Wysper

  "Timur did what?"

  Wysper and the others stood just outside the village on the opposite side of the bridge from Bukhara, with grass and rolling hills stretching off into the distance. The large tent had been packed and stowed upon a huge cart, with the warriors and nobles of the White Horde mounted on their Warghorses and more normal steppe horses lined up in a column ready to depart. Someone had thought to bring Greywolf's Daemo mount, Rocky, and after being properly introduced, which meant giving Rocky a small taste of her blood, he let both of them climb up onto his back. Then they joined Prince Varsena just behind the Great Khan at the front of the column.

  Now, the Great Khan turned in his saddle and asked a sharp question in their language, Prince Varsena nodding as he began to speak. Standing beside them, Titan rumbled, "It would seem the Great Khan just received the news about his eldest son and wants an explanation."

  Greywolf left off scratching Rocky’s head. "Will the Great Khan try and retake the city?"

  Titan looked their way. "If he does, he may have a revolt among the Tartaros warriors. They admire Timur for his bravery and his desire for their people to remain locked into doing things the way their ancestors have done for hundreds of years." He turned back towards the Great Khan, now wearing an expression of complete outrage, and sighed. "I had a very frank discussion with Khan Khingla about his people and the problems he is facing trying to get them to change. He was right about his people needing time to accept these changes, yet banishing his son was the wrong way to go about it."

  "Even if the Great Khan changes his mind and lets Timur back in, I'm not sure he'd leave Bukhara. I think he's going to like being king."

  Titan rumbled his agreement as Wysper said, "Master Ogri, may I ask a question?"

  He looked at her in surprise. "Of course. Wysper, you are no longer a slave but a free woman."

  "I know it here," Wysper replied, touching her forehead, "yet my heart has not yet accepted the change... and I fear the Great Khan is no different. This may be inconsiderate, but Prince Timur did give him an opportunity to make his dream become reality and the Great Khan turned him down. I do not fully understand why."

  Greywolf snorted in a good natured way. "I think Timur's army of Shamblers had something to do with it."

  Memories from the previous night of the dead attacking the living flashed through Wysper’s mind, and she shuddered. "I see your point. Necromancy, as the Brittani practice it, is only used to speak to the ancestors, never to raise an army of corpses." Both of them looked at her as if she’d done something wrong and she added, "Apologies. Perhaps I should not have spoken."

  "It's not your fault," Greywolf said, giving Titan a sharp look.

  "I am not upset with Wysper," Titan said in a voice like the rumbling sound of an angry mountain. "However, the practice of necromancy in any form is an abomination. How long have the druids—”

  He broke off speaking as the Great Khan snapped out a short speech as if making a pronouncement, the eyes of his warriors widening as many of the nobles gaped at him with expressions of shock. The Great Khan finished by pointing back toward Greywolf and Wysper before facing forward once more, his right hand making a chopping motion forward as he pressed his heels into the flanks of his Warghorse, the only one with grey fur on his face instead of black. The animal took off at a trot and, after a moment, everyone else did the same. Prince Varsena dropped back to join them as the column moved forward. "One thing you can say about the Great Khan is that he never does anything by half measures."

  Titan rumbled, "Meaning?"

  "Meaning that the moment we reach the encampment, he is going to begin the process of having my brother, Iron-for-brains, declared dead to the People of the Eternal Sky."

  Wysper gasped as Greywolf sucked in his breath. "Can he do that?"

  Prince Varsena glanced their way. "He can and be glad he is doing so. You see, our people have a tradition that when someone important is declared dead for whatever reason, a betrothal must take place so the soul of the person who dies can inhabit the child the couple conceives that night."

  "But that's not going to happen. I mean, I would if we could have a child like normal people, but it only works if we try it in the Shadowlands, and I won't risk Wysper's life for any reason."

  She leaned against him, pressing her face next to his for a moment and making him smile, before sitting upright again as the prince said, "That is why this betrothal is taking place as soon as possible. The Great Khan mentioned what you just said, and told us he will forbid you from taking Wysper into the Shadowlands to conceive a child."

  Wysper slowly nodded as the implication became clear. "The Great Khan is symbolically denying Prince Timur the chance to ever return."

  "So it would seem," Titan rumbled. "And since Prince Timur cannot return to contest this decision without risking death, he will lose his chance to ever become Khan of khans."

  Greywolf asked, "Would your brother be crazy enough to try?"

  Prince Varsena shook his head. "The Xian mercenaries are under orders to shoot him dead on sight, with a reward in gold for whoever does the deed. On a better note, with Iron-for-brains declared dead, the Great Khan is not honor-bound to retake the city and avenge the insult. We lose the blood corn but no one else dies."

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  "Apologies for mentioning this,” Wysper said, “but last night Prince Timur went on at length about how he needed the Tartaros warriors to make his plans work. My fear is that if he learns he is to be proclaimed dead, he will raise his legion and march on the encampment."

  The prince only sighed. "Timur will laugh for joy when he hears the news of his demise. Our warriors long for the old days, when their fathers and grandfathers swept through the cities of Indus and Xian, plundering their riches and turning the prettiest girls into bed-slaves. Going east means guarding herds and raiding farms, perhaps even a village here or there, but no more than that."

  Titan rumbled, "The Great Khan told me his warriors are loyal to their khans, and the khans are loyal to him."

  "The khans only tell him what he wants to hear. Tradition is ingrained into us, which means if Timur brings his legion to force the Great Khan to give into his demands, then even those who side with Timur will fight against him. Iron-for-brains will be considered an usurper. But once he is declared dead, everything changes."

  Greywolf’s expression turned thoughtful. "He can't be Great Khan of the People anymore, but everything that happened before doesn't matter either, because you can't hold a living person liable for the sins of the dead. Wotan did something similar to Asena when she had me with papa, so he could cast her out from the Germanic tribes without having to hunt her down and kill her." Wysper’s eyes widened in shock, but Greywolf never noticed as he continued. "Could Timur hire them on as mercenaries?"

  "Worse. Timur is of royal blood, and his 'death',” Prince Varsena making quotes in the air with his fingers, “will not change that. He can form a new tribe whenever he wants."

  Titan frowned. "Who would risk your father's wrath to join him?"

  Prince Timur looked forward. The Great Khan rode many horse-lengths ahead of everyone else except a dozen or so guards, with most of the others already forming small groups of their own away from them. "More than you might think," the prince said in a quiet voice as his gaze returned to them. "The khans that Karl was translating for, who command the Ghost Goat and Bloody Dog tribes, are Timur's strongest supporters. They will pack up and leave the encampment the moment Timur extends an invitation to join him. The other khans would likely remain, but will lose warriors to the new tribe forming in the rich, fertile lands beyond the city." He grimaced. "Lose too many warriors, and the khans will have no choice but to follow Timur."

  "Leaving your people in a world of shite... oops." Greywolf glanced back over his shoulder, looking contrite. "Apologies, that was rude. I'll try to keep a better guard over my tongue."

  Wysper couldn’t help but smile. "Truly, there is no need. Among my people, earthy language was considered normal and we all used it." Old pain cast shadows over her face and she looked down at her hands, curled into fists as they rested on Greywolf’s thighs. "I used to speak the Brittani tongue the same way you speak Greco, but the High Priest... apologies, but Muzen, taught us to speak and act in the formal ways of the Sasnayam empire." Greywolf raised his eyebrows before turning his head to look down at her hands.

  Then he took them in his own and gently uncurled her fingers. "Guess we'll have to work on getting you back to the way things used to be," he said, Greywolf moving Wysper’s arms beneath his cloak until her hands both touched his bare abdomen under his tunic. "There, your fingers won't freeze this way. You can rest your head against my back, if you want."

  "I would likely go to sleep on you. Even though I was exhausted, the nightmare Yrg must have planted gave me little rest."

  Titan rumbled, "Do you remember anything about it?"

  "I always know my real dreams from hers," she replied with a shudder, "because they do not fade but remain sharp as bad memories. In this one, I was walking in a forest growing darker and scarier by the moment when a giant wolf-woman confronts me."

  Greywolf gave her a sharp look. "A wolf-woman?"

  Wysper nodded. "In my dream, she's taller than you with black fur, an almost human face with fangs coming out of her mouth, and black claws." She frowned. "The monster was also wearing armor, which was strange now that I think about it. Anyway, I turn and run away even though I know I cannot escape her, and as I feel her hot breath on my back, Yrg appears on my shoulder telling me the only way to escape is by taking my own life."

  "Don't do it, no matter how bad the nightmares get." Greywolf grasped Wysper’s hands with his own as he looked over his shoulder. "I won't lose you, not after everything we've been through."

  Wysper gave him the most reassuring smile she could as she squeezed his fingers. "I have been through this before. The nightmares will fade, in time, especially now that Yrg is dead... well, more or less."

  "When we return to the encampment," Prince Varsena said as a rider with the Great Khan dropped back to join them, "I will ask the Keeper of the Spirits to lift this enchantment, regardless of whether she will teach—” The rider said something to him in their language, then spurred his mount forward again as the prince looked at Titan. "I was just informed the Great Khan desires our counsel... not that he will listen to it, of course."

  Titan chuckled as he gently patted Wysper’s shoulder. "Get some sleep if you can." She nodded, and the Ogri lengthened his stride as the prince set his heels to the Warghorse's flanks. Wysper leaned against Greywolf's back, Rocky's easy stride smoother and less jarring than any horse she’d ever ridden, the sun warm on her face and the new cloak blocking the wind. Sleep will elude me, yet it would be pleasant to close my eyes, if only for a few moments...

  Rocky came to an abrupt halt and Wysper jerked awake, opening her eyes to a twilight sky with everyone around them getting off their mounts, while other men led riderless horses and Warghorses away. "What... where are we?"

  "Next to the animal pens just outside the encampment," Greywolf replied.

  Rocky turned his head to give Greywolf a withering look. "Speak for yourself, O’ furry one." Greywolf rolled his eyes and Wysper smothered a giggle as he slid off Rocky's back before helping her down. Around them, men were talking or shouting in a friendly way at the others walking towards them from an open gate set into a wooden palisade, stretching off to the left side. The Warghorses rolled on the flattened grass as their saddles were removed, then trotted on their own into a large, fenced off area, where men and women in rough clothing were giving them raw meat and vegetables. The horses were led to a different pen as more men in rough clothing collected the saddles and carried them off.

  Wysper could smell water off to her right, mingled with the odors of beast and man, and heard the rushing sounds made by a river. Groups of small shacks were set up along its banks, and as she eased the ache in her thighs by rubbing them, Greywolf motioned towards the shacks. "Privies are over there. Look for the ones with a painted moon on it and not the wolf's head." Wysper nodded and they separated as both headed towards them.

  As Wysper returned, Greywolf stood beside Titan and Prince Varsena, while Avitohol argued with his father several horse-lengths away, both of them speaking in their tongue as the boy gestured back towards Bukhara while the Great Khan shook his head. She stopped next to Greywolf. "Is something wrong?"

  Prince Varsena sighed. "I was afraid this might happen. Even though the runt killed several soldiers, proving his manhood, the Great Khan insists he is still a boy who is not allowed to set up his own family."

  "Meaning he cannot adopt me." The prince nodded, and fear struck at her heart. "But what about our betrothal?”