Conqueror: The Complete 5-Book Collection

Yesugei cursed inwardly. The boy was as prickly as a thorn bush.

‘You were lucky not to fall, boy, even with Kachiun helping you.’

Temujin narrowed his eyes. His father had seemed too drunk to be listening to Chagatai’s songs. Had he spoken to Kachiun? Temujin was not sure how to react, so he said nothing.

Yesugei watched him closely, and after a time, he shook his head and thought of Hoelun. He would try again, for her sake, or he might never hear the end of it.

‘It was a fine climb, I heard. Kachiun said you were nearly torn off the rock by the eagle coming back to the nest.’

Temujin softened slightly, shrugging. He was absurdly pleased that his father had shown an interest, though his cold face hid it all.

‘He forced it down with a stone,’ he replied, giving measured praise with care. Kachiun was his favourite brother by far, but he had learned the good sense of hiding likes and dislikes from others, almost an instinct by the end of his twelfth year.

Yesugei had fallen silent again, but Temujin searched his thoughts for something to break the silence before it could settle and grow firm.

‘Did your father take you to the Olkhun’ut?’ he said.

Yesugei snorted, eyeing his son.

‘I suppose you are old enough now to hear. No, I found your mother with two of her brothers when I was out riding. I saw that she was beautiful and strong.’ He sighed, and smacked his lips, his eyes gazing into the past.

‘She rode the sweetest little mare, the colour of storm water at dawn. Her legs were bare and very brown.’

Temujin had not heard the story before and rode a little closer.

‘You raided her from the Olkhun’ut?’ he said. It should not have surprised him, he knew. His father enjoyed hunting and raiding and his eyes shone when he recalled his battles. If the season was warm and food was plentiful, he sent defeated warriors back to their families on foot, with red welts on their skin from the flats of swords. In the winter, when food was scarce, it was death to be caught. Life was too hard for kindness in the dark months.

‘I chased her brothers away like a couple of young goats,’ Yesugei said. ‘I was hardly old enough to be out on my own, but I waved my sword above my head and I yelled at them.’

Caught up in the memory, he put his head back and gave out a ululating whoop, ending in laughter.

‘You should have seen their faces. One of them tried to attack me, but I was the son of a khan, Temujin, not some little dog to be cowed and sent running. I put an arrow through his hip and ran him off.’

He sighed to himself.

‘Those were very good days. I thought I would never feel the cold in my bones, back then. I had an idea that I would be given nothing in my life, that everything I had would be taken by my wits and my strength.’ He looked at his son, and his expression contained a regret Temujin could only guess at. ‘There was a time, boy, when I would have climbed for the red bird myself.’

‘If I had known, I would have come back and told you,’ Temujin began, trying to understand this great bear of a man.

Yesugei shook his head, chuckling. ‘Not now! I am too heavy to be dancing around on tiny ledges and cracks. If I tried it now I think I would crash to earth like a falling star. What is the point in having sons if they cannot grow strong and test their courage? That is one truth I remember from my father, when he was sober. Courage cannot be left like bones in a bag. It must be brought out and shown the light again and again, growing stronger each time. If you think it will keep for the times you need it, you are wrong. It is like any other part of your strength. If you ignore it, the bag will be empty when you need it most. No, you were right to climb for the nest and I was right to give the red bird to Eeluk.’

There was no hiding the sudden stiffness that came into Temujin’s bearing. Yesugei made a purring sound in frustration, deep in his throat like a growl.

‘He is my first warrior, and deadly, boy, you should believe it. I would rather have Eeluk at my side than any five of the tribe – any ten of the Olkhun’ut. His children will not rule the families. His sword will never be as good as mine, do you understand? No, you are only twelve. What can you understand of what I say to you?’

‘You had to give him something,’ Temujin snapped. ‘Is that what you mean?’

‘No. It was not a debt. I honoured him with the red bird because he is my first warrior. Because he has been my friend since we were boys together and he has never complained that his family were beneath mine amongst the Wolves.’

Temujin opened his mouth to snap a reply. The red bird would be soiled by Eeluk’s dirty hands, with their thick yellow skin. The bird was too fine for the ugly bondsman. He did not speak, and instead he practised the discipline that gave him the cold face and showed the world nothing. It was his only real defence against his father’s searching gaze.

Yesugei saw through it, and snorted.

‘Boy, I was showing the cold face when you were the sky father’s dream,’ he said.

As they made camp that night by a winding stream, Temujin set about the chores that would help sustain them the following day. With the hilt of his knife, he broke chunks of hard cheese from a heavy block, passing the pieces into leather bags half filled with water. The wet mixture would sit under their saddles, churned and heated by the ponies’ skin. By noon, he and his father would have a warm drink of soft curds, bitter and refreshing.

Once that task was done, Temujin set about finding sheep droppings, pulling them apart in his fingers to see if they were dry enough to burn cleanly and well. He collected a pile of the best ones and drew a stick of flint across an old knife to light strands of them, building the sparks into a tongue of flame and then a fire. Yesugei cut pieces of dried mutton and some wild onions with sheep fat, the delicious smell making their mouths water. Hoelun had given them bread that would soon be hard, so they broke the flat loaves and soaked them in the stew.

They sat across from each other to eat, sucking the meat juices from their fingers between mouthfuls. Temujin saw his father’s gaze fall on the pack that contained the black airag and fetched it for him. He watched patiently as the khan took a deep swig.

‘Tell me about the Olkhun’ut,’ Temujin said.

His father’s mouth curled in an unconscious sneer.

‘They are not strong, though there are many of them, like ants. I sometimes think I could ride in there and kill all day before they brought me down.’

‘They don’t have warriors?’ Temujin said incredulously. His father was not above making up some outlandish story, but he seemed serious.

‘Not like Eeluk. You’ll see. They use the bow rather than the sword and they stand far off from their enemy, never coming close unless they have to. Shields would make a mockery of them, though they would kill the ponies easily enough. They are like wasps stinging, but if you ride in amongst them, they scatter like children. That is how I took your mother. I crept up, then I leapt on them.’

‘How will I learn to use a sword, then?’ Temujin demanded.

He had forgotten his father’s reaction to that tone and barely avoided the hand that came to smack a little humility into him. Yesugei went on as if nothing had happened.

‘You will have to practise on your own, boy. Bekter had to, I know that. He said they didn’t let him touch a bow or one of their knives from the first day to the day he left. Cowards, all of them. Still, their women are very fine.’

‘Why do they treat with you, with daughters for your sons?’ Temujin asked, wary of another blow. Yesugei was already arranging his deel for sleep, lying back on the sheep nibbled grass.

‘No father wants unwed daughters cluttering the ger. What would they do with them, if I did not come with a son every now and then? It is not so uncommon, especially when the tribes meet. They can strengthen their blood with the seed of other tribes.’

‘Does it strengthen us?’ Temujin asked.

His father snorted without opening his eyes.

‘The Wolves are already strong.’

CHAPTER FIVE

Yesugei’s sharp eyes spotted the Olkhun’ut scouts at exactly the moment they saw him. The deep notes of their horns carried back to the tribes, rousing the warriors to defend their herds and women.

‘You will not speak unless they speak to you,’ Yesugei warned his son. ‘Show them the cold face, no matter what happens. Understand?’

Temujin did not respond, though he swallowed nervously. The days and nights with his father had been a strange time for him. In all his life, he could not remember having Yesugei’s attention for so long, without his brothers crashing across the khan’s field of vision and distracting him. At first, Temujin had thought it would be a misery to be stuck together for the journey. They were not friends, and could not be, but there were moments when he caught a glint of something in his father’s eyes. In anyone else, it might have been pride.

In the far distance, Temujin saw dust rise from the dry ground as young warriors leapt onto their ponies, calling for weapons. Yesugei’s mouth became a thin, hard line and he sat tall in his saddle, his back straight and unbending. Temujin copied him as best he could, watching the dust cloud grow as dozens of warriors came swarming out towards the lonely pair.

‘Do not turn, Temujin,’ Yesugei snapped. ‘They are boys playing games, and you will shame me if you give honour to them.’