Bones of the Hills (8 page)

As Kokchu sank back to his place, musicians cracked out rhythms across the camp, as if released. The thump of sticks blurred and wailing notes mingled and turned around each other, calling back and forth across the flames. Men and women pounded out songs and poems in the firelight, dancing until sweat spattered off them. Those who had come in with Jelme were pleased to honor the Great Khan.

The fire’s heat was strong on Jochi’s face, licking out from a heart of orange embers and strange paths to the core. As he sat, Jochi stared at his father’s generals and met Kachiun’s eyes for an instant before sliding away. Even in that brief contact, there had been some communication. Jochi did not look back, knowing that Kachiun would be watching him with sharp interest. The eyes showed the soul and they were always hardest to mask.

When Chagatai rode in, it was to the yelling accompaniment of his
jagun of warriors. Jelme was pleased to see the waxy look to Chagatai’s skin had vanished with a bit of fast riding. Genghis’s second son looked vital and strong as he jumped down over the horse’s shoulder.

Genghis rose to greet him and the warriors shouted in appreciation as the father took his son’s arm and pounded him on the back.

“You have grown tall, boy,” Genghis said. His eyes were glassy from drink and his face was mottled and puffy. Chagatai bowed deeply to his father, the model of a perfect son.

Chagatai maintained a cool manner as he gripped hands and clapped shoulders with his father’s men. To Jochi’s slow-burning irritation, his brother walked well, his back straight and white teeth flashing as he laughed and smiled. At fifteen, his skin was barely scarred beyond the wrists and forearms and unmarked by disease. Genghis looked upon him with visible pride. When Jochi saw Chagatai welcomed to a seat close to Genghis, he was glad that the great fire hid his flush of anger. Chagatai had glanced at Jochi for an instant of cold recognition. He had not bothered to find words for his older brother, even after three years. Jochi’s face remained calm, but it was astonishing how anger sprang in him from just that glance. For a few heartbeats, he wanted nothing more than to stride through the drunken fools and strike Chagatai to the ground. He could feel his own strength swell in his shoulders as he imagined the blow. Yet he had learned patience with Tsubodai. As Genghis filled Chagatai’s cup, Jochi sat and dreamed of murder, smiling with all the rest.

AS DAWN CAME
, Tsubodai’s poet was in the middle of telling the tale of the Badger’s Mouth, where Arslan had fought the largest army ever seen by any of the people. With Genghis and the generals watching, the poet was more honest than usual as he told Arslan’s exploits. They had all done well in that mountain pass before Yenking. Each man recalled those bloody days with pride and awe mingling with the wine in their blood. No one else would ever understand what it had meant to stand together there against the Chin empire—and see it humbled. The Badger’s Mouth had been the womb that shoved them out into a new world, stronger and more dangerous. They had gone east and Yenking had burned.

The rising sun brought sight of thousands of riders streaming across the land from the camp by the Orkhon River, many with women and children on the saddles. Genghis was the khan and could ride where he wished, but they all wanted to hear the stories of Arslan. As the morning sun rose in the sky, poems and tales were declaimed from a hundred throats, over and over until the poets and shamans were hoarse.

Even Genghis had not realized so many would want to hear of the early days, but his people sat rapt for the performances, including those who were drinking heavily and stuffing their faces with greasy mutton and goat meat. He heard again how Arslan had rescued him from a pit,
and he blinked in painful memory at names he had not recalled for years. Arslan had been the first man to take oath to him, to promise horses, gers, salt, and blood. That, when Genghis had nothing but his mother and sister, a few wild brothers, and starvation as his companions. It had been an immense act of trust, and Genghis found himself reminded and moved once more by the changes Arslan had wrought and witnessed. That was the purpose of the truth-telling of a man’s life, that all those who heard would remember what he had meant to them and what he had accomplished as he flung the years.

The recitals broke off for the storytellers to rest their throats in preparation for the evening performances. By then it was clear that the entire Mongol nation would drift into that place.

It was not where Genghis had intended to honor his first general. The river was too far away, the grazing was sparse, and the ground itself was rocky and dry. Yet it was that lack of permanence that made him grunt in satisfaction as he peed into the earth. His people should not become used to comfort, he told himself blearily. Their hard lives kept them stronger than those who lived in cities.

As Genghis tucked himself away, his thoughts were interrupted by shouts and cheers nearby. Warriors seemed to be clustering around one spot like a swarm of bees. As Genghis blinked, he saw Chagatai climb a cart to address them. Genghis frowned as another sound stilled the crowd, a yowling, coughing roar that made the hairs on his neck bristle. Genghis dropped his hand to his sword hilt as he strode through his people, letting them fall back before him rather than touch the khan and lose a hand or a head.

His generals had gathered around an iron cage on the cart, but Genghis did not look at them, nor at Chagatai, who stood like a proud owner. The animal behind the bars was larger than any great cat he had ever seen. Genghis could only shake his head in amazement, closing one eye against the ache from his broken tooth and a throbbing headache. To numb the pain, he gestured for more airag and scored his throat with a line of it. Even then, his eyes did not leave the beast that prowled back and forth, showing its curved white teeth in a display of anger. He had heard of the orange-and-black-striped tiger, but to see its jaws and hear the thump of its tail as it padded back and forth in the cage set his own heart beating quickly. There was a challenge in its yellow eyes that raked the awed crowd.

“Is it not a gift for a khan?” Chagatai said. Genghis merely glanced at him, but Chagatai lost some of his cockiness in that warning. The crowd around them had fallen silent as they waited for the khan’s reaction. Jelme was visibly uncomfortable and Genghis nodded to him in appreciation.

“I have never seen such an animal, General. How did you capture him?”

“The tiger is a gift to you, lord, from the king of Koryo. It was raised from a cub, but they cannot be tamed. I am told it will run down even a man on a horse and kill both the mount and the rider.”

Genghis stood very close to the bars, staring into the tiger’s eyes. As they met his, the animal moved without warning, its weight rocking the cage as it hit the bars. Genghis was too drunk to dodge and felt a tearing impact on his arm as a paw lunged at him. He looked in dim surprise at the blood on his torn sleeve. A single claw had caught him and gashed his flesh deeply.

“So fast…,” he said in wonder. “I have seen slower snakes. And at such a size! I can believe the tale of it killing a man and his horse. Those jaws could break a skull.” He swayed slightly as he spoke, but no one there mentioned the wound in case it shamed the khan.

“In Koryo, there are warriors who hunt the tigers,” Chagatai said more humbly, “though they work in groups and use bows, spears, and nets.” Chagatai’s gaze fell on Jochi as he spoke, and his expression became thoughtful. His older brother was as fascinated by the beast as Genghis himself and stood too close to the bars.

“Be careful, Jochi,” Chagatai warned him loudly. “He will strike you too.”

Jochi glared. He wanted to contradict him, but he could not boast of his speed while his father stood and bled.

“Have you hunted one of these tigers, in Koryon land?” Jochi asked.

Chagatai shrugged. “They are not common around the king’s palaces.” Under Jochi’s flat stare, he could not help going on. “I would have taken part, if one had been found.”

“Perhaps,” Jochi said, frowning. “Though I doubt Jelme would have risked the life of a young boy against such a monster.”

Chagatai’s whole face flushed as some of the men chuckled. Moments before, he had been the master of the crowd. Somehow, his father and Jochi had stolen his moment from him, so that he had to defend his pride. At fifteen years old, he had only spite, and he lashed out without a thought at the only one he dared challenge.

“You think you could face a tiger, Jochi? I would wager a fortune to see that.”

Jelme opened his mouth, but Jochi’s anger leapt and he spoke rashly.

“Name your terms, brother,” he said. “I will consider teaching your cat a little respect. He has shed my father’s blood, after all.”

“This is drunken foolishness,” Jelme snapped.

“No, let him try,” Chagatai replied as fast. “I will wager a hundred cartloads of my share of the Koryon tribute. Ivory, metal, gold, and lumber.” He waved a hand as if it mattered nothing. “If you kill the tiger, it will be yours.”

“And you will kneel to me, in front of all the tribes,” Jochi said. Anger consumed him, making him reckless. His eyes glittered as he stared up at Chagatai, but the younger man still sneered.

“For that, you will have to do more than kill a tiger, brother. For that you will have to be khan. Perhaps not even that will be enough.”

Jochi’s hand dropped to his sword hilt and he would have drawn if Jelme had not laid a hand on his wrist.

“Will you fight like children in front of the camp? On the night my father is honored? The tiger is a king’s gift to the khan. No one else may decide what is to be done with him.” His eyes were furious and Chagatai dipped his gaze, instantly meek. During his training, he had endured harsh punishments and scathing lectures from the general. The habit of obedience ran deep.

Genghis spoke at last, having watched the entire exchange.

“I accept the gift,” he said. His yellow eyes seemed the same color as those of the big cat yowling at their backs. Jochi and Chagatai bowed their heads low rather than have the khan’s temper erupt. When he was drunk, Genghis was likely to knock a man down for staring.

“We could pack a circle with armed warriors,” Genghis said thoughtfully, “pointing swords and lances to the center. One man could face the beast then, if he wanted.”

“These animals are more dangerous than anything else I have seen,” Jelme said, his voice strained. “With women and children all around…” He was caught between the need to obey his khan and the madness of what Genghis seemed to be considering.

“Move the women and children back, General,” Genghis replied with a shrug.

Jelme’s training was too ingrained to argue and he bowed his head to the inevitable. Chagatai did not dare look at him.

“Very well, lord. I could have my men tie heavy planks together all the way around. We could use the catapults to form the structure.”

Genghis nodded, not caring how the problems were solved. He turned to Jochi as the young man stood stunned at where his bickering and pride had led. Even Chagatai seemed awed, but Genghis was making all the decisions and they could only look on.

“Kill this beast and perhaps your brother will bend a knee to you,” Genghis said softly. “The tribes will be watching, boy. Will they see a khan in you?”

“Or a corpse, or both,” Jochi said without hesitation. He could not back down, not with his father and Chagatai waiting for it. He looked up at the tiger in its cage and knew it would kill him, but somehow he could not care. He had ridden with death before, in Tsubodai’s charges. At seventeen, he could gamble with his life and think nothing of it. He took a deep breath and shrugged.

“I am ready,” Jochi said.

“Then form the circle, and place the cage within it,” Genghis said.

As Jelme began to send his men for wood and ropes, Jochi beckoned to Chagatai. Still stunned, the younger brother leapt lightly down, rocking the cart and bringing a snarl from the tiger that scraped along the nerves.

“I will need a good sword if I am to face that animal,” Jochi said. “Yours.”

Chagatai narrowed his eyes, fighting to hide his triumph. Jochi could not survive against a tiger. He knew the Koryons would not hunt one without at least eight men, and those well trained. He was staring into the eyes of a dead man, and he could not believe his luck. On a sudden impulse, he unstrapped the sword Genghis had given him three years before. He felt the loss as its weight left him, but still his heart was full.

“I will have it back when that beast has torn your head off,” he murmured. No one else could hear.

“Perhaps,” Jochi said. He could not resist a glance at the animal in the cage.

Chagatai saw the look and chuckled aloud. “It is only fitting, Jochi. I could never have accepted a rape-born bastard as khan.” He walked away, leaving Jochi staring at his back in rage.

As the sun set, the circle took shape on the plains grass. Under Jelme’s watchful eye, it was a solid construction of oak and beech brought
from Koryo, bound with heavy ropes and buttressed at all points by catapult platforms. Forty paces across, there was no entrance and no escape from the ring. Jochi would have to climb over the barricades and open the cage himself.

As Jelme ordered torches lit all round the circle, the entire nation pressed as close as they could. At first it looked as if only those who could climb the walls would have a view, but Genghis wanted the people to see, so Jelme had used carts as platforms in an outer ring, raising men on pyramids of pine ladders, nailed roughly together. They swarmed over the towers like ants and more than one drunken fool fell onto the heads of those below, packed so tightly that the ground was hidden from sight.

Genghis and his generals had the best places on the ring, and the khan had led them in drinking themselves almost blind as the third day wore on. Arslan had been toasted and honored, but by then, the whole camp knew a khan’s son would fight a foreign beast and they were excited at the closeness of death. Temuge had come with the last of the carts from the camp by the Orkhon River. He took most of the bets from the warriors, though only on the length of the fight to come. No one gambled on Jochi to win against the striped horror that lashed its tail and padded back and forth, staring out at them.