Read Online Genghis: Birth of an Empire by Conn Iggulden - Free Book Online

eyes gazing into the past.
    “She rode the sweetest little mare, the color of storm water at dawn. Her legs were bare and very brown.”
    Temujin had not heard the story before and rode a little closer.
    “You raided her from the Olkhun’ut?” he said. It should not have surprised him, he knew. His father enjoyed hunting and raiding and his eyes shone when he recalled his battles. If the season was warm and food was plentiful, he sent defeated warriors back to their families on foot, with red welts on their skin from the flats of swords. In the winter, when food was scarce, it was death to be caught. Life was too hard for kindness in the dark months.
    “I chased her brothers away like a couple of young goats,” Yesugei said. “I was hardly old enough to be out on my own, but I waved my sword above my head and I yelled at them.”
    Caught up in the memory, he put his head back and gave out an ululating whoop, ending in laughter.
    “You should have seen their faces. One of them tried to attack me, but I was the son of a khan, Temujin, not some little dog to be cowed and sent running. I put an arrow through his hip and ran him off.”
    He sighed to himself.
    “Those were very good days. I thought I would never feel the cold in my bones, back then. I had an idea that I would be given nothing in my life, that everything I had would be taken by my wits and my strength.” He looked at his son, and his expression contained a regret Temujin could only guess at. “There was a time, boy, when I would have climbed for the red bird myself.”
    “If I had known, I would have come back and told you,” Temujin began, trying to understand this great bear of a man.
    Yesugei shook his head, chuckling. “Not now! I am too heavy to be dancing around on tiny ledges and cracks. If I tried it now, I think I would crash to earth like a falling star. What is the point in having sons if they cannot grow strong and test their courage? That is one truth I remember from my father, when he was sober. Courage cannot be left like bones in a bag. It must be brought out and shown the light again and again, growing stronger each time. If you think it will keep for the times you need it, you are wrong. It is like any other part of your strength. If you ignore it, the bag will be empty when you need it most. No, you were right to climb for the nest, and I was right to give the red bird to Eeluk.”
    There was no hiding the sudden stiffness that came into Temujin’s bearing. Yesugei made a purring sound in frustration, deep in his throat like a growl.
    “He is my first warrior, and deadly, boy, you should believe it. I would rather have Eeluk at my side than any five of the tribe— any ten of the Olkhun’ut. His children will not rule the families. His sword will never be as good as mine, do you understand? No, you are only twelve. What can you understand of what I say to you?”
    “You had to give him something,” Temujin snapped. “Is that what you mean?”
    “No. It was not a debt. I honored him with the red bird because he is my first warrior. Because he has been my friend since we were boys together and he has never complained that his family were beneath mine amongst the Wolves.”
    Temujin opened his mouth to snap a reply. The red bird would be soiled by Eeluk’s dirty hands, with their thick yellow skin. The bird was too fine for the ugly bondsman. He did not speak, and instead he practiced the discipline that gave him the cold face and showed the world nothing. It was his only real defense against his father’s searching gaze.
    Yesugei saw through it, and snorted.
    “Boy, I was showing the cold face when you were the sky father’s dream,” he said.
    * * *
    A s they made camp that night by a winding stream, Temujin set about the chores that would help sustain them the following day. With the hilt of his knife, he broke chunks of hard cheese from a heavy block, passing the pieces into leather bags half filled with water. The wet