#temujai

“What happened last time, Halt?” It was Evanlyn who spoke now, her voice uncertain, the concern obvious in it. “Were you there? Did you fight them?” 

“I fought with them and, eventually, against them,” he said flatly. “There were things we wanted to learn from them and I was sent to do so.”

So Halt was sent, as a Ranger, to learn how to make recurve bows and to buy horses. He fought with them for a time, though how long (”a few years”) and against whom is uncertain. They refused to sell, and them he stole them. It’s a LONG way from the Eastern Steppes to the coast of Gallica--- and they must have trailed them for a good while before being recalled. This is interesting.

For further speculation:

“Temujai, you say?” Erak asked him. He knew of the warlike people to the east, of course, but it had been decades since they had come this way in any number.

Decades. Plural. So either this is a completely different occasion and the Temujai never made it to Skandia in the invasion Halt remembers, or the Early Years estimate of ‘ten to fifteen years’ before the main series is wildly inaccurate, which wouldn’t surprise me. Since Gilan wouldn’t have started his apprenticeship at age twenty-two, let’s assume that Halt’s eastern vacation was either after or cutting into Gilan’s apprenticeship. Or maybe Gilan came with him. But I think that would have been mentioned if so. 

So this whole thing probably took place about 7-8 years afer the Battle of Hackham Heath, while Gilan is either a newly graduated Ranger or in his fifth year of apprenticeship. Halt goes to the Eastern Steppes and spends about 2-3 years there minimum, steals buys some horses, then hightails it to the coast. Presumably a few years pass before Will is taken on, just enough for Halt to say “It’s Gilan because it’s always Gilan” at Will’s first Gathering, and for Gilan to be considered a not-bad Ranger. Only a few, though, so he’s still the most junior Ranger at the time of book two (the reason he gives for Crowley having assigned him the mission). This brings us to 13-14 years passing between the Early Years and the Ruins of Gorlan, and 16-17 for the Battle for Skandia. It’s not quite “decades” yet, so either Erak is fudging the specifics in his brain or “decades” could refer to 

1. a completely different invasion occuring quite a few years before our story or

2. a pre-invasion force sent to look around, although “in any number” would mean that the force had to be quite big to fit, and why would you give away the element of surprise by sending a massive “scouting force”?

The “in any number” clause also leaves room for a smaller force (maybe the ones chasing Halt?) to have ‘come this way’ in the last nineteen years or so. This could indicate that the actual invasion that was marching west passed south of Skandia (unlikely if they wanted their ships) or just hadn’t gotten that far, and Halt could have been going south to try to split them up.