Oza knelt down and studied the tracks before him…”where was Duva going?”…clearly the tracks headed due West, wasn’t the main body of the Sarmatians South of here?

It was a pity, Oza could not track further. Already he was behind his internal schedule, a tight one at that. He needed to head East before tracking back and gaining on Duva again but now with Duva taking an unexpected course his trail would be difficult indeed to catch when he next came this way…

Several day’s passed. He was being followed, shadowed, to his left and right by groups of riders. He smiled to himself briefly before spurring his horse forward into a gallop. Likewise, he felt rather than saw, the following riders do the same. He twisted through a low valley and through coppice trees before halting and diving from his horse into cover.

He waited partly buried in Autumnal leaves. He heard the muffled hooves of the chasing horses, imagined how they’d ride past…spot his riderless horse and return…a movement very close to him…he sprung out grabbing an ankle and pulling violently as he stood up. The owner of the ankle sprawled in a cartwheel over the floor as several pairs of eyes darted to look at Oza.

Oza laughed “Ha! Karz you old ox, you still have to watch where you step…imagine if I’ve been a pile of dung!?!”

Karz sprawled on the floor and looked up from his back at Oza with a gap-toothed smile “Aye, but ya know I already smell worse than any dung…and you smell fouler than that!”

Oza reached out an arm to aid Karz to rise as the others gathered round “So, Nesta…what news for me?”

A small man, strongly built with olive complexion moved forward “We’ve met a negotiator from the Huns East of here, sly fox I say but he knew not who we were. An talk of one of the Sarmatian Princelings rutting his way through the villages t’the South.”

Oza was pleased “Good…Good! Send one of your men to my King and tell him thus but don’t take long, we have much to do and that self-important negotiator Duva has gone and lost himself in the West”

Another man spoke up, short and stocky again but with fair skin and blue eyes “Do we give chase my Lord?”

“Nay Otec, not yet anyway. We must head South and see what we can find out about the warriors there, from there we swing West then Northwards to see if we can catch up with Duva before he blunders into an Assassins blade. Still, before that…where be the nearest Villages…has been many days on the road and no mead to speak of!”

With that the party laughed before gathering their horses riding on