Climbing in Calradia: Part Fourteen

Brigid was sitting beneath her banner on the great field outside Dhirim's southern gate, the red cloth flapping in the breeze. A dozen other banners, either of individuals or groups, were also present in the field, the mercenaries watching the crowds for potential clients. She stood when a Khergit, mounted atop a beautiful white steppe horse, approached and turned as he rode past to inspect her courser. After completing a circle the Khergit halted his horse next to Brigid, looking down at her and speaking with a rough accent.
"You have a fine horse. You ride wild?" Brigid slowly nodded and flinched when a pouch of coins landed in her lap. She glanced up at the horseman in surprise and he grinned back. "You come to my home and teach."
"I don't think I..."
"One day the Khanate will rule these lands and your peoples will cower in their stone castles until we root them out. You will teach to prepare for that day."
Brigid nearly burst out laughing when she heard the Khergit's ambitious ideas and hefted the pouch for a second before standing.
"I can leave at a time of my choice?"
The Khergit chuckled, starting to turn his steppe horse towards the east.
"If your courser wants to leave then so can you. But we go now."
Brigid hurriedly mounted her courser, taking her banner and breaking the pole it was attached to down into manageable parts before stowing it all away. Turning the horse she spurred it into motion, following after the Khergit rider, and together the pair raced from the great field.

The Khergit said his name was Qin and that he was a senior warrior in his lord's retinue. Riding east they passed through the few villages that were in Swadia's frontier region, slowing as the towers of Rindyar Castle appeared. Three other Khergit were waiting in its shadow, each accompanied by a mercenary, and Qin happily leapt from his horse, embracing his fellow countrymen. Brigid glanced at the mercenaries, all of them Vaegirs, and dismounted, moving towards them.
"Greetings."
The Vaegirs sneered at her before turning their backs on her. Brigid frowned, about to force them to speak to her, but Qin called to her.
"Mount up Swadian. We have a long way to go before we get to our final destination."
Getting back onto her courser Brigid watched the Vaegirs fall into line behind the Khergit, pitying them for having to walk behind horsemen, and she glanced at Qin as he led her away from the others.
"We aren't travelling as a group?"
"They go to serve the Khan, to teach our leaders the ways of the Vaegirs so that they can be defeated. You are to teach my family."

The Vaegirs and their escorts disappeared behind them as both Qin and Brigid let their horses control the pace. Kilometres flashed past and Brigid could see why being a horseman was so appealing, the sense of freedom almost intoxicating. Before long, with the sun midway between its highest peak and the horizon, the town of Narra came into view. It was an ancient settlement, originally a village of the Calradic Empire, but under the rule of the Khanate most of its houses had deteriorated into almost nothing. A horde of large caravans had expanded beyond the village's limits, turning it into the town it had become, and the surviving buildings seemed abandoned. Qin led Brigid through the horde, along carefully planned roads, until they came to a caravan nestled in the shadows of the village tavern.
"This is my home. It will be your home."

---

Qin's caravan was divided into four chambers with a central corridor running down the middle and allowing access to each. Nearly a dozen people emerged when called, lining up in front of the caravan, and Qin began making his way along the line, pointing his wife and children out so Brigid knew them. They only knew basic Calradian, preferring to speak Khergi, and the other members of the household spoke only their native tongue. The eldest child, a boy Qin had named as Jubal, stepped from the line and began circling Brigid's courser, reaching out to stroke its mane. Brigid turned, moving to stop Jubal in case her horse snapped at him, and stopped when the courser passively let Jubal run his hands over its neck. Qin had come up behind her, his chuckling making her jump, and she glanced at the Khergit man.
"The Khergit are the best riders. We have an instinctual bond with anything that can be mounted."
Brigid blushed, remembering her recent experience in a Khergit-operated brothel, and turned back towards Jubal. If she was here to teach Qin's household then it was important that a good relationship existed between her and them.
"Would you like to go riding?"
Jubal's face instantly lit up, as did the face of Qin's next youngest child, and they both looked to their father, laughing with joy when he nodded.

It only took a few minutes for the two teenagers to saddle their mounts, both wonderfully looked after steppe horses, and then they were galloping out of Narra, Brigid restricting her courser's speed so that the group stayed together. Jubal had bought along his bow and a handful of arrows, practising with the weapon as the world flashed past, while his sister, Gerel, was content to just let the wind tug at her hair and have a sense of freedom. Guiding her horse so that it was next to Gerel's Brigid glanced at her, still keeping an eye on Jubal.
"Do you get to ride often?"
The girl looked startled, almost timid, when Brigid spoke before shaking her head.
"Only with father."
"And he isn't home that often?" Gerel nodded in response to Brigid's second question and then spurred her steppe horse away from Brigid's, beginning a big arc that would see her heading back to Narra. Brigid glanced between Jubal and Gerel, gaze flicking from one sibling to the other, before she began chasing after the older child. "Jubal! We are going back to Narra!"

The boy bought his horse around after hearing Brigid, pushing his mount hard to catch up with the woman and her faster courser. They almost collided and Brigid reached out to calm her horse at the same time as glaring at Jubal.
"Be careful!"
"You were in my way! A skirmisher of the Khanate does not move aside for a slave, even if she doesn't know it yet!"
The teenaged boy bullied his way ahead and Brigid was surprised when he rode protectively next to Gerel after catching up to her, having expected him to treat Gerel with the same contempt he'd just shown her. It made some sense though for Jubal to react how he did when thinking about it, Jubal and those of his generation seeing most Calradians as future slaves with the Khergit, all of them, being the masters. The rest of the ride back to Narra was quiet, both Jubal and Gerel sticking together while Brigid stayed behind them, and all three let their horses accelerate to full gallops when caravans on the outskirts of Narra came into view.