Tristan's Story

Prologue

It is Enough that I See Him

I think continually of those who were truly great...the names of those who in their lives fought for life, who wore at their hearts the fire's center. Born of the sun they traveled a short while toward the sun, and left the vivid air signed with their honor.

Stephen Spender

The spring sun gently warmed the field where the two boys lay planning their next move. Nearby their horses grazed the newly sprouted grasses with relish as tails gently swished in contentment. Ten year old Trystam Delyens watched the cloud formations as his practiced eye discerned shapes that his best friend, Lyonell never could. For all his heart and fire, Lyonell just did not have an imagination. He believed in what he could see and feel and taste, not anything as fanciful as imagined shapes in fleeting clouds. Perhaps that is what made these two so compatible as friends, for their differences blended together to make one well-matched whole.

"There!" Trystam exclaimed, pointing to the sky. "Cannot you see it now, Nell?" he questioned. "It's the most beautiful eagle I've ever seen. He sails on the wind with grace and pride, and is free to roam the skies as he wishes."

Lyonell squinted his eyes and did his best to form an eagle out of the white puffs he saw floating overhead, but in truth it was all just meaningless forms to him. "No, Ty, I cannot. I'm sorry."

"Do not worry," he responded to his friend. A small, satisfied smile graced his lips. "It is enough that I see him."

Hundreds of years from this day, long after the bones for these two boys had turned to dust; a golden armlet would be excavated from the shores of the Oxsus River very near to where they lay now. The armlet would be in the form of an eagle griffin-head and would grace the halls of the British Museum as a reminder of the lost Sarmatian nation which ran from the Caspian Sea on its east to the Black Sea on its western most border and boasted the finest horses and horsemen in the world at that time. So mighty a nation could not long hope to escape the notice of the Roman Empire, and indeed did not, sealing the fate of Trystam, Lyonell, and countless other young Sarmatian boys. Their futures were determined the day the mighty empire fell and the Sarmatian cavalry pledged themselves and their sons to the service of the Roman Empire. This is the story of two of those sons.