Genghis: Birth of an Empire (25 page)

“He’s hiding,” Tolui said clearly, frighteningly close. Both men must have doubled back as soon as they lost sight of him.

Temujin’s chest cramped and he pressed his hand into his sticky mouth to bite down against the pain. He concentrated on an image of his father in the ger and saw again the life that slipped out of him.

“We know you can hear us, Temujin,” Tolui called, panting. He too had suffered over the miles, but the bondsmen were as hard and fit as a man could be and they were recovering quickly.

Temujin lay with his cheek pressed against ancient leaves, smelling the musty richness of old rot that had never seen the light of day. He knew he could escape them in the dark, but that would not be for many hours and he could not think of any other way to improve his chances. He hated the men who were searching for him, hated them with a heat he thought they would surely sense.

“Where is your brother, Bekter?” Tolui called again. “You and he are the only ones we want; do you understand?”

In a different tone, Temujin heard Tolui murmur under his breath to Basan. “He will have gone to ground somewhere around here. Search it all and call out if you see him.”

The hard voice had regained some of its confidence, and Temujin prayed to the sky father to strike the man down, to burn him, or tear him apart with a bolt of lightning as he had once seen a tree destroyed. The sky father remained silent, if he heard him at all, but the rage kindled in Temujin’s breast again with visions of bloody vengeance.

Temujin’s searing breath had eased a fraction, but his heart still pounded and he could barely keep himself from moving or panting aloud. He heard footsteps nearby, crunching through the thorns and leaves. There was a patch of light through to the outside and Temujin fixed his gaze on it, watching shadows move. To his horror, he saw a booted foot cross the light and then it was blotted out completely as a face peered in, the eyes widening as they saw him looking back, his teeth bared like a wild dog. For a long, long moment, he and Basan stared at each other, then the bondsman vanished.

“I can’t see him,” Basan called, moving away.

Temujin felt tears gather, and over the roar of blood in his ears, he could suddenly feel all the aches and wounds his poor battered body had taken in the chase. He remembered Basan had been loyal to Yesugei and the relief was shattering.

He heard Tolui’s voice calling in the distance, and for a long time, he was alone with just the whisper of his breath. The sun sank toward distant hills unseen and darkness came early deep in the hill of briars. Temujin could hear the two men calling to each other, but the sounds seemed far away. Eventually, exhaustion stole his awareness in a sudden blow and he slept.

* * *

H
e woke to see a flicker of yellow flame moving across his field of vision. He could not at first understand what it was, or why he lay cramped and curled in brambles so dense he could barely move. It was frightening to be wedged in darkness and thorns, and he did not know how to get out without worming back the way he had come.

Through the gloom, he watched the torch burn trails on his vision, and once he saw Tolui’s face in its golden light. The bondsman still searched for him and now he looked grim and tired. No doubt the two men were hungry and stiff, just as Temujin was himself.

“I will tear the skin off you if you don’t show yourself,” Tolui shouted suddenly. “If you make me search all night, I’ll beat you bloody.”

Temujin closed his eyes and tried to stretch his muscles whenever the flame moved away. Tolui would not see the brambles quiver in the darkness, and Temujin began to prepare himself to run again. He eased his legs from where they were pressed against his chest, almost groaning with relief. Everything was cold and cramped and he thought his aches had woken him rather than Tolui’s shouting.

He used his hands to rub knots of muscle in his thighs, loosening them. His first rush had to be fast to carry him away from them. All he needed was a little start and the darkness would hide him from their sight. He knew the family would have made it to the cleft in the hills, and if he pushed himself, he thought he could reach them before dawn. Tolui and Basan would never be able to track him over the dry grassland, and they would have to go back for more men. Temujin vowed silently that they would never catch him again. He would take his family far away from Eeluk’s Wolves and start another life where they would be safe.

He was ready to move when the light from the torch fell across his patch of ground and he froze. He could see Tolui’s face and the bondsman seemed to be looking straight at him. Temujin did not move, even when Eeluk’s bondsman began pulling at the edges of the briars. The light from the torch cast shifting shadows and Temujin’s heart pounded in fear once again. He dared not turn to look, though he heard the flame crackle in the thorns around his legs. Tolui must have pushed the torch deep into the patch to cast light on his suspicions.

Temujin felt a hand scrabble at his ankle and, though he burst into life and kicked at it, the grip was like iron. He reached for the knife in his belt and yanked it free as he was dragged along the ground, coming out into the open with a cry of fear and anger.

Tolui had thrown down the torch to grasp him, and Temujin could barely see the man who grabbed hold of his deel and raised a fist. One huge hand crushed the wrist holding his knife and Temujin writhed helplessly. He hardly saw the blow coming before he was knocked into a darker world.

* * *

W
hen he woke again, it was to the sight of a fire and the two men warming themselves around it. They had lashed him to a birch sapling, cold and chill at his back. There was blood on his mouth and Temujin licked at it, using his tongue to ease his lips apart from the gummy muck. His arms were high behind his back and he barely troubled to test the knots. No bondsman of the Wolves would have left a loose cord he could have reached with his fingers. In a few heartbeats, Temujin knew he could not escape and he watched Tolui through dull eyes, yearning for the bondsman’s death with all the ferocity of his imagination. If there had been any god to listen, Tolui would have gone up in flames.

He did not know what to make of Basan. The man sat to one side, his face turned toward the fire. They had brought no food with them and it was clear that they preferred to spend a night in the woods rather than drag him back to their ponies in the dark. Temujin felt a trickle of blood going down his throat, and he gave a choking cough, causing both men to look round.

Tolui’s bullish features lit up with pleasure at seeing him awake. He rose immediately, while behind him, Basan shook his head and looked away.

“I told you I would find you,” Tolui said cheerfully.

Temujin looked at the young man he remembered as a boy with arms and legs too large for him. He spat a fleck of blood on the ground and saw Tolui’s face darken. A knife appeared from nowhere in the bondsman’s fist, and Temujin saw Basan rise from the fire behind him.

“My khan wants you alive,” Tolui said, “but I can put out an eye, perhaps, in return for the chase? What do you think of that? Or cut your tongue in two like a snake?” He made a gesture as if to grab at Temujin’s jaw and then laughed, enjoying himself.

“It’s strange to think of the days when your father was khan, isn’t it?” Tolui went on, waving the knife close to Temujin’s eyes. “I used to watch you and Bekter when you were young, to see if there was something special about you, some part of you that made you better than me.” He smiled and shook his head.

“I was very young. You can’t see what makes one man a khan and another one a slave. It’s in here.” He tapped himself in his chest, his eyes gleaming.

Temujin raised his eyebrows, sick of the man’s posturing. Tolui’s odor of rancid mutton fat was strong, and as Temujin breathed its sourness, he had a vision of an eagle beating its wings into his face. He felt detached and suddenly there was no fear.

“Not in there, Tolui, not in you,” he said slowly, raising his gaze to stare back at the massive man who threatened him. “You are just a stupid yak, fit for lifting logs.”

Tolui brought his hand across Temujin’s face in a sharp blow that knocked his head to one side. The second was worse and he saw blood on the palm. He had seen hatred and vicious triumph in Tolui’s eyes, and he did not know if he would stop, until Basan spoke at Tolui’s shoulder, surprising him with his closeness.

“Let him be,” Basan said softly. “There’s no honor in beating a tied man.”

Tolui snorted, shrugging. “Then he must answer my questions,” he snapped, turning to face his companion. Basan did not speak again and Temujin’s heart sank. There would be no more help from him.

“Where is Bekter?” Tolui demanded. “I owe that one a real beating.” His eyes seemed distant as he mentioned Bekter’s name, and Temujin wondered what had gone on between them.

“He is dead,” he said. “Kachiun and I killed him.”

“Truly?” It was Basan who spoke, forgetting Tolui for a moment. Temujin played on the tension between them by replying directly to Basan.

“It was a hard winter and he stole food, Basan. I made a khan’s choice.”

Basan might have responded, but Tolui stepped closer, resting his huge hands on Temujin’s shoulders.

“But how do I know you are telling me the truth, little man? He could be creeping up on us even now, and where would we be then?”

Temujin knew it was hopeless. All he could do was try and ready himself for the beating. He set himself in the cold face.

“Be careful in your life, Tolui. I want you fit and strong for when I come for you.”

Tolui gaped at this, unsure whether to laugh or lash out. In the end, he chose to thump a blow into Temujin’s gut and then hammered at him, chuckling at his own strength and the damage he could do.

T
OLUI HAD BEATEN HIM again when he found the ponies gone. The young bondsman had been almost comically furious at the sheer nerve of Temujin’s brothers, and one unwary smile from his captive had been enough for him to take out his anger in a fit of frustration. Basan had intervened, but the exhaustion and blows had taken their toll and Temujin lost hours of the dawn as he drifted in and out of consciousness.

The day was warm and gentle as Tolui burned the gers Temujin and his brothers had built. Ropes of black smoke reached up to the sky behind them, and Temujin had glanced back just once to fix it in his mind, to remember one more thing to repay. He stumbled behind his captors as they began their long walk, jerked on with a rope around his wrists.

At first, Tolui told Basan that they would take new ponies from the wanderers they had come across before. Yet when they reached that place after a hard day, there was nothing waiting for them but a scorched circle of black grass to mark where the ger had once been. Temujin hid his smile that time, but he knew old Horghuz would have spread the word among the wanderer families and taken his own far away from these hard warriors of the Wolves. They may not have been a tribe, but trade and loneliness bound together those who were weak. Temujin knew word of the return of the Wolves would spread fast and far. Eeluk’s decision to come back to the lands around the red hill was like dropping a stone in a pool. All the tribes for a hundred days’ ride would hear and wonder if the Wolves would be a threat or an ally. Those like old Horghuz who scraped by without the protection of the great families would be even more wary of the ripples and new order. Small dogs slunk away when Wolves roamed.

For the first time, Temujin saw the world from the other side. He might have hated the tribes for the way they strode on the plains, but instead, he dreamed that his tread would one day send other men running. He was his father’s son and it was hard to see himself as one of the tribeless wanderers. Wherever Temujin was, the rightful line of Wolves continued in him. To give that up would have been to dishonor his father and their own struggle for survival. Through all of it, Temujin had known one simple truth. One day, he would be khan.

With nothing more than a little river water to ease his thirst and no hope of rescue, he could almost chuckle at the idea. First he had to escape the fate Tolui and Eeluk intended for him. He daydreamed as he trotted on his length of rope. He had considered coming forward and dropping a loop around Tolui’s throat, but the powerful young man was always aware of him, and even if the right moment came, Temujin doubted he had the strength to crush the bondsman’s massive neck.

Tolui was uncharacteristically silent on the march. It had occurred to him that he was returning with only one of the khan’s children and not even the eldest, that the valuable ponies had been stolen, and that Unegen lay dead behind him. If it had not been for their single captive, the raid would have been a complete disaster. Tolui watched the prisoner constantly, worried he would somehow vanish and leave him with nothing but his shame to bring back. When night came, Tolui found himself jerking from restless sleep to check the ropes at regular intervals. Whenever he did, he found Temujin awake and watching him with hidden amusement. He too had considered their return and was pleased that his younger brothers had at least denied Tolui the chance to strut new honors in front of Eeluk. To come in on foot would be a great humiliation for the proud bondsman, and if he hadn’t been so battered and miserable, Temujin might have enjoyed Tolui’s sullen withdrawal.

Without supplies from the saddle pouches, they were all growing weak. On the second day, Basan stayed to guard Temujin while Tolui took his bow and headed up to a tree line on a high ridge. It was the chance for which Temujin had been waiting, and Basan saw his eagerness before he could even open his mouth.

“I will not let you go, Temujin, no. You cannot ask me,” he said.

Temujin’s chest deflated as if the hope had been let out of him with his breath. “You did not tell him where I was hiding,” Temujin muttered.

Basan flushed and looked away. “I should have done. I gave you one chance, out of honor for your father’s memory, and Tolui found you anyway. If it hadn’t been dark, he might have realized what I had done.”