Genghis: Bones of the Hills by Conn Iggulden

Author:Conn Iggulden [Iggulden, Conn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780385342803
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 2008-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Jelaudin rubbed his eyes, furious at his own weakness. He could not let his three brothers see his air of confidence fade, not when they looked to him every day with fear and hope.

He winced in the darkness at his father’s labouring breath, in and out in a slow wheeze that seemed to go on for ever. Every time it ceased, Jelaudin listened in despair, not knowing what he would do if the silence stretched and stretched around him.

The Mongols had brought the old man down, just as if they had struck him with one of their shafts. The pursuit across plains and mountains had never allowed the shah to rest and recover. Damp ground and torrential rain had meant they all suffered colds and aching joints. At more than sixty years of age, the old man was like a bull, but the damp had seeped into his lungs and torn the strength right out of him. Jelaudin could feel tears spring fresh to his eyes and he rubbed them too hard, digging the heels of his hands into the sockets so that the pain would ease his anger.

He had never been hunted before. In the first month, it was like a game to him. He and his brothers had laughed at the Mongols on their trail, coming up with ridiculous plans to lose them. As the rains had come, they had laid false trails, split their force, then split it again. They had ordered men to their deaths in ambushes that barely seemed to slow the implacable enemy who streamed after them.

Jelaudin listened as his father’s breath crackled in the dark. His lungs were full of thick muck and he would wake soon, choking on it. Jelaudin would pound him on the back as he had so many times before, until the old man’s skin lost its waxy look and he could rise for one more day on the run.

‘Curse them all to hell,’ Jelaudin whispered. The Mongols must have had men who could follow the path of a bird in flight. Four times Jelaudin had risked turning his father back to the south. On each occasion, they had seen a distant line of scouts, spread wide and watching for just such an attempt. On the last, they had been forced to run to exhaustion, finally losing themselves in a city market. Jelaudin had barely escaped with his life and his father’s coughing had started two nights later, after sleeping on wet ground.

It had hurt the brothers to send the last guards away. It was just too easy to track large groups of men, or even the last few dozen who had stayed doggedly with the shah they had pledged to serve. Now only Jelaudin remained with his three younger brothers to tend their father. They had changed their clothes and horses too many times to recall. They had only a little gold left for food and supplies, and when that was gone, Jelaudin truly did not know what would happen.

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