The stables in the palace grounds were picked since no mounted units were currently housed there; Astiras’ bodyguard had gone to Bragal. Volunteers were asked for and over three hundred young, brash men had put their names forward. Any experimental unit was bound to attract interest, and gossip abounded as to why this step was being taken. The next task was to find the right number of breeder equines, but thankfully the royal stables had a few and gifts were forthcoming from landowners keen to ingratiate themselves with the new dynasty, and particularly when they were offered tax concessions for each equine supplied. Once the right amount were supplied and the unsuitable ones rejected, and returned whence they came, the bows were then selected. One of the refugees who had come east was in fact a rogue Tybar soldier. He’d shaved off his facial hair and wore Kastanian clothes, but his slight frame and thin features plus his darker skin set him out clearly as a foreigner. He’d adopted a Kastanian name, too, so as to conceal his racial origin, knowing he could be lynched if his neighbours were aware of his true identity.
