The Sunhorse Standard

The Sunhorse Standard is raised when Surayan's houses agree to ride as one host. Its cloth is bright enough to be seen across dust and distance, and bronze bells announce unity before the riders arrive. The standard does not erase rivalry; it gives rivalry a later appointment. Its beauty is unmistakable: sunlit cloth, horsehair, bells, and lances turning toward one horizon. Its dread lies in what enemies understand when they see it: scattered strength has remembered itself, and the plain is no longer empty. Its cost is carried by houses that ride under it despite old griefs, by captains who postpone vengeance, and by enemies who know unity has made pursuit faster.