Chapter 8

Sev 16, The Year of Sambol 129

My body thinks I’m either a forklift or a soldier. It can’t make up its mind. All I know is I’m sore. Every day is the same. Four or five hours of load the slaves, unload the slaves, load crates, unload the crates. After that my day gets hard.

Vall is an ancient, short, wiry man who is harder than Oak and the Boar’s stable master. I looked at him wrong the other afternoon when he told me to muck a stall and that old bastard knocked me out. One single hook to the jaw. When I woke up, I spent six solid hours loading and unloading horseshit from a wagon. I crawled to the hut that evening, and Kelt wouldn’t let me in until I bathed in the creek.

When I went to Vall the next day, I jumped when he gave an order. I saw after a bit that he knows his shit. He spent hours teaching me about the care and feeding of horses. He showed me the war saddle he had invented and how to use it. He made me practice saddling a horse until I could do it blindfolded.

Once I had the very basics down, he taught me to ride. I should say he’s teaching me. There’s a lot more to it than jumping on. He’s teaching me the in and outs of a master rider. He said that if I remember what he’s saying and do it I can be a decent rider in ten years or so. I feel like I’m studying karate or something.

What weirds me out is the more I work with the fucker the more I want to please him. He’s that good at what he does. You won’t believe what happened this afternoon. I was enjoying a small break when I heard Vall calling me from inside the stable.

I walked in. “Yes, sir?”

“Come over here.”

When I reached him, he pointed to the stall beside him. I looked and there was a huge colt inside of it. “This is a Deylint stallion that we received today. Deylint’s are bred war horses. What do you think of it?”

I looked it over. I knew the horse was young. Its muscles were thick cords running along it’s huge frame. The Deylint was a dark gray. It’s eyes burned with fire and intelligence. It saw me looking at it and huffed and tried to head butt me. When it missed, It reared up and tried to smash the stall gate with its front hooves.

I jumped back. Vall stood there and stared. He made a single sound somewhere between a huff and a snort. He took one step forward. The Deylint lowered it’s hooves and backed up. Vall reached into a pouch and pulled out some type of fruit. He held it out toward the horse while chirping.

The horse dropped it’s head and approached with caution. It sniffed the fruit a few times then took it out of Vall’s hand and munched it down. “If you want to be a true rider, you have to think like they do and learn how they speak. You never answered me.”

“It’s fierce.”

“I know that. What do you think about it?”

I contemplated it a moment. “It’s wonderful,” I said.

Vall smiled and said: “That’s what I thought.” He handed me a fruit. “You try.” I held my hand out towards the horse like I had seen him do. I tried to make the sound, but it came out like a fart through a flute.

Vall snickered then said “Look at me.” He moved his mouth in slow exaggerated movements. When he finished, he said, “Make a rolling clicking sound as you do that.”

I practiced the movement a few times then did it with the sound. I chirped! The horse took the fruit.

“You’ve got the touch.” Vall said. “I’m assigning it to you.”

“What?”

“You heard me, unless you don’t want it.”

“No-no-no. I’ll take it,” I said.

Vall nodded. “You will name it, take care of it and I’ll teach you how to train it. It’s too young to ride. It will be at least an Olna before it’s ready for that. When it’s trained up, it will be your raiding horse.”

I stammered in shock. I trained for less than a whole week, yet he was doing this. “Th-thank you,” I stuttered.

He laughed and said, “We’ll see how thankful you are after it bites a chunk out of you. Now, go clean the last three stalls then get cleaned up for dinner. He handed me a dark red leather vest like his. Mine had a small yellow cord with a knot at the end that hung down about thee inches from the heart area. I say vest. It was heavier than I imagined and didn’t flex much.

“Put this on and wear it every day. It shows you are training to be a Horse Master. Foot soldiers will run in fear when they see you and their horsemen won’t be happy either.” He said. Vall then demonstrated me the proper way to fasten it.

I looked at him in shock.

Vall gave a gentle smile then said, “Don’t be big about it. There are many years of hard work and training before you can take that cord off. Until then, it shows what you can be.”

That night in the Great Hall people, were deferential and moved out of my way. The serving girls went out of their way to make sure I was taken care of. “What’s going on?” I asked Taig.

He looked at me like I was nuts. “You walk in wearing a Horse Master’s vest and wonder why people get out of your way?”

“He’s not from here. He doesn’t understand our customs,” Kelt said.

Taig shook his head then said “Horse Masters are some of the fiercest fighters there are. One Horse Master can fight eight men on foot and more than double that from his horse. They train for years and even seasoned fighters know better than to challenge them.”

“Oh.” Well damn, They promoted me. I had put the first bite of a juicy pork steak in my mouth when a runner came to me. He said, “Mouth, Oxa wants to talk to you.”

Oh, shit. “Don’t call me Mouth. My name is Mark,” I said.

He shrugged and walked away. I wiped my mouth and got up. When I reached the front of the dais I said, “You wanted to see me, boss?”

The big man took a sip of wine then nodded and said, “Vall told me you was born to be a Horse Master. Vall has been with us for fifteen Olna. You are only the second person he has said that of.”

I nodded and waited.

He raised an eyebrow after a few moments then said, “Good, you’re not a braggart. For the next two seasons, you are his bitch. Your only concern is to make sure he’s happy.”

Two seasons? Oh yeah, the year is only nine months long here with three seasons. So six months. Shit I’m going back to boot camp.

“From this point forward,” Oxa continued, “you will only take orders from me, Vall, and Taig.”

“Yes, Sir.” I snapped out.

“Starting tonight, you will sit beside Vall at this table. You will be here every night you are in Boar’s Nest. Am I clear?”

Damn it, it’s OCS. I hate officers. “Perfectly, Sir.”

“I want you to think about it and pick one man to stand beside you as your assistant.”

I didn’t blink. “I choose Kelt.” I said.

“Who?” Oxa said.

Taig said, “He means Friend of Mouth.”

I looked at him and he laughed.

Oxa saw my expression and grinned then motioned to the runner who had gotten me. “Bring Friend of Mouth here.”

I hung my head and shook it.

Oxa laughed.

A few moments later, Kelt was beside me. “Yes, Sir?”

“Friend of Mouth...”

Kelt glared at me. I shrugged.

Oxa’s eyes twinkled as he finished, “Horse Master Mouth wants you as his assistant. What do you say?”

Kelt looked at me and I nodded. He thought for a solid minute then said, “I accept.”