The Golden Blade 1957 John Glou Full Chapter PDF
The Golden Blade 1957 John Glou Full Chapter PDF
The Golden Blade 1957 John Glou Full Chapter PDF
https://ebookmass.com/product/the-moonlight-blade-tessa-barbosa/
https://ebookmass.com/product/golden-spike-murphy/
https://ebookmass.com/product/the-golden-couple-greer-hendricks-
sarah-pekkanen/
https://ebookmass.com/product/the-golden-age-of-indian-buddhist-
philosophy-jan-westerhoff/
Golden Hill Francis Spufford
https://ebookmass.com/product/golden-hill-francis-spufford/
https://ebookmass.com/product/trapped-brides-of-the-kindred-
book-29-faith-anderson/
https://ebookmass.com/product/the-bears-blade-the-whale-road-
chronicles-book-5-tim-hodkinson/
https://ebookmass.com/product/chaos-rising-the-black-blade-
chronicles-book-3-j-k-hogan/
https://ebookmass.com/product/central-asia-in-world-history-
golden/
TiWxfvi. THE m
(A Caravan to Camul!
John Clou
1.
Abridged
Edition
"One of the most exciting adventure stories of recent
years." Houston Chronicle
A G R A PH IC
FIRST GRAPHIC EDITION, 1955
SECOND GRAPHIC EDITION, 1957
Book One
THE FELT TENTS
CHAPTER page
1 KISIL 9
2 C holan 16
3 T he A bduction of C holan 21
4 C holan and T argoutai 25
5 K isil and M aryam 32
6 K isil and T atengri 36
7 T he P lan 41
8 T h e R escue 44
9 J hotuz 51
10 T he Birth 54
11 P ursued 57
12 E scape 63
13 K isil Bahatur 68
Book Two
YESUKAI UNRAVELS THE SKEIN
14 A t t h e M ongo l O rdu 73
15 Y esukai M akes a M ap 79
16 M inglig 82
17 Y ul u n 90
18 F a t h er and S on 94
19 T h e R ide to D ai S e c h e n 97
20 T h e G ray -E yed B u r t e 101
21 C holan and P u re G old 107
22 T he R eturn 110
Content
Book Three
THE WOMEN
CHAPTER PAGE
23 C holan and G e s ik ie 117
24 T e m u j i n e Is W o u n d ed 123
25 C holan and T e m u j i n e 126
26 A P r iso n e r 129
27 G e s ik ie ’s S ac rifice 132
28 T h e S trategy o f J h o t u z 140
29 A t the C ave o f the W hite B o n es 144
30 E ach to H is O w n T ask 150
31 G esikie G ets PIer T en t 157
Book Four
THE GOLDEN ENCLOSURE
32 T he “P r in c e ” B o g o r ji 167
33 Y ulun R eports to T e m u jin e 174
34 Y ang 180
35 Y in 189
36 “S il v e r , S il v e r , S il v e r !” 196
37 F ou r M en and a M aid 200
38 W hat I s V ir t u e ? 213
39 M ing -nan 230
Book Five
THE WHEEL TURNS
40 J ho tu z and P ure G old 242
41 K e u k t c h e and M en do 253
42 C h u n g - h sin g 260
43 K udarshin 269
44 P a k em bo 275
45 M ahmud Y elvaj 279
46 L i -t z u n -h ie n S tirs t h e P ot 286
47 K arma 301
THE GOLDEN BLADE
About the year 1162, a son was born to Yesukai. He named
him Temujine.
3
THE ABDUCTION OF CHOLAN
FOR THE SECOND TIME since the Rider by Day had set,
Cholan struggled back to conscious thought. As she lay beside
Kisil she noticed that the sky had cleared. The stars hung
brilliantly. She felt strangely happy. By their side she heard
the stallion cropping the grass. Darkness enfolded them like
22 THE FELT TENTS
a soft woolen garment. The night had turned warmer, much
warmer.
The talk of the elder women now became clear. She, too,
was a wife. She, too, would have a yurt of her own. She
would bind up her hair like the married women of her tribe
and cut it across her forehead to denote her status. She would
wear a birch-bark diadem and silver ornaments in her hair.
Honor would come to her with the birth of her first son. . . .
Honor? But what of Sengun? she thought in sudden panic.
I am still my father’s heifer!
“Kisil!” she cried, starting up. “My father—we must go!
Sengun—”
He pulled her down beside him. “Sengun can’t have you,
Cholan. You are mine now.”
She pulled herself away and sat bolt upright. “Are you
mad? If this is discovered you might lose your life.”
Kisil again pulled her down to him. “If the daughter of
Besoutchei were willing we could flee . . . now . . . while they
are feasting,” he whispered.
Cholan’s voice quivered. “Yes, we must flee. But let us
plan our flight sensibly. Tonight will be our best chance-
while the men are drunk. We may even slip back unseen and
while I am gathering up food you may get your weapons
and your mares.”
“Not the mares. They are too near foaling and we must
ride hard. Much as I hate to leave them I shall take two
others. You realize we shall be pursued?”
“But spring is here!” she cried joyously, jumping to her
feet. “Shall we ride westward—to your homeland?”
Patiently he waited while she fastened her coat and sash.
He picked up his lance and whip, leaped on Babor and ex
tended his hand to help her up behind. As he turned the stal
lion’s head toward the glow that marked the feasting encamp
ment, Cholan reached forward and, pulling on a rein, turned
the horse around. “My ewe and lamb,” she reminded him. “I
can’t leave them out for the wolves. Besides, if we are seen,
they will explain our delay in returning.”
Kisil obediently guided the horse to where baaing sounded
in the darkness. But at that moment the plaintive baa be
THE FELT TENTS 23
came surcharged with fear. There was a snarl and the sound
of scuffling. Kisil shouted as he urged the horse into a gallop.
He hurled his spear at a wolf that slunk off into the darkness.
The ewe lay dead, her throat torn and bloody, but her body
completely covered the lamb v/hose pitiful bleat issued from
beneath the carcass.
Cholan gathered up the lamb in her arms, snuggling it
under her coat. “Poor thing,” she murmured, “I must find
you a mother before we flee.”
“Speaking of mothers,” Kisil said thoughtfully, “I must
remind you to say no farewells—not even to your mother.”
The feasting was at its height as they entered the camp.
The dancers were stamping the earth around the fires. Many
men, and women, lay prone on the ground. Other revelers
were flourishing swords, extolling their bravery. Men were
dancing with men.
Children watched and clapped their hands in excitement.
Others played fiddle or pipe. The chieftain and four of his
wives sat at the entrance to his tent; they were very merry.
Maryam was walking around her yurt, looking anxiously
around.
Kisil waited in the edge of darkness while Cholan slipped
off the horse, but just then someone threw a fresh armful of
camel’s-thorn on the fire nearest them, and its blaze high
lighted their arrival. Maram started when she saw them.
“What happened, Cholan? Where have you been?” she asked.
Kisil shrugged his shoulders—no chance to slip away yet.
He quickly whispered fresh instructions to Cholan who was
walking behind him, trying to keep out of her father’s sight.
Kisil had told her to make for her mother’s yurt, but a
drunken warrior put his arm around them both, calling
obscene blessings on their heads. As Kisil angrily pushed the
man off, Besoutchei saw them.
“How now, Kisil!” he cried. “Is our wine too strong for a
Kirghiz youth to stomach? Come, account for yourself. Why
did you leave our feast?”
But then Besoutchei saw Cholan’s shrinking form. He
heard, too, the drunken laughter and coarse jests as the re
24 THE FELT TENTS
velers joined hands and danced around the embarrassed pair.
He rose in a sudden, drunken rage, slashing at those nearest
him with his heavy rawhide whip. “What!” he roared. “Dog
of a Kurd! Where have you been with my daughter? By the
black yak tails of the Niruns I’ll strip your hide! My herds
men shall flog you from our pastures.”
The dancers were sobered by Besoutchei’s anger and, fall
ing back, they left Cholan and Kisil standing alone. The
drumming ceased, the pipes ended on a plaintive note. Every
one watched them.
“Go to your mother,” Kisil whispered.
As Cholan moved to obey him Besoutchei screamed,
“Cholan! Cholan, come here—and you, too, Kurd!”
Cholan remained rooted to the spot as Kisil strode for
ward, his face flushing as red as his hair.
Besoutchei made a savage slash at him with his whip.
“The daughters of Besoutchei,” he foamed, “are not for
kazak herdsmen to take! Only—”
The rest was drowned out by a chorus of yells and the
drumbeat of hoofs. Into the firelight swept a horde of
mounted men, spears and swords gleaming in their hands.
Their horses plunged through the fires, scattering the burning
embers, leaving the camp in sudden darkness. From the tents
sounded the screams of women and the frightened cries of
children. Men cursed in drunken rage; unable to see what
was happening in the darkness, many ran to their tents to
protect their families; others lurched to their feet and tried
to cross weapons with the raiders on horseback.
Kisil heard Cholan scream his name. He sprang toward
her, but struggling men interposed. Then he thought of the
horses. Shouting for those who were sober to follow him,
Kisil ran to the makeshift corral. But the raiders had already
found it. In the darkness he stumbled over the body of a
murdered boy as the horses thundered out of the corral
pursued by a crowd of shouting men. One raider leaned
from his galloping horse and took a slash at Kisil as he tried
to struggle to his feet. Cut and bleeding, with his ribs smashed
in, Kisil dragged himself back to the yurts.
Swift as an arrow, the raiders had come and gone. Where,
THE FELT TENTS 25
but a moment ago, the dancing flames had illumined Be-
soutchei’s patriarchal rage, the blackness of night now drew
a ghostly pall over a scene of utter desolation.
“Cholani Cholan!” Kisil’s wavering cry was lost amid the
shrieks of women wailing their dead.
“Cholan! Cholan!”
That was Maryam’s voice! With frenzied foreboding in his
heart Kisil crawled frantically to where he had last seen
Cholan. Blood was pouring from a cut on his head; it ran
into his eyes and trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Desperately he fought to hold onto his spirit which seemed
to be draining from him like wine from a spear-pierced sack.
Dimly he heard the lament of Besoutchei’s wives keening the
death dirge as he crawled to the open space before the
chieftain’s tent.
“Cholan!” he gasped. His searching hands touched wool.
Where Cholan had stood lay a dead lamb.
4
CHOLAN AND TARGQOTAi
WHEN THE RAIDERS burst into the circle of campfires
Cholan stood petrified. For a split second—before the firelight
was extinguished by the plunging hoofs—she saw the frightful
picture that would be forever deeply etched on her mind.
She saw the flung spear transfix her father’s throat, his life
blood spurting on his snow-white beard. She saw her mother's
fear-stricken face; saw the charge of maddened horses, the
figures clad in wolfskins on their backs. She screamed Kisil’s
name and saw the savage sweep of a sword miss his head
when he leaped toward her.
She tumbled the lamb from her bosom and snatched an
arrow from the quiver lying at her feet, her eyes seeking
Kish's attackers in the sudden darkness. As her bow twanged
the thunder of hoofs was upon her. She half turned, only to
be seized in the iron grip of a raider, who swept her off the
ground at a gallop and plunged with her into the enveloping
darkness of the steppes.
26 THE FELT TENTS
She screamed and kicked frantically. The wild taunts of
her captor rang in her ears as he exerted an ever-tightening
grip that nearly broke her back. Her breath was being pressed
out of her body; her upfiung hand tore at the hair of her
abductor who laughed uproariously at her puny efforts.
Feeling her struggles grow weaker, the man heaved her
body around, throwing her face down across the horse’s
withers. His hand was now entwined in her long hair in an
agonizing grip.
It was of no use to struggle any more. The helplessness of
her position overwhelmed her. There could be no escape from
this strong band of thieves. Sadly she thought of Kisil. Only
a brief moment ago she had become Kish's woman. When
they had planned their flight she had felt like an eagle. Now
she was helpless, like a partridge in the talons of a hawk.
And Kisil? Perhaps he was . . .
“No, no!” she screamed. Goaded by the half-formed
thought, she tried to fling herself free.
“Yes, yes!” her captor mocked, wrenching her head down
across his knees with a twist that nearly tore the scalp from
her head.
The pain revived her drooping spirits, and her fury rose
to boiling point. She gritted her teeth. Kisil must be alive,
she thought desperately. He must live to avenge this agony!
For a while pictures sprang to her mind of a triumphant Kisil
making this man suffer as she was suffering. Such thoughts
sustained her for a passing moment until black devils of
doubt stabbed her afresh.
If Kisil were alive would he . . . did he want her enough
to attempt a rescue? He might well lose his life in such an
attempt, yet . . . Her thoughts swung between fervent hope
of rescue and despairing certainty that death would reward
any effort.
The blood pounded at her temples. Her waist was sore
from the violent jolting. She shouted to her captor that she
would rather sit astride in front of him than be carried like
a dead sheep. The man pulled up, calling to a comrade to
help him. Amid coarse laughter and joking, rude hands lifted
her up behind the man; her feet were lashed together under
THE FELT TENTS 27
the horse’s belly, so that she had to hold onto the wolfskin
coat as, but a short time ago, she had clutched hold of Kisil.
Feeling that they were safe from pursuit, the band resumed
their journey at a slower pace, driving the stolen herd before
them. Close by her Cholan could see other horses double-
burdened and knew that she was not the only woman taken
in the raid. She shouted to one hunched-up figure seated
behind a man. It was a girl younger than herself, who shouted
back excitedly that two other girls had been taken besides
Jhotuz.
Jhotuz was the one and only wife of old Serang, the head
man or bek. To Cholan and the other girls of her age the
headman’s wife was an “old woman” though actually in the
prime of life. Maryam would sometimes tell her daughter
how Besoutchei and Serang had purchased Jhotuz and herself
at Bish-baligh. Cholan and her friends looked on Jhotuz with
more than speculative interest when they learned that this
young slave had been trained to please men! It wouldn’t take
much to please an old man like Serang, they whispered, gig
gling. They also wondered, as Jhotuz was barren, if Serang
were too old . . . or Jhotuz knew too much!
Jhotuz! A new and frightening appreciation of her mother’s
earlier misfortune swept into Cholan’s mind like a flood of
ice-cold water. Her mind clutched desperately at the thought
of Jhotuz. If Jhotuz did know anything . . . she must talk
to her, quickly!
Cholan had no illusions as to what lay before her. Her fate,
she knew, would be that of many a woman of the steppes—
the calmly accepted fate of most of the girls brought to the
yurts by the men of Cholan’s own clan. Sometimes a girl
escaped; sometimes . . . death by her own hand.
They rode on steadily, at first in an easterly direction and
then, Cholan saw by the stars, they swung north. From her
captor she learned that the raiders were Taijiuts. He dis
couraged her few questions with monosyllabic grunts. He was
evidently an old man.
Cholan felt increasingly depressed as well as sleepy.
Shortly after dawn they came to a low line of hills. Before
they passed over this ridge Cholan turned to take one last
28 THE FELT TENTS
glance back. No figures showed on the empty plain behind
them. There was no pursuit.
Cholan resignedly looked ahead. A few miles away she saw
a big encampment lying in a hollow. Flocks and herds dotted
the intervening plain; bands of armed men could be seen
riding on the distant horizon.
When they got closer to the encampment she could see
that it was evidently a horde of many families, ruled, no
doubt, by some wealthy prince. The smoke from the dung
fires rose lazily in the morning air and drifted slowly north
ward in the light breeze.
Among the captured horses she could now see Babor’s
tossing mane and proud head rising well above the herd of
shaggy ponies. How many horses had been taken! As they
approached the encampment the herd was swung to one side
and allowed to graze—all except Babor. A herdsman lassoed
him and, squealing and plunging, the stallion was led out of
his herd and taken ahead to the camp.
Crowds of women, children and barking dogs swarmed
among the tent wagons as the captured women were ridden
up to the cleared space in front of the chieftain’s pavilion. It
was a huge tent, Cholan saw, set on a wide-framed wagon,
flanked on either side by those of his wives and servants.
It would take twenty oxen to pull that wagon, she surmised.
Tethered to one of the wheels stood the chief’s mare.
Cholan instinctively appraised it. A splendid creature, she
thought, almost as good as Kisil’s mares! When Babor was led
up for inspection the mare whinnied a greeting. The stallion,
rearing on his haunches, tried to shake off the restricting
lariat that held him by the neck. The chieftain approved of
Babor with lively grunts of satisfaction.
“Have you ever seen such a horse?” he asked the group
of excited men. He turned to the young man beside whom
Jhotuz was standing. “You have done well, nephew, to bring
me such a horse. It atones, somewhat, for your missing the
caravan. With Kadia and that stallion we’ll breed the finest
horses on these plains!” He smacked his fist in satisfaction.
“Let’s hope Targoutai has better luck breeding horses than
he does breeding sons,” one old man laughed to another.
THE FELT TENTS 29
“Yes! Four wives—and all he can get is daughters!” They
both chuckled at their joke.
Targoutai, full of admiration for Babor, gave but a per
functory glance at the captured women who were now al
lowed to stand on their feet. Cholan, her back to the men,
began rubbing the circulation into her ankles chafed by the
binding thong. She glumly watched the antics of the excited
girls who evidently approved of the possessive attitude of the
men who had taken them-all but Jhotuz, who was stung by
the indifference of her youthful captor. He had left her side
to join the throng admiring Babor.
“We have taken also four young girls and an old woman,
abagci,” the youth reported. “What is your pleasure? Shall
the men keep their girls?”
“Old woman indeed!” screamed Jhotuz, her face purpling
in vehement indignation. “Preserve me, Uncle, from this
gelded coit! Give me to a man who will appreciate a woman
experienced in love!” She placed her arms akimbo.
The roar of laughter occasioned by her outburst drowned
out her indignant speech. Targoutai waved for silence.
“Yes, those children can remain the spoils of their captors.”
His hand negligently included Cholan and the other girls.
“But this one—” he eyed Jhotuz up and down— “would be
wasted on you, Kurul. I may add something to her experience
myself when I’ve tried out this stallion.” He turned his back
on Jhotuz, approached Babor and laid his hand on face and
muzzle. He fed the horse sugary camel’s-thorn tips and with
practiced hands and honeyed voice soon calmed Babor. He
then called for a bridle.
In the meantime the three girls had sprung up with alacrity
behind their men and galloped off. Cholan, however, still sat
on the ground rubbing her ankles. Thinking furiously, she
impatiently shook off her captor’s hand; while Jhotuz, tired
of being neglected, strode up to Kurul and clutched him by
the sleeve. “Come, pretty youth, show me to the tent where
you keep your haramzada!”
The men laughed boisterously in approval of her humor,
and while quips and jibes were exchanged, they relaxed their
attention to Babor. Cholan got to her feet and moved closer
30 THE FELT TENTS
to Jhotuz. Suddenly she snatched the sword from Targoutai’s
scabbard and gave him a shove from behind that tumbled
him to the ground. With a lithe spring she was on Babor’s
back, and with a slash of the sword she cut the lariat that
held him. The stallion reared in surprise, then, with a chal
lenging neigh, he burst through the crowd of men like a
thunderbolt.
Cholan crouched low over the racing stallion’s neck. Wo
men screamed and snatched at children in her path; shouting
men pounded behind her; dogs barked and raced alongside.
She was out of the encampment now, heading across the
grazing grounds to the distant ridge. Cholan looked over her
shoulder at the pursuing riders; the chieftain, well to the fore,
leaned forward in his stirrups, his hand swinging a rope.
Grimly she noticed that the shouts of her pursuers had
attracted the attention of some herdsmen ahead. They fanned
out in a line to cut her off. Babor plunged straight on. Cholan
saw they were armed with long poles. On the end of some
of the poles were hooks; others had the noose used in cutting
out horses from a herd. Just as they were reaching out for
her, she called on all her skill as a horsewoman to swing
Babor at right angles to her course. Knee and body swung
him around as a noose whistled close to her head. In a flash
she saw the gap widen between the man who had attempted
to lasso her and his nearest companion. Babor again re
sponded to her swing and without breaking his stride swerved
through the opening. A lariat snaked out to catch Babor’s
leg. She saw it coming and, shutting her eyes, she gripped
the black mane awaiting the plunge to earth. No!—it could
have missed her only by a hair’s-breadth!
Ahead of her she saw that horses were grazing. She again
glanced over her shoulder. What a splendid mare that was!
Cholan thought ungrudgingly, as she saw that Targoutai had
far outdistanced the other pursuers. He was closer than she
would have thought possible. The mare whinnied, making
Babor prick his ears and slacken his speed. The herd in front
now lifted their heads and, seeing the approaching stallion,
greeted him with a chorus of shrill neighs. In spite of all that
Cholan could do, Babor swung toward the herd—his own
THE FELT TENTS 31
herd, she saw now, from which he had been parted but a short
time ago. Babor swiftly circled once around the herd and
turned to face the oncoming mare. Then with arched tail
and prancing hoofs, he carried the helpless Cholan to the side
of the Taijiut lord.
Furious at Babor’s betrayal, Cholan slashed at Targoutai
with his own sword. He reined back easily to avoid the blow.
As quick as lightning the lariat pinned her arms to her side.
The mare wheeled and Cholan was jerked off the stallion’s
back.
Cholan lay on the ground, defiance blazing in her eyes as
she stared Targoutai boldly in the face. Across the taut rope
they looked at each other. She did not care for what she saw.
He was a middle-aged man with wispy hairs on his chin and
upper lip; his oblique eyes smoldered in an outraged fury
emphasized by the clenched teeth showing between snarling
lips.
As they gazed at each other a smile flitted across her face
when she saw the angry gleam in his eyes soften and his
furious glance change to one of admiration.
“By the Everlasting One,” he exclaimed in surprised
amazement, “but you are beautiful!” He swung off his horse,
his eyes never leaving hers while he tore the sword from her
clutching fingers and pulled her to her feet. He sheathed the
sword as she flung off the lariat defiantly, and then he slowly
coiled the rope, staring at her as he did so. “You are no
herdsman’s spawn!” he exclaimed. “Who are you, girl?”
At that moment her previous captor came galloping up
and seized her once more by the hair.
“Hands off me!” she screeched at him, her face flushing
red under the tan while madness glinted in her dark eyes.
“Leave her alone, Bemiji!” ordered Targoutai. “Young fal
cons like this don’t mate with old crows like you! I’ll give
you a horse for her.”
“Is the daughter of Besoutchei to be bartered like a cow?”
Cholan snapped. “Give me a horse and let me return to my
father who will pay a heavy ransom for me.”
“Nay, beauteous one, that I cannot do, now that I have
laid eyes on you.” He took hold of her with both hands,
32 THE FELT TENTS
lifting her to his horse. He sprang up behind her and en
circled her in his arms. “Come, O daughter of the Keraits,
such loveliness shall not be thrown away to herdsmen nor
shall it be lost in grinding toil. You shall have an honored
place among my women.”
As they rode back to the Taijiut camp, Cholan faced ahead
with stony glance; her heart ached with longing for Kisil and
the memory of last night came flooding over her as Targoutai
whispered in her ear, “Give me a son to inherit my wealth
and title and I will cherish you above all other women.”
When they arrived at the khan’s pavilion her eyes darted
despairingly over the women assembled to watch her arrival.
“Jhotuz!” she called desperately. Some of the women laughed
as she tried to struggle from Targoutai’s arms when he lifted
her down. “Where is Jhotuz?” she demanded of Targoutai.
“I must see her!”
But Jhotuz was not to be seen. The iron hand of Targoutai
propelled her before him. The felt curtain, dropped by un
seen hands, shut out the sunlight, but not the mocking
laughter of the women.
5
KISIL AND MARYAM
IT WAS THE tenth day after the raid before Kisil came to
his senses. He first became conscious of the ceaseless throb
bing of a drum. He opened his eyes. It seemed as if he were
swimming under water; everything was diffused, blurred
almost beyond recognition. Memory eluded him. He closed
his eyes.
When next he awoke his eyes fastened on a wooden cross
which swung and jolted over his head. It puzzled him. It was
not the natcigai, the usual felt image that was the presiding
deity of a nomad yurt. Then he remembered it was a Christian
emblem made by Maryam. This must be her yurt! By the
jolting he judged the yurt was on a wagon—a wagon that
moved slowly over the grass-covered plain.
He tried to move and found his ribs so tightly bound that
THE FELT TENTS 33
he could hardly breathe. His groping fingers plucked at sheep
skin and fur. With great effort he got one hand outside the
coverings. Carefully he explored his face with his fingertips.
A swathing of silk was tied round his head. He picked at it,
trying to remember.
Then memory came back like the flood of a river when
an ice jam breaks. He tried to shout and marveled that his
voice seemed barely above a whisper. The wagon jolted to a
stop.
A skinny hand, more like a vulture’s claw, opened the tent.
Kisil saw fierce, sunken eyes staring at him from a wizened
shriveled face. Elk horns crowned the matted locks of yak
and human hair that hung in filthy festoons across the shoul
ders. The shaman stooped and entered the tent. A collar of
iron bells hung around his waist. At every movement the
bells clanged discordantly. When the shaman saw the light
of understanding in Kisil’s wondering eyes, he started a chant
in a cracked and wheezy voice.
“Great is my medicine,” he croaked. “Great is my magic!
The evil kelet has been driven out, the noble spirit has
returned!”
A woman’s voice exclaimed outside and as the tent opening
was flung back over the top a woman’s slender figure was
silhouetted against the blaze of daylight.
“Cholan!” Kisil whispered, hope burgeoning in his heart.
“It isn’t Cholan, Kisil. It’s Maryam.” The voice had a sad
ness in it which contrasted sharply with the glad cry that
had burst from her when she realized he was at last con
scious. “Kisil! You’ve come back, my son, my son!”
“Cholan?” he asked.
Maryam shook her head. “She’s away . . . but she’ll be
back. No more talking now!”
“Besoutchei?” he whispered.
Placing finger to lip, Maryam shook her head in admoni
tion.
When he was strong enough to bear the news she told him
that both Cholan and Babor had been taken, though she
tinctured the bitter draught with the sweeter news that one
of his mares had returned the next day and foaled.
34 THE FELT TENTS
“Another Babor, I think!” she said to encourage him.
“Another Babor?” Kisil groaned. “Yes, but where can I
get another Choian?”
Maryam raised her eyebrows in quiet astonishment.
Bit by bit, as the days passed, Kisil learned what had hap
pened. He was deeply grieved to learn that Besoutchei had
been slain. Grieved, too, that the clan had split up, the older
sons taking their cattle and families to seek protection from
the lord of some stronger Kerait clan and swear allegiance
to him. Drombo was now the tekine, inheriting the pastures
and Besoutchei’s four wives—whom his mother now ruled
with severity—and little else. They were only sheep and cattle
herders now; most of the horses had been stolen in the raid.
“Without horses, how are the men going to hunt antelope?”
Maryam asked sadly.
But Kisil wasn’t thinking about hunting. Of course—
Drombo was now the head of the clan! Kisil tried to sit up,
feeling a strange reluctance that his friend Drombo should
inherit Maryam along with other leftovers.
“Drombo! Where is he? Has he—?” Kisil looked at Mary
am’s face. “Has that boy—?”
Maryam shook her head. “He isn’t such a boy. After all,
there is only one year between you. I was carrying Choian
when the old wife gave birth to him.” She laughed bitterly.
“You know the law of the steppes. I was bought by Besout
chei in the slave market, so now I am a possession of
Drombo’s like any horse or cow, regardless of the fact that
he is a youth and I—probably by his standards—an old
woman!” She patted his hand. “There, don’t worry about me!
Drombo is still away tracking that raiding party, and I am
sure when he comes back he will find plenty to do without
bothering about his father’s old shoes!” Her mood changed.
Looking at Kisil intently, she asked abruptly, “Kisil, that
night of the raid—did you and Choian—?”
Kisil nodded rather shamefacedly. “1 don’t know what
came over me. It was the thought of losing her to Sengun,
I suppose,” he added lamely.
“I am not surprised. I knew Choian better than she knew
herself.”
THE FELT TENTS 35
“We knew you would have given us your blessing, but we
thought it best if you could deny all knowledge of our plans.
We came back for food and weapons, and, above all, for
spare horses.”
“And now we’ve both lost her. We shall never see her
again!” Control suddenly snapped and her pent-up grief burst
in full flood.
Dismayed, Kisil struggled to his feet and placed his arm
around the shoulder of the sobbing Maryam. “I'll get her
back, Little Mother,” he blurted, goaded by her grief. “You
surely do not think that I am going to let any man steal my
wife—and my horse!”
The confident ring in his voice made Maryam look up.
She rubbed away her tears with the back of her hand. “You
would risk your life for her?” she asked wonderingly.
“For her and Babor!” He laughed. “How to find them—
that’s the riddle. But find them I will!”
7
THE PLAN
THE CREAKING CARTS moved on. They drifted slowly,
as sheep and cattle grazed, across the sea of grass, leaving
the body of Tatengri lying where he died. His spirit, having
no further use for this empty shell, would pay no heed to the
dog that mangled the poor flesh, to the wolf that crunched
the bones. Soon these shattered fragments of humanity would
mingle with the whitened bone litter of countless generations
—mute evidence that here death was of little account.
Life was like these wheels, Kisil thought, ever creaking
but ever turning . . . on and on . . . and on. With unseeing
eyes fixed on the wheels of the wagon in front of him, he
kept turning the events of yesterday over and over in his
mind. He had been more than shaken by Tatengri’s sudden
death.
Kisil reached for the shaman’s sword slung at his back.
It seemed such an ordinary weapon, he thought. . . . Of
course the “magic” of the sword lay in the personality of its
wielder! Tatengri had spoken of a white horse. But Babor
was black . . . and Babor . . .
“Why don’t you grease that wheel, Kisil? How can you
ride there and listen to that infernal squeak-squeak?”
Kisil shook himself out of his dream as Drombo ranged
alongside him. “My thoughts were far away,” he said with
a smile.
It was Kisil’s first day on horseback. Mindful of Mary
am’s admonitions, he was content to walk the mare beside
the carts, to think and not to race ahead. Kisil chafed at the
wide strappings of soft deerhide that Maryam insisted must
still stay bound. He didn’t like the restraint; he wanted free
42 THE FELT TENTS
dom; above all he fumed and fretted at the delay in setting
out after Cholan. “Only a few more days,” Maryam had
begged.
“Have you thought any more about the plan?” Drombo
asked.
Kisil nodded absent-mindedly. . . .
Yesterday, at his shouts, Drombo had come running over
to him. Kisil pointed to Tatengri’s body. In hurried words
he had told Drombo of the strange death of the shaman.
Drombo had listened spellbound, looking at Kisil with
something approaching awe. “No wonder you tremble, Kisil.
Let us go!” The boy looked about him with apprehension.
Kisil had stooped down to take the sword and cymbal
from the stiffening fingers. The plan came to him as he stood
over Tatengri’s body. “I am taking these, Drombo. They may
prove useful. A plan has just come to me. . . . I think
Tatengri’s spirit has just whispered in my ear!” He stood
thoughtful for a moment; then, as if in answer to instruction,
he nodded. “Tsa, tsa! I think I understand. The plan is good!”
He had turned to the wondering Drombo with a serious
face. “Behold in me the successor to Tatengri! I’ve fallen
heir to his goods—so his spirit tells me! The yak, his tent and
all that therein lies is mine—if you have no objection?”
“Objection?” Drombo had shivered. “I don’t know how
you can touch the things.”
So they had gathered up the old man’s effects, the bags of
roots and herbs, the elk-horn headdress, the bells, the magic
whip bound with snakeskin, the shining sword and brass
cymbal. Kisil noticed, on close inspection, a queer, softly
golden luster emanating from the sword.
“I envy you, Kisil, the opportunity you’ve had to learn his
tricks,” Drombo said while they sorted things out. He had
gingerly picked up the sword. “Do you think this sword really
has magic, Kisil?”
Kisil had shaken his head. “I agree with Maryam that much
of a shaman’s magic lies in the fear he instills in our minds
by his very appearance. Since I had spent so much time with
him I no longer feared him— in fact I laughed at him when
he kept trying to get me to follow his road of the spirits!”
THE FELT TENTS 43
“Yet,” Drombo had suggested, “it took magic for him
to make your spirit go galloping up into the sky with him.”
“Magic? Perhaps—or some trick, some power he had in
his eyes that put me to sleep. I am still weak and I think my
imagination did the rest.”
“You say his spirit has whispered to you of a plan?”
Drombo had asked, y . .
“Kisil! Wake up! Has that squeaking wheel lulled you to
sleep?” Drombo’s voice slashed through Kisil’s thoughts.
“While the wheel squeaked, Drombo, I have been going
over the plan in my mind.”
“Does your plan include me, Kisil? I want to come with
you!”
“You?” Kisil asked in feigned surprise, though all along
he had hoped the suggestion would come. “You want to come
on this perilous adventure? But you are the tekine!”
Drombo laughed. “There is precious little left for me to
guard. My old mother will keep a firm grip on things.”
“I hoped you would come with me. We could travel safely,
anywhere and everywhere, if we went disguised as a shaman
and his novice! With your skill at drumming and my smatter
ing of shaman tricks, we ought to be able to deceive and
overawe any of the steppe folks!”
“Drombo the shaman!” The boy slapped his thighs and
laughed heartily. “What a head you have on your shoulders,
Kisil! The idea is good. When do we start? Tomorrow?”
Geen woord zei Dirk, vroeg ook niet of ie mee kon. Hij
strompelde zacht zwaaiend naast Klaas, de herberg
uit, als hoorde ie bij ’m.—
—Nou.. aa’s hai.… had d’r sels is.. binne wai ’t ook,
bromde Willem en nàbromde ’m Jan.