Ask me about Horses

[Jabrosky]

There's an opening chapter I have which features chariots, but I am starting to think it needs a rewrite.

My protagonist and her brother have ridden their chariots out into the wilderness on a hunting trip. The brother gets killed by assassins, but the heroine escapes back to her chariot and rides away. However, one of the assassins hijacks her brother's chariot and pursues her, and they loose arrows at each other while their chariots are moving.

The problem I face is that both these chariots are one-person only. I chose not to staff them with servant drivers because the assassin couldn't hijack the brother's chariot if it already had a loyal servant stationed on it (keep in mind that there are only two assassins here, and the heroine kills one of them before the chariot chase). Would it be possible to shoot arrows from a moving chariot if there isn't a second person to drive the thing?

I did read here that Egyptian Pharaohs would sometimes hunt while driving their own chariots, but I am not sure whether to believe it.

BTW these chariots use zebras instead of horses.

 

[wordwalker]

I don't know if it's impossible, but I know it was never the practice in war. The whole point of a war chariot was to have a driver and an archer.

Then again, that was for circling by the enemy on a busy battlefield, "strafing" them. Maybe when it's just two chariots in an open chase, you could set down the reins for a minute and take a shot... but the way a chariot bounces around, it sounds less like a good idea than a way to drop the reins, the bow, or both. We're not talking sticking a gun out a window while holding the steering wheel with the other hand.

A javelin might work better, since it's one-handed.