The old general rode forward and dismounted. He walked now with a limp, but he was the same man Tenaka Khan had rescued all those years before.
‘Who are you?’ hissed the general. ‘Who?’
‘I am merely a man,’ said Tenaka, turning to stare at the battlements and his only daughter. The foolish boy had given him life, and he had used it to kill the last of his sons. And he knew, in that moment, that he could not rob his daughter of her love. No, better finally to accept death and fly in search of Jungir. ‘Kiall, come forth,’ he said softly.
Kiall found the tension lifting from him. He stretched and turned back to the general. ‘I thank you for the use of your sword, sir. The spirit of Tenaka Khan bade me ask for it.’
‘Just for a moment . . .’ said the general. He shook his head. ‘It doesn’t matter. Return to your fortress; you will die soon enough.’
Asta Khan leapt to the battlements. ‘Subodai!’ he called.
‘What is it, warlock?’
‘The son of the Khan is born!’
‘Is this true?’ Subodai hissed at Kiall.
‘Yes. In the night.’
‘I will bring him to you,” shouted Asta. ‘Do not attack.’
Kiall walked back to the fortress, where two soldiers opened the postern gate. Asta was moving towards the gatehouse when Chareos stopped him.
‘Wait,’ he said. ‘I will bring out the child.’
Chareos walked into the guardhouse, where Ravenna was awake with one child at her breast, the other sleeping.
He sat beside her. ‘I do not know how to say this, my lady. But, to avert the war, I promised one of your sons would be Khan. And now I am trapped by that promise.’
She looked at the anguish in his eyes and reached out a hand to him.
‘One of them is born to be Khan. The other would be slain – it is the Nadir way,’ she said. ‘Let Asta have what he wants. I will raise the other.’ She lifted the babe from her breast and kissed him tenderly. Take him before I change my mind.’
‘I will help you raise him, I swear it.’ He took the babe. ‘Now let there be no sound. Asta must not know there are twins.”
He walked to the door and out into the sunlight. Asta ran forward, holding out his thin arms for the child.
‘A new Great Khan,’ he said gleefully. Chareos passed the babe to him and it began to howl, but Asta leaned down and whispered in his ear. The babe quietened, and fell asleep.
‘I did what I had to do,’ said Asta. ‘But I am grateful to you, Blademaster.’ Chareos nodded, and watched the shaman walk out to the waiting army.
Within minutes they had departed the valley. As Chareos sat down in the sunshine and sagged back against the wall, Salida joined him.
‘I would not have believed the Lord Regent could be so heroic,’ said Chareos.
‘No,’ said Salida, lifting the parchment from his belt and tossing it to Chareos’ lap. The Blademaster opened it. The message was simple.
Give Jungir Khan all he asks for.
‘I think we did that, don’t you?’ observed Salida.
EPILOGUE
Kiall and Tanaki did not wait to be wed in the Gothir fashion. They cut their palms after the Nadir way, and pledged their troth before witnesses at Bel-azar. Then they rode from the fortress, back to the Steppes and out of the pages of Nadir history.
Chien-tsu and Oshi journeyed back to the Empire of the Kiatze, where the ambassador was covered with garlands and given lands of great wealth and greater beauty.
Harokas journeyed with Salida to New Gulgothir, where the Lord Regent grudgingly gave the Captain a fine award and a promotion.
Seven years later three riders halted before the first great gates of Castle Tenaka.
‘Once, my son,’ said Chareos, ‘this was Dros Delnoch, the mightiest of the Drenai fortresses. In those days it was ruled by the Earl of Bronze. One day that title will be yours.’
The boy turned his violet eyes on the six massive walls rearing back along the pass. ‘I will take it from the other side,’ he said softly.