Read Online The Tiger-Headed Horseman by Chris Walker - Free Book Online

melodramatic, improper and outlandish thoughts. She had always been a sensible, if slightly abnormal, girl. Although she hadn't attended class, she would almost certainly have been top of it in every subject. It was this damned womanhood thing that was changing the way she thought about life. It made her think about things differently. . .
    Where a man used to be merely someone who could carry heavier things than her or run faster than her, he was now more besides. Rather than watch the heavy boxes he was carrying, she would admire his muscle definition. Rather than be annoyed that the man had overtaken her running, she wouldnow marvel at the tone of his thighs and other . . . parts. All the stories had said that Chinggis was more manly than any other. It set her imagination alight. Lily turned red again. She turned her head and looked back at the fire. Lucky was staring at her. She was sure he was mocking her. She returned to her deep breathing exercises – they usually worked.
    Presently she had calmed herself enough to return to the fire. Sitting beside the items that now no longer seemed so silly, she shook the dirt from them and delicately placed them in some semblance of order. She examined each in turn repeatedly. Each examination ended with Lily staring longingly at the name Chinggis. She fought back her reddening cheeks. There was something in these items that Lily was not getting. Perhaps she did understand a little about what the words meant. There had to be a deeper meaning that Lily was as yet unable to comprehend. Why had Chinggis written them, though? Had Chinggis even written them at all? It could easily have been someone else – who could possibly know otherwise? The words had been written so long ago, there was no possible record to verify their authenticity. There was no proof and Lily knew that people liked proof. However, somehow Lily
knew
they were Chinggis's words. They had to be. When she had read his name, something had stirred in the depths of her belly. When she had run her fingers across the writing, her entire body had shaken with anticipation. There was something more to the words that the group elders had directed her towards and she needed to know what it was. Chinggis was speaking to her directly, and she, Lily, had a duty to listen. She knew that it was easier to catch an escaped horse than to pluck back an escaped word, but for the time being Chinggis's word had slipped away into the night air.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    7
    ‘Tengis and Odval up a tree,’ chanted their classmates. ‘C-H-I-N-G-I-N-G. First comes love, then baby Ching, then comes the worship of a fallen king!’
    The children blew raspberries at Tengis and Odval before running off into the playground. The school day often began like this for Tengis and Odval. It didn't bother either of them. They knew they were far better than the rest of their school mates. Odval, simply because she was; her family was among the wealthiest in Baatarulaan. Tengis because he knew he was Chinggis Khaan; he just hadn't been able to prove it yet. He knew that eventually he would, though, and that then the other children would be sorry, or so he hoped. A small part of him feared that when he did discover the reason he was Chinggis Khaan, he might be wholly ostracised or even banished from the city he knew was rightly his. He was a very confused young man. Still, he was in his final year of school. He would soon be free.
    The allure of university didn't appeal. He had little interest in the various sham courses on offer at Baatarulaan University for Khadists and Other Future Reprobates. Tengis could not ascertain what advantage he could gleam from studying for a degree in ‘Banking Irregularities and Financial Fraud’, ‘Home Economics and the Art of Effective Burglary’ or ‘Anthropological Gambling’. Even he, a mere high school pupil, pulled his hair out at the way education in Baatarulaan was heading. Thetraditional courses were being