Eric Flint - Much Fall Of Blood

"The orkhan and the khans of the clans of the Blue horde have sent tarkhans to negotiate a kurultai!" announced Bortai, excitedly. "The generals and the khans from the clans are discussing safeguards with them."

Erik found himself in turmoil on hearing this. He ought to be glad. Bortai was plainly pleased, the election of a new great Khan for the Golden Horde would hopefully end the civil war situation, and this after all would clear their way to their completing their mission. But… for the harsh months of winter, he had spent part of nearly every day with Bortai. She and two or three female Mongol-often different ones, escorted discretely by a few warriors, always came to make sure that they were well provisioned, and that they had no needs. Once Erik had found out the protocol that Mongol would follow among themselves on these visits, he'd had a word with Manfred and they'd turned them into showpieces of good hospitality. This had certainly done them no harm in the eyes of their hosts. They were an intrinsically traditional society, placing value on such things. The result had been that the knights were now almost regarded as a slightly odd Mongol tribe… and that Erik was even more fluent in Bortai's tongue-and she in his. And of course that his feelings for her had grown. She was… different to Svan. Always would be. But she was as true as steel, and laughed a lot.

And now they would be parting. And he still was none too sure what to do about it.

"Will you be going to the kurultai?" he asked.

"Oh yes, definitely! I will be giving my testimony there, before the assembled clan heads."

"I will miss you," The words were out before he thought about them.

She looked at him a little oddly. "But you will be coming with us."

"Um…" How best not to give offence?

She understood. "It will not be like last time. Firstly… The clan Khans have agreed. And secondly, our army awaits less than a league away. Thirdly, it will take place on our borderland. This time it is not us who are far from home and isolated. And finally, this time we are prepared. Let them dare. Few, if any clans will stand for it twice. They have tried to pin the blame on us for last time. It has not worked. The honor and reputation of the Hawk clan towers above them. The best they can hope for is for people to accept is that it was a mistake."

"I have to consider Manfred's safety." And yours, he wanted to say, but held back. How had he got himself into this situation? He'd said that he would never love another woman. That his life was duty… And also, well, just how could he do it? He had no real idea of the protocols involved in proposing marriage to a Mongol woman. And… was the idea at all acceptable to her? Was he?

She nodded. " We understand the sanctity of a tarkhan and his escorts."

Which was important, but not quite what he needed to know, right now.

Bortai had become very, very good at reading Erik. She knew him now for the reserved, intensely honorable that man he was. She'd long since moved on in her thinking from considering him a foreigner and some kind but lesser person. He was just… Erik. A man who loved neither lightly or with anything less than his whole being. She too saw complications. A Mongol woman moved, with her bride-goods, to the ger and lands of her new husband. She had long since realized that the horseboy had lied about Erik's noble antecedents. And she found that she really didn't care. She'd met enough young nobles whose nobility amounted to a title and wealth. In Erik… well he had that inner quality that set him apart. But just how did she persuade him to take that next step? And… was she ready to cast clan, tradition, and all she had lived for aside for a handsome foreigner?

Her heart said "yes."

Duty and common sense said "no." Or at least, not yet. But part of her said she should ignore the smiling chaperones-who were very good at turning a blind eye-and just kiss him.

Duty won.

Narrowly.

The wolves knew roughly where to start searching. And the noses of the wolves were keen. It did not take them that long to find the shallow grave, and to open it up.

Vlad stood silent looking down at fabric that he recognized. At her remains.

Finally, he turned away and said quietly. "No man could own you. But you… owned me. And in part you always will." He took off his black cloak with its rich purple satin lining. "Let us wrap her in this. She will have a real burial, with honor, in the churchyard. My debt to the Lady Bortai is deeper. But I will purge this earth of Elizabeth's descendant too. Emeric of Hungary was Elizabeth Bartoldy's legacy. Destroying him will be Rosa's."

Kaltegg Shaman looked at the two boys and chuckled. "You are willing to do this, boy?" he asked David.

David nodded. Once he would have shied as far as possible from it. But he been a different boy then. A person to whom the walls of Jerusalem had been the walls of the world, and to whom self had been all important. Now… he knew that had been a very small world, and that self was part of larger whole.

"You know that they will try to kill you," said the shaman.

"That's why I came. That's why I made Kildai come."

"It is my task and my risk!" said Kildai.

"Shut up, you," said David cheerfully.

"How can you tell me to shut up? Have you no respect?" demanded Kildai. But the shaman could tell by the way he said it, that it was a rhetorical question. He smiled to himself. The young khan needed this. And the boy from Jerusalem needed him too.

"Nope," said David. "You know that by know. So tell us, Kaltegg Shaman, can we do this? They will try to kill him. I know it. He knows it. Last time they tried by magic. I think that is what they will do again. I've talked to Von Stael. He says that I am doing the right thing."

The shaman nodded. "Yes. I believe it will be a magical attack, and a strong one. I believe it will be directed at Kildai Khan. I believe that the force that will provide the spell, does not know Kildai Khan. They must have got hold, somehow, of some of his essences. Blood. Skin. Hair. Maybe even clothes. Thus it was that the force was able to be released at him, while he rode in the great game." He looked at Kildai, sternly. "You were lucky to survive, Kildai Khan. But this could work. The spell will be directed at the wrong person-if they require that it should be by direct indication of the victim. I think this is true. They must point you out-focus the ill-wishing on you. Otherwise Kildai Khan would have died, even though he was hidden from them."

David nodded. "So, until we have dealt with Gatu Orkhan, I will be you. And you be me-wearing steel and riding with the Knights. And the two of us will have to keep apart."

The shaman nodded. "I will do what I can to protect you both."

The kurultai must have had ten thousand tents.

"A small gathering," said General Pakai. "People are wary. But every clan has sent some representatives."

"And a lot more wait, and watch, just a few hours away," said Bortai.

They rode on.

The huge camp was very edgy. Clan representatives and soldiers had gone ahead, setting up gers, preparing the sections of the kurultai. The camp was a large ring, allowing access to the open steppe beyond, without crossing the camp of any other clan. White Horde was on the northern and eastern side, Blue on the southern and western. In the middle was a large open area, with a dais for the clan heads. The subclans would be obliged to settle for the grass. But the camp had been chosen well: it was set about a low dell, which had been cleared of snow, making a natural amphitheater.

The Mongols, who normally dressed in rather plain clothing, making it hard to tell a khan from a commoner, had broken out their finery. Erik hardly even recognized Bortai, in the rose colored and patterned deel of embroidered fine cloth and doeskin boots. The clan must be making sure that their prize witness looked the part.