Life and Times of a Priestess: Ch.4: Prisoners Of Prancir (Part 1)

    Roger smiled and accepted her gratitude, and touched her arm again, in a gesture that suggested care and sympathy but also empathy and desire.  It was obvious to Danella, as well as to Sreela, that this man was laying his claim upon her.  Whether he appreciated that she was their High Priestess or not he had singled her out as someone he could communicate with the other Priestesses through.  More than that he seemed to want her to be near him as they marched.  She was still weak as they all were after the ordeal.  When she stumbled he helped her and waited for her.  When she showed concern for the ladies being abused in some painful way, as in the house they had recently passed, he had stopped and done what she had wished.  Danella supposed he might have done that anyway. He seemed to have a distaste for violence, which was good to see in a soldier from Vanmar.  Roger's interest in Sreela was more than guilt or sympathy, she was sure, and Sreela seemed to understand it as well.  It was early days, but it had been obvious from the time of Roger's original rape.  The damage done to Sreela as the long afternoon had continued had strengthened his interest in her well-being.  When Danella surveyed the damage and pain around her she considered them lucky to have a protector who seemed to be drawn to them by a stronger bond than merely duty to his general.

CHAPTER 4                                 

PRISONERS OF PRANCIR

(Part 1)

     Danella had learned enough about the way Vanmarians lived to know that they worked not in exchange for a recognised place in society, as did the citizens of Pirion, but for a means of exchange known as money.  This was not a new concept to her.  She knew that when a High Priestess or a farm manager or a General wished to obtain a product from outside the city or township boundaries they would use a value of money and ask the town or city authority to purchase it for them.  It was very rare that such a request might be made but she had heard that it was possible.  She knew also that the requirements of the army or of communal building projects would be valued in money as a record of the efforts which the Empire or the city were expending upon the project.  She did not know whether these methods were ancient ones continued from the earliest days of the Goddess's Empire, or whether these were techniques borrowed from the Vanmarian nations.

    She knew that the Vanmarians based their whole society upon these principles of valuation and money.  Everything had a price, whether it be a quarter of an hour's labour or the hat on the head of a Prancirian soldier, the cost of laying siege to a Pirionite city for months and occupying it, and probably the cost of a soldier's head.  The Priestesses and other ladies of Dalos were prisoners of the occupiers at the moment, but she gathered from the Prancirian soldiers she was now learning to converse with that in Prancir these sorts of services could be performed only at a cost and that the ladies could earn large sums of money for what in Pirion was given freely.  This was the reason why ordinary men and soldiers could not afford sufficient sexual entertainment to keep them happy and satisfied.  Only "wives", and sometimes "girlfriends" were free, and many argued that even these had a cost.

    It was only after some weeks of her new existence of looking after the sexual needs of the Prancirian soldiers that she realised that even her own services were not being 'freely' given as she had thought.  The priestesses who were used to giving freely of their various talents noticed no difference from their previous employment in this respect.  In return for their participation in the culture and rituals of Pirion society they had always been rewarded with, aside from the blessings of the Goddess, good food, accommodation, friendship, a wider family and all the things a human being needs to feel happy and content.

     Of course Danella had begun to feel a lack of happiness and contentedness in recent times, before the war had interrupted her life, but her basic needs had been satisfied.  Only her own, as she thought, unusual desire for learning and perhaps adventure had made her unhappy.  Even so she believed she had been happier than these soldiers of Prancir were in their own land.  Now, under occupation, the Priestesses' lives returned to a lower quality version of normalcy than before.  They were now well fed and looked after by the military authorities, valued indeed by them and given privileges, which were not granted to the male population of Dalos.  In many ways therefore their former lifestyle was restored.  But it could not be the same when the men of Pirion were forced to work like slaves, treated far worse than the Empire would ever treat its people. 

     The Priestesses and other ladies remained prisoners, not free to leave their new 'employment' or the city.  They felt the unfairness of occupation.  This was their city and they could not accept that Prancirians could have a right to rule it.  They were not only Priestesses who knew nothing better.  During the siege they had also become soldiers and they had felt their own power.  When they worked together they appreciated what they could do to an enemy, and they had tasted a power which could be turned to defend justice.

    From the first day when all had been abused to the point of exhaustion they had been treated well.  Roger and his men were, for the first few weeks, assigned to ensure they were treated well by the soldiers who visited them.  There were times of day and during the night when no one was allowed to visit and the guards ensured that there were never more than fifteen visitors at any one time.  For the first few days there was a constant stream of soldiers coming and going and usually about fifteen were with them during the open hours.  All the Priestesses were therefore well employed, and the best looking ones, which certainly was a description which fitted Danella, were requested more frequently.  After about a week the number of visitors began to drop to a level of an average of perhaps six or eight at any time.  At first Danella assumed this was due  to the men having tried them enough and being satisfied.

    She mentioned it to Sreela one time, but she asked Roger and he had not known the reason.  Many of them had commented on it by now.  They had wondered whether many soldiers had moved out of the city, but this did not seem to be the case when they asked soldiers.  Some began to wonder whether many soldiers had brought their wives to live with them.  The Priestesses had become well aware of some of the officers doing this, but it didn't seem to stop them paying visits to the Priestesses' dormitory.  Apparently none of the ordinary soldiers were yet allowed to bring families over.  Most of them were expecting to continue the campaign further into Pirion.

    They tried to ask some of the friendlier soldiers about their homeland, about the war and about their families, but the language barrier made real communication difficult.  Now that they were all trapped in a new life and had met the enemy at close quarters, Danella observed that the other Priestesses were now more curious about the foreign nations than they had been in their old life.  They thought the Prancirians rude and violent because of the war and the events at the conquest proved it, but as they began to learn Prancirian words and the Prancirians began to learn Pirionite words there came curiosity, and then sometimes understanding.  It became obvious that some of the Prancirians were coming back frequently.  These were the ones who tried to talk the most.  The Priestesses began to get to know these men well and learned things about their lives and backgrounds and that they had personal feelings and thoughts, even about the war they were engaged in, but it took some time before good communication was reached.

     Many of the regular visitors were indeed officers.  From what some of the ones which were not officers said, Danella and some of the other Priestesses learned that these men were not 'paid' as much as the officers.  This was apparently why they could not 'afford' to visit the Priestesses as often as  they would have liked.  Some even moaned that they would prefer to go to conquer another city because the Priestesses would be cheaper there.  Most of the Priestesses who began to hear these words did not fully understand their meaning, although they recognised it was something to do with status.  It was easier for the officers to come to visit and the ordinary soldiers' opportunities were being restricted.

    Danella soon found that she wanted to learn everything she could about these invaders.  Once she had recovered in mind and body from the trials of warfare and conquest she began once again to be stimulated by thoughts  and tales of foreign lands.  These people began to fascinate her.  When she took a soldier she examined his sexual personality and analysed it, but she also tried to find out more about him and where he came from.  To do that she was motivated to learn new Prancirian words and to make the attempt to communicate.