David Cook - Horselords

As the lama left the tent, the arban assigned to be his bodyguard hurried to catch up. What had normally been a lonely hike to the khahan's tent was now quickly becoming a minor procession.

Today the khahan was holding his court outside. He wore a light shirt of overlapping metal scales that covered his chest, and a pair of heavy, blue woolen trousers that disappeared into the loose tops of his boots. Seeing Koja coming, Yamun dismissed his aides and messengers. Rising, the warlord strode forward and grabbed the little man in a mighty hug.

"Anda," he said warmly, stepping back to view Koja's new garb. "I'm glad to see you. The clothes fit you well. Come and sit."

Koja could see that the khahan was in a particularly fine mood. The priest waited for tea and kumiss to be served before speaking, as was proper.

Finally, the drinks were passed. Setting his cup down, Koja began. "Your tea is excellent, Yamun."

The khahan did not acknowledge the compliment. "Have the Khazari surrendered, anda?" he asked casually.

"They have agreed to all your terms, including the dong chang and the Shou ambassadors. There is only one question they ask," Koja guardedly said. "The envoys wish to know who will rule Manass once they surrender. Will Prince Ogandi still have command?"

Yamun clapped his hands in satisfaction. "I've considered your words about ruling the country, priest. I've decided to put Jad in charge of Khazari. He'll make sure they keep the peace. Besides, he is my son. He should rule."

"This is a wise choice, Yamun." Koja was pleased. Apparently he was having some effect on Yamun's policies.

The two drank their kumiss and tea for a little while longer. Finally, Koja spoke again. "Yamun, what do you know of Shou Lung?"

"Many things, anda. You don't think I'm ignorant, do you?" Yamun reached out and refilled his ladle while watching the priest's reaction. "Shou Lung has an emperor, and it is a large country with much wealth, so much that this emperor sends me gifts of great value and princesses of his own blood."

"But what of their army, their defenses, their land?" Koja pressed. "Do you really know how big Shou Lung is?"

"Their army is mostly foot soldiers. They carry machines that shoot arrows-"

"Crossbows," Koja explained.

"Their soldiers are slow and can't keep up with riders. They have some horsemen, but Shou cavalry has never been very good. Even in my father's time, they rode beyond their borders to punish us for raiding. They never had much luck on these trips. So, to protect themselves they keep a wall around their land. These things every khan knows." Yamun presented it all rather matter-of-factly, as if none of it affected him at all.

"Yamun, the Shou are a numerous people, with warriors many times what the Tuigan have. They have many cities much larger than Manass."

"Cities are traps for soldiers, easy to capture." Yamun stretched lazily.

"But there is the Dragonwall," countered Koja.

"Ah, yes, this is the wall they built around their lands," Yamun commented.

"Not all their lands, Great Lord," Koja corrected. "Only along the border with what they call the Plain of Horses-your lands, the steppe."

"Then they are afraid of us." The thought made Yamun even more confident.

"Do you know how long the Dragonwall is?" the priest asked in exasperation. "It runs for hundreds of miles-thousands of miles." The khahan was unimpressed.

"There is a story that tells how it was built," Koja went on. Perhaps if the khahan knew how the wall was made, he would understand the power of Shou Lung.

"So now you are a storyteller, too," the khahan said indulgently. He poured out another ladleful of kumiss. "Very well, tell your tale."

Koja sighed, sensing that Yamun was not going to be swayed. Nonetheless, the priest untucked his legs and began.

"The Dragonwall is very old, but it has not been there forever. They say that long ago warriors used to ride out of the Plain of Horses and raid the lands of Shou Lung. In those days, the Shou army could not stop these riders. Each year the raiders took many horses and cattle." Koja paused to sip at his tea.

"At that time a wise emperor ruled Shou Lung. When he saw what the riders did and that his army could not stop them, he went to his advisor, a powerful wizard, and asked him, 'How can I stop these riders?'"

Yamun yawned and waved for the lama to hurry along. The priest spoke more quickly.

"The wizard told the emperor of a dragon khan who lived beneath the ocean-a lake so wide you could not see across it. The wizard said, 'Trick the dragon out of the ocean and tell him to go to the west. There I will meet him, and we will stop the invaders.'"

"Wizards," Yamun snorted. "What am I supposed to learn from this, anda?"

"Please, Lord Yamun, let me finish." Koja sighed and then took up the story again. "So the emperor went out in a boat and rowed to the center of the ocean. He stirred up the water with a big stick, churning the mud up from the bottom. Then the dragon khan came out of the water.

'"Who has disturbed me?' cried the dragon." Koja resisted giving the dragon a deep, booming voice, though that is how he imagined the creature would sound.

"The emperor pointed to the west. 'The one who disturbed you ran far away, to a land where there is no ocean. If you hurry, you can catch him.' So the dragon flew into the sky to chase the offender." Koja paused to catch his breath.

"A pretty story, anda, but what's the point?" Yamun asked impatiently.

"Well, the dragon flew to the edge of the Plain of Horses. There it saw the wizard, standing on the top of a mountain. 'Are you the man-thing who disturbed my peace?' it shouted out.

"The wizard did not answer. Instead, he uttered a word. The dragon fell from the sky. It's huge coils crashed for hundreds of miles across the ridges of the land. The ground shook, and the body of the dragon turned into the brick and stone of the Dragonwall. All from the power of a single word of a wizard and, ever since, no one has broken through the Dragonwall." Koja waited for Yamun's reaction.

The khahan rose from his seat and stretched. He looked to the sky. In the distance, the mountains were dull blue-gray, fading up to shimmering white peaks. A few storm clouds hung low on the far horizon. Turning back to Koja, Yamun said evenly but forcefully, "You claim that the Dragonwall is more powerful than me. You forget I am the khahan. I can stand in the heart of Teylas's lightning and not get hurt. I'll break the Dragonwall. It is the will of Teylas."

Yamun's words reminded Koja of the most fanatical priests of the Red Mountain Temple, men who could not be reasoned with at all. The lama sat silent while Yamun paced back and forth. The sunlight glinted off the khahan's metal shirt, sending sparkling rays in myriad directions. Finally Koja asked, "What will you do when you get to the Dragonwall?"

"I will smash it like a giant hammer," Yamun boasted, without a trace of doubt in his voice.

A day later, the Khazari accepted the khahan's terms of surrender. Yamun met with the ambassadors for the first time and swore an oath to Teylas with them and formally set forth the terms of their capitulation. All through the brief ceremony, the representatives of Prince Ogandi shot hateful glares at the Khazari priest who sat among their enemies.

The wizard Yamun had demanded be handed over presented a problem; someone had warned him of his fate and he managed to escape. Although he was displeased, the khahan modified the terms so that the sorcerer was named as an outlaw, and the oath-taking continued. At the end of the ceremony, after the ex-governor of Manass was surrendered to the Kashik, Yamun summoned his son, Jad, and gave him command over the Khazari. The prince was presented as the new governor of Manass. From that point on, all judgments concerning Khazari were to pass through his hands. A single tumen, more than enough warriors to keep the peace, the khahan pointed out, was detached and placed under Jad's command.