Jochi was breathing heavily, but he mastered himself to ask one more question.

"So there will be no end to it? Even when you are old and gray, you will still be looking for enemies to fight?"

"If there are any left," Genghis replied. "What I have begun cannot be given up. If we ever lose heart, if we ever falter, they will come for us in greater numbers than you can imagine." He struggled to find something to say that would raise the boy's spirits. "But by then, my sons will be old enough to ride to new lands and bring them under our rule. They will be kings. They will eat greasy food and wear jeweled swords and forget what they owe to me."

Khasar and Temuge had walked past the edge of the camp to stare up at the walls of Baotou. The sun was low on the horizon, but the day had been hot and both men were sweating in the thick air. They never sweated in the high mountains of home, where dirt fell as dust from their dry skin. In the Chin lands, their bodies became foul and flies tormented them constantly. Temuge in particular seemed pale and sickly and his stomach roiled as he remembered the last time he had seen the city. He had spent too many evenings in the smoke-filled ger of Kokchu, and some of the things he had seen distressed him still. As his throat tightened, he coughed. The action seemed to make it worse until he felt dizzy and ill.

Khasar watched him recover without a trace of sympathy.

"Your wind is broken, little brother. If you were a pony, I would cut you up to feed the tribes."

"You understand nothing, as always," Temuge replied weakly, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. The flush in his cheeks was draining away and his skin looked waxy in the sunlight.

"I understand you are killing yourself to kiss the feet of that filthy shaman," Khasar replied. "You are even beginning to smell like him, I've noticed."

Temuge might have ignored his brother's barb, but as he looked up, there was a wariness in Khasar's eyes that he had not seen before. He had sensed it in others who associated him with the great khan's shaman. It was not exactly fear, unless it was fear of the unknown. He had dismissed it before as the ignorance of fools, but seeing the same caution in Khasar was strangely pleasing.

"I have learned much from him, brother," he said. "At times, I have been frightened by the things I have seen."

"The tribes mutter many things about him, but nothing good," Khasar said softly. "I heard he takes the babies whose mothers don't want them. They are not seen again." He did not look at Temuge as he spoke, preferring to fix his gaze on the walls of Baotou. "They say he killed a man with just a touch."

Temuge straightened slowly from the cramp of his coughing. "I have learned to summon death in such a way," he lied. "Last night, while you were sleeping. It was agony and it is why I cough today, but the flesh will recover and I will still know."

Khasar looked sideways at his brother, trying to see if he was telling the truth. "I'm sure it was a trick of some kind," he said.

Temuge smiled at him and the fact that his gums were stained from the black paste made the expression terrible. "There is no need to be frightened of what I know, brother," Temuge said softly. "Knowledge is not dangerous. Only the man is dangerous."

Khasar snorted. "That's the sort of childish talk he teaches you, is it? You sound like that Buddhist monk, Yao Shu. There's one who doesn't stand in awe of Kokchu, at least. They're like spring rams on each other's territory whenever they meet."

"The monk is a fool," Temuge snapped. "He should not be teaching the children of Genghis. One of them may be khan one day and this 'Buddhism' will make them soft."

"Not with the monk teaching it," Khasar replied with a grin. "He can split boards with his hands, which is more than Kokchu can do. I like him, though he can hardly speak a word of proper speech."

" 'He can split boards,' " Temuge said, mocking his brother's voice. "Of course you would be impressed by such a thing. Does he keep dark spirits from entering the camp on moonless nights? No, he makes firewood."

Despite himself, Khasar found he was growing angry. There was something about this new assurance in Temuge that he disliked, though he could not have put it into words.

"I've never seen one of these Chin spirits Kokchu claims to banish. I do know I can use firewood." He chuckled scornfully as Temuge flushed, his own temper rising. "If I had to choose between them, I'd rather have a man who can fight the way he fights and I'll take my chances with the spirits of dead Chin peasants."

Furious, Temuge raised his arm to his brother, and to his astonishment, Khasar flinched. The man who would charge into a group of soldiers without a thought took a pace back from his younger brother and dropped his hand to his sword. For an instant, Temuge almost laughed. He wanted to make Khasar see the joke, and recall that they had once been friends, but then he felt coldness steal into him and he exulted in the fear he had seen.

"Do not mock the spirits, Khasar, nor the men who control them. You have not walked the paths when the moon has gone and seen what I have seen. I would have died many times if Kokchu had not been there to guide me back to the land."

Khasar knew his brother had seen him react to nothing more than an open palm, and his heart pounded in his chest. Part of him did not believe little Temuge could know anything that he did not, but there were mysteries, and at the feasts he had seen Kokchu push knives into his flesh without a drop of blood falling.

Khasar stared at his brother in frustration, before turning on his heel and striding back to the gers of his people, to the world he knew. Left alone, Temuge felt like howling in triumph.

As he faced Baotou, the city gates opened and warning horns sounded across the camp behind him. The warriors would be racing for their horses. Let them run, he thought, giddy with the victory over his brother. The sickness had passed and he strolled confidently toward the open gate. He wondered if Chen Yi would have archers on the walls, ready for treachery. It did not matter to him. He felt invulnerable and his feet were light on the stony ground.

GenghisLordsoftheBow

T HE CITY OF B AOTOU WAS SILENT as Chen Yi welcomed Genghis into his home. Ho Sa accompanied the khan and Chen Yi bowed deeply to him, acknowledging that promises had been kept.

"You are welcome in my home," Chen Yi said in the language of the tribes, bowing again as he came face to face with Genghis for the first time. Genghis towered over him, taller even than Khasar had been. The khan wore full armor and had a sword belted on his hip. Chen Yi could feel the inner force of him, as strong as anyone he had ever met. Genghis did not reply to the formal greeting, merely nodding as he strode into the open courtyard. Chen Yi had to move quickly to lead him into the main house, and in his hurry, he did not see Genghis glance at the immense roof and steel himself to enter. Ho Sa and Temuge had described it to him, but he was still curious to see how a wealthy man lived in the heart of a city.

Outside, the streets were empty even of beggars. Every house was barricaded against the tribesmen who wandered through the streets, peering through gates and looking for items worth taking. Genghis had given orders to leave the city intact, but no one thought the order could include stores of rice wine. Household images of gods were in particular demand. The tribesmen reasoned that they could not have enough protection in their own gers and collected any small statue that looked suitably potent.

An honor guard of warriors waited outside at the gate, but in truth Genghis could have walked alone anywhere in the city. The only possible danger came from men he could command with a word.