The Girl with No Name Ch. 10

After the first 10 strokes Ermin tossed aside the first switch because it was beginning to show signs of wear. He massaged the rising welts on his companion's trembling bottom. She was covered with sweat and tears were running down her cheeks, but she had not cried out or made any noise. He went very slowly delivering the next ten blows; striking hard, waiting for the welt to appear, tracing it with his fingertips, positioning himself, and delivering the next stroke. It was clear from Danka's heavy breathing, sweat, tears, and trembling that she was suffering, but she was determined to face her punishment with as much bravery as she could.

Ermin was completely aroused by the time he tossed aside the second switch and picked up the third. Danka was the perfect image of submission, with the cruel welts accentuating her very sexy position. He struck hard and slowly through an additional ten blows, before tossing aside the third switch. Danka's bottom was badly marked up from 30 hard strokes, but her thighs and shoulders were still uninjured and ready for additional discipline. However, Ermin couldn't continue. He was too aroused by the sight of the girl in front of him. He ran his hand down her back and fondled her welt-covered bottom. Then he slipped his hand between her legs and explored her sweaty vulva. Danka surprised both him and herself by becoming wet and aroused. She stood up and spent a long time kissing Ermin and holding him tight while he fondled and squeezed her sore backside. He bent her over the log again and ordered her to spread her legs, but it was to enter her, not to continue punishing her. The sex was rough, hard, and painful, but both partners gasped and groaned with an exquisite orgasm.

So...that was Danka's punishment for causing such a huge scandal: a mere 30 blows from a birch rod. The remaining switches went unused and Danka's shoulders and thighs were spared. Ermin knew that he was letting the girl off way too easily, but he couldn't help himself. She was just too sexy for him to resist. As he climaxed and pumped semen into her, his resentment exited his body through his penis. The girl had caused all kinds of trouble with her behavior, but he just couldn't stay angry at her.

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Ermin and Danka spent the next two days working their way towards Babáckt Yaga's settlement. Danka walked most of the way, not keen on having to sit in a saddle with her entire weight pressing on her welts. Ermin followed, happy to watch his partner's attractive naked body as she walked along the path.

During the trip they stopped several times to rest the mules and have sex. Danka carefully observed her mentor and submitted to his desires whenever there was a hint that he would want to make love. She wanted to make sure his anger had passed and that he'd forgive her. Also, they still had to explain to their Mistress why they had to return a few weeks early from their summer assignment. Danka needed Ermin to be as supportive as possible when that moment had to be faced.

By the second day it was apparent that Ermin had indeed forgiven Danka. He deeply cared for her, even though their relationship was nowhere close to anything considered "normal", even among the Followers. At their final stop before reaching the settlement, he took her in his arms and held her. He didn't say anything; he just needed to hold her.

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When they entered the familiar streambeds in which the Followers had planted so many of their alchemy ingredients, Danka noticed that Ermin seemed very worried. His concerns had nothing to do with the scandal in Dagurúckt-Tók. He could feel that something wasn't right.

As they came closer to the settlement, Danka smelled a whiff of smoke. It was not the familiar smell coming from the kitchen's cave-charcoal, but smoke from wood instead. When she shared her observation with her mentor, he responded by digging into his saddlebag and unpacking two sets of brigand disguises. He loaded a crossbow while Danka got dressed. He then took out a wooden box and a sling. He handed the box to Danka and told her to open it, but to be very careful handling the contents. The box contained four hollowed-out goose eggs. Two of the eggs had a yellow stripe painted on their shells and the other two were marked with a red stripe.

"When I tell you, you'll need to hand me an egg. I'll let you know which color. Do NOT bump them and keep them upright. When I toss it, put your face to the ground and cover your eyes."

They left the mules behind and cautiously made their way towards the settlement. The smell of smoke became stronger. They heard men's voices, mixed with an occasional bang or crash and the whinnying of horses. Ermin motioned for Danka to wait while he crept ahead to see what was going on. Danka spent the longest moments of her life waiting for him to return. When he came back his face was ashen and his eyes wide with terror. However, he was not about to retreat. He slung his crossbow over his back and prepared his sling. He whispered to the girl to follow him and reminded her to be very careful handling the box of eggs.

The voices grew louder and the smoke grew thicker as the two Followers approached the settlement. Danka peeked through the bushes and observed three burning roofs, from the sleeping quarters that had been set on fire. There were several corpses on the ground and five more hanging from the large tree that was closest to Babáckt Yaga's study. She also made out a crudely-built cross that appeared to have a body hanging on it, although she couldn't be sure because the cross was facing the other direction.

Danka noticed that Ermin was trembling. Doing everything he could to stay calm; he checked his sling and stuck out his free hand.

"Yellow egg. Cover your face when I throw. Then get a red one ready. With the red, cover your ears."

When Danka handed Ermin the egg, he placed it in his sling and stood up. He swung the sling several times before releasing his projectile towards the camp. Danka put her face down and covered her eyes just in time protect her sight from the brightest flash she had ever seen. Immediately the compound was filled with screaming. As soon as the flash subsided, Danka remembered her instructions to hand over a red-striped egg. Ermin took it, stood up, twirled the sling, and released it. The flash was much less, but there was a tremendous bang that made Danka's ears ring.

Ermin shouted: "Yellow egg!" Danka's hands shook as she managed to extract the second yellow egg from the box, nearly dropping it. Again Ermin stood up and swung his sling. A couple of arrows flew in his direction, but he managed to release the egg and duck in time to avoid the flash.

"Red egg, then the crossbow satchel!" Ermin released the final egg and threw himself onto the ground. Danka knew she needed to cover her ears against the bang, which seemed to rattle the earth and sent the men and horses in the camp screaming. Ermin took the crossbow bolts and pulled the weapon off his shoulders. He was not a good shot, so he had to get close to the edge of the camp to aim at a target. He picked a man who seemed to still be able to fight and aimed at him. He missed the man's chest, but managed to hit his thigh.

The assailants were still alive, but after two blinding flashes and two explosions they were in no condition to fight effectively. Danka was so scared that she had pissed herself, but she knew that she could not keep hiding while Ermin struggled with his crossbow. She noticed that two nearby men were screaming with their eyes covered and that one of them had dropped his sword. She ran out of the bushes, grabbed the weapon, and clumsily hacked at their necks. Ermin managed to get off another shot and nailed a man in the stomach. Danka saw three blinded horses crazily running towards her and barely had time to get out of their way. The panicked animals charged into the woods with a series of tremendous crashes as they ran into trees and bushes they couldn't see.

Words could not describe the chaos in the settlement at that moment. Half of the buildings were on fire, the blinded assailants and their horses were staggering around, and dozens of escaped farm animals were running in every direction.

Danka saw Ermin frantically trying to reload his weapon. She held out her sword to him and screamed: "Forget the crossbow, use this!" Ermin took the sword and proceeded to attack three assailants who had started to recover from the explosions. Danka grabbed another sword and frantically hacked at two more men who were crawling around on the ground.

The fight was over within minutes. Ermin and Danka ran around the compound together and hacked eight more men to death. They looked up at the corpses in the trees, all of them Cult elders. The corpses of a few more Followers were on the ground. Then their attention turned towards the cross. The person tied to it was Babáckt Yaga. She was still somewhat alive, but her hands had darkened from lack of circulation and her shoulders were horribly extended.

Ermin and Danka knew they were still in extreme danger. Undoubtedly the only reason they had re-taken the settlement with relatively little effort was because the majority of the camp's assailants were scouring the woods looking for more Cult members. Still, there was no way they could leave their leader hanging on a cross while they made their escape. With great care and effort they managed to untie her hands and take her down. They took her into the wrecked kitchen, where Ermin managed to administer some opium to lessen her pain. It was clear she would not survive, but Ermin hoped that she might be able to tell him what happened and who was responsible for the attack before her soul separated from her body. When she had recovered enough to realize she no longer was hanging on the cross, she opened her eyes and tried to figure out who was with her.

"Pain...such pain...release..."

"Alchemist. We are here, Ermin and Danka. Do you understand? Ermin and Danka. We took you down. They crucified you."

"Yes...crucified...like Son of Man...ironic...ha..."

"Who did this? What happened?"

"Don't know...find out..."

Ermin was about to ask something else, but Babáckt Yaga gasped and struggled to speak.

"Instructions...my study...hidden...third board left of window...hollow...take them...go...get out...escape..."

Babáckt Yaga tried to speak some more, but it was obvious she had spent what little energy she had issuing her final statement. Ermin ordered Danka to run to the lab and find out what was in those instructions. She climbed into the room, for the first time going up there alone. The place was completely ransacked with everything broken and lying on the floor. The collection of books, representing centuries of hard, careful research, lay torn apart and discarded. The barrels and jars of alchemy ingredients had been broken open and the room smelled toxic. Danka used a metal spoon to pry at the boards to the left of the window. One of them opened up, and a set of folded letters fell out.

Danka was just about to leave when she noticed her bucket lying under a pile of discarded linen. Next to the bucket were her other belongings: the letter from Tuko Orsktackt, the forged Church letter, the silver coin and dagger he had given her, and most important of all, the counterfeit penance collar. After tearing up the study so badly, how was it possible those idiots could have missed an item as valuable as that collar? There was another precious item remaining in the room, worth far more than even a counterfeit penance collar. Tossed under a broken chair, but still intact, were two jars of mysterious blue powder. Danka suspected the assailants must have assumed their contents was paint or dye and thus not worth taking at the moment. She replaced the lids and put the jars in her bucket. The other valuable ingredients, such as the imported ephedrine and opium, were missing and the jars containing them smashed.

Danka looked around the study, knowing it was the last time she or anyone else from the Cult would have a chance to see it. She pushed some torn books out of the way and saw a brass portrait holder. There were two small portraits inside, of a young man and a young woman that had been painted in the style of the previous century. She assumed the woman must have been her Mistress at a younger age. She wondered about the man. Well, she'd have time to pursue that mystery later. She dropped the portraits into her bucket and continued looking around. There was nothing else of value in the room that had not either been destroyed or looted.

She climbed down the ladder and ran back to the kitchen. Ermin was calmly sitting next to Babáckt Yaga's corpse. While Danka was absent he had given the alchemist a final strong dose of opium to allow her soul to separate from her body in peace. When Danka handed over Babáckt Yaga's letters, Ermin briefly glanced through them. He thought over what to do next. After a few seconds, he glanced at Danka's bucket, remembering it was the same bucket she had been carrying when he had first seen her at the beginning of the previous summer. The bucket reminded him of the girl's fake penance collar.

"Did you find your Church collar, by any chance?"

"Yes."

"Then you need to return to the mules, put it on, and go back down the mountain. I need you to take these letters to Alchemist Fítoreckt. You need to leave immediately. May the Ancients bless and protect you."

"But...what about you?"

"My Path in Life is to remain here and exact our Mistress's vengeance on our assailants. These men were not here alone. I suspect there are others, and they're coming back as we speak because of the noise we just made. I'll destroy the settlement when they return. Those are my final instructions from our Mistress. So you need to go."

"I'm not leaving you."

"Yes, you are. Alchemist Fítoreckt needs to know what happened here. You are the only one who can carry that message. You can't do anything for Alchemist Babáckt Yaga, or for me. But you can safeguard the future of the Followers. Only you can save the others. So you have to go. Those are your orders."

Danka hesistated. Ermin raised his hand in the Followers' benediction salute.

"In the name of the Ancients, I am ordering you to go to Alchemist Fítoreckt. You are sworn to obey. Now go!"

Danka took a deep breath and reluctantly returned his salute. Ermin had given her the strongest and most direct order an elder could give to a Follower. She had taken the oath, so she had to ignore her desire to stay with Ermin and die by his side. Already he had turned away from her and had broken into a hollowed-out a section of the kitchen's wall. He was connecting some pieces of stiff string that had been soaked in a special flammable wax. He ran outside to the alchemist's study, opened a hollowed out section of a supporting tree trunk, and fiddled with more pieces of string. Danka took a final look at Babáckt Yaga's agonized face and contorted body. She grabbed her bucket and ran out of the settlement.

She ran through the woods with new resolve. She had to avenge her companions, but to avenge them she had to survive long enough to complete the journey to Sebérnekt Ris. She owed it to the others to live, because sacrificing her life would accomplish nothing. She understood that Ermin did want to save her, but he was much more interested in making sure the surviving Cult members knew what had happened to Babáckt Yaga's settlement so they could protect themselves and avenge their dead.

Danka jumped along the stones and ducked under logs as she made her way back towards the mules. She knew the area extremely well and was experienced at moving quickly through the forest. When she got to the animals, she needed to make a decision. She had to continue moving as fast as possible, but realized she couldn't if she was riding one mule and trying to lead the other. She pulled Ermin's belongings off his animal. She discarded his saddle but kept the saddlebag. She untied the spare mule and tossed aside the bridle and reins. She could only hope the animal would wander off and perhaps serve as a distraction.

She remembered Ermin's order about the collar. She also remembered that her clothing was covered in blood and her trousers were soaked with urine. It would never do to have anyone see her in an outfit splattered by blood and reeking of piss. She pulled off her soiled clothes and threw them next to the abandoned saddle. For the first time in more than a year she put on her Church collar and assumed the disguise of a naked penitent.

She covered her bucket, tied it to her saddle, and led the remaining mule down the hill. The Ancients blessed her by making the animal cooperative. Danka had been moving downhill for a half an hour when she heard a series of explosions coming from the direction of Babáckt Yaga's settlement. The mule was unnerved by the noise, but fortunately did not panic or buck. Danka suddenly felt very sick. It was obvious that Ermin's Path in Life had just ended and the settlement, which had been the center of her world for the past 15 months, had become nothing more than piles of burnt wreckage.

She calmed the mule and kept going. She needed to continue moving through the rugged terrain as quickly and inconspicuously as possible. She was frustrated by having to lead an animal that was slowing her down, but she knew the mule was necessary to transport her items and would greatly assist her as soon as she got to a decent road.

Danka only stopped when it became too dark to continue. She knew better than to start a campfire; she still was too close to the Follower's settlement and anyone who might have survived Ermin's explosions. Instead, she lit an oil lamp to have just enough light to reorganize the saddlebags. She disassembled the skull staffs and secured the skulls inside her luggage. She also had to hide her Follower's dress and Ermin's robe. She knew it would be better to discard Ermin's items altogether, but was not sure whether such a precaution was allowed.

She spent as much time as possible on her packing, because she knew that as soon as she closed her eyes, the Destroyer would be paying her a visit with the usual visions and taunting. The memories of that horrid day would torment her dreams for years. She would remember the suspended corpses of people who had educated her and with whom she had lived. There were the memories of Babáckt Yaga hanging on the cross and her deformed body when she was taken down. There were the faces and gaping wounds of the men she had killed. Yes, that was another detail to torment Danka's soul: she had killed or participated in the killing of a dozen men. Not only had she seen death; she had inflicted it. She hadn't much time to think about killing while it was going on: she was too scared and the situation was too chaotic for her to have any moral reservations about swinging her sword. Well, now she did have time to think about it.

"I'm alone," Danka muttered to herself: "Alone with myself. I hate being alone."

"Why?"

Danka looked up. An owl, that owl, had settled onto a branch overlooking the clearing. She stood up.

"Why?"

The ground grabbed Danka's feet and the large yellow eyes emerged from the sitting owl, filling her vision and blocking out everything else.

"Why? Why, Danka Síluckt? Why are you such a hypocrite and a liar?"

"I don't understand. Thanks to you, I'm now a murderer, but why are you calling me a hypocrite and a liar?"

"Stop pretending you don't understand. First you tell me to be gone, that you want to be left alone. Then...sitting by yourself with your little oil lamp, you tell the world that you hate being alone. So, which is it? Do you want companionship, or do you not want companionship?"