The Tattooed Princess

Svetlana's Master

* * *

The next morning the women came to escort Svetlana to her new home under the control of a new master. Murka's dwelling was on the top of a hill amid the tent city of the Pazyryk people. It was a massive affair of connecting tents of varying heights--all leather, and with straight poles placed deep in the ground to support them. Three soldiers were there at the entrance of the sprawling structure to greet the small entourage from Sharvur's palace. Murka had always been an important general in the king's forces and after having been announced publicly by Sharvur as a hero-now to be venerated even after death, his protection by soldiers was justified.

After it was declared to these warriors by the women attendants that Svetlana was now to be presented to her new master, one of the men took charge and opened the entrance of the complex. Svetlana followed him through a labyrinthine series of tents, ever climbing higher on the hill. Passing in and out of the various leather dwellings which housed cooking areas, storage rooms, some sections open to the sky, and what seemed to be closed sleeping quarters, she finally arrived at a large decorative tent. It was closed by a heavy curtain, dyed red and blue.

Immediately a woman came to the entrance. She was perhaps in her late twenties and though of a fair face, she had a body which expressed that she had bore children in her young life. She looked critically for several moments at Svetlana, seemingly to decide upon her approval or not. The buxom and youthful Svetlana kept very still, careful to not look too long or too curiously into the woman's eyes. Finally, the woman motioned for the soldier to leave and spoke to Svetlana in the Scythian tongue which she had by now only partially acquired.

"I am Dressa. The mother of Murka's two children."

She brushed her dark hair back with her fingers self-consciously, and stood a little more in a posed position before Svetlana.

"I know that you are to be Murka's slave now in this house. But you will answer to me about many things. I will tell you what you are allowed to do and what you must not do. Do you understand that?

Svetlana slowly nodded in resignation

"What did they call you in Sharvur's palace?"

"My name is Svetlana," she replied, still looking down. Her voice was subdued, and evermore depressed.

"And how old are you?"

"I will be eighteen this year when the snows arrive."

Dressa seemed to be looking carefully at her body now.

"And have you been with a man yet?"

Svetlana felt the answer to this question was of no right for the woman to know. And yet she realized that under her new circumstance, she had little rights and even fewer chances of making her own decisions about what to say and what to do.

"No," she finally answered with a mixture of pride and humiliation. "I am still a virgin."

"Well, that will change very soon," Dressa responded coldly. "Murka is a powerful man. And he enjoys his pleasures. You will be . . . at least for now, the object of his desires. I don't suggest you try to fight that."

Svetlana looked into the woman's eyes for the first time. They seemed so intense. So combative.

"I am the mother of Tourna and Zetur," she continued. "Murka's young children. And I am also deeply in love with him. If you do not please him in bed, as he wishes, you will have to deal with me."