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rode with me alone. He enjoyed my company and he trusted me. I told him about the lands and people
ofEurope, of the great kings that were yet to be and of the glories of the ancient empires. He was
especially interested inRome, and disappointed when I spoke of the corruption and decay of its empire.
"We would not have High Khans such as Tiberius or Caligula they can only exist when the Orkhons
are spineless. That is not the way Mongols are."
Agla did not trust the High Khan's friendship. "You are playing with fire. Sooner or later the Dark One
will put a spell on Ogotai, or he will get drunk and pick a quarrel with you."
"He's not that kind of man," I said.
She fixed me with those luminous gray eyes of hers, as endlessly deep as an infinite ocean. "He is the
High Khan, a man who has the power to slaughter whole cities and nations. Your life or mine does not
matter to such a man."
I started to tell her that she was wrong, but heard myself say, rather weakly, "I don't think so.
Agla remained unconvinced.
The summer wore on with me still stranded on dead center, not knowing what to do or what Ahriman
was planning. Messengers galloped in from the west, breathless with the news of Subotai's victory over
Bela on the plain of Mohi. Weeks later, long caravans of camels and mules arrived, heaped high with
armor and weapons and jewelry, Subotai's spoils fromHungaryandPoland.
I never saw Ahriman. It was as if we operated in two different time-frames, two separate dimensions.
He was there inKarakorum,. I knew. He knew I was there as well. We both saw Ogotai almost
daily or nightly. Yet, either by the High Khan's adroit planning or Ahriman's, we never met face to face
in all those many weeks.
The wind sweeping down from the north began to have an edge to it. The grass was still green, but soon
the storms of autumn would begin, and then the winter snows. In the old days the Mongols would move
their camp southward and collide with other tribes who claimed the same pasture lands along the edge of
theGobi. Now, withKarakorumbecoming more of a fixed city every day, the High Khan prepared to stay
the winter and defy the winds and storms that were to come.
The Mongols organized a hunt each autumn, and Ye Liu Chutsai summoned me to his tent to tell me that
the High Khan requested my company on the hunt.
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The mandarin's tent was a tiny slice ofChinatransported to the Mongolian steppes. Solid, heavy furniture
of teak and ebony, chests inlaid with ivory and gold, an air of quiet and harmony unlike the boisterous,
almost boyish energy of the Mongols. It was the tent in which I had asked him for my first meeting with
Ogotai. I had not realized then that Liu lived in it. Now I could sense the philosopher's stoicism all about
me: Ye Liu Chutsai slept here, probably on that cherrywood bench covered with silks, but this tent was
really a home for the books and parchment scrolls and stargazing instruments of the mandarin more
precious and rare than the body of an aging Chinese administrator.
"The High Khan has shown a great fondness for you," Liu said, after sitting me down at his cluttered
desk and offering me tea.
"I have a great fondness for him," I admitted. "He is a strangely gentle man to be the emperor of the
world."
Liu sipped from his miniature teacup before replying, "He rules wisely by allowing his generals to
expand the empire while he maintains the law of the Yassa within it."
"With your help," I said.
"Behind every great ruler stand wise administrators. The way to determine if a ruler is great or not is to
observe whom he has selected to serve him."
Cardinal Richelieu came to my mind.
"Yet, despite your friendship," Liu went on, speaking slowly, carefully, "the one called Ahriman is also
close to the High Khan."
"The High Khan has many friends."
The mandarin placed his cup delicately on the lacquered tray next to the still-steaming teapot. "I would
not say that Ahriman is his friend. Rather, the man seems to have become something of a physician to the
High Khan."
That startled me. "Physician? Is the High Khan ill?"
"Only in his heart," said Liu. "He wearies of his life of idleness and luxury. Yet the alternative is to lead an
army into the field and conquer new lands."
"He won't do that," I said, remembering how Ogotai had told me he was sick of bloodshed.
"I agree. He cannot. Hulagu, Subotai, Kubilai they lead the armies. Ogotai's task is to remain in
Karakorumand be the High Khan. If he began to gather an army together, what would the Orkhons
think? There are no lands for him to conquer except those already being put to the sword by the
Orkhons."
I began to understand. Ogotai literally had no worlds left to conquer.Europe,China, theMiddle Eastwere
all being attacked already. He would start a civil war among the Mongols if he went marching in any
direction.
But then I thought ofIndia.
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"What about the land to the south of the great mountains, the Roof of the World?"
"Hindustan?" Ye Liu Chutsai came as close to scoffing as his cool self-restraint would allow. "It is a land
teeming with diseased beggars and incredibly rich maharajahs. The heat there kills men and horses. The
Mongols will not go there."
Liu was wrong. I seemed to remember that the Mongols eventually did conquerIndia, or at least a part
of it. They were called Moghuls by the natives, a name that became so associated with power and
splendor that in the twentieth century it was cynically pinned onHollywoodexecutives.
The mandarin brought me out of my reverie by saying, "Fortunately, it is the season for the hunt. Perhaps
that will cure the ache in the High Khan's soul, and he will have no need of Ahriman's sleeping draughts
for a while."
CHAPTER 19
A hunt by the Mongols was little less than a military campaign directed against animals instead of men.
The Mongols had never heard of sportsmanship or ecology. When they went out to hunt, it was to
provide food for the clan over the bitterly cold and long winter. They organized with enormous
thoroughness and efficiency.
Young officers scouted out territories of hundreds of square miles and brought reports back to the ordu
so that the elders could select the best location for the hunt. Once the place was selected, the Mongols
got onto their ponies and rode out in military formation. They formed an immense circle, perhaps as much
as a hundred miles in circumference. Every animal within that circle was to be killed. Without exception.
Without pity.
The hunt took more than a week. No actual killing was allowed until the High Khan gave the signal, and
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