Chapter 25: Traitors to the Czar

The Streltsy Uprising of 1698 was a short one. On June 6th, the Streltsy numbered up to 2300 soldiers. The Czar had ordered four of his regiments, also commanded by General Gordon, to attack the Streltsy. The Streltsy didn’t have a chance, and by June 18th, the Streltsy had surrendered.

In August of 1698, Peter and the Grand Embassy had returned to Moscow. It was not a joyous one as Peter knew he had been gone too long. Feliks, Bataar, and the other guards were now busy having to deal with arrests, trials, and investigations on what had happened.

It was September of 1698 as several months had passed. Feliks almost regretted having to come back to Russia. He missed the excellent environment of Europe and was now having to return back to a harsh environment that had just ended a rebellion. There was little cheering from the onlookers that they passed by on the long trip back to Moscow. All he had to regrettably look forward to was the climate as it was getting closer and closer to the winter months ahead. It would prove to be his roughest return to a place he lived a year ago. Today was a day of many that he would not enjoy.

“Please! Please! No more!” yelled a Streltsy soldier as his chest lay bare with whip marks on his back. He remained tied to the post.

Andrei, one of the Imperial Guards, was currently torturing a former Streltsy soldier in the public square of the Kremlin. It was a public spectacle arranged by the Czar for all to see. Peter himself sat by a table dressed in his military uniform as he overlooked with his advisors. He spared no one as he watched one by one of every Streltsy that was brought in for questioning. The sun kept the environment warm as dark clouds overcast some of the terrain. Behind Peter was the crowd of countless individuals. Blood lay in the center of the square as there was an eerie silence that permeated the area.

“You want me to stop?!” Andrei yelled at him. “Then tell me of your crimes!”

“Please ... please,”

Andrei used a heavy knout whip as he cracked the whip on the back of the soldier. The soldier screamed in pain and agony.

“My arm feels mighty good today. Tell our Czar what your crimes are and maybe ... maybe your death will be quick.”

“Alright...” the soldier cried. “Alright ... my crime is plotting against the Czar.”

Andrei cracked the whip harder this time as the blood mark was left on the soldier’s back. The soldier screamed again in pain.

“What was that? The Czar and the crowd can’t hear you. Speak louder!”

The soldier cried out, “My crime was helping the Streltsy! ... Plot against the Czar! ... Part of the regiment that turned against Russia ... I was with three in the camp that kept an eye out for soldiers of the Czar!”

Peter had a contented look on his face as he sat and watched the daily torturing of Streltsy soldiers in the uprising. It was a typical day of trial, confession, and the usual execution of any traitors. Feliks and Bataar were part of the guard that day as they protected their leader from harm along with providing any assistance to any of the other Imperial Guards. They both stood behind the Czar along with a line of several other soldiers.

There was a line ahead of Peter as more Streltsy soldiers were ready to be brought forward. Not far from the center square was the gallows with several hangman nooses prepared to hang any soldiers.

“Are they any of these men?!” Andrei asked the man he was torturing. He pointed to the men in line.

The Streltsy soldier shook where he was tied as he looked at the men that Andrei was pointing at. He looked at the men one by one, and his eyes befell a man with a large beard. “Yes ... one of the men ... that one he was with me at the scouting camp.”

“Good...” Andrei said with a smile.

Peter took over as he spoke from his table to the man being tortured. “Soldat Vladimir, your crimes are treason against the Imperial crown, treason against Russia itself. You plead guilty to your crimes. You are to be exiled to Siberia, where you will live the rest of your life or face punishment of death. Brand him!”

Andrei walked over next to a hot furnace as he pulled out a branding iron with the symbol of exiles. Hot and ready to be used, Vladimir watched in horror as Andrei walked up to him and grabbed his arm.

“No ... no!” Vladimir struggled as Andrei took the burning red branding iron and pressed it to the man’s arm. Vladimir screamed in pain as his skin burned. He took a few seconds as he pulled the hot iron away, leaving a burn mark on the man’s skin.

“Take him away!” Peter yelled. “Next one!”

Andrei untied the man from the post as he lifted the distraught man as he was taken off to the nearby barracks to be incarcerated and shipped off.

“Korporal Bambuk, it is your turn to interrogate the next prisoner,” Peter told him.

Feliks’s eyes displayed a moment of horror, and his heart skipped a beat. He never interrogated anyone before, let alone tortured someone. He always watched as someone else did it, but the fact was that everyone would eventually have to do it during these rough times.

He had no choice but to comply. Bataar held his breath as he watched Feliks step forward and walk to the line of Streltsy as he walked up to the next guard holding the tied-up man. The guard presented Feliks with a list that contained names supposedly signed by the man he was to interrogate.

The guard quietly told him. “We made this one a little easy for you for your first time. The soldier’s name is Grigory, arrested with the 2,300 soldiers. He was armed and firing at the Czar’s soldiers before he surrendered.”

Feliks felt like he was in a haze at the name just spoken to him. He turned and looked, and low and behold, it was Grigory that he served with a year and a half ago. Grigory lifted his head up, and his mouth dropped upon looking at him.

“Bambuk ... it’s you,” he said with regret. “I see you as one of the Czar’s lapdogs.”

It was like something else that was driving Feliks as he grabbed the man’s arm and jostled it with him to the center square for Peter to have a good view of the scene. Grigory shackled, stepped with him as he walked to the post to be tied up.

“Bambuk ... I am sorry,” Grigory told him quietly. “I see they made quite a soldier from you.”

“I am sorry too,” Feliks replied back very quietly.

Feliks began to tie up Grigory as he looked at his wrists. “We were desperate Feliks ... we had nothing,” he responded back quietly to him. “We found the other Streltsy soldiers and tried to help them. They were carrying artillery and weapons ... they had no horses to move them. Running low on food ... conditions were horrible. Had to fight.”

Feliks took in Grigory’s words as he finished up tying the man. He backed away as he picked up the same heavy knotted whip as Andrei was using before. Blood covered the tip of the whip as he let it unroll to the ground. He brandished it and gathered his courage to speak out loud.

“Tell us of your name!” Feliks yelled.

“My name is Grigory!”

“What is your crime!?”

“I committed no crime!”

Feliks, for a split second, hesitated, but his body acted. He had seen how it was done. It was his time to bring the whip down upon him or face persecution from not only the audience for letting this man get away with what he just said and at the same time disobey or disappoint the Czar that was looking at both of him. He pulled the whip back and flung his arm forward, sending the whip cracking on Grigory’s back.

Grigory cringed as the whip left a bloody mark on his back.

“Wrong answer!” Felix yelled. Bataar watched in horror at what was happening with his friend. “I hold a list of names in this paper. It is a signed confession by the various men you were with! Now, what is your crime?”

Grigory turned his head to look at him. “My crime is conspiring against the Czar of Russia. I joined up with the rebellion because we are slaves! We des...”

Felix pulled the whip back and flung it again at Grigory’s back. Another crack and a second bloody mark appeared on his back. Grigory naturally tossed his head back in pain as he cringed to avoid screaming.

“Do you confess to shooting at the Czar’s men when they came to arrest you?!” Felix screamed at him.

Grigory closed his eyes as he hesitated to answer the question. Andrei returned after he locked up the branded prisoner to return with the other guards.

“I did what I had to! We are nothing but slav...”

Felix pulled the whip back and flung it forward again, leaving another red streak on Grigory’s back. His adrenaline screamed in his body. He did not want to be a part of this. It was like he was in a nightmare that never ended. Nonetheless, he had no choice in his actions.

Grigory recoiled in sheer pain as he screamed with his mouth closed.

“This signed confession, who were the other men that were in your group when you shot at the Czar’s men?!” Felix screamed at him.

Grigory turned his head to look at the men that were in the line. He did not want to betray the others, and he closed his eyes again, ready to accept the pain. Grigory watching the scene turned to the table next to the furnace, pulled out a pair of thumbscrews, and picked them up. He had been used to interrogating others by now and instead decided to help Felix out. He walked over to join him.

“I won’t tell!” Grigory screamed as Felix again flung his whip. He prepared to cast it again when Andrei told him to stop for a second.

Andrei stepped next to Feliks as he grabbed Grigory’s hands that were bound. He grabbed one set of hands as he fit the thumbscrews on his hand. This terrible torture device was designed to do one thing, and that was to crush fingers. Andrei fit the fingers on the device and then started to crank the handle. Grigory struggled but could not move. The pressure was not fully applied to his fingers yet.

“I keep turning this crank, Grigory,” Andrei told him. “One by one, your fingers will pop. Tell us the men in that line that participated in the group you were in!”

Grigory was hesitating as he looked at the men that were in line to be put on trial. He was fighting to answer the question. He took too long as Andrei starting turning the crank handle. Each turn applied massive amounts of pressure on his fingers. Grigory began to scream before Andrei turned the handle back.

“Tell us, or I turn it again! This time I won’t turn it back!”

Feliks almost shook in his spot as he looked at Grigory. Grigory recovering from the severe pain, finally relented. He turned his head to look at the other men to be brought up. “Three of the men that are in that line were a part of my group that shot at the Czar’s army!”

“Which ones!?”

“The one up next to be tried, the second man behind him, and the last man in the line,” he responded.

“Did they also shoot at the soldiers too!?” Feliks yelled.

“Yes!” Grigory screamed.

“That is enough!” Peter said as he looked at Grigory. “Soldat Grigory, you and those men are convicted of treason against the crown, open rebellion, and firing at my men! You are a traitor, and the sentence is death by hanging, you and the men you pointed out. Take those men to the gallows and let them swing!”

Andrei pulled out the thumbscrews and went and started to untie Grigory as Feliks walked to put the whip on the table. He and a couple of guards went to grab the other men as they were led to the high platforms for the hang man’s noose. Four men were placed on each platform with a separate loop, for each was ready. One by one, each man was lined by a noose as a guard wrapped the tight ropes around their neck. Feliks was with Grigory as he covered the noose around his neck.

“Forgive me...” Feliks quietly whispered in his ear. “Forgive my sins in doing this to you.”

Grigory was quiet as he kept feeling the pain and adrenaline of his demise. He said one thing, and it was a sentence to him also in a meager volume so that only Feliks could hear. “Oleg is innocent. He did not fight back and tried to discourage us from the uprising. Don’t let him face what I am facing ... as god as my witness.”

Feliks tightened the noose as he stepped back. He nodded his head to acknowledge what he said without grabbing too much attention to it.

The guards stepped away from the platforms. With a simple turn of a lever, the wooden platforms would give way, and the gravity and weight of the men would cause the nooses to snap their necks.

Peter turned to look at Bataar. “Korporal Bataar, you have not executed anyone yet. You will be the one that will turn that lever.”

“Yes, your imperial majesty,” as he stepped around the table and walked up to the gallows. Bataar swallowed hard. The four men stood there waiting for their end. One of the men started to pray, another man closed his eyes, and another had a look of defiance. Grigory simply looked down and away from the Czar and the people that were observing.

The public, which had consisted of hundreds of people, had been mostly quiet until the men had nooses wrapped around their necks. Some cheered, some stood in fear, some mocked, and some were the family members of those being executed as they cried.

Czar Peter had no sympathy in his eyes. To him, he knew what he was doing, and to him, these were nothing but traitors to him. He watched the men as he kept a neutral look at the scene.

Bataar reached the lever. He was about to pull the lever as he looked at the four men. He hesitated as he realized what he was about to do. Feliks could see as Bataar was having a hard time. Even the towering man that Bataar was, that lever might as well be jammed to never be moved by anyone.

The crowd was getting louder as seconds were going by. Peter watched with contemplation as he wondered if Bataar was going to do it.

Feliks stepped forward by the lever as he looked at Bataar. He looked into his eyes. “I will do it,” he told him.

“Bambuk,” Grigory said out loud to him. “I forgive y...”

Feliks pulled the lever. All the platforms gave way as the men fell. Death was quick for the four men.

The day came to an end as Feliks walked in a daze. It was not completely nighttime yet, and his watch was later at the beginning of the morning. He walked down the palace hallway to his small room meant for the soldiers. These rooms would typically have two to eight beds depending on the size of the room. His room was shared with another bed.

His breathing was all over the place as the scene played out in his head. He paid no attention to the environment around him. It was like somebody punched him so hard he could walk into the walls of the hallway while still thinking he was walking forward. He executed and tortured men. Months ago, he enjoyed the good life, partying with men, attending the leader with great dignitaries and leaders all over Europe. Now he became this.

He found the door to his room. He walked in and closed the door. The small room was lit with a small candle that burned on a pedestal to a wall. The room was simple, with a table at the center end of the room and a bed on either side of the room. There was nothing else in the room. He had no bunkmate that he slept with as he took off his boots and part of his uniform. He had to make himself comfortable.

“Just like that,” he said to himself. “I am a monster. I killed him. I killed them. I was following orders, but I ... I wasn’t killing an enemy that was invading our home. I killed a man that lived here in Russia.”

He looked at his hands as if they were covered in blood. “I had to do it. Failure would risk punishment from the Czar. It had to be done. I was following orders.”

He put his hands to his head as he tried to push the images out of his mind. It was a difficult task as his mind would quickly go back to it. The Czar was making this a daily thing with hundreds already been executed and many more being sent into exile. Nonetheless, this was the first time that he ever tortured or executed people.

There was a knock on the door that startled him. He looked at the door. The only people that knocked at his door were other soldiers trying to bring messages or announcements to him or other friends that he knew.

Feliks got up and walked up to the door. He unlocked the door as he opened it to reveal that it was Bataar in his uniform with bags and belongings.

“Bataar?” he said.

“I have been reassigned to your room. They had an influx of new guards that have been moved into the palace, and they decided to move me out so they can make more room to install beds at where I slept at.”

Feliks nodded as he let him come in as he closed the door behind the massive Bataar. The cramped room was tiny enough as it was but having a towering figure such as Bataar sleeping in there only made things tighter as it was.

Bataar set his bags by the bed as he took off his boots. All seemed to be quiet for some time as Bataar looked at Feliks and put his hands to his head.

“Today...,” Bataar tried to break the silence. “I know it was not easy for the both of us. No one can tell you what you did was wrong.”

“I keep telling myself what I did was just following orders. I see their faces, not just of today but the others, as each person is executed. Right or wrong, I don’t know what I am anymore.”

Bataar got up and put his hand on Feliks’s shoulder. “I know what it is like, Bambuk. I have had to do it in the past before. It’s just been ... a while since I had to do it last time. When I was told to pull the lever to execute those men, I just couldn’t do it.”

“Are you trying to thank me for doing your job? What were you supposed to do when the Czar ordered you to do it? If I wasn’t there ... you would have been ... reprimanded or worse.”

“I know ... I am in your debt.”

Feliks dropped his hands as he put them to his knees. He still didn’t look at Bataar. “I can’t take this anymore. I wanted to do this to make my father happy. I wanted to be remembered for something that I achieved, not as an executioner.”

“I know.”

“I can’t even remember my wife’s face anymore. This life ... I don’t want to live in this anymore.”

“Did your wife leave anything for you to remember her by?”

Feliks looked at the cabinet. He opened it up and pulled out a small crystal. He held it firmly in his hands. “This is all that I have from her to remember me by.”

Bataar smiled and nodded as Feliks looked away from him to look at the crystal. The more and more he looked at the crystal, the more and more he wanted to tap his fingernail on it.

“One fingernail tap...” he quietly said to himself. “If Bataar leaves, I can tap this crystal and go home or far away from here. I practically forgot that I had this. If I leave now, then I abandon the army for good. Is that what I want? Maybe things will get better. They always should, right? What about glory? I leave now, and all I will be remembered as the man who executed a couple of people and did nothing else that helped Russia. I ... I don’t know if...”

His thoughts were interrupted as he heard the sound of a flute being played. It took him by surprise as he looked up to see Bataar playing the flute. The small wooden flute was loud enough to echo through the enclosed room while Feliks looked with a surprised look on his face.

“Where did you get a flute?...” Feliks mind began to put things together. “That flute ... I remember that flute. It was a flute that my wife played.”

Feliks looked at Bataar closely. He listened to the sweet melody he played. It was a melody that originated in China. Bataar didn’t look at Feliks as he concentrated on playing the instrument.

“I never saw you play that instrument before. All the times when we were together in Europe, here in Moscow. Why didn’t you tell me that you could play the flute?”

Bataar’s eyes looked at Feliks momentarily as he continued to play the flute.

Feliks watched his fingers press each of the holes as the melody would change. It was a harmonic melody that made him relax as he heard it.

“There was only one person that I know that could play the flute like...” His memories flashed back as he remembered so long ago of what Bataar called him, his light voice. He knew his first name as his mind started to put the pieces all together.

Bataar stopped playing the flute as his eyes looked at him. He spoke quietly to him so that the sound would not leave the room. “Hello ... Feliks ... my little Bambuk.”

Feliks’s eyes went wide in shock. “Xuanwu...”

Bataar nodded. “Yes, love, it’s me ... your wife.”

Feliks sat in shock. “You are human ... how is that possible?”

Xuanwu had a slight smile on her face. Her voice went lighter as she was no longer disguising what it really sounded like. “I thought that I did.”

Feliks’s mind was a blur as he tried to put all the pieces together. “You told me that you were in Genghis Kahn’s army. You are a giant tortoise; I figure that they took you in to fight in their army.”

She laughed a little bit. “As a giant tortoise? Don’t you think they would have noticed my big shell, my tail, my beak, at least one of those things? No ... I took my human form, this form that I am using.”

“You are a man.”

She shook her head. “Husband, I took human form and disguised myself as a man. I cut my hair short and tried to change my voice so that it would make it less suspicious. I used cloth woven by Ariadne to tape down my breasts. It does not take much for my form to be mistaken as a man unless I strip completely naked, obviously.”

Feliks felt anger and shock at the same time. “Why? ... why didn’t you tell me that you were ... you all along?”

Xuanwu looked down and away from him. She took her flute and held it as it disappeared in a puff of smoke. “You told me that you didn’t want to be helped by the gods in your quest to honor your father’s wishes. I was doing just that. I didn’t want you to know that I was trying to protect you from harm.”

“Our child, you were guarding our child from harm. Is the egg alright?”

She shook her head. “Feliks love, very little to nothing can hurt our child. I have Heqet keeping an eye on it every once in a while as we are gone. Each month she reports the dirt pile is undisturbed. We even have a crystal to track that can send me back immediately upon approaching any danger to it. With one of these crystals, Heqet will come in and pull us out whenever you are ready. The fact is that I will never abandon you, ever.”

Feliks still couldn’t believe it. His wife was standing there before him. All this time, it was her, and he didn’t know.

His heart could no longer hold him back anymore. He stood up and put his hands to her head. He pressed his lips to hers. She wrapped her arms around him. They both closed their eyes as they wrapped their arms around one another. He could feel the warmth of her body as his heart pounded with joy.

He withdrew his lips as he pressed his head to hers. “I wondered how long before you were going to try to ravage me,” she whispered to him.

“I missed you,” he whispered back to her. “I feel like I have been in a nightmare these last few days. I have been separated from you for two years ... I couldn’t last any longer.”

“Me too. It was too long for me. I am sorry that I waited so long to tell you. I was following your wishes. I pledge myself to protect you as this nation goes through its changes like any other human nation would. My body is yours to have. I love you, my darling little Bambuk.”

Feliks could not hold it back again. He pressed his whole body to her, but he felt anger towards her for her actions. In the end, all he could think of was to ravage her for being separated for so long.

She breathed hard as she collapsed to the bed with Feliks’s weight pressing on her. She grabbed onto his remaining clothes and struggled to get them off. He reacted the same way as he held onto her uniform and tried to take it off.

With a simple move, she pushed him off of her. “Perhaps it is best that we get these uniforms off of us before we damage them.”

He got off of her as they hurriedly began to undo their uniforms. Felix grabbed onto his shirt and took it off, and threw it to the cabinet. Xuanwu unbuttoned the top portion of her uniform and threw it on top of the cabinet.

“Make sure that the door is locked,” she whispered to him.

He turned his head to the small metal latch as he flipped it closed.

“That would have been scandalous if somebody opened the door,” he remarked.

“We would have been running out of the palace and making a daring escape. It will be a fun story to tell Fenghuang.”

“Who?”

She looked away and shook her head. “Never mind, keep going.”

He unbuttoned his pants and slid them down as she was stripping her next layer of shirt. This left Xuanwu with just her pants and her wrapped chest that closed her breasts up.

“I would take on my normal form, but I would end up crushing you by accident. This room is so small. I would end up breaking the bed.”

Feliks shrugged as he started to pull down his underwear. “It does not matter, my love. Seeing you again ... it doesn’t matter.”

“I know, love,” she responded as she unbuttoned her pants and started to pull them down. She repositioned herself to the bed as she began to pull her pants off.

He looked at her body. He had not seen a naked woman before. He was used to Xuanwu’s original form. Obviously, she was big for a human, and seeing a woman naked at all, nothing mattered.

“Help me out, love.”

He went and grabbed the pants and pulled them completely off. He looked at her legs and the soft skin underneath. There were no imperfections on her. A divine being such as herself, her human form, and beauty were hidden underneath the heavy uniform underneath.

He could not hold his control. Not seeing her in such a long time, he no longer had control of his hands. Feliks fell onto her legs, failing to pull her pants completely off. He grabbed her left leg and started to kiss it rapidly.

“I guess I should understand,” she commented as her breathing started to pick up. “Living as long as I have, you learn to be very patient. You humans ... you live such short lives. You have to act on the moment.”

His kissing went up to her leg and up to her wrapped-up underwear that covered her crotch. She started to unwrap the covering on her chest very slowly as she watched him.

He stopped momentarily as he whispered on her leg. “I missed you ... I missed you so much.”

“So much pain you have had to go through. All that buildup inside you. So much poison you had to go through. If I truly was human, I think you would injure me. Thankfully I am much stronger than you, and you can’t hurt me.”

He resumed his kissing as he felt the stirring in his loins. He grabbed her underwear and practically ripped it off of her. He could hear the underwear tear from the stress as he grabbed it with both hands and yanked it down, revealing a small patch of silken pubic hair that covered her vaginal slit. He pressed his lips to her crotch as she gasped from the feeling of his lips. She breathed heavily as she struggled to unwrap her covering.

His hands pulled her underwear down to her knees as she felt his tongue start to lick the outer walls of her vaginal entrance. Her nerves went aflame as she began to moan but kept it quiet to make sure that the sound did not leave the door behind it.

“So ... so good. I missed your tongue. It ... feels just as good in either form. Slow down a little bit so I can ... get everything off.”

His adrenaline was in full swing as he practically acknowledged and ignored her. His hormones were through the roof. Like an animal, he kissed her entrance, backed away from her and grabbed her underwear, and pulled it down, practically ripping it apart.

“Well ... such as that,” she commented as he grabbed her pants next and, with one hard tug, flung it from her legs onto the floor below.

He threw himself back onto her legs and crawled back to her crotch. She continued to thumb with her wrappings as she struggled to get them off. His head went straight back to her crotch as she gasped again.

“I guess I should have been faster getting my pants off. Us tortoises are just too slow.”

His lips pressed to her vaginal entrance. Her pubic hair tickled his nose as his mustache tickled her entrance.

“You were so fast before I did not feel that mustache. I wanted to make special ... comments about it before and...” She stopped and giggled as his mustache tickled her entrance. “I am not used to it.”

His tongue started to lap her entrance as he took deep breaths, inhaling her scent. She had the same scent as before from her vagina. The only difference between both forms was that her human form had slightly smoother skin. His mind, though, did not care, and his tongue licked her entrance hard.

“You can be as rough as you want, love. You can’t...”

He was in such a hormone-driven state that he took her words to heart. He clawed at her skin as he dug his nails into her skin. His nails, though, could not pierce her as his tongue drove into her entrance.