Ogedai could not stand on his own and his father's strong arms placed him back on the bank to dry in the sun. Genghis strode out with water streaming from his flesh, feeling life return to his limbs with a rush of energy. Jochi and Chagatai came to stand with him, gasping as their hands and feet came back to life. They sensed their father was still watching them and each boy understood and tried to control his body once again. Their hands shook beyond any control, but they stood straight in the sunlight and watched him, not trusting their shuddering jaws for speech.

"Did it kill you?" Genghis asked them. Yesugei had asked the same thing and Khasar had said, "Almost," making the big man laugh. His own sons said nothing and he saw that he did not have the friendship with them that he had enjoyed with Yesugei. He would spend more time with them, he vowed. The Xi Xia princess was like a fire in his blood, but he would try to ignore the call more often while the boys grew.

"Your body does not rule you," he said, as much for himself as for them. "It is a stupid beast that knows nothing of the works of men. It is merely the cart that carries you. You control it with will and with breath through your nose, when it calls for you to pant like a dog. When you take an arrow in battle and the pain is overwhelming, you will press it away and, before you fall, you will return death to your enemies." He glanced up the hillside, at memories of days so innocent and far away that he could hardly bear to recall them.

"Now fill your mouths with water and run to the top of this hill and back. When you return, you will spit the water to show you breathed properly. Whoever is first will eat. The others will go hungry."

It was not a fair test. Jochi was older, and at such an age, even a year made a difference. Genghis showed no sign of his awareness as he saw the boys exchange glances, weighing the odds. Bekter too had been older, but Genghis had left his brother gasping on the hill. He hoped Chagatai would do the same.

Chagatai broke for the water without warning, charging in with a great spray and dipping his face to the surface to suck up a mouthful. Ogedai was only a little behind. Genghis remembered how the water had become warm and thick in his mouth. He could taste it with the memories.

Jochi had not moved and Genghis turned to the boy questioningly.

"Why are you not following?" he asked.

Jochi shrugged. "I can beat them," he said. "I know it already."

Genghis stared at him, seeing defiance he could not understand. None of Yesugei's sons had refused the task. The boy Genghis had been had relished the chance to humiliate Bekter. He could not understand Jochi and he felt his temper flare. His other sons were already struggling up the hill, growing smaller in the distance.

"You are afraid," Genghis murmured, though he was guessing.

"I am not," Jochi replied without heat, reaching for his clothes. "Will you love me more if I beat them?" For the first time, his voice shuddered with strong emotion. "I do not think you will."

Genghis looked at the little boy in astonishment. Not one of Yesugei's sons would have dared to speak to him in such a way. How would his father have responded? He winced at the memories of Yesugei's hands clipping him. His father would not have allowed it. For an instant, he considered knocking sense into the boy, but then he saw that Jochi expected it and had tensed himself for the blow. The impulse died before it was born.

"You would make me proud," Genghis said to him.

Jochi shook, but it was not from the cold. "Then today, I will run," he said. His father watched without understanding as Jochi took a mouthful of the river and set off, running fast and sure over the broken ground after his brothers.

When it was quiet again, Genghis walked little Tolui back to where Borte sat by the ponies. She was stony-faced and did not meet his eyes.

"I will spend more time with them," he told her, still trying to comprehend what had happened with Jochi. She looked up at him and for an instant her face softened as she saw his confusion.

"He wants nothing more in the world than to be accepted by you as your own," she said.

Genghis snorted. "I do accept him. When have I not?"

Borte rose to her feet to face him. "When have you taken him in your arms? When have you told him how proud you are of him? Do you think he has not heard the whispers of the other boys? When have you silenced the foolish ones with some display of affection?"

"I did not want to make him soft," he said, troubled. He had not known it had been so obvious, and for a moment, he saw how hard a life he had forced on Jochi. He shook his head to clear it. His own life had been harder and he could not force himself to love the boy. As every year passed, he saw less and less of himself in those dark eyes.

His thoughts were interrupted by Borte's laugh. It was not a pleasant sound.

"The bitterest thing of all is that he is so obviously your son, more than any of the others. Yet you cannot see it. He has the will to stand up to his own father and you are blind." She spat into the grass. "If Chagatai had done the same, you would be grinning and telling me the boy had his grandfather's courage."

"Enough," he said quietly, sick of her voice and her criticism. The day had been spoiled for him, a mockery of the joy and triumph he remembered when he had come to that place with his own father and brothers.

Borte glared at his angry expression. "If he beats Chagatai down the hill, how will you react?" she said.

He cursed, his mood as sour as old milk. He had not considered that Jochi might still win, and he knew that if he did, he would not embrace the boy with Borte watching. His thoughts swirled without release and he did not know how he would react at all.

Temuge listened to Khasar's grunting with a furious expression. His brother had earned a great deal of goodwill among the crew with his response to the attack. In the days after those terrifying moments in the dark, Chen Yi regularly included the Mongol warrior in the camaraderie of the boat. Khasar had learned many phrases in their language and shared their rations of hard spirit and balls of rice and shrimp in the evening. Ho Sa too seemed to have warmed to the boat master, but Temuge remained resolutely apart. It did not surprise him to see Khasar acting like an animal with the others, hanging his backside over the side and defecating into the river in broad daylight. He had no understanding and Temuge wished Khasar would realize that he was nothing more than a bowman sent to protect his younger brother. Genghis, at least, knew how valuable Temuge could be to him.

On the night before they left for the river, Genghis had summoned Temuge and asked him to remember every detail of the walls of Baotou, every part of the defenses. If they failed to return with the masons who had constructed the city, that knowledge might be all they had to begin a summer campaign. Genghis trusted Temuge's memory and the keen intelligence that Khasar evidently lacked. Temuge had recalled the urgency in frustration when they passed a boat with two female crew and Khasar waved silver coins at them, inviting them over.

There was no privacy in the boat and Temuge could only stare at the water rather than watch as two young women stripped off and swam across like otters, gleaming and shivering as they came on board. Chen Yi had thrown out an anchor in the deep water so the women could swim back when the crew were finished with them.

Temuge closed his eyes at the squealing sounds that came from the second of the two women. She was small breasted and lithe, attractive in her youth, though she had not looked in his direction as she accepted Khasar's coin. The sounds she made were only interrupted when Khasar's plunging efforts knocked her hand open and the coin rolled away, causing laughter from the watching crew as she pushed him off and scrambled for it on her hands and knees. Temuge observed from the corner of his eye as Khasar took advantage of the opportunity, and the girl's giggling made him swear under his breath. What would Genghis think of this delay to their planning? They had been given a task without equal in importance for the tribes. Genghis had made that clear. Without knowing how to enter the walled cities of the Chin, the Imperial soldiers would never be broken. It made Temuge furious while he waited for Khasar to finish for a second time. The day was being wasted and he knew that if he said anything, his brother would scorn him in front of the crew. Temuge burned with silent humiliation. He had not forgotten why they were there, even if Khasar had.