Riders of the Wind Horses

Riders of the Wind Horses

Chapter One

Nyssa stood on the stone floor of father's great chamber. The fire blazing in the hearth warmed the room but caused her to perspire under the layers of silk she wore. A veil covered her face, shielding her from the crowd of men.

"She does not stand very tall." One man put down his wine cup and stood to measure himself beside her. The top of her head failed to reach his shoulder. "How many seasons did you say she has?"

"She has reached fourteen seasons," her father said. His voice slightly more familiar to her than the voices of his guests. A keep lord had little time to waste on daughters, except to arrange profitable marriage placements.

"So, she may gain more height."

"I've never known a woman to require height to fulfill her duties in the bed chamber," another man said. He wore a tunic of deep blue and sat in the chamber's best chair.

"It'll be a tent," someone said. "Lower ceilings."

That brought a chuckle. Nyssa had an idea of marriage duties. Both her brothers had taken wives and each woman sought to bear a son first.

The man standing beside Nyssa circled her. "Is she pleasing to the eye?"

"Is he demanding beauty as part of the bargain?" her father asked.

Nyssa shifted from one foot to another as she tried wave some air beneath the silks. She knew she was short and that her brown hair frizzed in the winter if she didn’t braid it. No one had ever told her if she was beautiful. Of course, as the daughter of a keep lord, she never went outside the women's quarters without a veil, so she doubted anyone knew whether or not she was beautiful.

"He seemed unconcerned with the girl's appearance," the lord wearing blue said. "He did take care to assure me that the girl would not find his son ill-favored. And that she would be properly cared for until the lad attained his status as a warrior and could, how did he put it, properly honor a woman with his dagger."

Someone chuckled. "How old is the lad?"

"Fourteen or fifteen seasons. He's the horse lord's younger son."

"Younger?" her father sounded unhappy at this. Maybe he would reject the marriage bargain.

The lord in blue raised a gold goblet and drank from it. Nyssa could sense her father's impatience for an answer. She tried frantically to remember anything she'd been taught about the horse people except that they were wild and didn't build proper keeps. How could her father even consider giving her in such a marriage?

The blue lord finally put his goblet aside and spoke. "Cairbre seeks to increase the standing of his younger son. You should be honored with the offer. If you are not, I will choose another girl, and you may wait until a more suitable offer is made for this one."

From behind her veil, Nyssa could see the others the room exchange looks. She understood the threat. If her father turned down this offer, no one was likely to make him another.

The blue lord spoke again, his voice soft but with a core of stone. "The horse lord will be offended if we don't send his son a wife. That will mean more clan raids. You have lands near the borders. Are you willing to risk them?"

"But will a younger son be able to offer us the protection Cairbre promises?"

The blue lord shrugged and rose from the chair. "If he can’t, things will not be any worse than they are now. She is only one girl. It is little enough to give him. Have her things readied. I'll take her with me when I leave."

Nyssa stood, stunned, until she felt Nannan's hand on her shoulder. She let the older woman turn her around and guide her from the chamber. Today? She would be taken from home today? She wanted to scream. To run and hide.

She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. If she fought them, she would be carried away tied hand and foot. She'd seen that happen. Besides there was nowhere to run. Not unless she found an unguarded stairway to one of the keep’s towers and threw herself off. She’d hear stories of girls seeking that way out of a marriage.

She took another shaky breath and wondered if being married to a horse lord's son could be that much worse than being married to a keep lord's son. Not that any keep lord was likely to offer for her.

The blue lord’s threat had been unnecessary. Her father’s keep was close to the horse lands and to rivers that ran full with snow water during the spring thaw. Late summer melts had wiped out too many crops last summer and the summer before. The other lords didn’t need to ally with her father. They circled like vultures waiting for the keep to fail. They’d take the best for themselves and let the horse clans raid the rest. The keep would stand as an empty reminder of where civilized lands ended. She’d seen a fallen keep once on the wrong side of the river. The stones still stood but the place was home to neither keep lords nor clans men.

As she followed Nannan back to the women’s quarters, she knew one thing. Her father was a fool. He should have taken her to the horse lord and bargained with the man himself. Then this keep would be allied with the clans. Instead, he’d turn her over to a more powerful keep lord and let him bargain. Because her father thought his safety lay in that direction. It never would. She could sense it in the blue lord’s voice. In the way he held his goblet. In the way he sat. The blue lord would take her and when the way was safe, her father’s keep.

****

"A horse lord?" displeasure dripped from Maurelle's words. Her mother sat on a bench in the women’s quarters. Nyssa stood, as a daughter should, to show proper respect. "How could he bargain you to a horse lord? What honor will that bring the family?"

"The horse lord's son, Mother.”

"That does not improve the bargain."

"What will he be like?" She doubted this young son of a horse lord could be as critical of her as Maurelle.

"He’ll ride a horse and live in a tent."

"I saw some once," Her brother's wife said. She wasn’t much older than Nyssa, and her father did not rule a keep. Maurelle considered her a poor bargain, but her brother seemed happy with her. "Not the horse lord, but some of his warriors. They visited the market. They had long black hair tied back with leather, and they wore daggers at their waists."

"Your father raised you poorly if you saw such sights," Maurelle snapped.

"Nyssa will see such sights," the girl replied. Then she giggled. "She'll see a lot more of a warrior than I did."

Maurelle spun around and slapped her. "I'll hear no more of such talk. Go to your chamber."

The girl fled, one hand on her cheek, and Maurelle turned back to Nyssa. "If this is what my lord husband has decided, then Nannan will help you pack. Leave the best things here. I'll not waste finery on a horse lord." She stomped from the room.

Nyssa heard Nannan sigh. "Best to pack sensibly anyway. I imagine a tent will be cold when winter comes."

Nyssa dropped to the bench. "He'll have long hair and a dagger, and I'll live in a tent. Why can't anyone tell me more?"

Nannan crossed the room and put her arms around Nyssa. "Because none of us know, child. But you'll be marrying the son of a lord, no matter what your mother says. Now, don't fret about what can't be changed."

Ignoring Nannan's last suggestion, Nyssa buried her head in the woman's shoulder and cried.