Rider (Spirals of Destiny) (6 page)

“You stay away from me!” Rebekah growled. “And keep your unicorn away from mine!”

“I wasn’t the one running over here looking for a fight, Morganstern,” Kayleigh said pointing to the nearest wagon. “I’m riding in this one. Perhaps you should choose another.”

Majherri snorted as the spoiled girl and her equally spoiled unicorn walked away. The dark-skinned girl from one of the earliest stops in the Southern nations approached Kayleigh.

“I take it she isn’t your friend.” The girl said in a heavily accented voice.

His rider exhaled, trying to release her pent-up aggression. “Not hardly, I’m sorry I’m awful with names and I’ve forgotten yours already.”

“Alicia Santiago. I was the first girl selected and have been part of this expedition from almost the beginning. Lieutenant Sheppard asked me to explain what we call ‘The Rules of the Road’ to you.”

“And what are those?”

“We all pull our own weight around here – part of your training starts today. I’ll show you where we keep Majherri’s brushes. Tonight, when we stop to make camp, I’ll show you how to brush your unicorn. Hopefully, you’ll have better luck with Majherri than we had.”

“Why’s that?”

“He doesn’t like to be touched for very long. If he doesn’t like what you’re doing he’ll give you a little kick and leave a little bruise. That one, he has a temper!”

Majherri raised his head. The young girl’s admonitions were a point of honor with him. He’d behave for Kayleigh. She was his. The rest of them weren’t his. It was really that simple.

“What other things do I need to know?”

“We gather the firewood for the campfires. We clean up after meals and we take our turns cooking. The soldiers and the drivers have their jobs to do. Unless you have permission, you are not allowed to ride your unicorn. You only spend time with your unicorn when the maidens give permission. When Lieutenant Sheppard orders us outside the wagons, we get out and we walk alongside. Last one out has to carry ‘the bag.’ It’s heavy and filled with sand. You don’t want to be last out.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Can you read and write?”

“Yes.” His rider answered.

“Good. There are a few who can’t. During the ride, we study, we learn, and we help each other. The classes at the Academy will be more difficult on those without the basic skills.”

“This whole thing has been somewhat unexpected, but I have no idea what classes we take.” Majherri moved up to Kayleigh and began bumping her arm with his snout. “What do you want, Majherri?”

“Paragor does that when he wants an apple. There’s a barrel in the wagon.”

Kayleigh scrambled up into the wagon to get the apple. Majherri had sustained himself on grass and flowers, refusing anything else from the other chosen riders. He felt a twinge of guilt that he had previously been so surly to them. Admittedly, those were not his proudest moments. Still, now that he had a rider, there was absolutely no reason he should continue to deny himself a delicious treat. It wasn’t his very favorite, but after losing Danella, he could never eat another peach.

He munched on the apple as Alicia told Kayleigh about the classes at the Academy. Danella had not been the most attentive of students. She only excelled at the courses that held her attention. He wondered how much different Kayleigh would be.

“There’s a lot of physical training, ranged weapons, riding, meditation, lectures on how to provide for your unicorn, and general studies to get everyone on a level field for the classes that come later. There are also classes in subjects like history and etiquette when dealing with the noble class.”

Majherri almost choked on the apple recalling how much Danella hated the etiquette class. To be perfectly honest, Majherri never quite understood how to differentiate between a regular human and one of these nobles. Without the trappings of fine clothes and heraldic symbols, they didn’t look much different than the others. It was all rather silly to him. Danella’s comment when Meghan was promoted to Captain was, “She’s always been better at being a kiss ass than I was. I’ll take scout missions in the field any day over teaching kids!”

Eventually, camp was broken and the wagons started moving northward toward the human village of Miros. He could sense that his rider was troubled. She’d scanned the crowds of well wishers looking for the presence of her mother, who was nowhere to be found. It didn’t take a physical bond to see that she was distressed. As soon as Pasha’s rider ordered the chosen ones out of the wagon for physical training, he trotted up next to her, though she was shouldering the heavy bag and seemed angry with herself.

His sensitive ears picked up her muttering, “Didn’t realize everyone would jump out of the wagon like it was on fire!”

For a human, his rider was in good shape, even if her sandals were ill-suited for this task. Kayleigh did seem quite used to walking. Given her admission that she’d never even ridden a horse before, it made sense that she was good on her feet, although the words sense and human didn’t always go together all that well.

“Recruit, you’re not authorized to have contact with your mount at this time.” The fire maiden riding Rheysurrah came alongside them.

“He came up to me!”

“Be that as it may, you need to send him back with the rest. There will be time to spend with them this afternoon.”

“Yes, ma’am. Majherri, you need to go back with the other unicorns.”

He’d spent this entire trip with the young ones. Their foolishness stopped amusing him over a month ago and he had no desire to move among them. This simply proved his point about how the words humans and sense didn’t necessarily belong together.

As a result, Majherri remained exactly where he was, a few feet to the side of his rider.

“Recruit!”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“You’re unicorn is not listening to you.”

“Yes, ma’am. Majherri, please…” His rider answered slightly flustered and pleaded with him. This seemed to amuse the other human riders greatly and Majherri figured that he was now causing his rider trouble.

Still, he was uninterested in what the rest of his kin were up to, but he didn’t wish to embarrass Kayleigh further. The only sensible thing to do was to trot to the front of the wagon train. He slowed when he reached the front wagon and the trio of mounted men there. They would be pleasant enough company for the moment.

“What are you doing up here? Get back with the others!” Meghan rode up quickly on T’rsa and scolded him.

Majherri turned his head slightly eyeing the human captain and his sister with contempt. He sped up in front of the trio of horse riders and moved to the left side of the trail. Slowing, he allowed the men to close with him. This placed the trio of men between him and T’rsa and plainly told all present that he wasn’t interested in Captain Lynch’s opinion.

This seemed to cause the men as much humor as it caused Captain Lynch irritation. She attempted to order Majherri to the rear and he ignored her, all the while enjoying himself immensely. It took a few minutes, but the woman left.

The male leader, the one with the hawk addressed him, “Ever the rebel, Majherri?”

The unicorn snorted and raised his head in pride.

“I guess they should be careful what they wish for. Before you chose a new rider, they were angry that you wouldn’t do anything without being forced to. Now, you do as you please and won’t listen to them. Well played indeed. I thank you for the entertainment.”

The two riders with the knight laughed heartily as they moved through the overcast morning. Rain clouds were coming in and Majherri knew that they would be here by midday.

When the hawk returned, the knight ordered the wagon train to divert from the trail a half a mile to a running stream and allow the horses and the unicorns to rest. Alicia brought Paragor next to him and proceeded to show Kayleigh how to properly brush Majherri.

Kayleigh was too timid, not putting any real force behind the brush, voicing concern about his scars. On one hoof, it was nice to be brushed again by someone that instinctively didn’t annoy him. On the other, was it too much to ask that she do it correctly? He bit back the urge to be frustrated with her. She was trying to learn and he knew he was being impatient. He’d already gone through all this before.

From the way Paragor’s coat was so easily brushed, Majherri suspected that Alicia was already aligning with air magic. Often, the unicorns could tell what direction a rider was headed long before the placement ceremony, thirty days after arriving at the Academy. Bits of the trail would cling and linger around the legs of an earth maiden’s unicorn. Some referred to their mounts as “Dirt Kickers” or “Dust Catchers.” The briefest hint of soot would follow a unicorn with a fire maiden for a rider and they were affectionately called “Smokies.” Danella had nicknamed him “Brimstone” at one point. Water maiden and air maiden mounts were always the cleanest, with the windswept look of a “Cloud” easier to distinguish than shiny appearance of a “Misty.”

Paragor nodded respectfully to him, observing Kayleigh’s struggles and wisely not commenting on them. Majherri was grateful for this. Their riders had developed a fledgling kinship and he suspected that he would be seeing much of Paragor in the coming year. He had spent so much time coveting the roll of an outsider that he wasn’t certain how to fit in amongst a group so much younger than he was.

And his rider thought she had a difficult task. He was well over ten years older than any of these younglings. Fitting in with them wasn’t going to be easy.

Kayleigh wasn’t sure what to make of Majherri’s antics during the first two days of their trip. He seemed to enjoy being a thorn in Captain Lynch’s side every step of the way. She worried that this would ultimately come back to her. Many of the other recruits were careful to avoid speaking with her when the Captain was near.

What do they expect from me? I’m still trying to figure out how he likes to be brushed! He’s going to do what he’s going to do regardless.

So far, traveling was a mixed blessing. The wagon was bumpy, but having moved around throughout much of her youth, Kayleigh easily acclimated to the nature of this trip. One of the girls, a shy brunette named Francine, was from Laurent and it gave her someone else to talk to besides Alicia. They even had a few shared acquaintances. Kayleigh’s travelling nature meant she “knew” a lot of people, but didn’t have many friends to show for it.

Morganstern continued to make snide remarks whenever no one in authority was around to hear. On the first night around the recruit fire, while Kayleigh took her turn stirring a pot of stew, Rebekah said, “My pants got caught on a splinter of wood getting out this evening. I wonder – should I mend the hole or just give them to our resident pauper?”

The other girl from Helden was one of Rebekah’s friends and also seemed to delight in Kayleigh’s situation. Fortunately, many of the other girls paid them little heed. Some were still struggling with reading and writing. Even more had been poor where they came from and understood poverty in ways Morganstern could never begin to. For every one that joined in laughter, there was another who rolled their eyes and went back to doing what they were previously occupied with. It was annoying, but for the chance to become a battle maiden, she could tolerate the sneering looks.

Kayleigh also found herself wondering what the duties and responsibilities of lead rider would be. It occurred to her that there could be several ways that she might be able to repay Rebekah for all her
kind
words.

“You read a lot,” Alicia commented while the wagon bounced along.

“My mother always encouraged me to read literature and poetry, but never much about history. What I know is based on growing up and moving around. It doesn’t come from books. So, I’ve got some ground to make up. I can’t keep it up for long. Eventually, my head starts to hurt, or Lieutenant Sheppard decides that we need to stretch our legs.”

“Don’t you like carrying the bag? You seem quite good at it.”

Most of the others snickered and tapped on the wooden sides of the wagon to ward against the earth maiden calling them out for another walk.

Kayleigh smiled and said, “Actually, I need to get my strength up and carrying ‘the bag’ is good practice. I don’t mind it so much. I get the feeling from the way she described the Trail of Pain that we’re going to be missing a few miles with a satchel of sand on our back.”

“Do you really think so?” Francine asked.

“We’re going to learn to fight with sword, mace, and ax, while carrying a shield. Those things get heavy after awhile.”

“Maybe we should take turns carrying the bag?” A blonde farm girl named Ellen said, already wary that she wasn’t a good reader and not wanting to give up an advantage of being one of the stronger girls in this wagon. Several others murmured in agreement.

Suddenly, everyone was eager to carry the bag. Fifteen minutes later, the recruits were ordered out to exercise. Instead of scurrying out, Kayleigh’s wagon was pretty orderly and since it was her idea, Ellen took the first turn with the bag. Walking alongside the wagon, the driver, an old man named Ben, caught Kayleigh’s eye and winked at her having heard the entire conversation. The man smiled a near toothless grin and threw his head back in laughter.

Perhaps she was wrong to convince the others that this really added to their physical conditioning. It might actually help. Either way, Kayleigh was just happy that she didn’t have to out maneuver a bunch of overly spry thirteen year olds or carry the bag for a change.

Things settled into a routine over the next few days. She got better at brushing Majherri – or he was lowering his standards. Kayleigh worked with Ellen and Francine to improve their reading skills, Most importantly, only every sixth time Lieutenant Sheppard called them out did she have to worry about shouldering the bag of sand and walking for a few miles. The five other girls in her wagon might be chosen for one of the greatest honors in the land, but for the moment, they were still young teenagers and much of their behavior, at least to Kayleigh, was somewhat predictable. There were silly jokes and stories from home. Kayleigh managed to tell a few of them without dwelling on her mother’s recent actions.

During the evenings, she had scrounged some parchment and a piece of drawing charcoal and occupied her time doing sketches. First of Majherri, but when the others noticed her talent, she drew the other recruits and their unicorns. It was an easy way to make friends.

Rider Welsh interrupted her lastest piece of artwork by calling all the girls around the fire.

“It’s time for a brief refresher for some and an introduction for the others. What is the smallest unit a battle maiden and her unicorn will operate from? You there, what’s your answer?”

She was pointing at Rebekah, “It’s the squad, which is anywhere from four to eight riders.”

“Do you agree with her?” Welsh pointed a finger at the other girl chosen from Helden, who nodded.

“Okay, how about you?” The accusing finger was now directed at Kayleigh. She didn’t want to agree with Rebekah on principle and the way Rider Welsh asked the other girl implied that it wasn’t the answer.

She thought about seeing the scout a few months ago. “One rider and one unicorn.”

“Correct. A scout or a message courier will often operate by themselves or in pairs. The basic field unit is the squad, which is commanded by what?”

“A Senior Rider.” The answer came too quick for Kayleigh to spot the speaker.

“Good! What formation is next?”

Kayleigh didn’t know the answer and was glad someone else said, “Section made up of three to six squads and commanded by a Lead Rider, or a Lead Senior Rider.”

“Almost, you forgot a Lieutenant,” Rider Welsh said and adopted a grin, “We have to have something for our officers to do.”

That drew a glare from Lindsey Sheppard, who was brushing her mount’s coat nearby.

Kayleigh followed as more information was given to her. Sections might be responsible for patrolling a Duchy or a medium-sized city. Two to four sections were a company that would be led by at least a Captain. Three or four companies were a battalion commanded by a General and there were five battalions on the Blessed Continent – one for each the north, south, east and west. The final battalion was stationed at the High-King’s capital city. Rider Welsh was a member of that battalion, on loan for the recruiting trip. The lesson continued for another hour before they were dismissed for the evening meal.

In about two hours, they would be in Miros. Kayleigh could sit and watch the choosing ceremony and the warrior demonstration she’d been denied back in Helden. She was looking forward to it. The maidens that were here weren’t prone to showing off. The most Kayleigh saw was when Lieutenant Sheppard used Thunderhooves to encourage the recruits to get out more quickly.

The wagon train was called to a halt in the middle of the road shortly after Sir Aeric’s hawk returned.

“I wonder if we’re making a quick trip to a stream.” Ellen stated.

“Seems kind of silly if we’re within ten miles of Miros. We can get fresh water there – along with another banquet.” Francine replied. “It’s kind of chilly this far north. Isn’t it still supposed to be summer?”

Speculation ran rampant when one of the mounted soldiers told Ben to come up front. He looked back at the girls and told Kayleigh to come up and sit in his spot. He handed her the reins and told her to make sure the horse team didn’t go anywhere. The other girls started asking her if she could hear anything.

Like ten whole feet makes a world of difference!

Majherri came alongside of the wagon and looked at her in what she could only describe as amusement. She pointed up towards the group gathering at the front wagon and gestured with her head. He must have guessed what she wanted him to do and the unicorn started walking up there.

She watched him casually trot next to the wagon behind the group. He paused to nibble on some grass.

He’s pretty good at eavesdropping. I’ll have to remember that!

Less than a minute passed and Majherri’s head snapped up and looked at the talking group. He immediately started back to Kayleigh.

“Hey Ellen, toss me an apple. Majherri knows what’s going on.”

“You don’t have permission to touch your unicorn, Kayleigh,” Francine warned in her mouse like way.

She smiled back and said, “I’m just going to give him a little apple. He looks hungry. I certainly won’t be trying to touch him, though he might touch me. Where’s the harm in that?”

Majherri came for the apple she held out to him. He deliberately missed it and rested his head against the back of her hand. She felt tension, concern, and a sense of danger emanating from him. Nodding, she pulled her hand back and held the apple out a second time. He took it from her and headed back toward the other unicorns.

“Well?” several of her wagon mates asked in unison.

“There’s some kind of trouble ahead.”

“I wonder if it’s another ambush?”

Kayleigh looked back at Alicia. She heard Sir Aeric mention an ambush, but didn’t know any of the details. Brushing some of her hair out of the way, she said, “It might be the Yar.”

“The what?”

“They are a tribe of nomads and raiders. They live in the mountains to the north, but every few years they come down and raid Miros and some of the other towns. It’s one of the reasons Miros and Helden have walls.”

Kayleigh’s fears were confirmed when Ben came back a few minutes later. “It looks like there’s fighting going on in Miros. We’re going to move off the trail and behind that hill. Half the guards are going to stay with us and the rest along with the battle maidens are riding there to see if they can help.”

It took a few minutes to move back behind the hill. Kayleigh and the others watched as Ben and several of the drivers went back to the road to do their best to cover the tracks of the wagons. They were accompanied by two of the six remaining guards.

“Where’s Majherri?” Kayleigh asked, suddenly realizing that her unicorn wasn’t with the others. She fought back a momentary panic and took a deep breath.

Ellen was the one to spot him. “There, he’s on top of the hill next to those trees. If you close your eyes and concentrate, you can usually find your unicorn.”

Kayleigh nodded her thanks, exhaled, and watched him. Everyone else was milling around, but Majherri was on the top of the hill overseeing the road. It made her wonder who was really in charge. Clearly it wasn’t the ones who thought they were. She started to go to him.

“Hold it right there, Miss. Stay with the group.” One of the guards cautioned her.

“My unicorn is up there.”

“Well if it sees something, it’ll come back down here. It doesn’t have a saddle, so you’d only slow it down. But if you want to be useful, come with me.”

Kayleigh obediently followed the man in chainmail to the pair of the wagons that contained the props for the demonstration. “We’ve got some spare weapons stored in here. You go ahead and get the rest of your girls armed. Find out which ones are any good with a crossbow. I can load them if the draw is too difficult.”

“Uh, yes, sir.” She replied processing what was happening.

“Sir?” he laughed. “Sweetheart, I work for a living. Now get to it.”

Knowing she should be acting like some kind of a leader, Kayleigh gathered the rest of the chosen riders and handed out the smaller and lighter weapons. Only Ellen and a girl named Lacey had ever used a crossbow before, so she gave them knives and sent them over to the guards. For herself, she took a beaten up old sword that had obviously seen better days. After a moment, she decided it was too heavy and picked up a small hatchet instead. She’d used hatchets before to make kindling and hammers, roughly the same size, with chisels to shape stone. Of course, the wood and rocks never had the ability to fight back. The tattered and worn leather wrap around the wooden handle felt uncomfortable and crude in her comparatively delicate hands. She gulped nervously.

This is just a precaution. We’ll be fine as soon as the drivers get back from covering the tracks. As long as Majherri isn’t worried, there’s nothing wrong.

The moment she uttered that in her mind, her unicorn at the top of the hill let out a loud whinny and started racing back down the hill. He was moving fast – faster than she’d ever seen something move. Letting out several snorts, directed at the other unicorns he galloped to her side and lowered himself down.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea, Majherri? Our first time riding together didn’t go over that well.” Kayleigh referred to the awkward mess that was yesterday.

He responded with a look and a snort that left no room for doubt. It couldn’t have been any clearer if he had actually said, “Get on, now!”