform field surgery. It also meant she probably had a good idea what happened to the Followers: why they so suddenly and mysteriously vanished at the end of the summer of the previous year. The Grand Duke was patient with such topics. He would bide his time, wait for Silvítya to make casual comments and then, when he already knew too much for her to deny anything, force her to tell him the full story of what happened to the Cult and its members.

In the meantime, the Grand Duke was interested in other parts of Silvítya's former life. He was particularly interested in hearing about the Senior Priest of Starívktaki Móskt and his wayward son Bagatúrckt. The ruler knew that Bagatúrckt had been killed (the incident was a regional scandal) and realized that his concubine knew what actually happened to him. Another interesting detail he'd have to extract from her when the right moment came.

The Grand Duke pressed his servant for details about her life as a day-laborer's daughter in her hometown of Rika Héckt-nemát. The rivalry between her and her sister and the intrigue within her family interested the Master, as did details about the irrigation project. He was especially curious to know the exact date of the girl's departure. When she answered that she had left in early June of 1750, he responded:

"Then the Creator was indeed watching over you. You do know that within weeks of your departure, almost everyone in Rika Héckt-nemát held up his mirror in the Afterlife?"

Silvítya's heart jumped into her throat. "No, Your Majesty. Your humble serving girl did not know that."

"Yes, indeed. The Destroyer passed through your city with the rat-plague. It was the worst epidemic anyone has ever seen in recent times. It's possible it was the worst epidemic ever, considering how many people died and how quickly. I have read about the rat-plague throughout history and I never encountered a case as severe as the one in Rika Héckt-nemát. I had to order your city cut-off from the rest of the Duchy to safeguard the neighboring towns. A painful decision that condemned that city, but spared the others."

"Your humble serving girl wishes to know if anyone survived, Your Majesty."

"A few people. Some starving survivors came up to the roadblocks the following spring. I ordered them quarantined until we could determine they did not carry the plague, then the guards fed them and let them pass."

"Your humble serving girl wishes to know how many, Your Majesty."

"No more than 600, I would estimate. I presume there are a few people still in the town, but I don't know how many. I've maintained the blockade. I don't want people going in there. You know...your city was cursed by the Destroyer."

"No, Your Majesty, your humble serving girl did not know that."

"Yes, indeed. The place is cursed. The story I heard was that some city guards tied up a girl and threw her into the Rika Chorna river to drown. She cried out to Beelzebub (that's what the True Believers call the Destroyer) to save her. The Destroyer did save her, but at the cost of her soul and the lives of the town's other citizens. The whole region was dead within days. You were very lucky to get out before the Destroyer seized the city."

"My family...my brothers..."

"Most likely their souls separated from their bodies. There were no day-laborers reported among the survivors, at least none that I am aware of. But, as I said, it doesn't matter. Rika Héckt-nemát carries a curse, and I will not risk the lives of any more of the Duchy's citizens trying to determine what happened. The city died, the rest of the Duchy lives, and we must avoid the curse and confront other problems."

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Silvítya tightly held Antonia that night. For a while she didn't say anything, but she needed to be comforted. Her thoughts wandered to the cold rational mentality of the Grand Duke. For fifteen years Rika Héckt-nemát had been Silvítya's entire world. She still spoke with an accent from that location. That world now was gone, its people taken away by the rat-plague, or by Beelzebub, or the Destroyer, depending on who one talked to.

To the Grand Duke the city was just one out of many, one minor issue among a myriad of problems facing his realm. The death of an entire city was an unfortunate incident, but not one that loomed large among his worries. The city died: there was nothing he could do about it apart from sealing off whatever problems remained, and the Duchy would move forward. It seemed the Grand Duke was no more disturbed about the deaths of 20,000 people than he would be upon encountering a flock of dead birds along the roadway.

Through the language barrier Silvítya explained to her lover what had happened to her family, that most likely they all were dead. Her thoughts were conflicted and she really didn't know how to take the news. Yes, she had hated her sister Katrínckta and resented the way her parents had treated her. But she had loved her younger brothers. Also, she had entertained ideas of eventually returning home in triumph and somehow using her new status to set things right. There was nothing to set right, because it was very unlikely anyone from her family was still alive.

She wondered about Farmer Tuko Orsktackt and his large family and happy estate. Did any of them survive? She hoped so, but was not optimistic. She had hoped to return the farmer's estate in triumph and reconcile with him, a hope similar to the one she had for her family. Perhaps he survived the rat-plague: more likely he didn't.

Antonia carefully listened to Silvítya and understood most of what she said. She now spoke Danubian well enough to relay her own painful memories; that she had witnessed the killing of her parents, along with most of the other older captives from her village. The raiders did not consider the older people worth transporting. They could have simply been released, but the captors instead chose to kill them and dump their bodies into the Adriatic Sea.

Silvítya realized she was more fortunate than her lover. At least she had not been forced to witness the death of her family. There was that terrifying vision of her sister's death, but that was not the same as what Antonia must have felt, watching the killings in real life and seeing her parents' lifeless bodies disappear into the water.

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The next day, while eating dinner with her group, Sister Magdala became violently sick. She barely made it out of the dining hall before throwing up. Over the next several days she became sick at random times with spontaneous vomiting spells. For a group of women who spent their days waiting to become pregnant, it was obvious what was happening to their spokeswoman. The moon had paid her a visit. Now, it was Magdala's turn to carry the Grand Duke's seed. Within a few weeks her stomach would start to swell, she would depart the concubine group, and would spend the rest of her time in the castle living in the maternity ward.

The news of Magdala's pending departure greatly depressed Silvítya. Besides being a good leader for the "sisters" and maintaining harmony among them, Magdala was the only woman among the concubines Silvítya felt she could really talk to and share her feelings. She would be sorely missed.

The spokeswoman's pregnancy reminded Silvítya of the reality of her relationship with Antonia; that if Antonia became pregnant, they would be separated. She now faced a moral dilemma with her lover. She kept her supply of birth-control paste and longevity potion hidden in a box tied to the underside of the bed. She loved Antonia enough to seriously consider giving her both. She did not want her partner to become pregnant and taken away from her, nor did she want to see Antonia age. However, she realized that to let Antonia know anything about her secrets would place both women at huge risk by involving them in a conspiracy. Conspiracy against the Grand Duke or his wishes was a capital offense. Also, there was not a chance Silvítya could escape the castle and take Antonia with her. Under the right circumstances, she could escape on her own, but Antonia's foreign physical appearance was sure to draw attention. The only Path in Life open to Silvítya's partner was to wait until she became pregnant, have the Grand Duke's baby, and hope that she could have an acceptable life upon leaving the castle, "living on His Majesty's coin". Silvítya rationalized that perhaps she could reunite with Antonia and they could continue their relationship after both left the castle. Subconsciously she knew that hope was completely unrealistic.