The exercise had been happening for some time before Batu moved from the outskirts of the section.
Both halves of the guard were working through the horn-call coordination sequence, the steppe riders and the norsemen responding to the same signals from the same starting positions, and what he was watching was the problem the morning's discussion had just named as unsolved at army scale, working correctly inside the guard.
The two-note spread signal went out from the horn rider at the formation's center, and both halves adjusted. The steppe riders moved into wider spacing with the arm-signal confirmation, and the norsemen took the same wider position from the same call without a separate instruction arriving.
When the exercise concluded and the formation stood down, he said Suuqai's name. Suuqai was already moving before the word was fully out. Batu added Gunnar's name, and one of the steppe riders near the norse passed the call.
