> ‘Once you climb on the saddle to ride in search of war, the palaces of Rin An-Pur shall fade from your memory, aye. For you’ll be a Horselord of old again and trouble shall find you. War shall seek you out. The horse shall be your only domain. No titles and not your riches. Not above anyone else riding beside you or even underneath your hooves, just for that. A lofty station unearned is easily lost and counts for naught in the plains.
>
> What you buy, you don’t truly own. What you earn is yours forever.
>
> Titles can be fleeting same as life. Won and lost in a single breath. If they are bequeathed, even sooner. What we have the Khan gave, to honor your ancestors’ deeds not yours. See to not lose it for it’s not yours to misplace. Don’t sully their memory or yer father’s.
>
> Be a Horselord and only take that which you’ve honestly gained after bloody struggle. If it’s more you desire then ye need to earn it in the field and pay in blood.
>
> That’s the only way.
>
> Go now and see to your horses.’
>
>
>
> Lord Zuti Mirpur of Rin An-Pur, the Khan’s Master of Horses counseling his two surviving older sons afore the Khan’s departure from the Capital sometime in the Spring of 192 NC.
-
-
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
Horus Mirpur
The Cataphract
Part I
-Vibrant black skin & gilded eyes-
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
>
-
> Khan’s army
>
> (Issir name the ‘Burzin’s Horde’)
>
> Estimated
>
>
>
> South Group (Deadmen’s Watch landing detachment)
>
> Group Leader -Lord Putra (Lukela)
>
>
>
> Total number (of fighting force) 4600
>
> 100 (300 men) Heavy Chariots under Maluph Erul-Sol (Que Ki-La)
>
> 300 Royal Cataphracts (Khan’s Own) under Horus Mirpur (Rin An-Pur)
>
> 200 Medium Horse (Heavy Lancers) under Perku
>
> 3000 Jang-Lu (Halberd heavy infantry) under Xener
>
> 500 Horse Archers under Larmir
>
> +200 mounted Scouts/Rangers under Dumar
>
>
>
> 450 wagons, 1500 mules, at least 2000 extra horses.
>
> 300 Engineers under Tibia-Han
>
> (At least 20 Catapults, 4 trebuchets, unknown number of heavy Ballistae)
>
> 1000 slaves with the supply train.
>
> 100 slavers (guards) under slave-master Cardus of Wotcheki Castle (The Master of Slaves Bedas was with the Khan)
>
>
>
> Main army (landings at Seagulls Neck near Colle)
>
> Under Khan Burzin Radpour
>
> General in charge Prince Radin Radpour
>
> Lord Sam Phanti Advisor (Rin)
>
>
>
> Total number (of fighting force) around 15600
>
> 300 (900 men) Heavy Chariots under Lord Ota-Kmet (Turbal)
>
> 700 Royal Cataphracts (Khan’s Own) under Cephas Mirpur
>
> 20 White Elephants (armoured, four armed handlers per for a total of 80) under Tyfon (Nasar)
>
> 7000 Jang-Lu (Hallberg heavy infantry) under Muda Zeket (Chariot Birth)
>
> 4800 Horse Archers under Tehenor (Lukela)
>
> 800 Medium Horse (Heavy Lancers) under Sepa (Rin An-Pur)
>
> +700 mounted Scouts/Rangers under Muvelo (Shao Na-Lan)
>
>
>
> Around 1000 wagons, 3000 mules and about sixteen thousand horses.
>
> 700 engineers under Rumen-Kot (the admiral’s brother)
>
> (At least 40 catapults, 10 trebuchets and unknown number of heavy Ballistae)
>
> 2000 slaves at least with the supply train (unknown number with the Khan’s separate caravan.) The number was to increase rapidly within the first six months but a large number of them were lost due to food shortages.
>
> 300 slavers (guards) under Lord Bedas of Sidhyr, the Master of Slaves.
>
>
>
> Reserve Army
>
> Remained at Colle initially
>
> Under Havor Dhin-Awal (Rin An-Pur) one of Prince Radin’s longtime friends along with his older brother Hajot that had been killed back in 188 NC fighting rebel Horselords in Jade Lake of all places.
>
> Total number (of fighting force) around 6500
>
> Added with Prince Radin in the last months of 193
>
>
>
> 2000 Medium Horse (Lancers) with some Cataphracts (most of the men were given to the Prince by his brother Atpa to deal with Sir Gust and keep him on Eplas. Prince Atpa was furious upon learning that he had brought them to his father after the latter ordered Radin to join him on campaign.)
>
> 1500 Horse Archers.
>
> Around 3000 mercenaries (mounted infantry) under Birka (Dia Castle)
>
> 200 wagons and 3-4 thousand horses.
>
>
[https://i.postimg.cc/TxQNTyMv/Castalor-194.jpg]
> The sergeant-at-arms pulled at the reins of his mud-covered grey horse and forced it to stop with a loud snort blocking their path on purpose. The tired horse shook its lusterless mane, rich white froth clogging its nostrils and the driver of the carriage yelled at the drawn horses to calm down bringing the vehicle to a stop as well.
>
> “Why stop here Lord Erland?” Lady Marleen Van Oord asked her uncle and looked outside the window of the large carriage trying to spot the sun over the canopy.
>
> Lord Erland pursed his dark lips, thinning white hair cut short and waved at Sir Reggy Maat who had brought his warhorse next to their carriage leaving the rest of their escort behind.
>
> “See what all the fuzz is about Sir Maat,” the Lord of Justice ordered gruffly, austere face not revealing his thoughts.
>
> The Knight nodded with a discreet glance at Lady Marleen’s curious comely face. Hunter’s Trap Forest is always tricky to navigate, he thought and kicked his spurs to get his horse moving. A good road does not make it any less easy.
>
> “Arnaut,” Reggy told his squire. “With me.”
>
> The sergeant, dressed in chainmail and metal spoulders glassed nervously behind him and then grunted at the approaching knight.
>
> “You have to turn the carriage around.”
>
> “Have you taken leave of your senses?” Sir Maat spat taken aback by the sergeant’s gall. “I’ve Lord Erland and the Duke’s daughter in there!”
>
> “All the more reason for it. They can’t be that far behind,” the sergeant insisted soberly.
>
> What is this fool talking about?
>
> “You serve at Deadmen’s Watch? Are you drunk sergeant?”
>
> “Names Del Schalk,” he replied stiffly. “Albert Schalk was my cousin. Turn the carriage around Sir Knight.”
>
> Was? Reggy thought. Albert Schalk was the commander of the guards in Deadmen’s Watch. Run Lord Erland’s small holding in his frequent absences.
>
> “What the allhells is going on sergeant? We’ve no word from you in weeks!” Sir Maat’s snapped angrily. “Yet here you are not ten kilometers from Castalor ordering the Lords of the Realm about!”
>
> “Good knight,” Del Schalk replied hoarsely and Sir Maat could see how sunken the man’s eyes were up close. “I’ve god darn Cataphracts on me back. Lots of good men died to stall them so I can make it. Turn the carriage around.”
>
> “Sir Maat, we are losing the day and the journey is long ahead of us,” Lord Erland was heard on his back, sounding rather annoyed for the unscheduled delay.
>
> Cataphracts, a numb Reggy thought trying to work his mind around the alien word. What Uher’s Holy Light is going on here?
>
> “Sir,” Del insisted his voice crackling. “I’ve come face to face wit a stone-cold killer years back. A right devil. These men riding here are cut from the same cloth. They’ll cut us all down.”
>
> Sir Maat stood back on the saddle shocked. He heard horses coming from the west, many hooves hitting the cobblestone road Lord Erland had installed the previous summer. The thundering noise growing with each passing moment.
>
> “Arnaut!” He barked at his squire. “Tell the driver to turn around. Ask Sir Rikkert to bring the men forward.”
>
> “Sir?” Arnaut queried unsure.
>
> “Get moving lad!” A worried Reggy snapped and reached to close his visor. “NOW!”
>
> A hundred meters down the large forest road, a nervous rider had appeared. Dressed in white leather armour and carrying a recurved bow and a long saber. The exotic looking scout pulled at the reins and half-turned his smaller desert horse around seeing Sir Rikkert and the men-at-arms fanning out on the road. The driver had turned the carriage by now behind Sir Maat and was heading back towards Castalor.
>
> Run sweet lass, get to safety.
>
> The ruckus of the approaching horses now immense. A great host.
>
> Too great.
>
> Eh, Sir Maat thought grimly and set his jaw with a last glance at the cloudy winter sky.
>
> At least it’s not raining.
>
> “Lances!” Sir Rikkert bellowed and Sir Reggy accepted his from the returning Arnaut.
>
> “Reckon you should ride back to Castalor as well lad. It shapes to be a nasty one. You too sergeant. Speak with the Duke,” he told them but while Del Schalk nodded agreeing, the young man shook his head negatively. “So be it. Get that sword out then, come after us,” the knight advised him having no more time to spare.
>
> The first of the heavier armoured enemies had appeared on the road. Riding a much bigger black and white horse, covered in scaled armour. Man and beast. A silver smiling mask instead of a visor secured on his helm.
>
> “By the grace of Uher and the Allgods!” Sir Maat roared reaching for his shield. “Charge at them!” The knight of Castalor ordered and snapped his steel spurs.
>
>
----------------------------------------
--
> Lord Ab Putra of Lukela (connected with General Sartak through marriage), commanding the Khan’s South Group tasked with securing Deadmen’s Watch port, almost made a mess of the landing on the rocky shores of Krakentrap Straits. The weather wasn’t favorable and the transports were unable to find good ground for hours. Two hundred mounted ranger/scouts under Dumar got lost and never turned into the Straits. The two transport ships entered the small port in the early hours of the morning in a hailstorm on the waning days of the first month of 194. They surprised the small guard stationed there and managed to take control of the docks by that afternoon.
>
> The bewildered local commander Albert Schalk (his guards were ‘dealing’ with pirates, smugglers and outlaws mostly) barricaded himself inside the small tower but the scouts were too many and managed to scale the walls under the cover of arrows. Despite their efforts though they just couldn’t dislodge the defenders.
>
> When Lord Putra’s first advanced units of Horse Archers under Larmir arrived two days later the tower was still under Issir control but the scouts have laid waste to the locals and had cut off the east road leading to Castalor. The Horse Archers finished off the rest. By the time the main army reached the town port Deadmen’s Watch was a ‘ghost town’. Macabre lyrical connotations aside, such was the carnage several of the leaders were reprimanded for the uncontrolled destruction they had caused. Less than a thousand of the initial more than five thousand locals were left alive (though promptly enslaved) mainly women and children.
>
> A pressed for time Lord Putra decided to just burn the defenders alive to get it over with and despite protests from Horus Mirpur (a warrior with greater historical standing despite the difference in rank) who commanded the Royal Cataphracts, the Chariot Leader Maluph Erul-Sol backed Putra’s decision which caused a rift between the two noble scions. Maluph was in a murderous mood having recently lost his whole family during the ‘Three Sisters Rebellion’.
>
> This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
>
> It must be noted here that much of the events and atrocities of the Khan’s men were influenced by this fact according to Khanate’s historians but Jelin scholars disagree overwhelmingly. Khan’s later ‘humane enslavement’ of locals that followed –instead of outright killing them- found no sympathetic ears in the Three Kingdoms.
>
> Lord Putra’s orders were to reach Castalor as fast as he could (for such a large host) traversing the large Hunter’s Trap Forest and then either take the city outright or bypass it to secure the fork on the road leading to Hunter’s Cot and the vital bridge over Boar’s Horn River. This would cut off reinforcements and supplies reaching Castalor from Scaldingport, or head towards Colle where Khan’s bigger main and reserve armies where to attack next. The plan had faults as Castalor could be supplied by sea as well and the Khan’s ships had moored in Deadmen’s Watch eventually opting not to attempt a sea blockade at this point.
>
> While it was proposed to attack the Issir fleets of the two cities after traversing the Straits and entering the Scalding Sea, it was deemed risky by Lord Osahar (commanding the Combined Fleet) who wanted to concentrate all his naval power (under Admiral Binra-Kot) for a decisive engagement at the Shallow Straits near the Free Isles.
>
> So Lord Putra went ahead and marched down Hunter’s Trap Forest, the Khanate’s men affected by the cold weather but impressed at the local vegetation, dark fertile ground and strange rich forest surrounding them. With the exception of those living near Rin An-Pur’s westernmost countryside no other Cofol or Horselord had seen such a massive oak tree forest.
>
> The absence of open plains and clear skies made some of the already weary and seasick men claustrophobic which forced Lord Putra to move at a slower pace than he’d preferred to. Three weeks later the advanced units of Cataphracts tasked with clearing the road almost apprehended the alarmed Lord Erland Van Oord who was returning to Deadmen’s Watch -the remote town had been silent for almost a month. Erland’s escort defended the road blocking the Cataphracts which helped him escape to Castalor in panic despite his carriage breaking down and having to use a horse.
>
> All the men in his escort (around twenty men-at-arms) were slain. Sir Reggy Maat and Sir Rikkert Loman the most notable of the knights lost in the engagement. Lady Marleen Van Oord, Duke Basten’s of Castalor unmarried daughter was captured. Lady Marleen must have been in her twenties at the time and was shockingly still unwed despite being Sir Rik De Weer’s fiancée for well over a decade.
>
> Lord Ruud who had been preparing to intervene in Regia’s succession war according to some sources or retake Colle according to others was informed of the events a week later but by that time Lord Putra was at the west gates of Castalor. After the herald finished reading the grim report he stalled unsure which forced the scowling old Duke to inquire whether there was more ‘crap to be served or we can ask for a brandy to get it all down.'
>
> The aggrieved Castalor man replied. ‘Aye my lord, I’m afraid there is. Unfortunately poor Lady Marleen has been captured. We fear the worst.’
>
> To which Lord Ruud had deadpanned dismissively. ‘I thought you were going to tell me the city is lost for a moment there. Got me all edgy in the bowels. A good thing in me age mind you, he-he. There then, she’s either dead or not. Eh, since I see you’re all sensitive on the matter know that no one here expects the lass to be chaste after all this time. So tell our good Duke we’ll be lenient if the girl is found. Within blasted reason! I’ll talk to my son. Assuming the fool actually shows up! He’s not really a catch himself so it’ll have to do. For fuck’s sake, the man’s half-blind!’
>
>
-
Such vibrant colors, Horus Mirpur mused watching the blood pooling at the road. The horses disturbed neighs affecting Midnight –his own war mount- and it shifted nervously under him. The Scouts stripping the dead from their valuables or looking to gather the unharmed horses and saddles.
The Chariots had arrived late in the scrap but were forced to halt for the road to be cleared of the slain bodies. Some of the dead Issirs had fought bravely and Horus had ordered Api-Nofre to see they were gathered with dignity for a quick burial. The forest was too damp for a fire. The rest that had run away afore getting cut down they had left for the wild animals.
“Have you ever seen Issirs from up close afore Lord Mirpur?” Kera-Raad asked, Rokae mask raised on his helm to show his angular face and pronounced slanted eyes.
“A couple of them,” Horus replied and climbed down from his horse to allow it to rest. “Merchants in Rida. One of Prince Atpa’s slaves.”
“A woman?”
“Nah, but I’m sure they are around.”
“Darn black skin gives me the creeps,” Kera-Raad commented and wiped his face with a cloth. “How’s the armour?”
Horus stretched himself out. His left arm a little stiff from a glancing blow. “Holding up. Heavy as a sack of bricks.”
“Hah-hah. At least it’s not as hot as in the desert. I still have marks from the boils,” Kera-Raad guffawed some of the tension leaving his voice. “Not much trouble thus far. Those knights the other day were much better eh?”
“Hmm.” Horus was watching the returning scouts. “This was just a caravan. I don’t believe the news have spread,” he said. “Did any of them make it into the woods?”
Kera-Raad frowned. “A couple made a run for it. I can see them though back there. Dumar’s men had target practice on them.”
Horus grimaced. “Not much honor in that Kera.”
The Cataphract nodded. “Aye my lord.”
“Hey there!” Horus barked at an approaching scout carrying a box and a sack of loot. “Where are those from?”
The scout stopped his horse and stared at the smiling mask Horus had on respectfully. “We found a carriage by the side of the road Sir. They are looking in the woods for survivors. The axle broke and it got dragged behind the horses for a while.”
“Any tracks?” Horus asked narrowing his eyes.
“Several. Horse and humans. Some headed deeper in the woods.”
“How long ago?”
“Days?”
Horus stood back surprised. “What do you hope to find after all this time?”
The scout fixed the box he had in front of him on the saddle and then shrugged. “Don’t much care sir. Others do though. It was a fancy carriage. The one we thought that got away.”
Horus glanced at the approaching Api-Nofre, the Cataphract leading his heavily laden warhorse near their group. “What was that?” He asked turning towards the scout as he’d missed his answer.
“I said those were female tracks sir,” the scout repeated. “So she can’t be far, if she’s still breathing.”
“Castalor is five-six kilometers away?” Kera-Raad grunted. “They’ll be behind the walls by now.”
“The woods are difficult to navigate and we didn’t see it on the first pass sirs.” The scout noted.
“So what, the horses run into the trees?”
“Aye they did,” the scout replied to the Cataphract.
An injury could have kept her back. Can a woman survive in the Forest?
“Come with me,” Horus ordered and headed back towards the grazing by the side of the road Midnight, the clever warhorse eyeing him austerely. “Leave the loot. Api, Kera you follow after us!”
“Where to? Oh, ye prodigious leader?” Api-Nofre taunted from his horse. They knew each other for years.
“To the carriage,” Horus grunted and climbed on his protesting mount. Seeing his friend’s uncertain stance he added. “Not looking for loot.”
More than half the men were riding on his father’s horses.
“I wouldn’t too my lord,” Api retorted turning his horse around while the devastated scout tossed the box down cursing his rotten luck. “In your stead.”
----------------------------------------
“That’s Tibia-Han’s boys,” Api-Nofre commented, voice coming out muffled behind the metal mask and pointed at the engineers cutting down trees to create a camp as close to the city as it was possible. “Xener’s Jang-Lu.”
“The machines are still half-a-day back,” Horus replied and stopped his horse at the edge of the road. “Would Perku attempt to rush the gates?”
“If they’ve kept them open.”
“Um. Where’s the carriage?” Horus asked the melancholic scout Uga. Uga had been born near Reaz Fort to a Caravan guard and a Merchant’s daughter but his relocating father had found it difficult to find work in the capital where they had escaped. The girl’s father finally caught up with them and kicked both the guard and his kid out in the streets. The merchant had kept his mother intending to ‘find her a decent older husband in the capital since they are less uptight about these matters.’
There was some truth in that.
Anyways, Uga had grew up on the saddle following his bitter father on the desert trails, working odd jobs between guarding caravans, which made him a sickly, short in stature kid, then a thin man but a great rider and excellent scout. The greed in him though never subsided.
All this backstory the scout had divulged to the Cataphracts during their brief journey although no one really wanted to hear about his life or cared.
Uga turned his smaller horse south and Horus followed after him, the road behind them clogged with arriving riders from different units or groups. They rode for a bit through the woods but then they had to slow down to a crawling pace. The hapless carriage hadn’t. What was left of it was in three parts, totally gutted.
“Thought it got dragged on the road?” Horus grunted.
“They left the road my lord. Then horses got spooked, crashed the carriage. Look, they’ve taken everything by now,” Uga explained and sighed sadly. “The tracks go that way. South. The horses the other. East.”
“What was in that box?” Kera-Raad snapped as he’d had enough with the scout’s attempts to guilt-trip them into a donation to fill his empty purse and saddlebags.
“Don’t know but it was locked tight,” Uga replied reminiscing. “Good wood. Big mystery, sadly now discovered by another.”
“She got lost?” Horus asked changing the subject but the scout didn’t know. They navigated the treacherous terrain for a while. The tracks of the other scouts mingling with that of their escapee making it difficult to tell one apart from the other. Visibility was awful the deeper they headed into the thick oak trees.
“Blood,” Uga declared and jumped from his horse lithely. He knelt and sunk a finger into the mire, then slotted it in his mouth afore spitting down. “Bleh. Aye, and a forest puma’s piss perhaps.”
“What’s that?” Horus grunted, his hard leather gambeson soaked as the leaves and branches were heavy with moisture and dripping over their heads.
“Like desert Lynx. Similar. Good pet to have on the road.”
“A Nimra?”
“Not a lion milord. Those does not make good pets. More like a very big cat,” Uga elucidated. “Like those red ones in the palace?”
Horus remembered the copper-colored long-eared Lynx cats roaming the palace gardens. Watched one them struggling a slave for fun once. Not his kind of fun. Not much of a Horselord’s true nature remains in Rin An-Pur, his father always said. Whatever there is left is buried under heavy makeup and thick layers of crayon. Horus thought it an excuse growing up, when his father opted frequently to follow his horse herders in the plains dragging his sons along to torture them away from all their servants and mothers.
Cephas never took to Lord Mirpur’s words and Vijay who had, had been killed following Prince Radin around by invading Issirs from this neck of the woods.
The irony of the latter heavy in his mind.
A loud scream was heard, then a snarl and the sound of men cursing. Branches snapping. Horus spun Midnight around to head towards the commotion that was coming and going, muffled by the thick trunks. The moss stifled the sound of their hooves so they approached without the scouts noticing them. The four men had found a small opening amidst the trees, a small brook running through it amidst basalt rocks and an ancient massive oak dominating the south portion of the opening.
The dark-brown colored puma had three arrows sticking out of its bloody sides, a gush on its snout and several deep cuts across its hind legs. One scout was down trying to keep his gored face together where the predator had swiped at him probably in ambush and another holding his bleeding arm cursing a pale-faced snarling white-haired female Issir that looked like she’d been through the ringer.
Cursing her because the dagger-yielding woman had stabbed the scout who apparently had reached to drag her off of the tree she’d found ‘safe haven’.
The place screamed that it was a predator’s lair from a mile away.
“Fucking wench! Dark in skin and soul. Night’s blood-sucking imp!” A scout growled circling her looking to reload his bow. “I’m going to shoot an arrow through yer belly button. Leave ye to rot by the water!”
“Scraped the bone curse her,” another griped, the injured one. “Can’t stop the fucking bleeding!”
“Aragglh!” The female snarled ineligibly brown-gold eyes ogling like saucers. Gleaming skin looking completely black in the shaded opening, contrasting all the nature’s vibrant colors surrounding them and her soaked platinum-colored hair.
Black and white with touches of sparking gold.
Spirits of the plains be gathering!
Horus pursed his mouth shook.
“She was with the carriage my lord!” The startled fourth scout that had spotted their gem-adorned helms cried through his teeth. “Sent the puma on us! She’s dangerous!”
“Uher did it!” The woman screeched in Common her face distorting and teeth rattling. She was terrified and probably hadn’t slept for days. “Stand back vile creatures! Oras fiends!”
“That’s rather embarrassing,” Api-Nofre commented. “Maybe we need to call for reinforcements my lord?”
Horus gulped down in silence, reached in his saddlebags with his left arm and grabbed one of his four leather coin purses out. Never even looked at it. Just tossed the heavy purse at the scout who caught it on his chest greedily. The gold and silver coins jingling inside and the shocked look on Uga’s face comical. The frantically grimacing scout’s teeth showing in a gnarly snarl.
“The girl is yours eminent lord of Rin An-Pur,” the unknown scout said without checking on the coins further and probably never really recognizing Horus. “Help me carry him Berlu and get Parxs going,” he told his uninjured bow-wielding friend.
“Well then. That’s a reliable manner to eat through yer inheritance fast,” Api-Nofre decided and stood back on his saddle. “Can I have Mirah in my tent my lord? Given the fresh addition to yer slave entourage?”
Horus gazed at him warningly behind his silver mask. Then he climbed down from his warhorse, tall leather spurred boots sinking in the soft ground and headed towards the scowling female.
----------------------------------------
Horus knelt near the woman that had retreated in the meantime towards the large trunk of the oak tree. A cavernous hole at its base covered in small brittle bones and discarded animal fur. The moment her back hit the trunk the legs gave from under her and she slipped down, still holding on to the dagger with her dirty hands. She had a long dark green dress on, the edges of her sleeves bell shaped and adorned with yellow lace. A sleeve was missing completely and the dress had been torn in various places, leaving her right leg uncovered, the white lace corset having some of its boning showing, whilst both her shoes were missing and the visible parts of her skin were tarnished with welts and abrasions.
“How did you keep the puma from climbing up the tree?” Horus asked her casually, fixing the saber’s scabbard that hang at his sides.
She blinked slowly understanding the words and then stared at the dead puma.
“It wasn’t here when you first came,” Horus decided keeping his voice steady. “The army’s arrival pushed it deeper into the woods.”
“My lord,” Kera-Raad reminded him. “Lord Putra might decide to attack the walls today.”
“Not without infantry and machines he won’t,” Horus replied and extended his right arm. “I’ll have the dagger lass.”
“Touch me and I’ll kill myself, your coin wasted!” she snapped focusing her tired eyes on him. “You shall mock me?”
Horus stood back amused. “It’s just a mask,” he rustled and then tried again. “You didn’t use it when the puma returned and tried to climb up to reach you. Nor when the scouts arrived. You won’t use it on you now.”
“What are your intentions sir?” She hissed throatily not letting go of the blade.
What a bizarre creature, he thought surprised. I could have your tongue removed for such insolence.
“I’ve a war to fight,” Horus replied honestly surprising himself. “You either leave with me or another puma will come. More scouts. As you’ve already remarked, I’ve paid for you lass. You belong to me now.”
“I wasn’t his to sell! Who does that?” The Issir woman rustled with hatred. “I’ll fight you sir, to the death!”
Good grief.
Horus shook his helmed head and got up. Api-Nofre stared at him unsure.
“I can have you killed from afar,” Horus told her walking towards his horse. “From my horse or on foot. I’ll do neither. It shall shame my lineage and offer little in return. But you lass, shall die in these woods either way. The blood and corpses shall bring you more company come nightfall. Think on that in your final moments, I shan’t mourn the lost coin.”
Horus grabbed the horn of the saddle and heaved himself up nimbly. Midnight snorted, large teeth clattering and then stooped to graze some more of the luscious exotic tasting grass.
“I’m Lady Marleen Van Oord of Castalor,” the Issir woman said stiffly and pushed herself up. “Can you take me to my father Sir?”
She doesn’t want to die in the woods either, Horus thought with a small smile.
Kera-Raad snorted at that while Api-Nofre found the whole situation hilarious and started chuckling from atop his warhorse.
“Marleen,” Horus replied after clicking his tongue to get Midnight near her. “You’re a slave to the house Mirpur. That’s it. Listen, I’m intrigued but extremely busy. Lose the dagger. I won’t say it again.”
“Then what?” Marleen griped hoarsely looking about her.
Horus sighed. “Then you get up on the saddle and we return to camp. Mirah will look after your wounds. Find you some clothes.”
“Is Mirah your wife?”
No, she’s a pleasure slave.
We’re not fucking primitives!
Horus had blinked unconsciously at the unexpected interrogation but forced himself to answer. “She’s a camp follower. My wife is back home. I’ve had enough of this,” he decided and glanced at Api-Nofre. “You take her.”
“Wait,” Marleen snapped and dropped the dagger on the ground. “I’ll ride with you.”
Midnight snorted at that and shook its rich mane right and left in protest.
“Now that was low-key insulting,” Api-Nofre commented sourly.
Marleen stood next to his horse waiting in uncomfortable silence.
“You can’t ride,” he noted calmly.
“Ladies don’t ride without escort. I was without escort.”
Right.
“Api,” Horus grunted. “Jump down and help her on the saddle.”
“Huh?” The shocked Cataphract gasped and Horus turned to stare at him soberly. “Oh, for crying out loud!” He griped in frustration and climbed down from his warhorse. Went to grab Marleen by the waist but she shoved his hands off initially, the grip too low to her hips and the seething behind his smiling mask Cataphract tried again.
“Everything alright?” Horus asked her and the noble woman took it as an opening when it wasn’t.
“I’ll need a garment to cover my legs,” she explained sternly.
“What?” Api gasped. “Is the wench serious?”
“Give her yer damn cloak,” Horus hissed through his teeth at the end of his tether. “Else we’ll spent the night in the cursed woods!”
So Api-Nofre went to retrieve his cloak from his saddle and Horus turned around to look in the bruised dirty face of the Issir captive. Slave, he corrected himself. Marleen returned his gaze unsure, the sun peeking through the clouds reaching them and the noble Cataphract realized the alien woman’s chocolate skin and gild-touched large eyes glowed in many different shades, more vibrant than all nature’s colors.
Like a creature from another distant realm.
Full of mysteries.
Ah, a stunned Horus thought, a strange feeling creeping up to him and averted his eyes.
----------------------------------------