The Desert Bloom of the Blood Flower
The Khan summoned the principal figures of the tribe.
"We cannot halt the migration. There is no keeping this many livestock tethered in one place."
The camels alone numbered in the hundreds. Count the sheep and goats, and they would easily top a thousand. The moment they stopped, the water and forage those animals needed would have to come from the tribe rather than from the land itself. Everyone knew the losses would be staggering.
"The migration proceeds as planned. A selected party will take the desert road, assess the situation, and, if possible, settle it on the spot."
Everyone listened. The Khan's gaze swept the gathering.
"There are more people to protect and more livestock to tend than ever. Drawing personnel from the tribe will be difficult. Ahor."
The captain who commanded the royal guard was called by name.
"Yes, Khan."
"If you meet a caravan on the desert road, you may hire them as mercenaries. If you judge your numbers insufficient, pull in as many as you need. Pay them with promissory notes."
"Even a caravan would not dare refuse."
Money was money, but it was also a chance to forge a connection with the Khan.
"Shall we choose a Sub-Commander to assist you?"
The Sub-Commanders who formed one pillar of the Keshik did not avert the Khan's gaze.
Yes — the Sub-Commanders.
"Bia. Your spirits seem rather low today."
She was uncharacteristically withdrawn. The reason was easy to guess.
Well. We'll be fighting on a field of sand.
A centaur's hooves were narrower than a camel's. Step on sand and they would sink, and with that she would lose the mobility that defined her. The desert was not her battlefield.
"Anywhere but the desert and the sea, I would go."
"Haha. Did you imagine I would send you into the desert?"
The Khan soothed Bia and called Uushun.
"If the foe is a giant, then a master artisan ought to take the field."
"Yes. Uushun is the right choice."
Ahor seemed of the same mind.
"And, Baatar."
The name was still not entirely familiar, so Vesta's answer came a beat late.
"Yes, Khan."
"Come now. There is no need for surprise. You are my warrior as well."
She had indeed made that promise.
"The desert will be unfamiliar to you. How do you feel about it?"
"I am not accustomed to desert land, but I am more than accustomed to facing things that are not human."
"I shall not doubt you."
"I'll do it."
The Khan nodded. It meant she was entrusting it to him.
"This will be your first mission as a warrior, then."
Sensing that the air had grown somewhat stiff, she spoke in a lighter tone.
"Does the steppe ever receive its guests poorly?"
"It does not."
"Indeed. Guests must be received without want. If the road that welcomes those guests is the trouble, then it falls to the host to set it in order."
The meeting did not last long. Everyone departed to their tasks, leaving only Vesta and Ashtien.
"I should like to go with you."
Then will you come?
The words circled inside Vesta's mouth. In the end, he could not bring them out. He knew as well as she did that this was not a situation in which she could leave her post.
Everything being shifted toward the summer grounds was her burden. It was more accurate to call it her burden than her possession. The people traveling with them, and their private property besides — all of it rested on Ashtien's shoulders.
"If I were not Khan, I would have."
"You'd insist on it anyway?"
"Heh. I could not."
He had known she would answer that way.
"Vesta Baatar."
"Yes, Khan."
"That will not do. Call me by my name."
"Ergior Ashtien...?"
Eyes that stared straight at Vesta.
"...Ashtien."
"Yes. That name is the problem. So long as I wear that name, an outing will be difficult."
"It is a special name."
On the steppe, a name was as good as destiny. And Ashtien was not a name given to someone of ordinary fate. She had never told him herself, but Vesta already guessed its meaning.
"What if I changed my name? You could give me an alias."
"That's a difficult request."
"Was it?"
"I've never named anyone before."
"I shall not laugh."
Vesta thought.
"...A."
"A?"
"Ashti?"
"What? Ha, haha..."
The person who had promised not to laugh had gone somewhere.
"Hahaha."
"......"
"No, I was not laughing at you."
"Too late."
"I said I wasn't."
Vesta thought she would let the name slide as something of no consequence, and forget it soon enough.
"Vesta."
When she sent him into the desert, Ashtien came close and whispered.
"Ptoo. Look at this sand."
Uushun grumbled in her gravelly voice.
"It really does. Ptoo. I'm chewing sand."
The conditions were wretched, but the mood was fairly good. That was thanks to Uushun's bold temperament.
"My, I couldn't tell you how long it's been since I came out with Lord Vesta."
Vesta was glad of her noisy voice as well. Travel with her, and boredom was never a problem.
"Honestly, moving with the captain isn't much fun."
"What?"
"It's fine, sure, but it's a little less fun, is all I'm saying."
Vesta gave an awkward laugh of agreement. She was a woman of few words who insisted on a serious manner. Ahor was certainly a good comrade, but not a good conversationalist.
"The kids probably think so too."
She meant the elves Ashtien had assigned to Ahor. When Ahor turned her head slightly, they all looked away.
"Right?"
"Hmph."
She urged her camel faster and put half a length between herself and Uushun.
"They all like you anyway, you know?"
Uushun closed the gap with a mischievous face.
"Can you even see in front of you?"
Ahor was riding a Bactrian camel. Just as Uushun said, she was nearly buried between the two humps. With both arms sticking out, she looked like a disaster victim sunk in a sand pit, with only her hands showing.
Ahor had been letting Uushun's words roll off her, but she seemed to have taken offense after all, and she reacted. She patted the camel's hump. The hump swayed left and right.
Mrr?
The camel twisted its neck to look at Ahor, and Ahor silently pointed at Uushun.
Ptoo.
"Ack!"
Uushun startled and thrashed. As her large body shook, the camel's body rocked with it.
"Spit! Ah, the smell."
Camel spit stank with a terrible pungency. Only those who had been hit knew that stench. Vesta, who had already been struck a few times, grimaced.
"That's going too far."
"Quiet. Let's dismount here a moment."
"Because of that pit?"
Uushun answered as she wiped away the spit.
"That isn't an ordinary pit. It's an antlion's den."
Uushun stepped down from the camel, strode forward, and kicked at the sand with the toe of her boot.
"If you scrape at the bits that stick up a little—"
"Bones?"
They were large bones. They looked like a camel's.
"Yes. Antlions like to keep house, so they suck the blood dry and toss the leftover husks outside like this."
Hearing that, the little protrusions all began to look like heaps of bone.
"Ahor, are you going to hunt these as well?"
"No. Would you take a look over there?"
Vesta turned his gaze and found a group gathered before one of the pits.
"Ghost hunters."
"They work the stretches where caravans come through."
"They're hunting right now, it seems."
They appeared to be deciding an order, and then one man slid down the slope of the pit.
Did he lose his footing?
At first it looked like an accident. The man spread his limbs and stopped at mid-slope. He did not go farther down, but made a commotion while perched on the middle of the bank.
"Textbook."
Something rose from the center of the pit with a long, whispering hiss of sand.
"Here it comes."
A long horn appeared, like a mountain goat's. Looking closer, it was not a horn but a pair of mandibles.
"Looks dangerous."
"So long as you don't panic. Easier said than done."
Uushun called the elves together.
"You lot watch closely too."
Irritated that its prey had not fully tumbled down, the creature scooped sand and flung it with force. Given its bulk, the volume of sand it scattered was no joke. Just as Ahor had said, a moment of panic would send you losing your balance and rolling down.
"He's good."
The man weathered the sandstorm and inched closer to the antlion. As he drew nearer, the antlion pushed its head farther out. The hunters moved.
"Throw!"
The harpoons the hunters hurled punched deep into the antlion's head.
"Good!"
Just as the creature had dug a trap, the hunters had prepared a trap of their own. The antlion died looking rather helpless.
Ahor nodded and spoke.
"Sentries watch the caravans, and if a camel or a person looks to have fallen in, they come out like that and deal with the antlion."
"Truth is, those are the real ghosts."
They said that after dealing with the homeowner, they searched the pit. A ruthless thought. They were the ghostly ones, more than the antlions.
"Shall I show you how I catch one?"
"Uushun, by yourself?"
"Easy."
It was Ahor who stopped Uushun, who was acting as if she could demonstrate this instant.
"Don't waste your strength."
"Kh. If the captain had only given permission, I'd have shown you catching one barehanded."
"Come on, not barehanded."
"Huh? You don't seem to believe me."
"Ehhh."
"What's this now?"
Uushun snorted. Vesta did not believe her to the end.
"...You're being mean to Uushun."
"I avenged you in your place. Pretty good, wasn't it?"
At Vesta's words, Ahor's eyes widened, and then she smiled softly.