Chapter 18: Lower Danubia

News of the Duchy’s victory in Horkustk Ris did not reach the Kingdom of the Moon immediately. A few survivors from the Kingdom’s rout did manage to sneak past the Grand Duke’s Royal Guards and slip across the border into the Kingdom. However, the Kingdom of the Moon survivors, who could not have numbered more than a few dozen, had no incentive whatsoever to contact the Lord’s advisors with news of the defeat. In the Kingdom of the Moon, the military policy was victory or death. Anyone surviving a defeat faced hanging on one of the infamous torture hooks. So, rather than warn anyone, the survivors simply returned to their homes. Two of the men, an infantryman and a member of the elite cavalry, later wrote accounts describing the campaign of Horkustk Ris from the viewpoint of the defeated invaders, of how an inevitable victory turned into an epic annihilation.

The Grand Duke gave his men a week to rest and recover, while he assessed the campaign that lay ahead. The most dangerous part of the campaign was over, having ended with a spectacular pair of victories and his army still mostly intact. The Danubian fighting men now numbered a total of about 8,000. The remaining thousand men were either dead or too injured to fight. The mounted unit had taken the brunt of the hand-to-hand fighting, so its strength had been reduced by a third. However, the Danubian cavalry now boasted hundreds of captured Kingdom of the Moon horses and the surviving men had the chance to try out the Kingdom’s legendary weapons.

The Grand Duke ordered his infantry and artillery units to start moving south. Meanwhile, he would lead the surviving cavalry against various Red Moon garrisons still stationed around Horkustk Ris province. The Danubian horsemen would dress up in the uniforms of the Red Moon Army and ride the Kingdom’s horses into garrisons that were unaware of the defeat in Horkustk Ris. The garrisons would be easy prey for the vengeful Danubians. Across the southern area of the Duchy, villages and forts were stormed by troops the defenders mistook for “Beautiful Savages”. In every fight, the deception worked long enough for the Danubians to achieve easy victory.

The non-Danubian inhabitants of Horkustk Ris province at first did not realize what was happening as the Danubian Grand Duke and his disguised cavalry unit stormed garrison after garrison. They welcomed the legendary “Beautiful Savages”, only to realize, too late, they actually were Danubians. When the Kingdom’s garrisons were wiped out, there was panic and confusion. If the Red Moon Army had invaded the Duchy and taken Horkustk Ris, why were these disguised raiders taking over so many forts? Why were Danubian infantry and artillery units calmly moving into villages cleared by the raiders? Why were Danubian raiders riding the Kingdom’s horses and using the Kingdom’s weapons? Where was the Red Moon Army?

The men accompanying their sovereign later recalled that he fought like a madman as he led the attacks. He was furious about the invasion and Lord Blood-Moon’s plans for the Duchy. He seemed completely oblivious to his own safety as he charged garrison after garrison. His men had to fight equally hard just to prevent him from being surrounded and killed. As the campaign progressed, the Royal Guards’ respect for the Grand Duke evolved into adoration. Not only was he was a brilliant strategist, he was a brave fighter. He was Royalty, but danger and hardship meant nothing to him.

Had the Grand Duke’s concubines been able to see him in action during the battles, their sovereign’s behavior would not have surprised them. He was frenetic and as fanatical about killing his enemies as he was about having sex. The ruler was fixated and driven, to the point of being maniacal and at times psychotic. His men, convinced that he was carrying out the will of the Creator by destroying the remnants of the Army of the Red Moon in the Duchy, followed him with absolute and unquestioning devotion.

During the first week of July, the Danubian Royal Army achieved another important victory, second only to the victory in Horkustk Ris. They passed through the narrow range of wooded hills that separated Horkustk Ris province from the former Ottoman lands that now comprised the Kingdom of the Moon. On the northern side of the hills was a small town called Iyoshnyakt Krepockt, and on the southern side of the range there was a fort on a hilltop that had served as the Danubian border garrison’s command post from 1531 until the previous year, when it and the town were overrun by Lord Blood-Moon. Fortunately for the Grand Duke and his men, the fort’s defenders were as oblivious about the defeat in Horkustk Ris as everyone else in the Lord’s army. They opened the gates to let in the “Beautiful Savages”, only to realize they had just let in hundreds of Danubian soldiers. The fight was over in minutes and the fort was once again under the Duchy’s control.

Because the place was visible to the entire surrounding countryside, the Grand Duke ordered Lord Blood-Moon’s flags to remain flying over the fort. The Danubians would now make the border fort their main base of operations to consolidate their victory, so the longer they could maintain their deception, the better. The ruler sent for reinforcements and decided to order his medical staff, including the concubines and military wives, to the new forward-operating position on the border.

As she traveled south with her companions, Silvitya tried to suppress a month’s worth of memories of war, atrocities, injured men, corpses, and wretched prisoners. Undoubtedly her master was about to expose her to yet more war, but she consoled herself that at least she would have the chance to see the Duchy’s southern border. She already had been north of the Duchy’s border: now, just two years later, she would travel south of the Duchy. She thought about how much her life had changed in just four years. Strange to think, a little over four years before she had not even seen what was on the other side of the hill that overlooked her family’s settlement. Since then, she had seen the entire western half of the country. She had seen so much, but what difference did it make? She would have been happy to go home and brag about her travels, but no one from her former life in Rika Heckt-nemat was still alive to listen or care.

Silvitya and her companions descended the final hill before arriving at the border post. The women had to avert their eyes to avoid looking at the rotting enemy corpses that had been dumped in a ditch just north of the Grand Duke’s encampment. The smell from the bodies was horrific, but all too familiar by now. They looked at the region to the south of the fort. It was flat farmland, territory that had been the wealthiest part of the Kingdom of Danubia prior to 1502.

The Duchy’s military now occupied all of the land that had been held by the Crown since the Ottoman invasion and King Vladik’s evacuation. The Grand Duke of Danubia had struck a devastating blow to his enemies, who apparently were still not yet aware of what had happened in Horkustk Ris. Lord Blood-Moon still thought that his army of 30,000 men was alive and moving north to seize the Danubian capitol, and certainly was not expecting the Danubians to show up in the Kingdom of the Moon’s territory.

As his army assembled in Iyoshnyakt Krepockt, the Grand Duke pondered what he should do next and now had to make a critical decision. He thought about the sacrifice made by the Danubians under King Vladik, in which he had to abandon half of Danubia to save the other half. Given the amazing victory so far, the ruler wondered if it would be possible to reverse that loss and re-capture the region formerly known as Lower Danubia. Would it be possible to push south, surprise Lord Blood-Moon, and reclaim the Duchy’s long-lost territories? Would it be possible to restore the Danubian Kingdom to its former glory? What if, after 250 years, the Danubians could once again celebrate religious services in the cathedral in Sumy Ris, where the nation’s first Christian mass was held eight hundred years before?

The Grand Duke badly wanted to push south, capture Sumy Ris, and see if it would be possible to hold the city against Lord Blood-Moon’s forces. He was torn between caution and the lure of a place that was extremely important to the Duchy’s history and national identity. He understood that attempting to enter the Kingdom of the Moon’s territory was extremely risky. However, perhaps the Creator was watching over the Danubians after-all and it was the Duchy’s destiny to reclaim Lower Danubia. The Grand Duke looked for a sign, an indication beyond the information he was receiving from his informants, that he should take his troops beyond the Duchy’s current border.

He found the excuse he needed when an informant told him about a large group of enslaved Danubians being held in a compound in the southern city. The captives had not yet been moved further south because there were not enough Red Moon troops available to guard them. Apparently the entire region around Sumy Ris was lightly guarded, partly because of the invasion of Danubia, and partly because other units were fighting against the Ottomans over a position at the southern border of the Kingdom along the East Danube River. The Grand Duke would indeed conquer Sumy Ris: the captives and the lack of enemy troops gave him the justifications he needed for the operation. He announced his decision to his elated followers. Sumy Ris, the Duchy was about to reclaim Sumy Ris!

The mission was foolhardy, but the Grand Duke’s strategy of deception and dressing his troops like Lord Blood-Moon’s soldiers gave the Danubians an important initial advantage. The Danubians were very experienced moving at night and moving quietly. The Grand Duke’s plan took advantage of the disguises and nighttime to move through the hostile territory in platoon-sized units. The Danubians would regroup south of Sumy Ris, enter the city under disguise, and defeat the Red Moon garrison. The Royal Army would move on the city with its entire force, because the goal was to permanently seize the town and annex the entire region. And to think ... the Grand Duke was planning to do all that with a force of 7,000 fighting men.

The Danubians spent three days moving through lightly-guarded enemy territory. The villagers certainly did notice the strange movement of troops, but the Danubians exercised discipline and kept their conversations to a minimum to prevent the locals from hearing them speaking in a foreign tongue. Because they were moving in small groups, anyone observing the infiltrators would not have realized the individual platoons actually comprised a much larger force.

The maneuver to take Sumy Ris was flawless. On the third night the Grand Duke’s army re-grouped south of the city. At sunrise the Danubians marched up from the direction of the Kingdom’s capitol, so the city’s garrison did not suspect that anything was amiss. The local commander was actually relieved that Lord Blood-Moon finally had sent a large force to take away the Danubian captives and replace the absent men who were campaigning in the Duchy. He only had 300 soldiers still protecting the city. The Danubian Royal Army made it as far as the town’s center before the Red Moon soldiers realized anything was amiss. As soon as the first shots were fired, the Danubians spread out and exterminated the garrison. The operation was finished within an hour.

For the first time in 250 years, Sumy Ris was securely under the control of the Grand Duchy of Upper Danubia. The easy seizure of the city and the apparent helplessness of the Army of the Red Moon was a tremendous shock to the local residents. Like everyone else in the Kingdom of the Moon, the population of Sumy Ris had not received any news that the Army of the Red Moon had been defeated in Danubia. The residents had assumed their soldiers had taken Horkustk Ris and were besieging Danubikt Moskt. Instead, the Danubian Grand Duke was standing in the city square, Danubian soldiers were raiding houses and pantries, and Danubian priests had taken over the old cathedral. Fleeing residents would spread the shocking news throughout the Kingdom of the Moon: the Danubians had captured Sumy Ris.

The wretched Danubian captives were chained in the city’s main fort and in three holding pens in the city market. The prisoners had been badly treated, were starving, and most were in poor health. Throughout the rest of the day the Duchy’s soldiers retaliated against the city’s residents, killing the leading male of each family and seizing all food. The Danubians carried around the Red Moon Army’s impalement hooks as justification of what they were doing to the defeated population. The Grand Duke announced to the terrified civilians:

“I have taken note of the way you treated my subjects. I will bestow the same treatment on you. We will eat, and you will starve. We will enjoy your food, and you will have the pleasure of watching us consume it. Anyhow, this is the Duchy’s city. This is land the Creator intended for Danubians, not for you. You have no right to be here.”

The invaders noticed the local women were much more modest than women in the Duchy, and took delight in tearing off the inhabitants’ shawls. The taunting gave the Grand Duke an idea to exert further control over foreigners who, in his view, had usurped Danubian territory. Besides killing the head of each family, he ordered his troops to confiscate all the local women’s clothing and jewelry, including what they were wearing. The troops burnt the clothes and kept the jewelry as souvenirs for their wives and fiances. The entire female population of the city would have to remain naked until further notice.

Seeing the dismay, humiliation, and panic of the foreign residents bolstered the confidence of the Danubians. It seemed the Kingdom of the Moon was not so strong after-all. The soldiers happily speculated about future conquests. Sumy Ris was destined to return to being a Danubian City. What about the Duchy’s other former territories? How about Sokukt Tok and the lands along the East Danube River? No longer would he Danubians need to call their country the Grand Duchy of Upper Danubia. Danubia would be united, large, and strong. The world would once again know the country as the Kingdom of Danubia.

The Grand Duke ordered the three concubines and the rest of his medical staff to travel south with a large supply caravan. Silvitya looked around at the lands lost by the Danubians in 1502: all of the fine farms and manors laid out on flat, rich soil. The architecture, after 250 years of foreign occupation, was different from what she was used to seeing in the Duchy. She was particularly fascinated with some of the public buildings and mosques that had been constructed by the Ottomans, structures that were totally different from anything she had seen in the Duchy.

Like every other Danubian, Silvitya had heard plenty of history and stories about the long-lost city of Sumy Ris. She vaguely expected the place to be truly special but, with the exception of the old cathedral, the city was simply a larger version of some of the towns she had passed through already. The buildings were a mixture of Ottoman and southern European architecture. Very few structures from the Danubian period remained: Sumy Ris had been heavily damaged in 1502 during the Ottoman capture and the majority of the buildings that survived the siege had been replaced over the ensuing two centuries.

The military wives joined the army doctors in administering treatment to the liberated Danubians. The three concubines had to report to the local governor’s palace, where the Grand Duke had set up his headquarters. On her way in she passed groups of miserable local residents who had been ordered by the Danubians to carry out and bury dead garrison soldiers and executed civilians. The humiliation on the foreigners’ faces, from both the defeat and from having the women forced to forego their clothing, went beyond anything that could be put into words. Silvitya had an ominous feeling as she looked at the conquered populace: if these people ever manage to fight back, they would have every reason to treat us viciously.

Silvitya felt extremely uneasy as she entered the governor’s palace. Danubian flags flew above its towers and griffins decorated the entrances. The Kingdom of the Moon’s flags were used as floor-covers around the entrances. The soldiers took delight in wiping their feet on the enemy’s banners. Everywhere, the soldiers were happy and optimistic. She had never seen Danubians in such a positive mood, which sharply contrasted with the normal somber outlook of the Duchy’s society.

The concubines cleaned up and enjoyed a good dinner, but the Grand Duke did not spend the night with them. Instead he had taken the daughters of several leading families into the governor’s bed-chamber and was indulging himself with the foreign captives. The next morning Silvitya noticed naked palace servants taking bed sheets out of the Grand Duke’s quarters. The sheets had blood on them, indicating he had forced himself on several virgins. The Duke’s concubine felt sick. She pitied the unfortunate girls, but she also understood her master seemed to be doing everything possible to alienate the local population. Raping the daughters of leading families certainly was not going to win him any support.

Two days passed while Silvitya and her companions stood in the palace courtyard watching Royal Guards bring in loot from the city and surrounding manors. There was a well-stocked armory, but the Danubians became truly excited when they discovered a large cache of gold and silver. It turned out Sumy Ris was a regional center for collecting taxes for Lord Blood-Moon. The Kingdom’s ruler had been distracted with the military campaigns and did not have enough men to spare to move the tax money to the Kingdom’s capitol. Now, all that treasure was under the control of his enemy, the Grand Duke of Upper Danubia.

The governor’s palace had a high tower that had been built by the Ottomans, from which the countryside would be observed from a very long distance in every direction. Silvitya wanted to climb up to the top, but knew she couldn’t go there unescorted. Fortunately, she saw Protector Bulashckt in the courtyard, examining some of the captured muskets. She approached the Royal Guard, requesting an escort so she could have a look at the region surrounding Sumy Ris. He surprised her by obliging. She noticed that he had a strange look in his eyes, as though he was worried.

The trip up a series of stairs and ladders left the two Danubians winded, but from the top they could see a large portion of the former Lower Danubia. In the distance to the west the guard and the concubine could see part of the East Danube River. Apart from the river, the landscape had no natural features at all. Flat farmland extended in every direction. How hard it must have been for the Danubians to give up all this land two centuries ago. Well, King Vladik had no choice, because there was no way the territory could be defended.

No way it could be defended.

Now, the Danubians had returned, with a small army deep inside enemy territory, to a city that could not be defended. They had taken Sumy Ris with ease simply because they momentarily had superior numbers. When Lord Blood-Moon learned of his army’s defeat and that his nemesis was indulging himself in this city, he would attack with everything at his disposal, and Sumy Ris would again fall to a foreign enemy, along with the entire Danubian Royal Army. She looked down at the cathedral and the old seminary. It was in the seminary the bishop of Sumy Ris ordered the city’s defenders to make their last stand. And that ruined gate over there, that’s where the Ottomans hung his body. She expressed her thoughts out loud:

“This city, it’s not our Path in Life to be here at all. Sumy Ris is a trap. The Duchy cannot hold it. King Vladik understood that. That’s why Danubia survived; King Vladik didn’t try to hold onto what we couldn’t keep. We can’t stay here. The Royal Army must leave, and we must leave immediately. Already Lord Blood-Moon is gathering his army. He will kill us all if we don’t get out.”

“I’ve thought the same thing, Servant Silvitya. I don’t know how to reach His Majesty with my advice. It seems this city put a curse on him, made him lose all concept of reality, made him mad, really. This place is indeed a trap.”

The two Danubians remained silent for a long time, staring out at the flat terrain. Neither knew what else to say about their predicament. Finally, Silvitya glanced at the cathedral.

“Can you take me to the church, Protector Bulashckt? I’d like to see it, and try praying there.”

A few minutes later Silvitya knelt in the church. Her mind filled with visions, of the battle in 1502 and the dead bishop. Her vision went dark and she saw the Grand Duke’s corpse hanging on a Red Moon impalement hook, above the bodies of the entire Royal Army. The entire Duchy was burning, with all its inhabitants lying dead and the banners of the Kingdom of the Moon flying everywhere. Lord Blood-Moon was riding triumphantly through his newly conquered territory. Yes, that defeat in Horkustk Ris had been devastating, but how much greater was the glorious victory in Sumy Ris, where the Danubian Duke and his entire army set themselves up to be annihilated. How sweet that moment and how complete the revenge on the Danubian vermin.

The vision of the Duchy’s destruction vanished, to be replaced by Alchemist Fitoreckt. He seemed to have returned to the Realm of the Living; re-invigorated, much younger, and healthier than she had ever seen him in real life.

“Be patient and continue learning. Perhaps you will find yourself in a position to temper and influence the actions and decisions of our nation’s leader. How many of us can make such a claim?”

As quickly as Alchemist Fitoreckt appeared, he vanished. Silvitya abruptly stood up.

“Protector Bulashckt, I must speak with His Majesty immediately. I don’t care what happens to me after I’m done. He can put me on the pillory or fill me with arrows if he wishes. I don’t care. But I must speak with him.”

“Very well, Servant Silvitya. I will take you to His Majesty and I will insist you have an audience with him. I will share your fate, whatever fate that might be.”

Protector Bulashckt led the concubine back into the palace. He demanded that his fellow Royal Guards step aside so he could take the concubine before the Grand Duke. The sovereign was in his quarters, indulging himself with two young foreign women. Protector Bulashckt opened the chamber door and Silvitya burst into the room. She did not kneel.

“Servant Silvitya! What is the meaning of this? Have you lost your mind?”

“No, Your Majesty, I have not! I’m here to warn you, and to save the Grand Duchy of Upper Danubia! You must leave this city immediately! Every one of your subjects must leave immediately! Anyone who stays will share the fate of the Bishop, the one who defied King Vladik in 1502! There’s a reason King Vladik abandoned this city! It’s the same reason you must leave! You cannot hold Sumy Ris against Lord Blood-Moon’s men! You simply cannot hold it! Go up into the tower and take a good look at the land, everything is flat! The enemy can come at you from any direction! Sumy Ris is cursed! This city will be the death of all of us if you don’t take us out, now! Today, not tomorrow, today!”