The Boy's Marco Polo by D. F. Morgan

Author:D. F. Morgan [D. F. Morgan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781449751562
Publisher: WestBow Press
Published: 2012-06-06T00:00:00+00:00

The Great City of Kanbalu was the Kublai Khan’s Royal Walled Fortress. Without its walls lay Kanbaluc, a city of a million houses for the Khan’s subjects.

Chapter Seventeen:

Kanbalu

Perfect snow fell. Marco saw a white blur. Looking out of his window in Kanbalu, he saw a wild bird’s little footprints. Bu Wu, now grown into a beautiful bird of prey, shook on her perch beside him. He thought she was cold. She just wanted to fly. Since her pinion (wing) feathers had all come in, she was ready for training. Chin wanted to be appointed for her. He had told Marco the Emperor was considering his petition. Chin might be her new trainer on all royal hunts.

Soft winds blew the snows about the Royal city of Kanbalu. Another city, Kanbaluc, was outside this palace compound and lay for five miles in every direction. One million houses made up Kanbaluc.

Everywhere outside the fine house where the Polo family stayed was cold and ice. Marco laughed to himself, remembering how Tio Maffeo loved this time inside, for he enjoyed telling his family stories. No one could get away. They heard the same stories four and five times before he chose another. At least they did not have to work outside in the cold.

Han, their trail-cook-now-house cook, had extra fire pots all around the house for warmth. He had an extra cookfire in the kitchen just for making meat-on-sticks all day. His hired errand boys kept the house well-supplied with wood and coal for the warmers. In return they ate constantly. Niccolo liked to say, “The poor are always with us.” Tio Maffeo said the words were from the Holy Scriptures.

The coal was a source of wonder to Marco. It looked like a simple rock at first. When lit… which sometimes took a few minutes… it turned into a little fiery furnace. It was warm in the cast iron firepots anyway.

Bu Wu reminded Marco it was time to eat. Her dinner was ready in the kitchen. Han would feed her on little blue and white dishes. They were very costly.

Marco put her on his arm delicately because of her very sharp talons. She had to stand upon a leather sleeve he wrapped around his arm. He still felt a little pain from her tight grip once in a while, despite the sleeve. He heard a little gong sound and some little bells. Bu Wu almost took flight from his arm. Marco waved his arm slightly to resettle her, holding her feathered breast with the back of his hand.

“Bosta (bos.tah: Italian for “stop”), Bu Wu,” ordered Marco. “You must be a gracious Lady.”“

Bu Wu ate and ate. So did Marco.

§

At that same moment, the Khan-of-All-the-World sat in a green-coloured garden pagoda on a broad hill nearby. He too had watched the snow blowing through the fragrant pine trees. The cold was bitter to him, but the view was sweet. He called that place the Green Mount. Upon it he had ordered all of the evergreen trees to be planted for his pleasure.

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