CHAPTER 21 – BACK IN SAMARKAND
14:10 (Central Asia Time)
Wednesday, March 18, 59 B.C.E.
Five kilometers short of the western gates of Samarkand
Sogdiana, Yuezhi Kingdom
Nauca, overjoyed at seeing the walls of Samarkand in the distance, was surprised to see on one side of the trail she was using, which itself ran next to a stream, a horse corral and a few houses and huts she hadn’t seen before, sitting in the middle of a rich, grassy pasture. A few horses of varying age were visible inside the corral, where a man and a teenage boy were apparently busy training one horse in particular. Concentrating her sight on the man and boy, Nauca suddenly felt her heart jump in her chest as she recognized the man. Surprising Igrid and Talya, she then urged her Tamat to a gallop, going towards the corral while shouting out loud.
‘’POLONIUS, IS THAT YOU?’’
The man stopped his training work and twisted his neck to look at Nauca. He in turn recognized her and ran to the fence of the corral, where he greeted Nauca with a huge grin.
‘’Nauca! Thank the gods: you made it safely back from your long westward expedition. Was it a fruitful one?’’
‘’Judge by yourself, Polonius: look at the magnificent beasts I bought from the Frisii Tribe, on the northern coast of Gaul. They are called ‘Frisian’ horses.’’
Polonius’ mouth opened with admiration as Igrid brought a pair of Frisian horses close to the fence, so that he could look at them from up close.
‘’By Apollon, they are beautiful! And they also look very strong.’’
‘’Oh, they are, Polonius. They easily can carry nearly double the load of a typical steppe horse like Minad and are intelligent and sweet beasts. They don’t have the same kind of endurance for long galloping periods that my Tamat has but they still make perfectly good mounts, on top of being ideal to pull heavy chariots. With a properly designed and built chariot, or used as pack horses, they could greatly boost the carrying capacity of a caravan while being much faster than camels. But come over that fence and check them out.’’
The old Greek horse trader didn’t have to be told twice and climbed over the fence before approaching one of the black Frisian horses and caressing its long mane. His eyes were sparkling as he examined the animal.
‘’It is a magnificent beast indeed! I would kill to have a couple of them.’’
Polonius’ words made Nauca grin with malice.
‘’No need to kill anyone to get some of them, Polonius: I am now gifting you with one stallion, three mares, a foal and a filly. The rest will come with me to the caravanserai of Hiram and Yurkan, where I will get busy selling the mountains of amber I procured on the Baltic Coast.’’
Her words attracted tears to the Greek trader’s eyes and he then hugged her emotionally, with her warmly returning his hug.
‘’Nauca, I already owed you this new horse ranch, thanks to your generous gift you gave me when we met in Urgench some eight months ago. Now, you are giving me those magnificent horses? Your generosity knows no bounds. How could I ever repay you?’’
‘’You don’t need to repay me, my friend.’’ replied Nauca in a sober tone. ‘’This is only a just reward for when you helped me in Tanais after I lost my whole family to bandits. The only thing that I will be asking you is to live many more years, so that you could pass a prosperous business to your sons. Come: let’s choose together the horses which you will take.’’
Polonius started at once with the two horses which Igrid had brought next to the fence and was about to look at the other Frisian horses when he belatedly noticed that Nauca’s group now included a fourth girl. Polonius then threw a questioning look at Nauca while pointing at the young teenager, a beautiful and athletic girl with brown hair and brown eyes.
‘’Uh, who is this, Nauca?’’
‘’This is sixteen-year-old Shirin, the youngest daughter of Queen Roxanna of the Roxolani. On our return trip, we passed by Queen Roxanna’s camp in order to pay homage to her and to another noble I know. There, Queen Roxanna presented Shirin to me, telling me that her daughter was a bit of a strong and adventurous character, like me, and that Shirin wished to travel with me and see the World. I was then most happy to take her under my wing and bring her to Samarkand. Soon enough, she will be traveling to China, India and other exotic places. As for her being able to defend herself, don’t worry: she was raised exactly like me and is already a very good archer and an experienced hunter, on top of having ridden horses since the age of six.’’
‘’Wow! You are trying to form a new Amazon army, is that it?’’ joked Polonius, making Nauca chuckle.
‘’Maybe! Now, I believe that you still have to choose two mares, a fowl and a filly.’’
‘’Right! Let’s get to it!’’
After some ten more minutes, the happy Polonius had chosen his six new Frisian horses, following which he again hugged Nauca, along with her three travel companions, before they resumed their trip towards the nearby city of Samarkand. Another twenty minutes and the small troupe was entering the city, proudly holding their lances up and decked in their helmets and armored vests. The sight of four armed young women and girls riding through the city gate attracted enough popular attention by itself but the passage of the big, black and majestuous Frisian horses they were dragging behind long ropes attracted even more attention and curiosity among the inhabitants, despite them being quite blasé already by the past parading of many caravans through the city gates. Nauca then led her procession to the entrance gate of the family caravanserai owned by Hiram and Yurkan, where their entrance immediately attracted a number of enthusiastic people wanting to greet them. One of the first ones to run to Nauca as she dismounted from her horse was young Amara, who launched herself into Nauca’s arm while shouting with joy.
‘’Nauca! You came back safely from your long trip, thank Athena!’’
‘’And it is nice to see you again, Amara. I missed you too.’’
The young Greek girl then saw Shirin, still sitting on her horse, and looked questioningly at Nauca.
‘’Who is that girl, Nauca?’’
‘’A new friend and protégée of mine. Her name is Shirin and she is sixteen. She is a Sarmatian girl, like me, and wanted to travel the World with me instead of simply living in the steppes with her tribe. But we will have plenty of time to present her properly later on. First, I want to unload my horses and take care of them after our long trip. Are Hiram or Yurkan here in Samarkand at this time?’’
‘’Yurkan left for China eight months ago with his caravan. He will thus need another year before being back here. As for Hiram, he is here in Samarkand but went to meet other traders and caravan masters in town to discuss business with them prior to leaving again for India.’’
‘’Aah, excellent! I have lots of nice Baltic Amber to sell: it will make the perfect trading good for such a trip to India. And Babita and Liu Han, how are they doing?’’
‘’They are doing very well, thank you. In fact, they are the main reason why Hiram has not departed yet on another trip: he has been taking the time to properly establish Liu Han and Babita in Samarkand and had a house with a workshop annex built for them next to this caravanserai. Since arriving here, Liu Han has gained a lot of customers for his maps and mechanical devices and is doing some very good business.’’
‘’Good for him! On my part, I have taken plenty of notes and drawn many sketched along my trip westward and he will be able to update his maps with those notes and sketches. I will go visit him later on today and discuss things with him.’’
‘’Are you planning to leave on another trip soon, Nauca?’’
‘’I in fact intend to leave with Hiram’s caravan when he will depart for India, in order to go sell my amber there at a good profit. We will thus be able to travel together again, Amara.’’
That piece of news made the young teenage girl scream and shout out with joy while jumping up and down, a demonstration of friendship that warmed Nauca’s heart.