lastkingsamazon by Chris Northern

hundred yard intervals and have two pairs take vantage runs from the lead and circle to the rear where it seems appropriate.”
    “ Sounds good! Password?”
    “ Strawberries.”

    #

    I passed the morning in the company of Yebratt Shaheel pleasantly enough. Twice we rode to high ground and circled back to the rear of the column, taking the opportunity to vary the pace. He was a talker and I let him talk. He told me of his family, origins, intended career, bearing in mind that the higher offices were barred to him by reason of finance. To be a member of the patron's assembly you have to be of a certain class and have the money to back it up, a million in silver to be exact. A knight must have a personal fortune of a hundred thousand. We have no barriers to how you make the money, we don't care where the money comes from. A slave can become a freedman, and the son of a freedman is a free man and a free man can aspire to the equestes. Yebratt had designs on the assembly of patrons for himself or his son and I lauded his ambition.
    “ One day my family will be able to look back on seven hundred years of family history, just as you can.”
    “ I am sure you are right,” of course his descendants could never trace their people back to our founders and three generations before as I could, “and I am sure they will be proud of you and your efforts on their behalf.”
    “ If I don't make patron status one of my sons will.”
    “ Pray for lucrative wars, and successful generals!” I laughed.
    “ I do!”
    “ Unfortunate that this isn't going to be one of them.”
    He shrugged. “There will be booty. Even ten slaves is a thousand, and half as much or more in loot. Not bad for what will likely be one or two small-scale battles.”
    I had to agree. Two months, maybe a little more. It is not the stuff fortunes are made of but there would be returns for what was a fairly minimal amount of risk and time. I asked about his estates and he was glad to tell me; two large farms, a factory and a warehouse from which a couple of wagons supplied a haulage and storage service. I tuned out as he went into detail, surveying our surroundings just as, to be fair, he was also doing. We were well past the Modrasin hills. The lands we were traveling through were mainly flat with the occasional hill. To describe such terrain as flatland conveys the wrong impression, one could rarely see the horizon due to gentle undulations in the landscape. There were also some woodlands dotted about, but on the main visibility was good. We were coming close to a ripple in the terrain that would drop visibility to a hundred yards. Without discussion we turned that way and kicked the horses into a canter. There was no more talk as we concentrated on the path we were taking. No one wants a spill from horseback or to lose the value of the animal. But the ground was hard and dry, the low scrub sparse and it was easy enough to steer around any potential hazard. Before long we were climbing, the horses putting in more effort as we urged them on. As we breasted the rise I stood in the saddle and gave a signal as an instinctive reaction. Less than two hundred yards away, a band of armed men were making their way in loose formation toward us.
    I divided my attention between the potential enemy and the next pair of horsemen back down the line. One split off at once, heading for the main body of the army. He didn't know what he was reporting in detail but the army would stop and prepare for anything. The other signaled back down the line and, when sure he had been seen, headed our way as fast as the terrain allowed. At the same time the men who were making toward us hesitated in a disorganized ripple, then responded to an order and came to a halt.
    “ What do you think?”
    “ Too early to be sure.” I started scanning the terrain all around as far as I could see, checking for any other threat. Yebratt was doing the same and, like me, also glancing at the armed band to