Zshurii's Song (Snippet 7)

A story fragment from the Eastsong Cycle

(Read Zshurii’s Song, Snippet 6)

Zshurii gave her helm a firm tug and hoisted herself into the saddle. Cactus loosed a whinny of anticipation but held steady enough as she mounted. Once both her boots were secure in their stirrups, she tightened the leather baldric on which her scimitar hung, to ensure the scabbard wouldn’t flail about while she rode. Then she freed her horse-bow from it is place across her saddlebags and double-checked the new string she’d fitted earlier. Everything seemed in order.

Bow in one hand, reins in the other, Zshurii spared a few glances around. Her comrades, and the other sevens of the company in their knots nearby, were all saddled up. Several of the women were so tense in awaiting the next command, they half-stood in their stirrups—as if their horses were truly a cactus. Maybe the jest would be funnier another time, she considered.

Between their ragged line of riders and the hills behind, a mass of infantrymen swelled. Unlike the dragoon outfits that made up the greatest part of the Prophet-King’s forces, Commander Anntica’s battalion comprised six companies on foot, with only their single company of horse-bows mounted in support. Today, it seemed, support would mean leading the charge.