Everything was carried on horseback so that they could move more quickly.
Most travellers of Lord Athelstan’s significance used carts and wagons and sometimes even camels to convey their luggage.
But Lord Athelstan insisted on packhorses and that all of them should be of a quality that would not cause him too much delay by going too slowly.
When they left the Palace behind, with its troops of crimson and white lackeys, Lord Athelstan said to Natasha with a smile,
“I think we would enjoy a gallop so that we can take the edge off our horses.”
This was good reasoning. He and Natasha were mounted on the Kabarda stallions that had been a present from the Imam.
Owing to inactivity yesterday when they had been kept in their stables, they were now fidgeting to be off, bucking and rearing, an
