"One of you killed a boy of the Uriankhai. Let him speak and only one will die. If he does not, your lives are mine to take." He drew his father's sword slowly, letting them hear the sound. Outside the ring of lamps, he sensed the presence of a growing crowd, called from sleep by the prospect of seeing justice. He would not disappoint them. Genghis stood over the youngest of the brothers and raised the sword as if it weighed nothing.

"I can find him, my lord," Kokchu said softly from the edge of the darkness. The brothers looked up to see the shaman enter the dim light, his eyes terrible. "I have only to lay my hand on each head to know the one you seek."

The brothers were visibly trembling as Genghis nodded, sheathing his sword.

"Work your spells, shaman. The boy was torn apart. Find me who did it."

Kokchu bowed low and stood before the brothers. They did not dare look at him, though their frozen expressions were strained and quivering.

Genghis watched in fascination as Kokchu pressed his hand lightly to the first man's head and closed his eyes. The words of the shaman's tongue erupted forth from him in a liquid roll of sound. One of the brothers jerked away and almost fell before struggling upright.

As Kokchu lifted his hand, the first brother swayed, dazed and pale. The crowd outside the light had grown and hundreds murmured in the dark. Kokchu moved to the second man and took an indrawn breath, closing his eyes.

"The boy…" he said. "The boy saw…" He stood very still and the camp held their breath to watch him. At last Kokchu shook himself, as if shrugging off a heavy weight. "One of these men is a traitor, lord. I have seen it. I have seen his face. He killed the boy to stop him telling what he saw."

With one sharp step, Kokchu stepped to the fourth man in the line, the oldest of the brothers. His hand snapped out and his fingers writhed like bones in the man's black hair.

"I did not kill the boy!" the brother shouted, struggling.

"If you lie, the spirits will steal your soul," Kokchu hissed into the shocked silence. "Now lie again and show the lord khan the fate of traitors and murderers."

The warrior was slack-faced with terror as he cried out, "I did not kill the boy. I swear it!" Under Kokchu's heavy hand, he convulsed suddenly and the crowd shouted in fear. They watched in horror as the man's eyes rolled up in his head and his jaw flopped open brokenly. He fell to one side, breaking the awful grip as he jerked and spasmed, his bladder releasing a great rush of steaming urine onto the frozen grass.

Kokchu stood watching until the man was still, his eyes still showing white in the gleam from the lamps. The silence was immense, filling the camp. Only Genghis could break it and even he had to struggle to overcome the sense of awe and dread that gripped him.

"Cut the bonds of the other men," he said. "The boy's death has been answered." Kokchu bowed to him then and Genghis dismissed the crowd to their homes to wait fearfully for the sun to return.

GenghisLordsoftheBow

A LARM BELLS RANG ACROSS B AOTOU as they hurried through the night, following Lian. Even the dark was lifting in places, as householders woke and lit lamps from every gate. They ran through pools of light where the rain showed as gold flecks, then on into blackness.

The soldiers had not seen them leave, though it had been close. Lian clearly knew the area well and darted through tiny alleys behind the houses of the rich without hesitation. Most of the Imperial guards had turned out in the area of the gates, but they were working their way inwards to the center of the city, tightening their grip as they searched for the criminals who had killed their men.

Temuge panted weakly as he struggled on. They were heading along the wall, though at times, Lian turned away from it to avoid open courtyards and street crossings. Khasar loped at his side, watching for soldiers. After the fight, he was smiling whenever Temuge looked at him, though Temuge suspected it was the smile of an idiot who could not imagine the consequences of being caught. His own imagination was brutal enough for both of them, and he cringed as he ran, imagining hot irons on his flesh.

Lian halted near a quiet section of the wall. The antlike scurrying of soldiers had been left behind, but the warning bells had brought the people out to their doorways, peering fearfully at the running men.

Lian turned to them, breathing heavily.

"The wall is being repaired here. We can climb the ropes for the rubble baskets. You won't find another way out of Baotou tonight."

"Show me," Chen Yi said.

Lian glanced around him at the pale faces watching from every window in sight. He swallowed nervously and nodded, leading them to where they could lay their hands on the ancient stones of the city wall.

Ropes lay coiled in the darkness and they could see the bulbous shapes of the soft baskets used to carry rubble up to the crest, where it was dumped into the core of the wall. Three of the ropes were taut and Chen Yi gripped one of them with a pleased exclamation.

"You have done well, Lian. Are there no ladders?"

"They are locked away at night," Lian replied. "I could break the locks easily enough, but it would delay us."

"Then this will do. Take this one and show how it is done."

The mason dropped his roll of tools to the ground and began climbing, grunting with the effort. It was difficult to judge the height of the wall in the dark, but it seemed huge to Temuge as he stared upwards. He clenched his fists in the darkness, desperate not to be humiliated again in front of Khasar. He would climb it. The thought of being lifted like a sack of hammers was too awful to contemplate.

Ho Sa and Khasar went up together, though Khasar looked back at Temuge before starting to climb. No doubt he thought his weak brother would slip and fall on Chen Yi like divine retribution. Temuge stared furiously at him until Khasar grinned and climbed like a rat, making it look easy despite his wound.

"The rest of you will wait here," Chen Yi murmured to his men. "I will go up with these, then return to you once they are safely down. Someone will have to pull the lines back from the other side."

He handed a thick rope to Temuge and watched as the younger man began to ascend, pulling himself up the wall with shaking arms. Chen Yi shook his head in exasperation.

"Do not fall, fearful one," he said. A small man, Chen Yi ascended quickly, leaving Temuge climbing alone in the dark. His arms were burning and sweat poured into his eyes, but he forced himself to walk up the rough stone, hanging out over the men below. There was no light near the top and he almost let go in shock when strong hands grabbed him and dragged him onto the crest.

Temuge lay panting, ignored by the others and desperately relieved. His heart pounded wildly as they stood and looked back into the city. Below, the baskets of rubble had been cut free and they pulled the ropes up quickly, dropping them over the other side.

The wall was ten feet wide at the crest and the rope stretched over it. Lian swore under his breath as he saw the ropes would not reach right to the ground outside the city.

"We will have to jump the last part and hope no one breaks a leg," he said.

The last rope had to be pulled up. It bumped its way to the top with the bundle of Lian's tools, Khasar's bow, and three plain swords all wrapped together. Lian lowered it down the outside of the wall and paused, waiting for Chen Yi to give the order.

"Go now," Chen Yi said. "You will have to walk unless you can find a place to buy mules."

"I am not riding a mule," Khasar said immediately. "Are there no ponies worth stealing in this land?"