Bones of the Hills (35 page)

“I will meet you after prayers, in this place,” he said, turning to go. Like a desert snake striking, the Mongol leader caught his arm, holding him even as he growled at the Bedouin.

“You do not understand,” Yusuf said to Tsubodai. “He
must
leave to attend the prayers. Old as he is, he will fight us if we try to hold him here. Let him go, General. He cannot escape.” Yusuf pointed deliberately back to where Abbud’s guard sat on the trapdoor over his goods. The gesture was not wasted on the jeweler, though he felt a pang of anger that his foolish guard was not even facing them. The man could look for other work, he swore to himself. To have hands laid on him in an open street was bad enough, but to see the fool dreaming away his evening made the insult almost unbearable. Almost. The gold in his hand gave him that word a thousand times over.

With a sharp tug, Abbud shook his arm free, his heart hammering. He was tempted to hand back the gold and walk away with dignity, but in truth Khuday was a small town and he carried the profits of five years or more in one bag. He could even consider retiring and passing the business on to his son. Truly, God was good.

“My friend will not let you leave with the gold,” Yusuf said, his face flushed. “He does not understand the insult to your honor, master. I will be here, if you have the information we need.”

With great reluctance, Abbud passed back the bag, wishing he could count the coins first. He would know if they had lightened it by the time he returned, he told himself.

“Do not speak to anyone else,” Abbud said firmly. “I am the man you need.”

He caught the ghost of a smile on the young man’s face as he bowed a third time and Abbud passed between the twitchy warriors with their hands on their sword hilts.

As the jeweler left, Yusuf chuckled.

“They are here,” he said to Tsubodai. “I was right, was I not? This is the only town for forty miles and they have gone to ground.”

Tsubodai nodded. He did not like having to depend on Yusuf, but the language was still a confusion of sound to him, more like the song of birds than real speech.

“We will not have to pay this man if we find them ourselves,” he said. The streets had cleared around them and the market that had
bustled all day had somehow disappeared. The ululating call from the mosque had ended to be replaced by a dim and muffled chant.

“You Arabs would not kill good horses, I think,” Tsubodai said. “They will be somewhere close by in stables. While they pray, we will search. How many good mounts can there be in this dirty little town? Find the horses and we find the Shah.”

JELAUDIN COULD NOT SLEEP
as he lay in darkness, his mind tormenting him with bright images. It was hard not to give in to melancholy as he scratched fresh flea bites and pulled a thin blanket tighter around his shoulders for warmth. At least in the dark, none of his brothers were looking to him to tell them what to do, and his father’s once-piercing gaze could not find him. He retired as early as he could each night, seeking sleep as a release and willing each day away into nothingness. Yet sleep evaded him and his mind worked as if it were a separate thing, alive and twitching in his head. When he closed his eyes, he was tormented with visions of revelry in his father’s palaces, lit by a thousand candles and lamps. He had danced until dawn many times and never once thought of the cost of tallow or oil. Now their single candle needed to be eked out as much as food or charcoal. Running a household was a revelation to him, even one as poor and meager as the rooms in Khuday.

When Jelaudin opened his eyes in frustration, he could see moonlight through the cracks in the roof. The air was thick with the stench from a slop bucket. He had put it outside on his first night in Khuday, but it had been stolen in the morning and they had been forced to buy another. He had learned to pay a boy to carry it to a public pit outside the town, but of course his brothers had forgotten.
Everything cost money in Khuday. Life was more complicated than he had realized, and at times, he wondered how poor merchants could afford to live.

Jelaudin jerked upright as a noise sounded and the small door shuddered in its frame. Someone was knocking and his heart thumped painfully in his chest as he reached for his sword.

“Jelaudin?” one of his brothers called fearfully.

“Be ready,” he whispered back, pulling on his clothes in the dark. The leggings stank of old sweat, but the water bucket was as empty as the other was full, without even enough to splash his face. The knocking sounded again and he took a deep breath as he drew his sword. He did not want to die in the dark, but if the Mongols had found them, he knew better than to expect mercy.

Jelaudin yanked open the door with his sword ready, his bare chest heaving. The moon was bright enough to see a small boy standing there, and relief flooded through the young prince.

“Why do you disturb our sleep?” he demanded.

“My master Abbud sent me while he went to the mosque for evening prayers, master. He said to tell you the Mongols know where you are staying. You must leave Khuday.”

The boy turned to go, his message delivered. Jelaudin reached out and grabbed him, making him yelp in fear. The life of a boy in Khuday was even more precarious than their own, and the little one squirmed in his grasp.

“They are coming here?” Jelaudin snapped. “Now?”

“Yes, master,” the boy replied, his fingers jerking at Jelaudin’s hand. “Please, I must run back.”

Jelaudin released the boy to stagger away. He faced the moonlit street for a moment, seeing enemies in every shadow. He gave a swift prayer of thanks for the old jeweler’s kindness, then turned inside, pulling the door shut as if it could hold back his fears.

His three brothers were dressed and ready, once more looking to him for leadership. Jelaudin grimaced at them.

“Light the candle and get our father into his clothes. Run to the stables, Tamar, and take our horses.”

“Do you have coins, brother?” Tamar replied. “The stable owner will want payment.”

Jelaudin felt as if a noose were tightening around his neck. He opened a pouch and handed a small ruby to his brother, leaving only five as the total of their worldly wealth.

“Give him this and tell him we are devout followers of the prophet. Tell him there will be no honor for any man who aids our enemies.”

His younger brother darted out onto the dark street, and Jelaudin began to help the others with his father. Shah Ala-ud-Din groaned as he was moved, and his wheezing became louder in the gloom. Jelaudin winced at the sick heat coming off the old man’s skin, but there was no help for it. His father murmured meaningless words, but none of them stopped to listen.

Once his father was dressed and the candle lit, two of his sons supported him and Jelaudin cast a last look around the infested little place that had been home for a time. As mean as it was, it had given them sanctuary. The thought of returning to their hunted lives wrenched at them all, but Jelaudin could not ignore the warning. The jeweler had done him this one favor and he would not waste it.

He cast his eye over the small brazier, but the doctor had left it in trust and Jelaudin would not steal for the first time in his life. Though he took the papers of bitter herbs, he left that behind. He had been consumed with the need to get out and hardly dared think of his father’s illness. It was wrong that an old man should be forced to run again. Jelaudin’s hopes withered in him as he stood there, replaced by a desperate rage. If he was granted just one chance to revenge himself on the Mongol khan, he would take it if it meant his own life. He prayed to be given that chance.

Jelaudin closed the door as he left with his father and brothers. He did not want thieves to steal the doctor’s brazier, though if anyone wanted the slop bucket, they could have it, contents and all.

The streets were not empty so early in the night. Jelaudin could see many men returning from the evening prayers to their families, looking forward to warmth and food. Only he and his brothers had tried to banish another night with sleep. The stables were some way away, a decision meant to protect them when he had made it. Their father stumbled as he walked between them, and Jelaudin did not know if the old man even understood what was going on. When he heard a slurred question from his father’s lips, Jelaudin shushed him softly.

“The men you seek are in there,” Abbud said. Tsubodai snapped orders and the warriors moved instantly, kicking open the door and vanishing inside.

Abbud waited, sweating, listening to strange noises. The warriors
came back almost as quickly and he did not miss the looks of anger they turned on him. The young Bedouin took Abbud by the arm, his grip almost painful.

“Old man, this is not a night for games, do you understand? I have searched stables for half a night waiting for you. Now you have led me to an empty house. It will be hard for me to stop them killing you.”

Abbud winced, but he did not try to pull away.

“They were here! It is my brother-in-law’s house and he talked of them in the markets. Four young men and an old one who was very sick. That is all I know, I swear it.”

In the moonlight, the Bedouin’s eyes were covered in shadow, making him frightening. He let Abbud’s arm fall, then exchanged a flurry of words with Tsubodai that Abbud could not understand.

The one Abbud had marked as leader stared at the old jeweler for a long moment of silence. Then he gave new orders. Abbud could only stand and watch as the warriors kicked in other doors and the night was broken with screams. A struggle started in a house nearby and Abbud cried out in shock as one of the warriors drew his sword and killed a young man with a thrust to his heart, stepping over him to search his home.

“There is no need for this!” Abbud shouted. “They are not here!”

The Bedouin turned to him and to Abbud’s astonishment seemed to be smiling.

“I cannot stop them now, old man. They will search every house in the street, perhaps the whole town. Then they will burn Khuday down around you.”

It was too much for the jeweler.

“There are stables nearby. If they have gone anywhere, it is there.”

“Take me there, old man,” the Bedouin said. “If you are right, perhaps Khuday will not be destroyed.”

Jelaudin brought his horse to a clump of straggly bushes on the crest of a hill. The air was sweet with the scent of lemon leaves, and his heart was heavy as he looked back at the town that had sheltered them. On his right hand, the North Star shone in the heavens, the air clear and bright.

To the east, far away, he could see the fires of the Mongol camp as a dim glow. To the west, the Caspian Sea waited, a final barrier to his fleeing family. He knew he could not ride along its banks for a hundred
miles with the Mongols searching for them. They would be caught as easily as running hares. He felt the east as a hunger, desperate to return and seek out the cities he had known as a boy.

The night was still and his father’s tortured breath hurt him to hear. Jelaudin and his brothers had tied the old man to his saddle and led his horse out of the town, heading across scrub wasteland and avoiding the eastern road.

If the Mongols had been certain they were in Khuday, they would have surrounded the city. As it was, the sons of the Shah had walked their horses away from the town and not seen a living soul. Yet escaping such a place was a small thing. If they could not turn east, the sea would trap them as surely as any net. As his father’s wheezing intensified, Jelaudin was overwhelmed for an instant. He was too tired to run again, too tired even to mount.

His brother Tamar heard the sound of his weeping and laid a hand on his shoulder.

“We must go, Jelaudin,” he said. “There is always hope while we live.”

Jelaudin nodded despite himself, rubbing at his eyes. He swung a leg into his saddle and took the reins of his father’s horse. As they moved away into the darkness, he heard Tamar gasp and looked back at Khuday.

The town gleamed in the night. At first, Jelaudin could not understand the strange light that flickered over the huddled streets. He shook his head as the light spread and knew the Mongols were burning the town.

“They will glut themselves on that place until dawn,” another of his brothers said. Jelaudin heard a note of triumph in the younger man’s voice and wanted to strike him for his foolishness. He wondered if Abbud and his servant boy would survive the flames they had brought to Khuday, as if the brothers trailed pestilence and destruction in their wake.

There was nothing to do but ride on to the sea. Though he felt his own death like dark wings beating at him, Jelaudin kicked in his heels and made his horse trot down the slope beyond.

The brothers led their father’s horse for four more days before they saw riders following them. They could not hide their tracks on the dusty ground, and Jelaudin had known they would be followed, though he had still clung to thin hopes that the Mongols would miss them. He
had ridden to exhaustion through night and day until he could smell the salt of the sea ahead and hear the calls of gulls. For a time, the clean air had revived them all, and then he had seen dark figures in the distance, a mass of warriors on their trail, riding them down.

Jelaudin looked at his father’s waxy face. There had been no time to stop and make a fire for the bitter herbs, and the old man’s condition had worsened. More than once, Jelaudin had pressed his ear to his father’s lips, listening to see if he still breathed. He could not leave him to be torn apart by these hunting dogs of the khan, but his father slowed them all.

For a moment, Jelaudin wanted to roar out his hatred and terror at the distant lines of those hunting him. He hardly had the strength even for that, and he shook his head wearily, looking up as he and his brothers passed over a sandy dune and saw the shimmering blue vastness of the sea ahead. Darkness was coming and they would have one more night before the Mongols found and killed them. Jelaudin looked along the shore and saw just a few huts and fishing boats. There was nowhere to hide and nowhere they could run any longer.