16

The news that a girl not even sixteen years old, moreover the Grand Duchess Ekaterina, had forcefully taken over command of the expedition, spread like wildfire throughout the camp, causing shock and disbelief among the soldiers.

But truly, it was nothing compared to the first command given by the new General, that immediately plunged everyone into despair and desperation in a heartbeat.

Because a Russian, as it was known, could survive the cold, the steppe, the horrid food, but there was one thing he could not do without.

"No!" resonated throughout the camp. "Not the vodka!"

"Sorry, these are the orders." was the only answer that the assigned officers could give. "But in case of victory the General has promised that each soldier will have triple rations."

And it was not just the cherished vodka that suffered from this kind of purge.

Again under the General's orders, all the honey and sugar was rounded up, moreover all the glass bottles that could be found were confiscated, emptied and brought into a large tent, around which a continuous coming and going soon formed, and from which an inviting smell soon came.

Lastly, it was ordered to eradicate any plant within half a mile – not that many, actually – and to dismantle most of the conquered redoubts, with the logs that were transported onto the gun carriages to the northern valley, more or less in the place where two entire divisions were placed to dig holes and shallow trenches. In other points of the valley was ordered to dig grooves as well, ten centimeters deep and no wider than three-four, so small that they could not be seen even a few meters' away.

In the meantime, spies and scouts were incessantly scouring the area, keeping an eye with ease on the advancing allied army, all too easy to notice with those blasted British bagpipes that would have waken up God Almighty himself with their noise, so terrible and out of tune they were.

In all this activity, the new General personally supervised the ongoing works, of which only she could find a sense, or so it seemed. To see her going all around the camp and the valley, so small and seemingly defenseless, with a mismatch between an insanely costly noble dress and a traveller's coat as a dress, made for a disorienting effect to say the least, but again, her tone and her glare had the power to bring everybody to full obedience, beyond her status or her title.

And Nonna, always standing apart, kept her under strict surveillance, although, after taking in how everybody followed her without question (perhaps scared from the treatment she had given to the only man who had dared to object), she had calmed down somewhat, and had begun to wander aimlessly through the camp; it almost looked like she wanted to sort things out, to take stock of the unbelievable sequence of events that had brought them there, at the doors of hell on Earth, and on the bring of a battle that announced itself as bloody.

"Did you do that yourself?" she heard at last, in a familiar vernacular.

Her eyes fell upon three Cossacks huddled around the fire, as one of them showed off proudly a miniaturized uniform as if it had been a high fashion dress.

"Of course." he answered. "For my little future horseman. Waiting for the day in which he'll be able to ride alongside his father, at last."

"At least now we know that you don't wear the pants in your house." another laughed.

"Well said." the other doubled down. "What kind of Cossack knows to handle needle and thread so well? Are we sure you are not a woman?"

"I know how to use a sabre very well, in the case you forgot. Would you like for me to add a bit of length to your smiles, perchance?"

"Sorry, brother." the three heard from behind them.

A moment later, a beautiful girl with the face of an angel and the eyes of a wolf was beside them, offering to the improvised tailor a handful of gold coins.

"Could you please sell me that dress?"

At lunchtime, the soldiers busy around the main gun battery were allowed a bit of a respite as well.

On her side, as the soldiers ate Katyusha went and took a good look at everything herself, to make sure that it was coming up as she had ordered, beginning a slow horseback ride along the valley.

And it was just as she reached the battery that her attention went to a very young warrant officers sitting apart from the others, who, leaving his lunch before the stone on which he was sitting upon, was busy writing down something in a notebook.

Curious, she came close, but that large-moustache man with dreaming eyes was so busy with his notes that took form before his eyes that he did not notice at all he had gained an audience, until Katyusha stomped her feet as she dismounted.

"Ge... General!" he blurted out, snapping to attention at once.

"At last, Lieutenant. Do you know how long I've been watching you? If I was a spy or an enemy agent, you'd be keeping company to the angels by now."

"I... Dreadfully sorry, General. I..."

"At ease." the girl then smiled. "You worked hard, the least I can do is not mess with you during your lunch break."

Once said that, Katyusha reached down to grab the notebook, glancing at it under the almost fearful look of the young Lieutenant.

Those were mostly poems, but there were random observations and short stories as well, some barely a few lines' long, and in each resonated the call to war in which that poet loaned to the army had been dragged into.

"Not bad at all. You have a future with a pen."

"D-Do you think so?"

"I've read more than you could even imagine. Believe me, I know you are a good writer."

"I am pleased that you think so."

Katyusha allowed herself another glance, then she returned the notebook to his owner.

"Let's put it this way. If you die, I'll make sure to recover it. It would be a pity to lose those verses, Lieutenant..."

"Tolstoy. Lev Nicholayevic Tolstoy, General. In that case, I'll make sure not to die. You know, I have plenty of things I'd like to write about."

"Did you finish preparing the battery?"

"Aye, sir. All the guns have been placed as per the orders. However..."

In that moment, the Lieutenant's eyes turned almost informal, as he turned towards the unusual sequence of small cannons standing behind him.

"If I may, I don't think I've ever seen such a formation."

"Trust me, Lieutenant. The British haven't as well. And for many of them, it will be tha last thing they see."

At sundown, Katyusha granted a veritable banquet to the troops.

If it could be called a banquet after the looting of the baggage train, as no trace of honey, sugar and vodka could be found anywhere; despite that, each soldier received the equivalent of four times the standard ration, so that anybody bound to leave the world of the living the next time could have the consolation of a full belly.

Katyusha kept away, sitting on a rock on the outskirts of the camp, with the starry sky to keep her company; the indifferent attitude to any feast was one of the few things left untouched inside her when she had made the jump from Grand Duchess to General, not that she disliked it.

Once, her ears, accustomed to concerts and dance music, would not have been able to perceive an almost unnoticeable sound of footsteps behind her, but by this point it could be said that the soldier had almost completely overcome the princess.

Despite that, she was unperturbed, nor was she alarmed, as she knew that there was only one person able to move with such lightness and grace at the same time.

"Aren't you enjoying the feast, Nonna?"

"What about you, General?"

"Never cared much for them. You should know that, by now."

Nonna waited a few more moments, then, after a wordless invitation, she sat close to her protégé, even though both struggled to speak at first.

"They seem so cheerful." the girl said, almost grasping at straws to begin a conversation. "They drink, they eat, they dance. But is it a good idea to let them have fun like this, considering what awaits us?"

"That's precisely why they should. Tomorrow, many of them will be dead for sure. I want them to have the consolation of having passed their last night as well as possible."

"You know, many generals would accuse you to be too lax with the troops."

"That's why our army is so dreadful. The training might not be the best, but qualities and courage are not lacking; but how could these men risk their lives for a sovereign and commanders that don't consider them any more than pawns?"

Another round of silence followed, a bit longer this time, during which the two girls lost themselves in the spectacle above their heads.

"Now that I think about it." Katyusha said. "About your sister..."

"Yes?" Katyusha replied, still unable to completely accept the weight of the crimes she had done in her name.

"I have known somebody. Countess Novajef."

"The widow of Governor Sabyeroff? I know her myself. She often travels around the world."

"She has a villa in Switzerland, on the mountains around Saanen, close to Berne. Being such a shallow spendthrift, I am sure she'll have an army of maids at all time to keep it. I am equally sure that she won't mind having one more, especially if her own beloved goddaughter gives a good reference."

Nonna was speechless, turning towards her with the wide, shocked eyes of a child.

"You... Would you really do that?"

"Scotland is so gloomy, and boring. The Swiss Alps sound much better, don't you think? Good air, milk, cheese as much as you can eat, woods smelling of honey and resin. There's nothing better for someone with the breathing sickness."

The young Cossack girl could hardly believe her ears, and at the same time she could hardly believe that the girl she had so callously deceived could still be so attentive towards her.

"But... I don't deserve it. I hurt you. If it hadn't been for me..."

"If it hadn't been for you, I would have never understood who I truly am, and who I wish to be. I am the one who is indebted towards you. This is my way of repaying such debt."

With that, Katyusha took a pendant from the sack that she had carried all day long, offering it to her best friend.

"Congratulations. Tomorrow, you will lead the Cossack horsemen."

"What?!"

"It's high time that your family returns to the place it deserves. I spoke with the Cossack commanders, and they'd be related to have the daughter of Colonel Timofeevič lead them in battle."

Nonna took the pendant, staring at it disbelievingly; she could not believe that her mistress could hold so much trust in her still. However, the thought of being able to redeem the name of her father in the eyes of the world won out in the end over her doubts and her fears, and she happily accepted the nomination with no further ceremonies.

"Actually, I have something for you as well."

The girl opened the bag she had with her, and all of a sudden Katyusha found before her a miniature officer's uniform, roughly colored with dyes scavenged here and there and enriched by gold-painted buttons; the dress was further improved by a blue cap with the Imperial insignia, that too adapted, and by a shoulder strap with a holster, inside of which rested the revolver with which Katyusha had christened her new commanding role.

It was the Grand Duchess' turn to struggle for words.

"Nonna..."

"I don't have much confidence with the needle and thread, and the boys who wanted to help me weren't great as well. I hope you like it, despite it being stitched up like this. I had to improvise..."

Katyusha kissed Nonna on the cheeck so quickly that she was wholly unprepared, and before she could notice it the small dress was already out of her hands.

"My Lady..."

"If... if you tell anybody, I'll pound you!" the small girl said, even more flushed and embarassed.

Shortly after midnight, a messenger on horseback rode into the camp, asking the first soldier he met to be pointed towards the General at once.

Dismounting, he hurriedly reached the ridge he had been pointed towards, but when before his eyes a little girl in dress uniform appeared, a pistol hanging from her shoulder and a sabre on her hip, he stood there gaping for a moment.

"What is happening?" the young Cossack standing close to her sharply rebuked him, to shake him out of his daze.

"Er... the allied army has made camp alongside the hills to the west. They'll be here tomorrow morning. A further two divisions of Royal Marines have landed in the village to the south, and are deploying on the hills close to the road."

Hearing that, the General stood up, with the moonlight behind her giving her an almost supernatural air that left the spectator mute.

"Very well." she said, detached and self-assured. "Tomorrow, by this hour, we'll be drinking over the corpses of the British."