The Dragons of Sara Sara by Robert Chalmers

divided for riding, pale blue and shimmering in the starlight like gossamer webs. She would be visible for miles. The others still wore the cloths they had begun the day in. The girls in the browns and greens of the Stone Lion Sept. Soft hide boots laced up almost to the knee with long trousers of brown stuffed into the tops. The trousers were tight fitting and belted at the waist with a broad leather belt made to hold the quiver and knives. A small leather pouch was attached to hold any little personal items. Although renowned as tough in the field and merciless in battle, the girls never the less allowed themselves little luxuries like a favourite ring or perhaps a trinket presented by an admirer. Perhaps even one of the men of the Asha Altan. The Asha Altan were hardly known even to the people of the village in which the sept house stood. Although the women seemed to run the septs, and certainly were the ones who dealt with those not of the clans it was the men, the Asha Altan, who decided which battles were fought and when. Their comings and goings remained secretive even to the Mare Altan. It was rumoured that their wives exercised a good deal of authority over their husbands but it was never admitted and never obvious.
    It was the elder women of the septs who had the power that was in some ways similar to that of the Wind Readers. It was used in a different way but it was still a power drawn from the Well Of Spirit.
    The party rode quietly through the night now. The Maidens blouses were loosely laced and the night air was cool and pleasant. Just a touch of night dew. The chill would serve to keep wits sharp. The bare brown arms of those riding just ahead of Antonin seemed to hold his attention. Their hair was worn pulled back into pony-tails and hung straight down their backs. In the soft starlight the group was all but invisible. All but Mei’An in her shimmering silks. The horses made little sound other than the occasional puffing and blowing or quiet nicker to another horse nearby. The animals could sense the tension in their riders, and it made them step a little higher and they were inclined to want to sidle and prance lightly.
    Some would have liked to run the horses. Ease their tension a bit. Mei’An forbade it. She was concerned that they might need that burst of nervous energy before the night was out.
    Antonin was not actually staring at the bare arms of the girls in front of him. He was simply lost in thought and his eyes had fixed on the glow of the brown skin in the starlight. His two friends Rees and Gaul rode out a little way on either side of him now. There was no jingle of tack from the group. There were no metal fittings at all about the horses. Even a large group could travel in relative silence this way. Gaul glanced across at Antonin from time to time as though to reassure himself that this was happening. That here he was getting further from home by the minute. Each step taking him further from home. The moonless, starlit night shadowed his eyes.
    Rees rode a little way out on the other side of Antonin. He carried a long handled battle axe suspended from his belt. The wicked half moon blade nestled his side and the long haft hung down almost to the stirrup. It seemed awkward but in Rees’s hands it was a formidable weapon. He had always wanted to join the Asha Altan but his father needed him so he never did. It didn't stop him from training like a warrior though. With the axe, the long bow and the sword and buckler Rees was very good. Only his closest friends Antonin and Gaul knew that he had been trained by an Asha Altan. This was unheard of, but Rees had been out by himself one day a year or so back. Down in a dry gully south of the village some distance he had been doing his best to bring a song wood tree to its knees with his sword. He knew he would never learn by himself of course and he had been forbidden joining the Asha Altan, but he was determined. As if the scrubby Song Wood tree were