Chapter Twenty-Four -- The Surgeon's Wife
A heavy snowstorm swept over the central mountains on November 15, putting an end to travel, foraging, military drills, and just about anything else that involved extended activity outside. The Defenders congregated in the bathhouse and the kitchen, the only two buildings that were adequately heated. Isauria and Danka spent much of their free time sitting on their bed, wrapped in blankets while Isauria practiced writing or doing arithmetic problems. There were not many books in the encampment, but some of the Defenders had brought a few with them, which Danka borrowed for Isauria to read. Several of the Oana's nymphs were illiterate, so, if Isauria's book had an interesting topic, for entertainment they gathered in the frigid bunkhouse, huddling under their blankets while listening to the girl practice reading out loud.
Unable to do much else in the snowy hills during the winter, the snowbound Defenders spent a lot of their time making, repairing, and modifying weapons. Oana gave Danka several suggestions for improving Isauria's crossbow. The blacksmith enjoyed experimenting with weapons, including projectiles, to see if he could improve on their performance. So, Oana frequently sent her nymphs outside to test modified crossbow bolts, to see if any of the new designs might be worth distributing to the entire militia.
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During the second half of 1756, the Defenders of the Duchy did not really have a supreme chief, nor were they under the direct control of the Grand Duke's army. Leadership among officers such as Commander Sáupeckt depended on having respect from their soldiers and building prestige through their units' over-all contributions to the militia movement. The most obvious were battlefield victories, but there were other ways commanders could make meaningful contributions, including bringing in supplies, identifying new resources such hidden springs or new fishing ponds, improving travel and communication, producing and or finding innovative ways to repair weapons, and improving medical care. Commander Sáupeckt's unit was considered a top provider of medical care, give that he had three field surgeons and an alchemist working in the cave, led by a practitioner who had previous experience working with the Followers of the Ancients.
The leading doctor's name was Ilmátarkt. He originally was from Nagorónkti-Serífkti and had assisted a group of Followers during vaccination campaigns in 1749 and 1751. He was the son of a bookbinder who provided housing to the Followers in exchange for medical training for their children. Because he was the only member of the Defenders who had received formal medical training from the Cult, he was considered the person most qualified to handle medical care for the militia.
Danka first met Ilmátarkt when she helped bring in her wounded squad-mate for a follow-up examination and to have the wound disinfected. Ilmátarkt was impressed with Danka's work and amazed that a nymph who had sustained such a serious injury in battle had survived and was well on her way to healing. He congratulated Danka and wanted to find out more about her, but the September fighting and October foraging pulled her away.
After the first snowfall, Danka was back in the cave, asking about alchemy ingredients she needed to prepare batches of birth-control paste. Doctor Ilmátarkt, pleased that she had survived the fall campaign unscathed, invited her to share a bottle of ale in a small side grotto he used as his place of work.
They chatted about Nagorónkti-Serífkti, the vaccination campaigns, and the True Believers. Because of his training and association with the Cult of the Ancients, Ilmátarkt suspected that his life was in danger when he heard about the raid against the Followers' compound in 1752. He fled with his two sisters to Starívktaki Móskt. The sisters went their separate ways: one enrolled in the Old Believers' Seminary and the other married a blacksmith's apprentice.
Ilmátarkt could have remained in Starívktaki Móskt, but with his sisters occupied with their new lives and responsibilities, he became lonely and restless. He went to the capitol, set broken bones and performed some surgeries to earn money for traveling, and continued south to Hórkustk Ris. Although by that time Hórkustk Ris had become a besieged border town, he liked the city and made friends with some of the city guards. When the Grand Duke evacuated the city, he accompanied the guards to assist refugees who needed medical assistance, and in doing so unwittingly joined the Grand Duke's army. Because his unit remained with the refugees, he missed seeing the battles for the city and the Grand Duke's victory.
After the battle of Iyóshnyakt-Krepóckt, Ilmátarkt's unit quickly moved east to attack villages of foreigners still living in Hórkustk Ris province. He came close to being killed when his company lost a skirmish with a much larger column of retreating soldiers from the Lord of the Red Moon's army and the squad he was with became separated from the rest of the unit and was overrun. Ilmátarkt was captured along with one of the guards while the others were killed. The Red Moon soldiers planned to impale their two prisoners, along with a group of captured village women, as a parting insult to the Grand Duke's army. The invaders had even laid the hooks on the ground in front of the captives to show them what was about to happen. However, because the Red Moon Army commander was absent, the impalement had to wait.
Fortunately for the prisoners, a group of Defenders of the Duchy operating in the area were able to take advantage of the delay to organize a rescue. The Danubians entered the village at night, battled the Red Moon soldiers guarding Ilmátarkt and the others, and escaped with the prisoners. The Defenders lost two of their own men, so they even though they had saved their countrymen, they were not sympathetic towards them. They took the women to Hórkustk Ris province and abandoned them in a large village held by the Grand Duke's army. The Defenders drafted the two rescued men to replace the two killed in the fight. Ilmátarkt had been with the Defenders ever since, although his original senior officer traded him to Commander Sáupeckt for a man who knew how to make gunpowder.
Danka responded with a heavily censored summary of her life, omitting the reason she left Rika Héckt-nemát and her two years serving the Grand Duke as a concubine. She did feel confident enough around the doctor that she talked about her time with Babáckt Yaga. The pair exchanged information and gossip about people they had both known in Nagorónkti-Serífkti and Starívktaki Móskt. When she mentioned Ermin, she found out that Ilmátarkt had worked under him multiple times. At the time the doctor knew him, Ermin's wife was still alive and she was friends with both Ilmátarkt's sisters.
The conversation turned to the destruction of Babáckt Yaga's settlement and the True Believers' effort to consolidate their power in Nagorónkti-Serífkti. Danka described what happened and the sacrifice Ermin made so she could escape and warn Alchemist Fítoreckt in Sevérckt nad Gorádki. The memories of the chaotic fighting and Ermin's last words came back into her consciousness, as though they had just happened. Unable to continue, Danka sat quietly as tears rolled down her cheeks.
"A lot of me died with Elder Ermin. I guess I loved him... in a way I never loved anyone else, but I never had the chance say anything to him about that. It seems such a long time ago... and yet, it wasn't."
There was a moment of silence, before Ilmátarkt slightly changed the subject.
"So... since you were there and bore witness... it's true... the rumors... that the Cult of the Ancients disbanded?"
She saw no harm in giving the doctor a detailed account of the Cult's final ceremony and the sealing of the caves. She was reluctant to tell Ilmátarkt about Alchemist Fítoreckt's revenge against the True Believers' priest, although she did mention that she had heard the priest later went mad and the townsfolk of Nagorónkti-Serífkti killed him. After the caves were sealed, the Followers dispersed and vanished into Danubian society. She concluded with:
