Greywolf

  Greywolf had always thought the lands beyond the Sasnayam Empire were a wasteland, much like the dry steppes beyond Khitia. Instead, the area was lush with shrubs and flowers, wild steppe corn growing on the sides of the rolling hills they rode through, passing by occasional stands of gnarled trees. The dirt road meandered over and around the hills as it followed the wide river below.

  Then the road straightened as it ran through an abandoned village of stone houses, their thatched roofs only blackened timbers and their doorways empty. Greywolf looked around. "Karl, it seems like everything’s been stripped and carried off, including the doors. What happened?"

  Karl rode a shaggy Warghorse, a Direwolf blended with a courser, the child named Princess curled up in front of him as he motioned towards the left side where the river lay. Hidden by the hills, columns of smoke were rising up into the late afternoon air. "I'll show you. Follow me."

  Karl left the road, heading towards the hill on their left, and Greywolf tapped Rocky's side to follow. "If I must," the Daemo grumbled, and started trotting after him. Glancing back, Amazonia and her warriors, their lightly scaled lizard-horses keeping a wary distance from the prince and his other two warrior's Warghorses, remained on the road. Asena and Titan strode up the hill after them.

  Karl and Greywolf reached the crest of the hill and reined in, Rocky giving the Warghorse a wide berth as the creature bared its fangs a moment before settling down. Looking out at the valley below, Greywolf’s eyes went wide. "Shite, is that a city?"

  Staring down from their vantage point, the road Amazonia and the others were traveling on kept going between two hills until it reached a river too wide to even consider crossing except by the white stone bridge, which spanned both banks on either side. It looks just like the bridge next to Bukhara City. Across the river, the camp of the Crimson Horde resembled a wagon wheel, but with the bottom cut flat along the river bank. Straight roads like wheel spokes led out to a wooden wall, each one with a gate and watchtowers, but there were also ring roads dividing the camp into sections. Between the roads were off white tents like the half-shell of an egg, all of different sizes, while in the center hub sat a massive tent with a lot of smaller, eggshell-like tents surrounding it.

  Karl chuckled. "A city that can pick up and move whenever the Great Khan decides it needs to. Besides this encampment, there's two more farther away, one to the south and another way off to the east, that are all members of the Red Boar Tribe."

  Asena and Titan join them as Greywolf gave Karl a puzzled look. "I thought they were called the Crimson Horde?"

  "By everyone not a member of the 'People of the Eternal Sky', which is what all the tribes together call themselves. There's several different tribes closer to Indus, but all of them are under the Khan of khans, or the Great Khan, Khingla. Never call him by his real name unless he gives you permission, though."

  Asena asked, "What about everyone else?"

  Karl shrugged. "Among themselves, they're pretty informal, but it's polite to use their titles when you're talking to them. Which quite frankly will be with the nobility, since they're the only ones who speak Greco."

  From deep within her robes, Princess said, "I can translate if you need me to."

  "I can as well, though she picks up nuances I usually miss."

  "Considering you've got mud between your ears, it's not surprising."

  Karl and Greywolf shared a smile as Asena growled, "Is there any way Greywolf and I can skip being presented to the Khan? I want to find that troll den and take it out."

  "He wants to thank you for doing just that."

  Asena gave Karl a dark look. "I know you’ve sent word to Khingla about us and the plan to steal Muzen’s blood-corn. I want no part of it."

  Karl gave her another shrug. "I can't promise he won't ask. But he won't hold it against you as long as he's given respect."

  Greywolf jumped in before Asena could muck things up. "We can do that."

  Asena snorted, but didn't contradict him, which he took as a good sign. At least I hope it is. Karl turned his Warghorse towards the bridge and started down the hill, with Asena walking beside him asking him something else. Titan put out his hand to hold Greywolf in place. "How are things between you and Asena?"

  Asena glanced back but kept walking while Karl responded to whatever she’d asked him, as Greywolf replied, "She'll get over her snit once we're tracking the troll back to its den. Titan, can I ask you something?" He nodded, and Greywolf said, "Earlier, when I threw my katana down, was I wrong to get so upset with Asena?"

  He chuckled as they began moving towards the bridge. "Considering I thought you were going to have your brains dashed out on a stone pillar, I can certainly understand your mood. However, you did not make a good impression with Prince Timur, from what I heard him saying to Az. I fear he will never see you as anything more than a child."

  "Well, he's not particularly noble either, prince or not. Besides, why would it matter whether he thinks well of me or not? If I know Asena, once we've killed the troll and she's eaten its heart, she's not going to want to go back."

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  "Never say never," he replied in his deep voice. "Greywolf, you need to start realizing that your life is not measured in years, but in centuries, and someday you may find yourself encountering the Crimson horde again with Timur no longer a prince, but the Khan of khans himself."

  Greywolf gave him a puzzled look. "But I thought he said his younger brother was made the heir."

  "He was. Yet, Prince Timur feels he was robbed of his birthright, and once the Great Khan is dead, he may attempt a coup if enough of the tribe supports him. Best keep that to yourself, though."

  "No kidding." Greywolf chewed on his words as they reached the bottom of the hill and headed toward the bridge, which the prince was already crossing. "Titan, I'll bet Asena wouldn't mind if you came with us."

  "She told me the same thing last night... several times." Titan shook his head. "Part of me is tempted, but I will not abandon Az, not if I can help it. Though there are lines I will not cross." Greywolf had no idea what he was talking about, but kept his mouth shut as Titan looked at him. "Your mother wants to protect you from being hurt the way she was, yet I believe love is worth the pain. Live your life as if you were human yourself, the way Asena did when she was younger, and even though the ones you love will die, mourn them and move on. Never let yourself become trapped reliving the glory days of years long past."

  Greywolf had no idea what he was talking about, except the ‘living like I'm a human’ part. That I can relate to. "I'll try, Syr."

  Titan chuckled. "Now I know for certain I am getting old. Shall we catch up with the others?" He lengthened his stride and Rocky broke into a trot to keep up. Karl and Asena were waiting at the end of the bridge, and as they reached the others, Karl started across with everyone else following at a brisk pace.

  There was a gateway beside the river with the gates open, Prince Timur arguing with a warrior in their harsh language. Asena growled, "What's going on?"

  "Prince Timur wants to meet with Khingla and discuss the raid," Princess replied, "but the Great Khan wants to meet you, Titan, and Greywolf first... without him. Timur is not taking it well."

  Prince Timur looked their way as they reached the others. "Karl, it seems I cannot present myself to the Khan of khans until he has spoken with Titan, the Wolf-bitch, and her whelp. So I will ride to the pens and order the horse-slaves to attend to the beasts, before showing my new Bloodguards around the camp. We will take your mounts with us as well."

  Karl inclined his head. "Gratitude, my prince." Holding Princess with one hand, he swung down with easy grace. "Once inside the gates, everybody walks, even the Great Khan himself."

  Greywolf swung down off the Daemo mount as the boy who’d been riding with him earlier, who was now riding in front of Amazonia, piped up. "Can I ride Rocky to the pens?"

  "Of course you can," Prince Timur said before Greywolf could open his mouth, looking at Karl as he added, "Unless the feral creature bites?"

  Rocky swung his head to look at Greywolf, who narrowed his eyes. "Don't even think about it."

  "Not even a little nip? It's been a long trip."

  "There's a pen that's used just for Daemo mounts," Karl said, "and the horse-slaves know how to feed them."

  "Sounds like you'll have company." Greywolf slapped the Daemo creature’s side as Rocky perked up, keeping the scowl off his face as Prince Timur made a show out of gently pulling the boy... Paulus, I think? ...out of the saddle and settling him on Rocky's back.

  They rode along the edge of the palisade as Karl led the three of them through the gateway on foot. They walked by tents patched and bleached by years in the sun, the intricate designs so faded Greywolf couldn't tell what they were, with some replaced by newer, cruder markings. They're strange, although I recognize a deer on that one and a wolf on the next, the one beyond with a mountain and... is that supposed to be a storm? I'm not sure.

  The people watching them go by wore rough stitched clothes of linen with simple embroidery or tanned leather, their feet bare or covered by simple sandals of thin leather. Greywolf knew they must be poor, yet no one looked diseased or badly underfed. No one had their hands out begging for coins. The group passed by a young woman holding a baby wrapped in a blanket, who was staring at him, and on impulse Greywolf made a funny face. The baby, her cheeks like red flowers in full bloom, laughed, which made the mother smile. He smiled in return and shared nods with several others. Looking at their faces, Greywolf was surprised to see not only Tartaros steppe people, but a mixture of several different eastern peoples as well.

  They continued onward and the tents began appearing to be more recently made, with the same designs as before, yet painted on by skillful hands. Here the people were busy shaping pottery or fletching arrows, the tang of hot metal harsh in Greywolf’s nose as they passed a blacksmith pounding the song of war into a sword, the axe-heads on the scarred wooden table beside him already hungry for the taste of flesh. The smith plunged the blade into a barrel of water as they walked past and the steel gave out a serpent's hiss.

  Karl led them towards a set of curved trenches separating the area beyond from the rest of the camp. The gaps between the trenches were guarded by warriors, who wielded long axes with steel heads and wore heavy armor, moving aside without a word as they passed between them. The warrior’s faces, watching them from inside their round, hat-like helms, were Tartaros warriors to a man, but the people living in the tents here were different. The eyes watching the group go by had the slant of the east, yet their faces were sharper and more defined. Almost delicate, though Greywolf was sure the people weren't.

  Their white tents were large, with designs intricate as a Xian painting, colored not only in red like the poorer ones, but with blue and green and even gold. They passed them by and reached the enormous tent in the center of the camp. It looked strange, though, because it was an old tent, sun bleached and covered with more patches than the poorest tent they’d passed, with its fresh markings the crudest ones Greywolf had seen so far.

  However, the canopy over the entrance was made of a rich red fabric with gold colored tassels, and the guards standing before it had Artifact in place of steel on their armor, with two-handed axes bearing Artifact axe-heads in their hands. The group stopped in front of them as one guard turned around and pushed the tent flap open to step inside.

  As they waited, Karl said, "The Great Khan values honesty above all else, and as long as you show him respect you can speak your mind. But there's also undercurrents in his court I can't even begin to explain."

  "I understand," Greywolf replied. "It's not the first time I've been in a strange court, and had to watch what I say." He looked up at Asena. "Though certain people I know never had that problem."

  Asena only snorted as Karl chuckled. "Then you should feel right at home with Princess." The girl poked her head out of the cloak and raised her pencil thin eyebrows at him as the guard walked back outside and motioned for them to follow.