“I will tell you all I know, but as you already understand, their lands are cold and heavily forested, not good territory for a Mongol warrior.”
He made a deep sigh. “But what other lands are there for my men?”
His question brought a smile to my lips. “I know a place, my lord, where open grassland stretches for as far as a man can ride in a whole year. A place of great cats with sabers for teeth and other beasts, even more ferocious.”
Subotai’s eyes widened and the warriors around him stirred.
“There are few people in this land, so few that you could ride for weeks without seeing anyone.”
“We would not have to fight?”
“You will have to fight,” I said. “The land is ruled not by men, but by monsters such as no man has ever seen before.”
“Monsters?” blurted one of the warriors. “What kind of monsters?”
“Have you seen them yourself?”
“Are you spinning tales to try to frighten us, man of the west?”
Subotai hushed them with an impatient gesture.
I replied, “I have been there, my lords, and seen this land and the monsters who rule it. They are fierce and powerful and hideous.”
I spent the next hour describing Set and his Shaydanian clones, and the dinosaurs that he had brought from the Mesozoic.
“What you speak of,” said Subotai at last, “sounds much like the djinn of the Persians or the tsan goblins that the people of the high mountains fear.”
“They are to be feared, that is true enough,” I said. “And they have great powers. But they are neither ghosts nor goblins. They are as mortal as you or I. I myself have killed them with little more than a spear or a knife.”
Subotai sank back on his silken cushions, deep in thought. The others drank and held out their goblets for more wine. I drank, too. And waited.
Finally Subotai asked me, “Can you lead us to this land?”
“Yes, my lord Subotai.”
“I would see these monsters for myself.”
“I can take you there.”
“How soon? How long a journey is it?”
Suddenly I realized that I was talking myself into a double-edged trap. To bring Subotai or any of the Mongols back to the Neolithic, I would have to reveal to them powers that would convince them that I was a sorcerer. The Mongols did not deal kindly with sorcerers: usually they put them to the sword, or killed them more slowly.
And once in the Neolithic they might very well take one look at Set’s reptilians and decide that they were supernatural creatures. Although the Mongols feared no human, the sight of the Shaydanians might terrify them.
“My lord Subotai,” I answered carefully, “the land I speak of cannot be reached on horseback. I can take you there tomorrow morning, if you desire it, but the journey will seem very strange to you.”
He cast me a sidelong glance. “Speak more plainly, Orion.”
The others hunched forward, more curiosity on their faces than fear.
“You know that I come from a far land,” I said.
“From beyond the sea that stretches to the sky,” Subotai said, recalling what I had told him years before.
“Yes,” I agreed. “In my land people travel in very strange ways. They do not need horses. They can go across far mountains and seas in the blink of an eye.”
“Witchcraft!” snapped one of the warriors.
“No,” I said. “Merely a swifter way to travel.”
“Like the magic carpets that the storytellers of Baghdad speak of?” asked Subotai.
I grabbed at that idea. “Indeed, my lord, very much like that.”
His brows rose a centimeter. “I had always thought such tales to be nothing more than children’s nonsense.”
Bowing my head slightly to show some humility, I replied, “Children’s nonsense sometimes becomes reality, my lord. You yourself have accomplished deeds that would have seemed impossible to your grandfathers.”
He made that sighing noise again, almost a snort. The others remained silent.
“Very well,” said Subotai. “Tomorrow morning you will take me to this strange land you describe. Me, and my personal guard.”
“How many men will that be?” I asked.