Page 43

Our expedition into the ocean of green is over. Now we reap the maelstrom we have summoned.

They came. Twenty thousand strong, riding the outskirts of our camp. My supply trains are but burned-out husks left in our wake. It is a siege, now.

We outnumber them, but every sally is met with retreat. Without cavalry, we have no hope of catching them. I have lost too many men pursuing these ghosts of the grasslands. Let them ride – it bothers me none.

Because who besieges whom? Night and day, our Gryphon Guard fly, furious to be relegated to carriers of grain. Little do they know, therein lies our salvation. For while our men sit, and bathe in the sun, awaiting their wing-bound repast, Rohan’s soldiers ravage their own land. It is picked bare, twenty leagues all around.

It is said that a Sithian rider can range the Great Steppe with nary a crumb in their pocket, let alone grain; for their so-called ‘khiroi’ need nothing but grass. As for the heathens, they gather their herbs on the move, and bleed and milk their beasts when that will not do.

But there is only so much blood to be had, and teats run dry, the khiroi’s winter calves already weaned. So we wait. Let us see if this Rohan is the terror they say he is when all around him is hunger and privation.

J ai rode at the head of the column, the open steppe an endless expanse before him. Near four hundred warriors rode at his back, as he led the ancient tribe of his ancestors east.

For that was where their prey lay. The Keldar.

His scouts had said as much, aided by Kiran and the remainder of the Valor. Her soulbound eyes and nose were well attuned to the passing of other tribes, such that she could oft tell which tribe had passed simply by the smell of their cuisines.

Kiran was now Sindri’s new right-hand woman, stepping into Zayn’s shoes. It was strange to give orders to her and her soldiers that morning, when a few weeks prior, she’d been beating him black and blue.

Still, those Valor that remained seemed all the more loyal to him, now that they had made their choice. They believed in him, and what he had promised. He just had to deliver.

In order to do that, he had to prepare his own people. Because the Kidara of Teji’s reign were not used to this kind of hunt. Yet it was also his uncle that made such a transition to hunters possible; Teji’s pillaging of the camp was a blessing in disguise. For while the Tejinder nobles had been busy loading fine-carved furniture, silks and tapestries, they had left behind what Jai considered all the more valuable: the tools, the furs, the heavy ingots of steel.

More, Jai’s uncle had left behind a people that was lean in possessions and hungry in ambition. He had left them as their ancestors had once been. How Jai’s father had led them. No longer would they spend every other day sitting idle. No longer would they covet the petty trinkets of the east.

They would learn to be Sithian again, as he had.

‘Jai.’

It was Sindri. She wore all the regalia of her house, and it was clear the traders had lightened her purse. The Valor’s crossed symbol flowers were all over her, from the garlands braided into her hair to the embroidery on her silken battle-robes.

He nodded in acknowledgement, and she rode closer. It felt strange not to tower over his fellow riders as he once had, for he no longer rode Chak. This, Navi could attest, as she had discovered this morning. The old doe had turned her horn up at her paramour’s replacement – Baal, a smaller, more unruly Alkhara – the one that Nazeem had been forced to leave behind.

Jai had not had the heart to see Chak go, for Zayn had taken him, as was his right. Another piece of Jai’s father had gone, and he still felt bereft.

‘Sire,’ Sindri said. ‘May I have a private word?’

Jai spurred Baal out of earshot, the beast reluctantly edging ahead of the herd, fighting him all the way. Sindri raised her brows as she neared, giving the snorting Alkhara a wider berth than she needed.

‘Jai, you are riteless still,’ she said. ‘For now, it is tolerated. But until it is done, your rule will be forever questioned.’

There it was again.

‘I am told a great feat can serve as a Rite. Surely my return to our people was feat enough?’ Jai demanded.

Sindri shook her head.

‘There is a ceremony to it. And there must be witnesses, when you leave.’

‘Feng!’ Jai called, earning an eye roll from Sindri.

His vizier was not long to reach them, Navi somehow managing to sulk while she trotted, her head low, her eyes mournful.

‘Sindri says I need to be rited, and soon.’

‘It is not uncommon for an unrited heir to replace their fallen khan. Why, Teji was riteless when your father fell. But it is a circumstance that is tolerated, and expected to be resolved.’

‘So you agree with her,’ he pressed.

‘I do.’

‘I don’t have time for this,’ Jai groaned. ‘We are at war.’

‘Perhaps to you,’ Sindri said. ‘But your people do not even acknowledge it is your intent to face the legion, for it seems so far out of reach. For them, you have returned to the old ways, hunting the smaller tribes to bring them under your banner, or take what is theirs if they won’t. If anything, they expect it more. It is not merely a tradition, Jai. It is... a necessity.’

‘Did Teji eventually do it, then?’ Jai asked.

Feng thought for a moment, then turned and rode back, calling for Harleen.

‘Might as well call a Small Council at this rate,’ Jai muttered.

Sindri gave him a blank stare.

‘Never mind. About the other night...’ Jai said, while Feng was out of earshot. ‘I thank you. It cannot have been easy, casting your brother out. And for your offer... no easier too.’

She sniffed. ‘He is my brother no longer. That man is gone.’ She thought on it for a second. ‘Maybe he’d been gone for a long time,’ she finished quietly.

Jai opened his mouth to comfort her, but Harleen and Feng’s arrival closed it again.

‘For a king to be rited in wartime is a risky thing,’ Harleen said, before Jai could even speak. ‘To ride or walk the Great Steppe, alone. The Pact is not held sacred by all, as well we know.’

She gave Sindri a pointed glance, but the former queen did not react.

Jai didn’t understand. Clearly, that was evident upon his face, as Harleen apologised and spoke again.

‘But risk is not all there is to consider. Until you are rited... with my apologies... you are not yet a man,’ she said.

‘Even as khan?’ he asked.

‘Many think Teji ended the war, so he could rite himself,’ Harleen said. ‘That is why he did not use the fact you are riteless against you in his speech.’

‘If you seek to ally with another tribe, as your father once did,’ Feng said, ‘they will not lend their swords to a riteless young prince. There are many marks against your name already, but being riteless is perhaps the greatest.’

‘If I lead my tribe,’ Jai said, ‘who is it I am to swear loyalty to?’

Harleen gave him a forced smile.

‘Your ancestors.’

‘We ride to take the Keldar,’ Jai said. ‘As you said, Harleen, we cannot stop for me to hunt and break a wild khiro.’

‘There are other things you can do,’ Feng said. ‘Blood. Or flesh. If you can kill an enemy of the tribe, alone or with other riteless, you will be rited too. Or gold, taken from them – alone or with other riteless.’

‘What would you have me do?’ Jai asked.

He waited for an answer, but all that came was the chirring of insects in the grass. He shook his head, and spurred Baal ahead.

‘We ride on!’ he called, mind churning. ‘I want to see their campfires when we camp for the night.’