Actually Achikh was a half-brother, but the distinction was generally ignored in the Mongol culture. And while Kaidu didn’t mention it, of course, most of the tribe considered Dokuz’s mistreatment of Khada’an as more or less disgraceful. Mothers-in-law were often harsh to daughters-in-law, but not usually with such rancor, especially when earlier they’d both been wives of the same man. And to a degree, the public disapproval reflected on himself. Thus Kaidu was careful always to treat Khada’an respectfully, and speak well of her.
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As for Nils and the others, they would be fed in their own ger by the woman assigned.
Word was sent to Khada’an that her son had returned and would visit her for supper. Her ger was not large, but it was large enough for herself and her household, and to entertain a few friends. Its furnishings were excellent. All in all it was appropriate to her unusual status— a younger widow of a chief who was not wife to the inheriting son. For normally, the inheriting son inherited his father’s wives, except for his own mother. Typically his own mother would rule the women of the household—his wives and inherited wives—as the mother-in-law. Such rule could be pleasant or unpleasant.
Dokuz, Kaidu’s mother, was Kokchü s first and eldest wife, a famous beauty with a face natter than an owl’s. She was the favorite daughter of the rich and powerful Mengetu family. Khada’an, Achikh’s mother, was his fourth and final wife, neither beautiful nor ugly, and Achikh was Khada’an’s only surviving son, the sixth son of eight, by various wives, who’d survived their father. Khada’an’s family, the Tokurs, was neither rich nor powerful, though respected for their integrity and the quality of their horses.
According to Dokuz, her dislike of the younger woman grew out of Khada’an’s inanities when the women would sit in the ger and do the many tasks that women do there. Besides, Khada’an did not look the part of a chiefs wife, for the wives of any prominent man were expected to get fat, preferably very fat, and Khada’an, while filling out moderately, would measure only half of Dokuz’s girth.
The gossip, though, was that her hatred had other roots: that Kokchü preferred to take Khada’an to his bed, though she gave him only one living son and two daughters.
Fortunately for Khada’an, Kokchü’s mother was alive till almost the day of Kokchü’s death. And under the old lady’s even-handed management, Dokuz could abuse
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Khada’an only with her sarcasm, while even in that her mother-in-law enforced restraint.
When Kokchü died, Kaidu inherited his wives, and Dokuz became the mother-in-law. Now she not only tongue-lashed Khada’an cruelly, but gave her demeaning ana exhausting tasks in the household, as if she were one of the slaves. And indeed the slaves were better off, for the matron spoke to them far less harshly.
All of this Achikh already knew. It was the decisive reason why the seventeen-year-old youth, who had adventurous tendencies anyway, left home as the leader of a reckless teenaged band.
Now, on his first evening back, Achikh ate supper with his mother. A supper of beef and kidneys and brain and curds and airag. When he finished, he listened to a bitter recitation of his mother’s resentments. After he’d gone traveling westward, she said, she no longer felt tied to the chiefs household, and begged Kaidu to let her return to her family. Twice he’d withheld his permission. Not that he took his inherited wives to his bed, unless they requested it. He’d refused her simply because of his mother, who wished to retain her for her own cruel purposes. At her third request he’d relented, sending her back destitute to her father, whose charity fed and clothed her. She’d had to beg from her brothers to get the furnishings she had around her.
She also told him that as her son, he should publicly reject Kaidu as his brother
Achikh told Nils all of this late that night atop their sleeping robes, while Hans and Baver listened. They spoke in Anglic so far as possible, in case others were eavesdropping. “Then I went to my Uncle Jelme, my mother’s eldest brother, wondering what I should do. Should I reject my elder brother Kaidu, who had taught me much as a child and had always treated me well? Most would say he was kind to release my mother; many would not have done it. But to send her away with nothing …