Societas Draconistrarum

The woman in the big canopied bed stopped screaming, and the healthy wail of a newborn filled the room.

The youngster huddled in the shadows gasped and covered his mouth. It wasn't at all  what he expected when he followed Janos Hunyadi and Janos the Mazil here. He gagged and almost cast his accounts.

He heard the woman's thin voice in the darkness as he hurried to leave the place.

"Name her Dochia, Janos."

***

Janos the Mazil's tower shined white in the distance. Dochia slowed her horse and felt the medallion under her doublet. The dragon with his tail wrapped around its neck was testimony to her biggest achievement. She smiled with hope and imagined her father's reaction. He had been too low ranked to join the high Order of the Dragon and had coveted the medallion his whole life. She had to overcome the double handicap of her origin and her gender.

Perhaps this time she would see the pride in his eyes rather than the usual condescending suffering.

Dochia stopped her horse and hesitated. She took a sharp intake of breath as the bittersweet memories the white tower brought back flooded her heart.

Aunt Varvara's words rang in her year.

"Janos' worthless whelp..."

She winced remembering her father's response when told. With an incredulous look on his face, Janos had accused her of lying.

Dochia smiled.

"Not aunt Varvara anymore, not after she did to father. Surely she wouldn't dare to show up now."

A carriage rumbled on the cobblestone road leading to the tower's entrance and Dochia froze. Certainly she underestimated the woman's gumption.

She stopped her horse and watched with horror as Varvara hugged her father and he hugged her back. As if nothing had happened.

Dochia stood straighter in the saddle and approached the tower. Her father must have heard of her feat. It was the talk of the court as the Dragon himself put the chain around her neck.

She looked again wistfully at the white tower as she dismounted. It was in the garden above the door that she met Niklaus. She foiled Duncan's kidnap attempt in her room, facing the opposite side and right around the corner is where he stood when she saved his life.

She loved them both,  Niklaus with the innocence of the first love and Duncan with the intensity of a forbidden attraction.

Right behind the stairs was the cellar.  Janos transformed it in her training hall. While other girls worried about dresses, she learned how to handle a sword and how to throw a dagger.

Dochia smiled. Proficient with a sword, she could hardly sew a straight line of stitches.  In the cellar,  Niklaus brought his friend and challenged her. For Niklaus,  she fought and won. She raised her eyes in triumph at him and was sure to find admiration in his eyes. Instead, she found shame. Niklaus had been so embarrassed that he almost dragged his friend out. Two weeks later he announced his betrothal to Erszbet.

"Mister, are you alright?"

A well known voice woke Dochia up from her musings. She pulled her helmet and smiled.

"I am glad to be home, Mary. How is father?"

Mary frowned.

"Old... You can find him in the hall, miss."

Dochia entered the hall and recoiled when she noticed Varvara walking in her direction. Her aunt, through bribe, claimed Janos was not her brother. She added to her holdings the lands Janos inherited from his father. She couldn't touch the white tower as Hunyadi himself gifted it to Janos for an unnamed service.

"Welcome, niece." Dochia heard, and her head snapped.

"Good afternoon, Lady Varvara."

The old woman approached, all smiles and honey dripped off her lips.

"How I would hope I could be more to you. Call me aunt, child. Oh, the things we can achieve with your position with the Dragon."

Dochia gritted her teeth and answered with restrain:

"That wouldn't be possible, Lady Varvara, and you well know why."

Varvara would not yield.

"Oh child, we missed you so."

Dochia narrowed her eyes.

"Lady Varvara, pray let's not make a scene in front of the servants."

The other woman turned around with a swish of skirts and hatred in her eyes.

Dochia raised her head and smiled with pride and love at her father. She froze when she met the same expression of condescending suffering mingled this time with the same embarrassment she read years before in Niklaus eyes. His eyes raked her armors, tousled hair and sun kissed face. He shook his head while Varvara held his hand.

Dochia turned so no one could see the tears that threatened to fall and strode through the doors. She rode without pause to Dragon's camp, the small note she received the day before burning in her gauntlet.

She kneeled before the Dragon and handed him the wrinkled note.

"How fares Janos the Mazil ?"

Thoughts whirled in her mind. "Old, however, not worse for the wear for the time spent in Miklos' dungeon. For him,  I accepted Miklos' offer of marriage: to get him out of the dungeon and  consolidate our position with the Order. For him,  I made Duncan leave."

She bowed.
"In good health, my lord. Well cared for by Lady Varvara."

She must have winced or frowned since the Dragon waved the others away and drew close.

"I was there, Dochia, the day you were born. My child's mind contrived a conspiracy between Hunyadi and the Mazil, so I followed them."

Dochia's eyebrows shot up.

"I'll never forget it, it was the day before my own father sent me to Edirne for seven grueling years. I'll never forget how Hunyadi held you in his arms and how Janos the Mazil recoiled when Hunyadi eventually placed you in his."

Dochia's voice trembled.

"Your highness, what are you saying?"

The Dragon looked at the note with a frown.

"Your father would be proud of you, Dochia! He prized valor; he'd want you to help Duncan..."