tianlin
Lasuluun planted his heel against Shan Yu’s
shoulder and gave his friend a few rough nudges. "Shan," he
said. "Time to get up!" There was no response from under the
furs. Lasuluun continued jostling with a booted foot. "Come on.
Up, up, up!"
Eyes still closed, Shan Yu reached up behind his
shoulder, clamped Lasuluun’s ankle and suspended it at knee level.
"I’m awake."
"Ah, let me enjoy this!" Las groused,
hopping on one foot to keep his balance. "It’s not every day I
get to kick you out of bed."
Shan Yu opened one eye to shoot Lasuluun an annoyed
look. "The sun’s not up."
"I noticed. But almost the whole village has
already left. You slept right through the noise."
He released Lasuluun's ankle and sat up. Yawning,
he sleepily scanned the tent.
"Shirchin’s already gone," said Las.
"Even Batu and Gaitan got up before you." He gave a dry smirk.
"They seemed remarkably energetic.
"I let everyone leave without disturbing you, since
you spent most of the night standing outside freezing your balls off. But
I think you’ve had enough sleep to make you look human again."
He craned forward and squinted at Shan Yu’s face in the dim light.
"Then again, maybe not."
Shan Yu threw off his covers, stretched mightily
and reached for his clothes. "Don’t expect me to laugh at your
lame jokes before I’ve had some tea."
As he dressed, flashes of the night's visions
pinched at him. But a few hours' sleep had already shorn them of their
immediacy. Strange dreams, he thought. Nothing more.
The two of them made their way through the
silent settlement towards the pasture. Lasuluun had not exaggerated when
he had said most of the villagers were gone. Several dozen women were
busily working around their gers, apparently making preparations for
Qaidu’s and Kaaje’s wedding. Others were gathered around the
front of another tent, cutting and sewing together soft, tanned skins by
torchlight. As the soldiers passed, the women greeted them with smiles,
but barely looked up from their work.
The unrisen sun fingered the crests of the western ranges with gold,
but below the sun's reach, the prairies were still swathed in the
lavender of pre-dawn. As the horses broke into a brisk trot, a large
hare bolted from the joint firs. A dozen smooth, slow-hanging leaps
took it across their path from left to right before it turned to spoon
huge ears and fix them with a wall-eyed stare. Shan Yu watched for a
moment, then cupped his hands to his face and blew warm breath into them.
"Good sign," murmured Lasuluun.
A blast of wind knifed across the plain and through their clothes.
Shan Yu drew the folds of his hood around his neck and cast a glance
at the northern horizon. "Think you can get your lucky hare to hold
off that storm?"
Lasuluun twisted in the saddle to face northward and tested the wind.
"Sorry. By midday weÕll be getting icy and wet."
As they rounded the bend, the wind carried to them
the almost festive sounds of the villagers preparing for the day’s
work. In the growing light, they could see men and women milling about in
every direction, some carrying buckets of water, others cases of what
might be salves and ointments for the horses, and still others collecting
tack and rigs. Cheerful voices rose all around, some laughing, others
singing.
There was order to the apparent chaos. Some of the
earliest risers already were moving about in the corrals among the horses,
getting them accustomed to the presence of humans on foot. As the folk
finished their breakfasts and made their way to their assigned posts, each
of the small holding pens at the edges of the large corrals was gradually
manned by two or three wranglers equipped with ropes and bags of
supplies.
As Shan Yu and Lasuluun rode into the midst of the activity, glad greetings
met them from every direction. From the distance, the eerie, thrumming
whistle of throat singing sailed to them on the wind. Shan Yu thought
he caught his own name, sung by a guttural tenor voice. Lasuluun glanced
over at Shan Yu and met his friendÕs eyes.
"Whatever reasons you and I might have for going back," he said quietly.
"This is more important. The Khyatad still will have to go through me to
get to them."
Shan Yu studied his friend in silence, surprised at his smoldering tone.
He suddenly felt quite alone, starkly aware that he did not know the people
from whom he knew he had sprung, nor did he have a family to protect. He had
nothing to lose. He let his gaze wander across the people in the corrals,
and felt nothing.
Dozens of villagers were sitting outside the stone hall along a wide, covered
wooden porch equipped with benches and railings. The wood, weathered to a
dusty grey, matched the rough logs and granite stones of the hall. The
main door arched across the center of the south-facing wall, and the north
end of the hall was tucked into the hills at the base of the cliffs from
where Shan Yu and Lasuluun had watched the end of the herd drive. Shan Yu
laid a hand on one of the aging timbers, an entire pine log serving as a roof
support. As his gaze strayed to the heavy beams of the ceiling, the scent of
warmed spices wafted from behind him. He turned to see Gaitan standing there
with a bowl of what appeared to be boiled grains and dried fruit.
"Morning, Commander!" he said cheerily.
He tipped the bowl up, looked askance to be sure no one was close enough
to hear. "When I first saw this stuff, I thought it was for the horses.
But itÕs not half bad. You going to join us? WeÕre over at the far firepit
with Sukhe and his half-brother."
As he spoke, his voice trailed off and his rough features softened.
His gaze had fallen on something behind Shan Yu, and he motioned slightly
with his head. A very young girl approached them, a large wooden bowl
perched precariously in her hands. She paused as the three towering men
looked down at her, and turned to look at her mother, who stood a few
dozen feet away among a group of women who had come to serve Shan Yu.
The mother nodded reassuringly and gestured for her daughter to continue.
The girl turned back to the warriors and approached them with a few tentative
steps, lifting the filled bowl to Shan Yu.
"Eejee says this will make you strong, Shan Yu Khagan," said the girl,
her dark eyes now meeting his without fear. He dropped to squat on his
haunches and solemnly accepted the bowl. Swinging her arms, the girl
gave a pleased, playful jump, then whirled and raced back to latch her
arms around her motherÕs legs. She looked back at them steadily, rocking
back and forth under her motherÕs touch.
Mouth open to speak, Shan Yu glanced up at Lasuluun, but the strained
half-smile taut on the Tracker's lips silenced him. The ever-serious
face seemed even more drawn, and Shan Yu felt a chill slice through him,
suddenly recognizing the memory that the little girl had awakened in Lasuluun.
Gaitan seemed oblivious, and as the women brought them filled bowls and jugs
of tea, he laughed, "I should have stayed with you two to get such honored
treatment!"
Shan Yu rose and stood beside Lasuluun, who absently accepted his breakfast
from one of the women. He was watching the young mother turn away, leading
her child by the hand, to continue her assigned chores.
"Come on, Las,"
said Shan Yu. With his free hand, he gave his old friend a gentle shake
on the back of the neck. "Get some breakfast in that hollow belly.
We have a lot of work today."
Lasuluun blinked as if suddenly coming awake, glanced down at the bowl
and jug in his hands, and gave a long, uneven sigh. "Ah. IÕm hollow,
all right."
As the two made their way through the milling folk
blessing them as they passed, Shan Yu surveyed the corrals. The sun had
glanced over the range, its light scattering across the furry coats and
whiskers of the silhouetted horses. Their breath whirled upwards in
translucent clouds before being borne away by the wind. A hundred feet
away, near the center of the closest corral, a figure thickly wrapped in
rawhide and furs was already examining the mouth of one of the horses.
Three helpers were steadying the beast from the sides and from behind.
Gusts of wind blew the fragmented sounds of the leader’s voice
towards them.
"Steady her! She’s ...bout
...jump." Sure enough, the mare bucked sideways almost before the
sentence was finished. Shan Yu recognized the voice. It was the
idugan, Tianlin.
He gave a short laugh and shook his head.
"Out there already! You’d think she’d still be recovering
from last night. Let's see if she knows what she’s doing." He
turned and leaned on the railing to watch.
Lasuluun rested his elbows on the rails.
"Entertainment with the morning meal," he sighed. Perhaps we'll get to
see Batu or Gaitan get trampled if we wait long enough."
Shan watched as Tianlin mustered her small group
again, directing them to retrieve the mare and showing them how to hold
her more firmly. "Give ... rasp," came wind-torn bits of the
idugan’ voice. One assistant scurried to supply her with what
she had asked, while the other two leaned against the mare’s sides.
Tianlin pried open the horse’s mouth and quickly inserted a long,
iron rasp to file away the molar points. This did not please the horse,
which attempted to twist its head out of her grasp, but Tianlin moved with
the animal and held her firmly. At the same time, she talked soothingly
to it, directing her three helpers with sidelong glances and gestures to
keep the beast from escaping again. While Tianlin worked the mouth, a
fourth assistant inspected the horse for visible wounds and, apparently
finding one, applied a slathering of yellowish ointment from a jar in his
hand.
"...too much," floated the voice on the
wind. "have....two thousand here. Don’t waste. Right.
....done. Take her .... holding corral."
The horse took a backwards step and tilted its head
up as Tianlin let go. The mare shook her head, lowered it and meekly
followed the young woman who held her lead.
"Got the next one?" called Tianlin over
her shoulder. In the time it took Tianlin and her wranglers to work over
three more horses, Shan Yu and Lasuluun had finished their meal.
"Seem to know what they're doing out
there," said Lasuluun.
Shan Yu pulled away from the fence and absently handed his empty bowl
to a woman who had come to take it from him. "Sukhe was right.
She's got a good hand with the horses. I donÕt want to break her
rhythm now," he squinted in the morning glare, watching Tianlin work.
"But I'll find Sukhe's idugan later." He did not mention his suspicions
about her connections to China. He knew that Lasuluun probably was
already musing along the same lines as he.
Shan Yu’s men were preparing to leave the
fireside as their commanders approached. Sukhe spied them and sidestepped
the logs to walk out and greet them. Behind him, a man about fifteen
years his junior rose and stood near. His hair was thick and dark, shot
through with a scattering of grey. His broad, friendly face was fringed
with the beginnings of a winter beard, as sparse as that of a Chinese
man's, and even his eyes had the almond shape and folds of the Chinese.
Clearly, Sukhe and Jargal had different mothers.
"Good morning, my friends," said Sukhe. "Gaitan
and Batu have already met Jargal, my brother and right hand."
Jargal stepped forward, his deeply tanned face
wrinkling in a great smile. "It is my honor, Khagan," he extended his
arm and gripped the Warlord's. "I hope to be of service in helping you
choose the best path to the Gobi, since I have just traveled that way."
"I had not expected such good fortune, Jargal,"
Shan Yu said. "I will take your counsel before we leave. But the horses
await my hands now."
"The weather is being kind, so far," said
Sukhe. "I hope it lasts. I have organized servants for you and all of
your men, to ease your work, since you insist on being out there with the
horses."
The old man spent the next few minutes showing each
of the northern visitors their posts and supplying them with the gear they
would need for their tasks. Gaitan, Batu and Shirchin would spend
whatever time the weather allowed haltering horses in the corrals and
bringing them to the medical stations. Ulaan was teamed with a group of
experienced wranglers to help dress wounds. Shan Yu teamed himself with
Lasuluun to head one of the medical stations.
"The work will proceed quickly with you in
charge," said Sukhe, his voice full of open admiration. "I suspect
you are among the few capable of easily handling a rasp on these lively
beasts. If it please you, I have a team already at work in the
easternmost corral. They have been told that it might be you who would
take charge of them."
As Shan Yu and Lasuluun made their way to their
post, Las toyed with the rope he had been given, looping and unlooping it
easily and grinning widely.
"Has something amused you again?" Shan
Yu wanted to know.
"Sukhe hasn't missed a chance to slobber over
you since we arrived."
"A good sign," Shan Yu said, growing serious.
"I could not afford to lose his allegiance. Not now. I can live with his
fawning. But trust me, he's no fool. After our victory, I’ll be the
one dividing up the land and spoils and choosing the chieftains. He has
five fine sons. He’s looking out for them and for his own
interests." His jaw muscles worked for a moment before his
expression softened a bit. "Besides, Sukhe may have led this village
for thirty years, but he's still a nomad chieftain at heart. His
hospitality is real, even if he's overzealous with his flattery."
Lasuluun looked off towards the southern
mountains. Beyond them lay their destination. "The Khan of Urga
wields a great deal of power," he said. "I’m not sure
I’d want to know how he’d treat us if we didn’t come home
victorious."
Shan Yu stopped short, took his friend’s
shoulder in his hand, gently but firmly turned Lasuluun to face him, and
fixed his eyes. He spoke with utter certainty. "That is not
possible."
"I know, anda," said Lasuluun,
meeting the piercing yellow eyes calmly. "Just musing
aloud."
"Safe around me. But never say anything like
that where anyone else can hear, Brother. No one. Our warriors must have
no doubts and no fear."
Lasuluun grew serious. "I am your Right
Hand."
"Mahakala could not have blessed me
with a better one." Shan Yu clapped Lasuluun’s back and led the
way to their helpers in the corral.
The work was slow and sometimes tedious. Even with
their experienced team of wranglers, Shan Yu and Lasuluun spent a great
deal of energy helping chase down recalcitrant horses. A few had wounds
serious enough to require suturing. Those were taken to another corral to
await their turn under the knife and needle. Because supplies were
limited, only Tianlin herself and a few trusted apprentices had access to
the precious suturing materials and numbing ointments that would make the
job possible. Though Shan Yu was adept at wound repair techniques he had
learned in the Chinese army, the constant stream of horses requiring his
lesser attentions kept him busy enough to hold back the offer of his own
surgical skills for the moment.
By midday, the northern horizon scowled with
blue-black clouds. The wind picked up and occasionally blasted gale winds
across the plains, peppering the horses and wranglers with stinging sand.
The most violent gusts forced the workers to yell at each other in order
to be heard over the roaring across their ears.
Batu and Shirchin had tethered a string of fifteen
horses to the fence posts at Shan Yu’s station. None of the
wranglers there had taken a break since starting more than six hours ago.
Shan Yu had allowed them no more respite than a few momentary breaks when
women roving the corrals stopped by with tea. Even when the enticing
aroma of roasting meat began slipping past them in the wind, and the other
teams disbanded for a midday meal, he did not allow them to stop. Better
to work through weariness and hunger for a while than to have to round up
the same flighty horses later, he thought. There was too little time
before the storm.
As Shan Yu pulled his rasp along the last sharp
points of a stocky grey gelding's molars, he heard the sound of raucous
laughter whipped on the wind from the direction of the Great Hall. He
withdrew the rasp and gave the horse a firm slap across the shoulder,
indicating to his helpers that it was done, then turned to see who might
be having a better time than he. In the distance, he could see Gaitan,
Ulaan and Shirchin sitting at one of the firepits with Jargal, Tianlin and
two of her helpers. They were lost in animated conversation and laughing
uproariously every few minutes.
"Now that’s fair!" said Lasuluun,
bringing the next horse and setting up the helpers to hold it firmly while
he checked it for injuries. "When do we get a break?" Hearing
those words, the four young assistants looked up, almost pleadingly, at
the Warlord.
"Not until we’re done with the ones
already tied up," he said, motioning with his head towards the
tethered beasts nodding and blinking sleepily in the wind. "If we
take a rest now and the storm breaks, we’ll just have to release them
and catch them again. Better not to go through all that. Not good for
the horses, either."
Lasuluun turned to meet the disappointed, weary
young faces. A loud grumble sounded from inside the hide-wrapped belly of
one of their helpers, a skinny fellow who looked to Lasuluun as if he
really should not go so long without a meal. The young man put a hand to
his stomach and gave an embarrassed grimace.
Gesturing grandly at Shan Yu with a sweep of his
arm, Lasuluun addressed his assistants. "Shan Yu the Relentless.
Shan Yu the Merciless. In the flesh. Reputation well deserved."
Without looking away from the horse he was
examining, Shan Yu flashed his white teeth in a snarl. Despite their
growing appetites and flagging energy, the young wranglers laughed
good-naturedly and gamely set themselves back to work.
It was over an hour before they finished with the
tied horses and transferred them to the holding corral. Once they had
cleared the work area and packed the supplies, Shan Yu dismissed his
helpers, who gratefully made their way to the firepits at the stone hall.
The edge of the storm towered menacingly overhead, a great, slaty paw
extending over the plains. Above the mountains, the dark sky flickered
and emitted low booms of thunder.
"This may be the end of today’s
work," said Shan Yu, casting a resentful glance at the sky. "I
don’t know how fast the other teams are working, but I don’t
think we’re even half through."
"And we’re not even suturing cuts."
said Lasuluun, tramping wearily alongside. He glanced to the west,
counting the number of teams working in the corrals. In the westernmost
corral, they could see Tianlin and her team back at work in one of the
close holding pens. They were cleaning and suturing wounds on the
remaining horses that had serious cuts, leaving the simpler jobs to the
other teams still working.
"Uh oh." Lasuluun looked down at the
minute spires of dust jumping at their feet where fat raindrops struck.
He lifted his palm and held it flat to the sky. "Here it
comes."
As if in response, a bolt of lightning seared down
and struck the hillside not a mile from where they stood. Its deafening
crack sent the horses galloping, shrilling in alarm. With loud yells, the
teams of wranglers in the corrals disbanded, quickly releasing any
tethered horses and scrambling to gather their supplies. Shan Yu looked
up to see a great, grey wall of rain thundering down the mountainside
towards them, driven fiercely by the icy front. As the arctic wind tore
across the open corrals, even the northern warriors wished they were
dressed more warmly.
Shan Yu and Lasuluun broke into a trot, reaching
the covered porch just as the worst onslaught of the storm crashed into
the hall. Shaking the water from his coat and dashing it off his dark
hair with one hand, Lasuluun looked over his shoulder at Shan Yu, who was
mounting the steps behind him, mopping the rain from his face and brow
with a damp sleeve. Almost before they had reached the top step, serving
women had surrounded them with drying cloths and offering them jugs of
hot, salted tea, and left them as quickly as they had delivered their
offerings. The two men turned and leaned their elbows on the railings to
look out as rest of the workers galloped for shelter through the sleety
rain. Hailstones skittered in the mud, lit by brilliant purple flickers
of lightning.
"Well, this ought to kill the day," Shan
Yu said, staring out forlornly. As they watched the storm, two women
approached and offered them plates of hard cheese and mutton they had been
roasting at the firepits before the storm had sent the cooks scurrying to
salvage the food.
"Oh, beautiful sight!" said Lasuluun,
gratefully accepting the meal. "And I’m happy to see the food,
too."
One of the women lowered her eyes with a shy smile
and the other laughed behind her hand. Shan Yu took the proferred plate,
but his eyes were roving among the groups of wranglers still fleeing the
open areas.
"At least this might give me a chance to meet this idugan of theirs," he said.
He switched to Mandarin and lowered his voice. "And see how she answers a
few questions."
"Your instincts have never failed us in matters of this sort," said Lasuluun quietly.
"I'll be curious to know what comes of your conversation with her."
Shan Yu grunted, gingerly picked up a
still-smoking chunk of roasted mutton and took a huge bite.
"Gods, Las. Why did you keep us out there so long? IÕm about to pass out
from starvation."
Lasuluun rolled his eyes, then spied Ulaan and Batu
sitting against the stone wall on the slatted floor. Ulaan raised an
earthenware jug in salute.
"So you finally decided to quit!" he
called as they ambled over. "I can’t believe Shan let a little
squall stop him. Join us, brothers?"
Turning his back to the storm, Lasuluun sat down
cross-legged, and began ravenously devouring his meal. Ulaan regarded him
with cool amusement.
"Watch those fingers. You might need them
later," he said.
"I'm hungry enough to eat them now and not
wait for later," Lasuluun said around the meat in his mouth. "We worked
like slaves out there. Not like some who spent a good bit of their
strength last night riding the women instead of the horses."
Batu snorted. "Don't begrudge us our fun just
because you were too slow. Anyway, they’re setting up inside for
that wedding. Should put the girls in a festive mood. Let’s see if
your luck changes tonight, Las."
Resting his lower lip on the rim of his cup, Ulaan
wore a smug expression. "Luck, my friend, has nothing to do with
it."
Shan Yu pressed his back against the wall, slid
down to sit beside Batu and leaned over to sniff at the vessel Batu was
holding. "What do you have?"
Batu lifted the jug, dwarfed in his great paws.
"Some kind of tea. Dried leaves and spices. No milk or salt.
Weird, but not bad. They’ve got it heating up inside on their little
stone firepits. They’ve been unloading all sorts of strange goods
like this from the packhorse rigs that were lined up along the porch this
morning before you got here. Guess it’s their haul from the Chinese
port city. They had more packs than I could count!"
"Hmm. At least ten, then," remarked Ulaan.
"Twenty, if he took off his boots," added
Lasuluun.
Batu ignored them. "Not just dry goods, either.
They had little trees. Live trees! You should have seen it."
The four sat listening to the soothing rattle of
the rain on the roof while Shan Yu and Lasuluun ate their meal. Gaitan
and Shirchin appeared with their own jugs of the spiced tea. Shan Yu
finished eating and set down his plate.
"Borrow your tea, Shirch?" The big
swordsman gave him a puzzled look, but handed over the mug. Shan Yu
poured half its contents over one hand, cupped the rest in the other,
splashed some on his face to rinse the grease from his mouth, and handed
back the mug. "Thanks."
Shirchin tilted his head back and laughed.
"No, you can keep that one. I’ll get another."
Shan Yu shook his head slightly and grinned at
Shirchin’s retreating back. "I think it’s impossible to
annoy him."
"Unless you’re on the wrong end of his
sword," said Ulaan.
Shirchin had been met almost immediately by a
serving woman who placed a new jug of tea in his hands. He rejoined his
comrades, dodging the spray of tea Shan Yu sent flying as he shook his
fingers as he wryly addressed Gaitan. "Sounded as if you were having
a good time over here earilier while we were hard at work out there in the
cold."
Gaitan sat down, draped his huge arms over his
knees, and clamped his mug between his blunt fingertips. "We met their
idugan," he said.
"And?"
"She's good company," said Ulaan. "Made us feel
right at home. Though she's not exactly one of the pretty little
butterflies who've been hovering around to serve and delight us."
"No, not like them!" agreed Gaitan with a laugh.
"Kind of strange-looking and pale."
Ulaan wrapped his long fingers around his mug and
stretched his back against the wall. "Well, she mentioned that her
grandparents were foreigners from the west."
"That's not what I meant, " said Gaitan. "She
seemed almost…I don't know. More like a man than a woman."
"Not uncommon in an idugan, anda," Shirchin
joined in, gazing out into the storm. "The shamans of my tribe sometimes
cannot be distinguished as woman or man. Especially when they are
climbing the Smoke Tree. It's what makes them what they are."
Gaitan stared at him and blinked slowly. "Well,
she didn't seem very mystic at the fireside today."
Shirchin rolled his eyes and slurped at his tea,
once again convinced that Gaitan was beyond his help.
"All I’ve seen of this supposed
idugan is a faceless lump of skins and furs," said Shan Yu.
"I’m still not convinced she exists."
"Last I saw, she was inside talking to Baaja."
said Ulaan. He gave Shan Yu a sidelong glance. "You mean Sukhe hasn't
made the effort to introduce his idugan to the Khagan? That seems
odd."
Lasuluun, finishing the last of his meal, started
to wipe his fingertips on his trousers, but then looked over at the
archer. "Borrow your tea, Ulaan?"
"Right. You can go get your own."
"Whatever happened to brotherly
sharing?" Las snorted, gathering his legs under him to rise.
Shan Yu rose and waved him down. "I ordered Sukhe
to keep his servants from crowding us," he said. "And suddenly they're
obeying. But I'm feeling like stretching my legs. Since I'm also feeling
generous at the moment, I’ll bring you some tea."
He left his men and sauntered along the porch,
studying the architecture of the hall, oblivious to the villagers’
looks of respectful deference as he passed. The place didn’t look
Chinese at all, he decided. He had never seen anything quite like it, and
wondered whose design it was. He stopped at the ornately carved main
door. Admiring the polished arch of hardwood framing, he ran his hand
along the glossy finish. An odd, tingling sensation entered his
fingertips. Curious, he tilted his head and looked closely, touching the
wood lightly over and over. He gave a short, quiet laugh and stepped
through the door.
The tremor that shook through him nearly dropped
him to his knees. He gripped the doorway with one hand to steady himself
and shut his eyes. A wild, rushing sound filled his head. The image of
charging soldiers crashed through his brain. They were dressed in strange
gear that he did not recognize. As the closest one reached for him, a
blinding flash of light obliterated the hallucination and it was gone.
Stunned, he stood in the doorway and blinked a few
times. He looked furtively around, but no one else seemed to have felt or
seen anything, and he evidently had hidden his reaction well enough to not
call attention to himself. He was still gripping the entry’s smooth
wood, but the tingling sensation was gone. He shook his head slowly.
Is the pressure of these preparations making me lose my mind? But
now his head felt clear.
He strode into the hall, scanning the sea of
dark-haired heads for signs of the idugan or of anyone he
recognized. As he made his way towards the aroma of spiced tea, he
glanced around at the decorations being hung throughout the hall. Fresh
pine branches had been woven into fragrant garlands and festooned with
pine cones, dried grasses and boughs of bright autumn leaves. By the time
they finished, he thought, the place would look and smell like a small
forest.
He greeted Baaja, who had stopped by the tea
cauldrons to direct the women preparing foods for the wedding
celebration.
"Shan Yu Khagan," she smiled up at him,
the corners of her dark eyes crinkling. "I already sent someone to bring
you and your men hot tea." She gave the young girl to her left a
withering glance. "But here you are, come to fetch it yourself." The
girl flinched and reached for one of the stoneware mugs to fill it.
"Never mind!" Baaja said, "Go help Udval. With a
push, she sent the girl off into the crowd. "Marayash!" Baaja bellowed.
"Come serve the Khagan!" She looked up at Shan Yu, with a
look of almost motherly concern. "You must be freezing, spending the
entire morning out there in the wind. Marayash, bring the tea!"
Almost before the words were out of her mouth, the beautiful young woman
who had offered him dried fruit in Sukhe's ger was presenting him with a
stoneware jug. He smiled down at her, saw the open admiration in her gaze
and accepted the tea she handed him.
"Another for my friend?"
Silently, she dipped into the steaming pot, filled
another mug and handed it to him, never taking her eyes from him. He
nodded his thanks and turned to Baaja, who was looking at Marayash
approvingly. "Where is Tianlin?" he asked. "I have yet to
meet your idugan."
"I think she has gone to find a quiet spot for
a while," said Baaja, seeming a bit puzzled that he was not
responding to the none-too-subtle eye contact from Marayash. "She has
been travelling for several weeks and working since early yesterday
morning and hasn’t slept much. You might not find her. She has a
way of disappearing."
"We'll see." He turned to Marayash and lifted one
of the mugs to her in silent salute.
She smiled, her eyes wide and dark. He could feel
her watching him as he walked away and sighed to himself, recognizing her
well-choreographed invitation. He wondered what her familial relationship
to Sukhe was, since the women he was offered whenever he and his men
visited another clan were usually there to seal a political or military
alliance. He briefly wondered whether it was the impending war that had
sapped his enthusiasm for such encounters. Too much was expected of him
in return for a relatively brief bit of pleasure with a faceless partner.
After so many, they all seemed the same. Beautiful. Young. Submissive.
And not interesting enough to hold his attention for long outside the
furs. He preferred the company of his men. Much to the chagrin of the
chieftains who had tried to bind his allegiance with marriages to their
daughters and nieces, he had never allowed any of those pairings to last
longer than a night or two, and had no intention of changing that policy
now. He had no desire to fetter himself with a wife, and even less to
dishonor the memory of the one who had died so long ago. Quickly, he
forced his mind to turn in another direction, before he began to spiral
into the recollections that could mentally cripple him for days.
He stopped and scanned the exits to the hall,
reluctant to pass through the main door again. There were several side
doors open to help the ventilation of the smoke holes in the roof. He
made his way to the one closest to where his men had been sitting.
"Now, if I were a shaman, where would I hide?" he joked to
himself, not seriously considering pursuing the meeting. He exited the
hall and strolled over to his group, offering one of the mugs to
Lasuluun.
Gaitan looked up. "Oh, there you are."
He gestured to the eastern end of the hall. "The idugan just
went around the corner, if you want to prove to yourself that she's
real."
Shan Yu stood undecided for a moment, then withdrew
the mug he had held out to his friend. "Las, you’re on your
own."
Lasuluun raised his eyes to the ceiling, and gave a
long-suffering sigh. "What does a man have to do to get a cup of hot
tea around here?"
Ulaan leaned over and said helpfully, in a loud
whisper, "You could go inside and get one. It’s not far."
Batu added, "There are some beauties serving
that tea. You never know."
Ulaan added, "Flowers will not come to the bee; the
bee must seek the flowers."
Las gave them a long, sour look, then stood up. "I
think I've gotten a second wind. See you later."
Shan Yu walked alone along the raised porch. The
rain, showing no sign of subsiding, was so dense that it obscured not only
the horizon, but the far ends of the corrals. The horses were huddled in
groups, heads down. Some were calmly tugging at the wet grass.
The eastern end of the hall, less protected from
the wind than the southern side, was nearly deserted. As he turned the
corner, the wind coated his face with a cold mist of rain. A few dozen
feet away he spied the lone figure of the idugan. She was sitting
on the porch, her knees drawn up nearly to her chin, her head and shoulder
leaned against the wall. Still hooded and thickly wrapped in furs, her
form was difficult to discern. She was looking towards the mountains. He
could not see her face, nor could she see him as he silently
approached.
As he came closer, he heard her deep, pleasant
voice speak a language he did not recognize. She folded her arms across
her knees, sighed wearily and lowered her face into the space between her
elbows. Shan Yu stopped, wondering if he should silently turn away and
not disturb her. Then she spoke again, muffled, plucking at her collar
with one hand and making a sound of disgust.
"Danaan," she grumbled. "I
need a bath."
Shan Yu’s quiet laugh made her start and jerk
her head around towards him. As he saw her face, his expression grew
almost as startled as hers. The woman Sukhe had described as being old
looked to be in her early twenties. He stared for a moment, speechless
with surprise. The irises of the eyes that met his were not the dark
brown of the other village women, but light green, as pale as lichen, and
strikingly rimmed with dark grey. "A bath!" he managed quickly,
grinning. "You must not be from around here!"
The corner of her mouth turned up slightly. When
she spoke this time, it was in perfect Mandarin. "What was your
first clue?"
Shan Yu showed his white teeth in a broad smile,
rolled his gaze out over the plains, then met her eyes and addressed her
in Chinese, as well. "This Idugan is full of
surprises."
"Two cups of tea," said Tianlin.
"You must be very thirsty."
He walked over and offered her one. She accepted with a bow
of her head. "The Khagan is gracious."
She pulled her hood away from her face and down around her shoulders. Her
damp hair was tied tightly back and knotted at the nape of her neck.
Loose strands flew in the breeze around her even-featured face, which
seemed a mixture of Hun and something else he did not quite recognize.
Her clear eyes radiated humor and intelligence. She must have noticed him
staring, for she said simply, "My father was Xiongnu. My mother wasnÕt."
He smiled, surprised at the confidence with which she spoke to him. Her
bearing was as different from that of the other women as her eyes. His
teeth flashed, and he raised an eyebrow in half-joking reproach.
"You're not going to use that cruel Khyatad name for our people with me,
are you?"
"Only in jest," she said. "Will the Khagan do me the honor of sitting here
and watching the storm with his own unusual eyes?"
He blinked, smiled and recalled Ulaan's comment. TianlinÕs demeanor was
guileless and open, and she showed no sign that his presence made her nervous.
A slow wash of relief loosened his shoulders. Perhaps his fears about her
connections to China had been groundless. Grateful in his weariness to
dispense with formality, he folded his legs and sat cross-legged a few
feet away from her, facing northward into the storm as she did.
"You're good with horses," he said, breathing into his tea to bring its warm
vapors around his face.
"The Khagan honors me." She leaned forward, wrapping her hands around the cup.
"We have so little time. Sukhe has told me that you and your men wish to
leave for the high desert by the day after tomorrow. ThatÕs wise, I suppose,
given the turn of the weather. You certainly donÕt need to be travelling
through deep snow with inexperienced troops. But it doesnÕt give us much
time to work over two thousand head."
She sipped the tea and closed her eyes, then opened one just a crack to
eye him almost playfully. "How is it that the hand of the Khagan has
suddenly turned to serving tea?"
"My sword hand has a blister," he said. "And required less onerous work."
"How fortunate for me," she said. "I was so busy running around with
last-minute arrangements that by the time I sat down here I realized
IÕd forgotten my tea. I was too lazy to get back up again."
"Ah, yes," he said. "I have heard how lazy you are. Travelling for
months to and from China, trading at the Chien K'ang markets, staying
up all night to call spirits, working horses half the day, and now
performing a wedding. All that to keep from helping around the village.
I shall have to find more work for you."
Tianlin stared at him and seemed to blush slightly. "Well, I'd prefer to
be lazy," she said with a slight smile, looking down into her mug.
"Things have just been too busy for me to indulge myself. Besides,
Baaja has the village girls doing most of the work preparing for today."
She looked up at the dark, wild storm still rolling in from the north.
"I just hope this lets up in time for us all to get washed and have time
for purification."
"It's a cold day for bathing."
She took a sip of tea. "Urga grew up in the canyon
because of the rich supply of hotsprings here." A quiet sigh escaped her,
and almost under her breath she said, "My grandmother used to take me to
the mineral springs in the mountains above our village. Coming to Urga
was a little like coming home."
Shan Yu was silent for a moment, surprised that she
had spoken her own nostalgia aloud, but finding himself oddly touched by
it. Hearing someone speak so easily in the tongue of his youth sent a
strange, expansive sensation through his chest. He wanted to hear
more.
"Batu tells me you've brought saplings from Chien K'ang," he said.
"Are you expecting them to survive here?"
She looked at him in surprise for a moment. "The
hotsprings keep it just barely warm enough in some parts of the canyons
for us to grow things here that might not otherwise survive this far
north," she said. "The frozen ground is much deeper here. In some
places, the ground doesn’t even freeze. Trees can grow. Even some
fruit trees that usually grow farther south, in China."
Shan Yu lifted his eyebrows. "Fruit trees! I
thought I recognized some. But I didn’t see any groves when I hiked
around."
"Not groves like back home," she said. "If we
tried to plant out on the open plains, nothing would survive past fall.
But we’ve been interspersing new plantings in the older canyon
forest. Some survive. Enough for us to have a little bit of fruit."
"You must have had to try many, many times before
anything survived."
"We did," she said, surveying him with growing
bemusement. "But eventually some of them took. Some of the hardiest.
Still, they don't flower much." She paused, then said with a smile. "I
wonder at your interest in such matters, Khagan. I would not have
expected it."
Shan Yu regarded her silently, enjoying her easy,
fearless willingness to talk to him. Her manner was unlike that of any
woman he had ever met--as forthright and open as a man's.
"We had cherry orchards when I was a boy," he
said suddenly. "In the Imperial City, Lo Yang. My mother’s family
were horticulturists from the countryside just east of Lanzhou."
He stopped short, surprised at the sudden clarity
of the memory, and at his speaking it aloud. But before he could turn the
subject away, Tianlin had faced him, gaping in surprise. "Is this
possible? The Khagan is from a family of horticulturists?"
He laughed softly. A strange, nostalgic euphoria
welled up in him along with an unexpected wish to tell her more. "Only my
mother's side. So long ago. Whenever my father went off on one of his
military travels, which was often, Mother thought it was her chance to
turn her children to her family’s trade. She’d immediately get
me out into those orchards to help the workers and learn about the trees.
I think she hoped it would keep me from following in my father’s
dangerous footsteps."
She stared in astonishment. "You're not
joking," she whispered, looking around to be sure that no one was
coming around the corner, then leaning towards him. "The Great Shan
Yu was almost a...a...farmer?" She lifted her face to the ceiling
and beamed. "Do you often share this secret?"
"It gets worse," he grinned.
"Mother used to grow orchids. My father would bring her a new type
almost every time he returned from his southern travels. He had a small
house with translucent mica panes built for her, where she could keep them
warm with sheltered sunlight, no matter what the season. She took great
pains to see that my sisters and I knew how to care for them. Eventually,
she decided that we should learn to propagate them. Fortunately for me,
by the time she got that idea into her head, I was six, and old enough to
go to school and start my military training."
Tianlin laughed delightedly. "Saved from the
dreadful fate of being an Orchid Master by the Imperial Army! But
unfortunate for me, now! I’ve tried to grow orchids here, but always
failed miserably. And now you’re telling me you’ll be no help
at all."
He shrugged. "I’m not much of a
gardener. Though I'm very good at climbing trees."
She laughed and then gave a wistful sigh. "There
were so many beautiful orchids in the Chien K'ang markets this
time."
"Any of the tiny, orange ones?" He gestured
with his hands to indicate their long-forgotten shape. "The ones shaped
like dragon heads hanging down in clusters--do you know those? The smell
of those would probably take me right back to my childhood."
Their eyes met, and for a moment both of them fell
silent, completely taken aback by their shared memories having taken such
quick flight. "Huh!" Shan Yu gave a half-laughing grunt, glanced out at
the rain and took a draught of tea. "Interesting. Haven't thought about
that for years."
"Probably as many years as since you met anyone who
was familiar with home," she said. "What…used to be home."
He was silent, but now he gazed to the south, and
seemed to be looking far beyond the rain.
"I missed our little seaside village so badly when
first I came here," she said. "And once I was allowed to go back--I had
to try to bring some of it here. Having those familiar trees in these
canyons, smelling them in the spring…it's like having a little bit of
my old home here with me.
"I'm not even the one who started the plantings.
My predecessor began planting oaks and other valuable trees here in the
canyons more than fifty years ago. Some of them actually came with her
from wherever it is she came from." Her eyes took on a faraway look
that reminded Shan Yu of the expression Sukhe had worn when he had spoken
of last night’s secret ritual.
"It was Junden, Sukhe's mother, who urged me
to continue the old idugan's work. And it was Junden who convinced
Sukhe to send us to China the first time, about six years ago, to bring
back more trees. The plums and pears are doing well, as long as we keep
torches around them when it gets really cold. It was too cold for the
oranges and lychees. But I’ve started growing bamboos and gingers
around the stream and hotsprings near my own home in a canyon over that
way." She gestured towards the far range, which could barely be seen
through the dark curtain of rain. "I’ve had mixed
success."
He grinned over his tea as he gazed out into the
rain. "You bring back such old memories." "I haven't been able to
fully give them up, myself" she said, almost apologetically. "Every
summer I live them again. I stay with a dear friend in Chien K'ang--a
chemist. Not only does he make medicines and teach me new healing arts,
he is something of an artist with the essences of flowers and plants.
When traders bring strange specimens from the south or from the islands,
he always manages to get first choice. Every year when we arrive at his
home in Chien K'ang, the village girls flock to him to see what he has
made for…" She trailed off, suddenly seeming embarrassed.
"Well," she said, looking away, clearing her throat
softly and tugging at the straps of her hood. "I am sure that's of little
interest to...."
Shan Yu chuckled and took a draught from his tea.
"A suitor who’s a chemist. Valuable commodity for a
Healer."
"Suitor!" Tianlin exclaimed, furrowing
her brow. "An Ho is more than sixty years old. He's like a second
grandfather to me. I may be getting old , but I’m not that
desperate!" She bit off her words and looked at Shan Yu, the color
rising in her cheeks. He was grinning with great amusement.
"I’m glad to be so entertaining,"
she said wryly. "What is it about you that’s making me prattle
endlessly about plants and flowers and say embarrassing things after
having known you for only a few minutes?"
He shrugged, still grinning.
"Do you have this effect on the tribal
chieftains?" she said. "No wonder you’re feared throughout the
land."
Shan Yu gave a short, heartfelt laugh and turned to
watch the storm. "Oh, yes," he said. "That's why they fear me." Tianlin
may have been embarrassed by her own openness, but he himself was
wondering why he had suddenly started babbling about his childhood after
not having spoken to anyone about it for decades.
They sat in silence for a while, watching the wet
horses steam in the cold rain. Shan Yu cast about in his mind for
something to goad her into speaking again. He found himself enjoying her
storyteller's cadence and the timbre of her voice.
"Glad to be up here and not out there with
them," he said at last. He patted the flat of his hand to the long
beams of the porch under his thigh. "I’ve never seen anything
like this hall. Sukhe mentioned that it was built here because--as he put
it--you sensed it was holy ground."
"Is that what he said?" she said, gazing
off into the rain over the edge of her mug. "Ah."
Shan Yu looked at her, waiting for an explanation.
None seemed to be forthcoming, so he gently pressed her. "Is there more
of a story to it than that?"
It was some time before she spoke again. Once
again, the distant look came to her eyes.
"This is where they first found me," she said
quietly. "Ten years ago. Junden and her women were out searching for
roots for winter storage. It was just about this time of year. It’s
really a miracle that they happened to come by when they did. I would
have frozen to death if night had caught me out here.
"I had been travelling by myself for a few
weeks, and when I stepped here, I think I must have had some sort of
seizure. I don't remember it, but they found me on the spot where the
front door is built now. I find it difficult to walk through that front
door. Most of the time, nothing happens. But sometimes..."
Shan Yu felt an icy wave rush over his scalp at the
revelation. But he said nothing.
"All I clearly remember is waking up in the
village with Junden's face hovering over me. But while I was unconscious,
I had dreams. Wild dreams." She stopped and played uncomfortably with
the edge of her coat.
Shan Yu could not help but recall his own vision at
the doorway. Almost without realizing it, he heard himself ask, "Do you
remember the dreams?"
She looked up at him. At that moment, the storm
clouds sent their densest wave over them, and as the sky darkened, her
eyes reflected back at him the hue of sand-washed jade. "Yes."
He held her gaze expectantly. The darkest of the
storm swirled above them, and a new cascade of blinding rain roared down
around them. For an instant, Shan Yu had the oddest sensation that
despite the hundreds of folk in the hall and on the porch around the
corner, that the two of them--he and the half-Hun shaman--were
completely alone.
She read the curiosity in his eyes, and must have
decided to trust him. "While I dreamed, I spoke in a strange tongue.
Junden told me. I thought it was probably Goedelic, my grandmother's
language. But when Junden repeated some of the phrases to me, I did not
recognize them. And the dreams. They were as foreign as the words. I
still don't understand them." She allowed herself a crooked smile, as if
realizing that he might not readily accept a supernatural explanation for
her experience. "Probably just the fever," she said
She fell silent for a moment, then whispered as if
addressing someone out in the rain. "Still, I sometimes wander here,
trying to remember. When I woke up, I felt changed. As if something had
entered me and become part of me." She rubbed her finger along the edge
of her cup, and Shan Yu wondered if she would leave him hanging with the
suspense of her tale. But she softly continued.
"I don't expect anyone to understand or believe
what I saw in those dreams. But a building like this hall was there. And
soldiers. I don't even know how I knew they were soldiers. They were not
dressed like any soldiers I had ever seen. They had sashes running
crosswise over their chests, like this." She motioned with her hand.
"Dark brown sashes with gold metal decoration. And soft caps the same
color." She laughed and looked up with a shade of embarrassment. "A
creative dream, at least!"
Shan Yu felt a great bolt shoot through him. The
image of the soldiers he had imagined at the doorway flashed through his
mind, and they were dressed as Tianlin described. Despite the practical
skepticism in which he had swathed himself for much of his life, he drew a
quick, deep breath of shock. Coincidence, he quickly told
himself.
"It was so real," she murmured. "I can't explain
it. More than images. It was a feeling--as if I was living in someone
else's body, or living again in a body I once had."
Shan Yu smiled at her encouragingly, hoping that
his craggy face registered acceptance, and not disbelief, since he was
feeling both. "You sound like my old dharma," he said. "He used
to speak of one soul living many lives."
She looked at him with a flash of fierce
conviction. "I don't expect you to believe me. No one who has not
climbed the Great Smoke Tree can be expected to understand."
Her tone stung him ever so slightly.
"Idugan," he said gently. "Perhaps I understand even more than I
yet know myself."
She blinked in surprise. "I am sorry," she looked
down with a crooked smile. "I don’t usually speak of my visions,
since they sound strange to anyone who has never had such an
experience."
"I was the one who asked how this hall had come to
be," Shan Yu said gently, wondering at the warmth growing in his breast as
he spoke the words. "And now I know it's the product of the great Sukhe's
admiration for his young idugan and his belief in the visions of
her fevered brain."
She flashed her eyes up and quickly lowered them
again. Her cheeks grew pink. "I became Urga's idugan because of
Junden, not Sukhe," she said quickly "Urga had lost its first
idugan about sixteen years before I came here. A couple of years
before I was born, from the sound of it. She was the one who started the
plantings I mentioned. And when she died, there was no one to take her
place.
"When Junden first saw me, she thought I was
that person come back to life. She swore that I was practically the image
of her--whose name she would never tell me. She said that if I really was
that shaman, I would find my true name." She smiled slightly, and
spoke a bit sheepishly. "Now I really am talking too much. It's a
bad habit I have."
"I hadn't noticed." He took a sip of tea, and
smiled. "You're certainly not boring."
She waved a hand in the air and spoke with mock
exasperation. "And you've done it to me again. Now you even know
how old I am! An old hag!"
He leaned back to survey her appreciatively. "'Old
hag' is not what comes to my mind when I look at you."
She laughed. "At least I still have all my
teeth."
He smiled at how gently she had deflected his mild
flirtation, and found himself wondering how he might retrieve his offhand
remark. He couldn’t tell much about her body, wrapped so thickly in
rawhide and furs. But the more he watched her unusual, animated face, the
more he found it strangely beautiful.
"Ah!" she exclaimed "The clouds are thinning
over the mountains! I thought this would last through the night, but it
may let up, after all." As if in answer, the rain began to abate
until it was barely a drizzle. Over the northern hills, the clouds broke
apart, revealing blue sky.
"Perhaps the spirits were afraid of the
idugan's wrath, should they not provide fair skies for Qaidu and
Kaaje," grinned Shan Yu.
She met his eyes, seeming to appreciate that his
mild teasing was helping to lighten the mood cast by her story.
"It’s well past midday," she said.
"I hope the Khagan will be merciful and not insist that we return to
the corrals. And I hope my furs are wrapped tightly enough so that it's
only from sneaking up on me that you know I need a bath before the
wedding."
Shan Yu laughed loudly. "Even the Khagan
would not usurp the Idugan’ authority in such a matter,"
he said with exaggerated courtliness. "And to honor Sukhe's family, I
will have my men prepare themselves in like fashion. They think I’m
trying to turn them Chinese, anyway."
A loud commotion sounded behind them and all at
once a small group of young men wearing nothing but their breeches and
boots came sliding through the slick mud in front of the hall. They were
clotted tightly together, each grappling madly for a small object in their
midst. Tianlin and Shan Yu stood up and turned to watch.
"You and your men will have a bit of company
at the hotsprings," she said. As she spoke, two dozen more men, all
stripped as far as decency would allow and half of them equipped with red
cloth bands tied around their waists, came yelling and skidding through
the mire to vie for the leather trophy slipping through their
comrades’ sloppy fingers.
A loud splashing told them that something enormous
was charging through the mud towards the grappling teams. And then, to
Shan Yu’s chagrin, the huge forms of Gaitan and Batu sailed into the
fray, dwarfing the bodies of the men who would shortly become their
soldier trainees.
"Oh, now there’s a good way to
establish mature authority," he sighed, folding his arms across his
chest. "They must know I’m going to make them take a
bath."
Batu emerged from the writhing mob, clutching the
sodden ball. With a victorious howl, he tramped over the men still
rolling in the muck, dropped the ball and began kicking it towards the
makeshift goal the young villagers had set up at the western end of the
hall. The roars of the combatants were deafening as they twisted around,
staggered to their feet, and charged after Batu.
Tianlin and Shan Yu walked around to the front of
the hall and leaned along the railing to watch with the rest of the
villagers, who were shrieking their support of either the red-sashes or
the bare-waisted team. Within a few minutes, Shirchin had joined in,
shirtless and wearing a red sash. His fierce, wild-eyed grin told Shan Yu
that he had joined the game mainly to compete with the twins. At the
moment, Shan Yu was glad not to be out in the mud with Shirchin on the
verge of slipping into his notorious battle trance. He wasn’t in the
mood for broken bones.
"Let them have their fun for now," he murmured.
"They'll have to be soldiers again soon enough."
Tianlin smiled as she watched the men’s rough
play. "Sometimes it's not much fun being the one who gives the orders, is
it? I just spent the last three months making sure none of my thirty
young male and female porters got into trouble in Chien K'ang or came home
pregnant. I think by the end of the trip some of my charges were trying
to find ways to poison my tea."
"Well it’s a good thing that Batu and
Gaitan weren’t along on your trip, or all thirty of them would have
come home pregnant."
Tianlin threw back her head and laughed, her face
alight. "Are they that bad?"
"It took some time to tame them and teach them
self-control," said Shan Yu. "Gaitan’s the worst. When he first
started travelling with us we didn’t spend a night with a host clan
that didn’t see us the next day being pursued by some irate husband
or father. It took me months to train him to curb his appetites--or at
least to be sure his trysts wouldn't land us in a clan war."
"Ah, the constant struggle you must
endure," Tianlin sighed, rolling her eyes slightly. "The famous
Khovsgol warriors must have to watch where they step for fear of treading
on all the lovely young women falling at their feet."
Looking out at his mud-swathed comrades, Shan Yu
took a swallow of tea. "Yes, they are splendid, aren’t they?
Well, it’s true that there’s not such a shortage that
they’d have reason to take anything that’s not freely offered.
I don’t allow it, anyway." He pointedly left himself out of the
telling.
"The Khagan is far too wise to risk losing
allies over something so trivial." There was no trace of irony in
her voice.
He looked down at her, watched her, and wondered
how a woman raised in China had learned to speak so freely and on such
equal terms with a man. He supposed it came with her status as Sukhe's
High Shaman, but he had never met an idugan who spoke so freely
with the men. Her apparent ease in his presence both pleased him and
piqued his curiosity.
The mud-caked players came splattering past them
again, this time with Shirchin holding the ball and the others in hot
pursuit while the red-sashed team bobbed around him to block their
opponents’ attempts to strip the ball away. Gaitan, churning across
the mud at his top speed, was almost upon them. He made a wild dive,
knocking two much smaller men aside as he grabbed Shirchin around the
waist. The force of the collision sent nearly the entire group sliding
into the mud on their bellies, and the wet ball squirted out of
Shirchin’s grip.
Ulaan ambled up behind them and stood by the
railing next to Tianlin. He greeted her with a smile and a nod.
"So why aren’t you out there,
Ulaan?" Tianlin teased.
"Me? No, thanks. Personally, I prefer
physical pursuits that require a bit more finesse and hand
coordination."
Shan Yu cast Ulaan a cautioning glance over her
head. The Archer quickly pantomimed with his long, skillful fingers, the
motion of drawing an arrow taut across an imaginary bow.
"Ah! Of course!" she said.
"The man is good with his hands," said Shan Yu.
"You no doubt know his reputation as an archer. But there is not finer
bowyer in our land. And when our clan is fortunate enough to find him in
the mood, Ulaan plays us to sleep on his morin khuur."
Delighted, Tianlin turned to the Archer. "There
will be music and dancing tonight," she said. "Not like anything you've
ever heard. Perhaps you'll share your own talents with us tonight,
Ulaan?"
Ulaan crossed his arms. "We’ll see."
"We won't ask you to play alone," said Tianlin.
"Unless you wish to."
Ulaan smiled serenely, never taking his eyes from
the game. "Playing with others who share similar interests and
talents is always preferable to playing solo." He glanced up at Shan
Yu, who was raising his eyes to the ceiling. Quickly, he changed the
subject. "I suppose we’ll all be paddling around in the
hotsprings for the transgressions of our brothers, eh, Shan?" he
sighed, waving a hand at the herd of muddy players thundering past
them.
Tianlin leaned back from the railing. "Well,
Noyon, as much as I’d like to stay and watch your giants
squash the life out of our young men, it's time for me to go back to the
canyon to finish preparing for this evening’s ceremony." She looked
up at Shan Yu. "I very much enjoyed our conversation, Shan Yu
Khagan," she said.
"Then we shall continue it tonight," said Shan Yu,
once again speaking in Mandarin and assuming a polite courtliness, never
doubting that she would accept.
"The Khagan's pleasure is my own," she said with a
smile and turned to go. He watched her intently as she sent one young
woman at the railing off on an errand, then walked down the line, tapping
several others on the back and gesturing for them to follow her.
Shan Yu felt Ulaan’s eyes on him, turned to
meet his archer’s knowing gaze, then glanced out over the plains as
he took another draught of tea.
"Don’t say it," he said into his
mug. "Or I’ll throw you into the game."
Ulaan’s entire face creased in a broad grin as
he raised his hands in the air to assure Shan Yu that he was speechless,
then leaned back against the railing to watch the players.
After half an hour of wild sport, the red-sashed
team was declared victorious, and the muddy combatants came tramping over
to the hall porch . Baaja waved them away, commanding them to keep the
mud on the ground and out of the carefully prepared hall where her son and
his bride-to-be were to be feted in only a few hours. Comrades and
families brought the players water and gathered clothing and supplies as
small bands of villagers mounted up and started making their way back to
Urga.
Shan Yu and Ulaan collected their mates’
shirts and met them out on the slippery playing field that was already
being covered with straw by a busy team of workers.
"I don’t think I need to tell you where
we’re headed," said Shan Yu.
"At least this time there’s a good
reason!" grinned the victorious Shirchin.
"Where’s Las?" asked Batu, absently
rubbing a newly acquired bruise on his elbow. As if on cue, the Tracker
emerged from the Great Hall with a little girl perched in the crook of his
arm. Following at his elbow was the pretty young mother whose daughter had
offered Shan Yu his breakfast that morning.
The Warlord watched for a moment, silently
pleased. "Las can take care of himself. Let's go."