Before long Ashurran get to know the mean nature of the bard and the cheap price of his honeyed speech. Once they reached Lankmar, he vanished with all the valuables, horses and weapons. Ashurran was left only with her sword and a saddle, for it was her habit from the steppes to put a saddle under her head at night and her sword under her right hand. He also didn't take her hard leather breastplate, for it was old and worn, with no silver or gold decorations.
For the very first time in her life Ashurran had known deceit, and her lesson was bitter. At first she missed greatly Eiltiu's embrace and his sweet voice. Surprisingly she didn't feel hatred or anger, for she understood he had been following his nature and striving for freedom.
But she was greatly disappointed with Lankmar which turned to be so unlike the illustrious kingdom of her dreams. Streets in its towns were dirty and stinking, with sewage running along them in open gutters, which ended up in the canals with muddy undrinkable water. Those praised stone buildings were draughty and had to be constantly heated by stoves. There was smoke from the fire, and kitchen stench, and smell of lye which was used for cleaning floors, if they were cleaned at all.
The Lankmarians considered the Arriany to be savages, but Ashurran thought the real savages were them. They didn't bathe for weeks and set their toilets up in their houses or near it. The Arriany, however, bathed every evening if they were not on a battlefield or severely wounded, and set their toilets far from the camp in ditches, covering them with lime. Because of filth and penned-up life the Lankmarians often fell sick and died, especially babies, and it was not uncommon for only one or two children out of ten survive. They grew up weak from diseases and scarce food and could not be compared with strong Arriany children who were accustomed to the rough life in the steppes almost from birth.
Easy to guess that noblemen of Lankmar led a far better life than common folk. They had plenty of what bard Eiltiu was telling Ashurran about: silver and gold, velvet and silk, feasting and hunting. But noblemen of Lankmar were arrogant and greedy; they valued gold far above valiant deeds. They were said to be worshipping women as goddesses, but in fact they locked them up in their houses as slaves, not allowing them to do anything by themselves. The splendor of Lankmar was like a beautiful front with dust and desolation hidden behind it.
Having seen all that Ashurran was filled with disdain. It became her firm belief that Lankmar was destined to be trampled down by the Arriany war horses. Only the gods knew when it would happen, but it would happen without fail, for heroic feats and battles of first Lankmar rulers were forgotten, and Lankmarian swords rusted in their scabbards, and Lankmarian horses unlearned how to carry a knight in heavy armor.
There was a place for those who still dreamt of a warrior's glory — the king's army, busy with fighting mountain savages of Hirmend, cruel pirates of Sogda and fierce nomads of Arrian, who often raided Lankmar's borders. Ashurran decided there would be no injury to her honor if she was to join the army, for the Leopards were in peace with Lankmar and she would not have to fight her own tribeswomen. She tried to join but recruiters laughed at her for her tender age, but more so for her fair sex. Ashurran got angry and beat them up with her sword's flat. But after that she abandoned hope of joining the king's army.
She wandered about Lankmar, sometimes having a hard time of it, for she knew very little of the native customs and spoke Lankmarin with difficulty at first. More often than not she pretended to be a girl from Hirmend, for its mountain-dwellers were swarthy and black-haired. She hid her sword and her leather breastplate under a long Hirmend-made cloak and braided her hair in one braid, in the civilized manner, not in four of eight in the steppe manner.
Sometimes she earned money fighting for sport on marketplaces, didn't frown upon an occasional assassin's job and once was paid to act as an executioner.
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Gates to Glory: Epic Fantasy Adventure Tale (Ashurran #1)
Adventure[FINISHED]She was born in a tribe of fierce female warriors. Swords and spears have been her toys from the cradle. She has the only path before her, to become the tribe chief after her mother. Yet Ashurran dreams of strange lands, of bigger battles...
