The Tiger-Headed Horseman (32 page)

Using the signalling banners, Chinggis orchestrated his troops. He knew if he could choose the time and place of engagement he could best configure his attacks to suit his army. If he kept a tight rein over proceedings, he could relocate and reassign troops to the areas where most damage could be done and save them from futile or potentially costly skirmishes. Before the divisions split off into their pre-designated positions, Chinggis gathered his key generals close to him. Once when Chinggis had led his hordes into Italy he had met a fearsome
warrior with an amazing life story and now, remembering his friend, he knew exactly what to say:

‘Three weeks from now, I will be harvesting my loins. Imagine where you will be, and it will be so. Hold the time! Stay with me! If you find yourself alone, riding in the vast Steppe with the cold sun on your face, do not be troubled. For you are in the spirit world, and you're already dead!’

The generals raised their bows in the air, and their action rippled throughout the entire army. Ten thousand armoured arms held aloft their weapon of choice. The battle was upon them.

In the centre of Baatarulaan things were less ordered. Tengis lay in wait. The central square was overflowing with Leggy and hired thugs – more than twelve thousand of them. Tengis would see his victory marked in the city square that Chinggis had first built. It would be a fitting end to the one man whose reputation remained above his own. He had constructed a platform in the middle of the square from where he would watch the proceedings. The prospect thrilled him. He hoped his enemy would put up a better show than their previous encounter. After all he had cleared his diary especially for the whole day.

Khad whispered constantly in his ear, stirring up Tengis's mounting fury. Almost all of Tengis's remaining Ongolian troops took up ranks as foot soldiers and wielded large curved sabres. The remainder formed a cavalry which remained hidden out of sight in adjacent side streets. The Outsiders were to be used as archers. Tengis had worked with Oldortar to devise a wide variety of arrows for them, many with special purposes including some that could pierce armour, others that could stun foes and others still, dipped in poison.

‘Why do they not simply give up?’ asked Tengis.

‘Because they are Mongols,’ replied the voice in his head.
‘Two bears in one cave will not end up well. So you must destroy Chinggis once and for all.’

‘That's the plan,’ said Tengis.

Tsara soared overhead unseen by Tengis. She swooped back to Chinggis now and then to tell him what Tengis and his troops were doing, where they were stationed and what routes looked most advantageous. As Baatar and Sukh led the cavalry down the main road leading to the square, Tsara kept a close watch on what Tengis's reaction would be. He did nothing but wait. Chinggis had insisted on trying to draw some of the troops out of the square. They had told him that this tactic had failed on the Steppe but he was adamant he would try again. As the cavalry neared the square, Tsara noticed that Tengis's cavalry had moved position to side streets leading towards where her allies were headed.
Blong!
The sound ripped through Tsara and she struggled not to plummet from the sky. She had forgotten the sound of terror that had tormented her last moment in the real world.
Blong!
Fighting against her fears, she raced back to Chinggis to tell him about the trap. Just in time.

A banner was waved and Chinggis's cavalry stopped just short of the ambush. Another banner waved and the Ninja Nomads slunk off their horses, climbed the sides of the adjacent buildings and set off across the rooftops leading to Tengis's cavalry. Beneath their black face masks they wore broad smiles. They simply loved killing people. Danyal had taken a crash course in their particular brand of warfare and Drudger watched as his friend sprang from perilous window sill to dizzying ledge with the nimblest of ease. Danyal had learned all about the strange implements with which the Ninja Nomads fought. Strapped to his belt were throwing stars, poisoned darts and knives for hand-to-hand combat. In his pockets were secreted a number of compounds of varying use. Some caused smoke, others blindness, while others caused small explosions. Strapped to his
back was a light double-edged sabre. As he sprang from building to building, he felt like the cat who'd got the cream.

The Ninja Nomads readily arrived upon the buildings surrounding Tengis's hidden cavalry. Half of them dropped invisibly into their midst. Throwing exploding compound all around, the Ninja Nomads publicised their arrival. They sowed chaos in the middle of the enemy and ran away. The cavalry horses were so startled their masters could not control them and they chased after the men in black. Tsara relayed this to Chinggis, who ordered his own cavalry to charge towards the square, retreat and draw the enemy away from the square into the road.

As Tengis's army chased down the men in black, the Ninja Nomads turned, stood their ground and ruthlessly cut through the horsemen using their throwing weapons. By the time the last horse arrived, its rider could see that every horseman ahead of him had been executed. A gentle swishing of metal flying through the air announced his own imminent demise. The men in black sprang away from the scene of the crime and returned to Chinggis.

Baatar's charge worked. A number of Tengis foot soldiers could not resist chasing after the fleeing horsemen. As they ran after them, they walked straight into the path of the remaining Ninja Nomads who had stealthily positioned themselves to cause maximum carnage. From their positions on either side of the road and using blowpipes and knives, they slaughtered at will.

By the time Baatar's horsemen had returned to Chinggis both Ninja Nomad groups had wiped out over a thousand men. The streets ran red with the blood of Tengis's men. The psychological terror that spread through the square could not be controlled. Tengis's troops screamed like infants. In contrast, Chinggis remained silent. He had not lost a single soldier,
although two of the Ninja Nomads had sprained an ankle as they tried to do a combined triple somersault with double twist and spangly fleckles.

Blong!
Tsara sped into the sky to see what Tengis was planning. She saw his foot soldiers forming ranks facing towards Chinggis. Those who refused to stop screaming were slain where they stood by their officers. Over three hundred men lost their lives on this account.
Blong!
Behind the lines of foot soldiers Tsara could see the Outsiders lining up ready to fire. In their midst they wheeled a dozen carts. She swooped lower to investigate and was almost sliced in half by an over-exuberant foot soldier. The carts each held an enormous crossbow. The bolts she saw being loaded into them were the length of two horses. Horrified, she shot back to her lover. Chinggis hastily ordered a banner to be waved and his entire army split into the streets that ran off the spine of the main road. When Tengis ordered the Outsiders to fire, the bolts flew past Chinggis and came to rest at the city limits. The volleys of specially crafted arrows snapped and bent as they hit the pebbled road. He couldn't allow himself a moment to relax but Chinggis was pleased with the way things were going so far.
Blong!
Once more Tsara flew into the sky to investigate.

Tengis began to move his foot soldiers down the road towards Chinggis's troops. Their movement was aided by regular volleys from the Outsider archers who covered their progress. Chinggis ordered Baatar to lead the cavalry to circle the square. Sukh was told to position himself behind the square ready to rush upon his great- (times ten) grandfather's command. The Ninja Nomads were ordered to move between his cavalry and the advancing foot soldiers, and carry out opportunistic hit-and-run operations.

As the main body of Tengis's men approached, the banner signalling attack was raised. Chinggis's archers acted as one and
sent a vast cloud of arrows soaring through the smog. The advancing foot soldiers began to fall. None of them wore any armour. Khad had advised Tengis that it was a better use of the budget to pay for more Outsiders than to protect their own men. He argued that they had such numerical supremacy that such protection would be a moot point. As the clouds burst upon his foot soldiers, Tengis watched in horror as Khad was proved irrefutably wrong. Tengis was about to chastise the voice in his head when he heard the Outsiders starting to shout and run about wildly. From behind his elevated position he watched as Sukh and his horsemen bore a hole straight into the heart of the square. Simultaneously, Baatar attacked from both sides, squeezing the Outsiders closer towards Tengis and his Council and separating them from the foot soldiers they were supposed to be protecting. Ninja Nomads assaulted the foot soldiers from all around as soon as their own and their enemy's arrows stopped raining on to Tengis's parade.

Chinggis called Tsara to report back. She flew into the sky above the bloodshed and watched in dismay as more and more people fell. They may have been enemies but she knew that most of them had been coerced by fear. Those who had joined of their own free will were only there for the shimmering substance; they didn't have any real loyalty towards Tengis or Khad. Other than those in power she had never heard of anyone who did.

‘They have lost over one-third of their troops,’ said Tsara. ‘It is horrific; it's worse than the Steppe. Tengis has as good as sacrificed his men, so poorly trained and protected are they. Please show mercy.’

‘We shall see,’ said Chinggis.

He ordered banners to be waved, ordering an immediate halt to their attack, if only momentarily. Chinggis rode forward accompanied by his private guard. As he neared the foot
soldiers that had previously been advancing up the road towards him, they parted to allow him to pass. Many fell to the floor, fearful of the legendary emperor. When Chinggis arrived at the square, he could see the wooden plinth on which Tengis and his close friends stood. Around its perimeter stood the Outsiders fanning out thirty men deep. An eerie silence pervaded Baatarulaan. As Chinggis rode into the square, he noted that the Outsiders held captured soldiers or even their own foot soldiers as a barrier around the front of them. Chinggis had never witnessed a human shield before and it sickened him;
kharash
had only ever been a dreadful legend but here Tengis had made horror reality.

‘I wish to speak to your leader,’ shouted Chinggis. All around him there was hush.

Those closer to the plinth looked up at Tengis, who remained still. Even the voice in his head was afraid to speak. If ever Tengis needed Khad's help, it was now but with everything going wrong Khad had seemingly decided to remain hidden within Tengis's cranium.

‘Tengis. Khad. I know you can hear me. Come forward. If you are man enough, let us decide this as men; otherwise, I will kill your family and then I will kill your friends until there is no one left alive you know and then I will slowly rip your rotting heart from your chest.

‘To you, fine soldiers of fortune, I am aware that your leader has promised you wealth. If you will willingly put down your weapons, I will show clemency. I will let those that live here return home. I will let those who are from outside this country return home. That is the wealth I offer you. It is better than anything your leader may have promised. Do you really think he is a man of his word? Do you trust that he would fulfil his promise to you? He is a despotic maniac, nothing more. If you wish to keep fighting, I will personally make sure that each of
you gets to see your spleen as it is torn from your cadaver and fed to the dogs. Your call.’

With that Chinggis turned and began to ride back to his troops.

All around the city the clatter of falling sabres, spears, arrows, bows and knives resounded. The Ongolian soldiers fell prostrate upon the ground as one. The Outsiders turned to one another, sought approval and subsequently dropped their weapons. Only Oldortar remained defiant and aimed an arrow at Chinggis's back. From above Tengis's leader of the Leggy was rent asunder. Tengis turned just in time to see a falcon speed downwards and straight through the helmet of his general. The lifeless corpse of Oldortar slid to the floor, still clutching his bow. Tengis watched as the bird flew across the square, its face bloodied by the life of his comrade, and settled on the shoulder of his nemesis.

‘Chinggis!’ cried Tengis. ‘Who are you that you control the hearts of men? Who are you that you can hold power over the wild beasts of our country?’

‘I am merely a man,’ said Chinggis, ‘but I am a man all the same. I am a man who cannot sleep while his people suffer; who cannot rest while his nation hurts; who will not stop until justice prevails. That is who I am.’

With that Tengis fell to his knees and sobbed. Opportunist Outsiders ran up the steps to the plinth and arrested their former leader and his Council. Across the square an old woman let out a sigh of relief as she looked out from a window up on high. She was happy to at least see her son alive. Chinggis turned to look into Tengis's eyes. Once satisfied that Tengis had indeed surrendered, he turned and rode back to his men. Operation Falling Star was a success.

32

Although gaining victory had helped Chinggis feel like he had once felt long ago, his feelings for Tsara were stronger. So long as he remained in the real world he could not be with her. He could be with a falcon that spoke like her but it wasn't the same.

‘Why did you write that riddle?’ asked Tsara. ‘It really confused Lily.’

‘You mean it confused you!’ said Chinggis. ‘Have you worked it out yet?’

‘I think so,’ replied Tsara. ‘The tiger was Tengis?’

‘That was obvious,’ replied Chinggis.

‘His bell was terrible,’ said Tsara. ‘It brought about Lily's death but also starved Tengis of power because of his blind belief in its power. The cats were the fattened, lazy rich of Baatarulaan who willingly pledged allegiance to whoever wielded the most power at a given moment while making sure they never once endangered themselves.’

‘Indeed,’ said Chinggis, ‘what about Heaven and Earth?’