Conqueror. Conn Iggulden

Even Tsubodai snorted when Batu talked of the lands he had been given in Ogedai’s will. At a stroke of an ink brush, Ogedai had awarded him a vast fiefdom in Russia. Knowing Tsubodai was listening closely, Batu told Ariuna that part of it had once been his father’s, after leaving Genghis behind him. He had felt Tsubodai’s gaze on him then, knowing the old man’s memories would still be sharp. Batu had not looked up and, after a time, Tsubodai went back to his pots of boiling water, horn and glue.

      As the sun set, Tsubodai rose, stretching his back with a groan.

      ‘I have to check the animals,’ he said to his wife.

      Batu looked at his feet, and it was not until Ariuna said ‘Go after him, then!’ that he stood up with a grin and went out. Women were sometimes vital when it came to men talking.

      He found Tsubodai with the dog, which turned and bared its teeth at him until Tsubodai checked it with a word. Together, he and Batu tested the ties holding a small corral together, before going on to feel the womb of a goat very close to giving birth. The silence between them was comfortable, much better than when he had sat in Tsubodai’s home as an unwanted guest. Outside, the old man seemed to relax a little and he gestured for Batu to examine the goat. Batu nodded as he pressed his fingers around the unborn shape.

      ‘Not long now,’ was his verdict. ‘She seems happy enough.’

      ‘She is,’ Tsubodai said, straightening up. ‘And so am I. Life is hard, Batu, but it can at least be simple. It is simple here.’

      Age had made him thinner than Batu remembered, but there was still a presence to him. No one would ever mistake Tsubodai for a herder, no matter where they found him. His eyes had seen empires rise and fall. They had seen Genghis as a young man.

      Batu did not reply. After a time, Tsubodai sighed and rested his hands on the wooden bar of the corral.

      ‘So tell me what has brought you so many miles. I warn you, I know nothing of the politics in Karakorum. I have no net of spies any longer, if that’s what you’re hoping.’

      ‘It’s not. I just want the advice of someone I can trust.’

      As Ariuna had earlier, Tsubodai searched his eyes with his own and subsided, tension drifting out of him.

      ‘Ask, boy. I don’t know if you will like my answer.’

      Batu took a deep breath.

      ‘You know Guyuk as well as anyone.’ Tsubodai said nothing, so he went on. ‘Did you know the new khan has not yet been chosen?’

      The old man nodded. ‘I’m not in a desert. I heard that much, at least.’

      ‘It has to be Guyuk, or Mongke, or Baidur … or me. We are the only four in reach, and Mongke pledged his word years ago, when he heard Ogedai had died. He will support Guyuk.’

      Tsubodai scratched the side of his jaw. ‘It’s done, then. Throw in with Mongke and Guyuk. Baidur will follow along, once he knows you are together. Guyuk will be khan and I will be left alone.’

      ‘Is that what you would do?’ Batu asked seriously.

      Tsubodai laughed, an unpleasant, bitter sound.

      ‘Me? No. But I am not you and all my choices have already been made, good and bad.’

      ‘Then why would you have me support him? In my place, what would you do?’

      Tsubodai didn’t answer immediately. He stared out over the darkening fields, his gaze roaming over the stream and the distant hills. Batu waited.

      ‘I am not in your place,’ Tsubodai said at last. ‘I do not know what drives you. If you want to get the best bargain, then hold on as long as you can and judge the moment when his gifts are likely to become threats. Secure your own lands and perhaps you will survive long enough to enjoy them.’

      ‘And what if I care nothing for the best bargain?’ Batu said, offended. ‘What if I think Guyuk should not lead the nation?’

      ‘Then I cannot help you. If you stand in his way, you will be destroyed, without a doubt.’ The old man seemed on the verge of saying something else, but he shut his mouth firmly.

      ‘What is it? You speak in riddles, old man. You tell me you would not follow him, but that I will be destroyed if I don’t. What sort of a choice is that?’

      ‘A simple one,’ Tsubodai said with a smile. He turned to Batu properly for the first time. ‘You have not come to me for answers. You know everything you need to know. Are you troubled by those who share Guyuk’s bed? Is it that? Do his companions fill you with anger, or is it envy?’ Tsubodai laughed.

      ‘He could take dead goats to his bed, for all I care,’ Batu said with an expression of distaste. ‘What matters is that he is a small man, a man without dreams of any kind. He has only cunning, where the nation needs intelligence. You cannot tell me he would make a good khan.’

      ‘He would be a terrible khan,’ Tsubodai replied. ‘Under Guyuk, we will see the nation wither away, or broken apart. But if you will not stand against him, who will? Anyway, it is too late. You are already on your way to a gathering. You will give your oath to Guyuk and he will be khan.’

      Batu blinked in surprise. His warriors waited for him in a valley more than a day’s ride away. Tsubodai could not have known, unless he was lying about having no sources of information any longer. Perhaps there were a few old men who still came to share tea and news with the orlok after all.

      ‘You know a few things, for a man who claims to be nothing more than a simple herder.’

      ‘People talk. Like you. Always talking, as if there is nothing better to do. Did you want me to say that you are making the right choice? Perhaps you are. Now leave me in peace.’

      Batu stifled his irritation.

      ‘I came to ask you what Genghis would have done. You knew him.’

      Tsubodai grinned at that, showing his teeth. Two were missing at the side of his mouth, so that his cheek was sunken there. It was easy to see the shape of his skull, the skin stretched over the bone.

      ‘Your grandfather was a man without compromise. Do you understand what that means? There are many who say “I believe this”, but would they hold true to those beliefs if their children were threatened? No. But Genghis would. If you told him you would kill his children, he would tell you to go ahead, but realise that the cost would be infinite, that he would tear down cities and nations and the price would never be paid. He did not lie and his enemies knew it. His word was iron. So you tell me if he would support a man like Guyuk as khan.’

      ‘No,’ Batu muttered.

      ‘Not in a thousand years, boy. Guyuk is a follower, not a leader. There was a time when even you had him trotting around in your wake. That is not a weakness in a carpenter or a man who makes tiles for a roof. The world cannot be full of lead dogs, or the pack would pull itself apart.’ He rubbed his dog behind the ears and the animal grunted and slobbered at him. ‘Wouldn’t it, Temujin?’ he said to the hound. ‘They can’t all be like you, can they?’ The dog settled onto its stomach with a grunt, its front legs outstretched.

      ‘You named your dog after Genghis?’ Batu asked in disbelief.

      Tsubodai chuckled ‘Why not? It pleased me to do so.’ The old man looked up again. ‘A man like Guyuk cannot change. He cannot simply decide one day that he will lead and be good at it. It is not in his nature.’

      Batu rested his hands on the wooden spar. The sun had begun to set while they talked, shadows thickening and merging all around them.

      ‘But if I resist him, I will be destroyed,’ he said softly.

      Tsubodai shrugged in the darkness. ‘Perhaps. Nothing is certain. It did not stop your father taking his men out of the nation. There was no middle path with him. He was another in the same mould.’

      Batu glanced at the old man, but