Horselords

Ullin, the silver moon, was high in the sky when Kimi heard a gate creak. She shot up in her bed as she heard voices speaking in quiet tones. Horses whinnied and hoofbeats sounded, gradually disappearing into the distance.
She leapt from her bed and ran to the window of her small bedroom. There, in the silver light of the moon, horsemen drove a herd of horses across the plains.
She covered her mouth with her hand as she gazed through the window overlooking the corral where the family kept their best horses–the same animals that were now disappearing over the horizon.
In her haste, Kimi tripped over her nightgown and crashed against her parents’ bedroom door. The door flew open and banged against the wall as she stumbled into their room.
Gasping, she righted herself. “The…the horses have been stolen.”
Her parents sat bolt upright in their bed. “Are you sure, Kimi?” her father called after her as she sprinted to her brothers’ room. He came out of his bedroom pulling on his traditional horselord leathers.
Kimi grabbed her brothers and pulled them from their beds, not giving them a chance to get dressed.
“Of course I’m sure. The gate creaked, then hoofbeats. I saw them galloping over the plains.”
Eighteen-year-old Olias looked at his sister, a slight frown wrinkling his forehead. “Are you sure they didna jump the gate? Or break it? Did ya see any people?”
Kimi stared at her brother. “I’m not that stupid, Oli. The gate was open. Unless the horses have developed hands, someone did it for them.”
“By Zol’s balls.” Her elder brother, Yeldin, swore as he sprinted back to his room to get dressed.
“The Wanderers!” Her father turned to her mother as she came out of the room they shared. “It must be one of the tribes of Wanderers, thieving scum that they are.”
The family was one of several settled folk living close to The Barrier, the range of mountains that cut off the Western Plains from the rest of the continent of Khalram.
Once, the Settlers had been Wanderers themselves, following the herds of wild horses that roamed the plains. Several generations ago, some of the people decided they could rear better horses if they had more control, so they settled in one place.
There had been mistrust between the Wanderers and Settlers ever since.
Kimi’s mother emerged from the bedroom. “It don’t matter who it is, Har. They’re getting farther away every minute.”
“A Wanderer’s allus a thief. It’s bred into ’em,” her father lectured, as he strode down the stairs and out of the door. Looking back, he called, “Get dressed, and quick. Pick up your weapons and come wi’ me. We’ve some horses to get back.”
Kimi ran to her room and dressed in leather trousers like her father’s, and a fringed leather jerkin. She opened a cupboard and took out a fleece-lined jacket. This she donned over her jerkin. Once dressed she rushed out with her brothers to join their parents at the corral.
Her father was inspecting the gate as they approached. He stood and beckoned them to follow as he strode to a second corral. “You were right, Kimi. Someone let ’em out,” he called over his shoulder. “No sign of ’em breaking the gate. Let’s go after ’em.”
The family caught five horses from a second corral, put bridles on them and leapt onto their backs.