Kolya saw him up close just once. Squatting on the ground inside his cage, the boy was talltaller than all the Mongols, even taller than Kolyabut his face and body had the unformed look of a child. His skin was weather-beaten and his feet were callused. There wasnt an ounce of fat on his body, but his muscles were hard. He looked as if he could run all day without a break. Over his eyes was a heavy ridge of bone. When he looked at Kolya his eyes were startling blue, clear as the sky. There was intelligence there, Kolya thoughtbut it wasnt a human intelligence; it was a blank knowingness, without a center in self, like the eyes of a lion.
Kolya tried to talk about this with Sable. Perhaps this was some prehuman, a Homo erectus perhaps, haplessly caught up in the Discontinuity. But Sable was nowhere to be found.
When Kolya went back, the cage had gone. He learned the boy had died, his body removed and burned with the rest of the waste from the hunt.
Sable reappeared about noon the day after that. Yeh-l and Kolya were in the middle of another of their strategy sessions.
Sable was wearing a Mongol tunic, of the expensive, embroidered sort the Golden Family sported, but she had bits of bright orange parachute silk in her hair and around her neck, a badge of her different origins. She looked wild, a creature neither of one world nor the other, out of control.
Yeh-l sat back and watched her steadily, wary, calculating.
What happened to you? Kolya said in English. I havent seen you since you pulled that gun.
Spectacular, wasnt it? she breathed. And it worked.
What do you mean, it worked? Genghis could have had you killed, for violating his priority in the hunt.
But he didnt. He called me to his yurt. He sent out everybody, even the interpretersthere were just the two of us. I think he really believes now that I am from his Tengri. You know, when I went to him Genghis had been drinking for hours, so I cured his hangover. I kissed his cup of wineI slipped in a few aspirins Id put in my mouth. It was so easy. I tell you, Kolya
What did you offer him, Sable?
What he wants. Long ago he was given a divine mission, via a shaman. Genghis is Tengri s representative on Earth, sent to rule over all of us. He knows his mission isnt complete yetand since the Discontinuity hes actually gone backwardbut he also knows hes getting older. That Communist monument recording the date of his death spooked the bejesus out of him. He wants time to complete his mission he wants immortality. And thats what I offered him. I told him that in Babylon he will find the philosophers stone.
Kolya gasped. Youre crazy.
How do you know, Kolya? Weve no idea what waits for us in Babylon. Who knows whats possible? And who is to stop us? she sneered. Casey? Those dumb-ass Brits in India?
Kolya hesitated. Did Genghis take you to his bed?
She smiled. I knew he would be put off by clean flesh. So I took a little dung from his favorite horse, and rubbed it in my scalp. I even rolled around in the dirt a bit. It worked. And you know, he liked my skin. The smoothnessthe absence of disease scars. He may not like hygiene, but he likes its results. Her face darkened. He took me from behind. The Mongols make love about as subtly as they wage war. Some day that hard-faced bastard will pay for that.
Sable
But not today. He got what he wanted, and so did I. She beckoned Basil. You, Frenchie. Tell Yeh-l that Genghis has decided. The Mongols would have reached Iraq anyhow, in a generation or so; the campaign wont be a challenge for them. The quriltai, the council of war, has already been called. She took a dagger from her boot, and thrust it into the map, where she had placed it before, into Babylon. This time nobody dared remove it.
Part 4
The Confluence of History
25. The Fleet
Bisesa thought that Alexanders fleet, gathered offshore, looked magnificent despite the rain. There were triremes with their banks of oars, horses whinnied nervously on flat-bottomed barges, and most impressive of all were the zohruks ,shallow-draft grain-lighters, an Indian design that would persist to the twenty-first century. The rain fell in sheets, obscuring everything, washing out colors and softening lines and perspectives, but it was hot, and the oarsmen went naked, their brown, wiry bodies glistening, the water plastering their hair flat and running down their faces.
Bisesa couldnt resist taking snaps of the spectacle. But the phone was complaining. What do you think this is, a theme park? Youre going to fill my memory long before we get to Babylon, and then what will you do? And Im getting wet
Alexander meanwhile was seeking the gods approval of the coming journey. Standing at the bow of his ship, he poured libations from a golden bowl into the water, and called on Poseidon, the sea-nymphs, and the spirits of the World Ocean to preserve and protect his fleet. Then he went on to make offerings to Heracles, who he supposed was his ancestor, and Ammon, the Egyptian god he had come to identify with Zeus, and indeed had discovered to be his own father at a shrine in the desert.
The few hundred nineteenth-century British troops, drawn up in rough order by their officers, watched with amazement, and some ribald comments, as the King did his divine duty. But Tommies and sepoys alike had been happy enough to accept the hospitality of the Macedonian camp; Alexanders gestures today were the finale of days of sacrifices and celebration, of musical festivals and athletic contests. Last night the King had given a sacrificial animal, a sheep, cow or goat, to each platoon. It had been, Bisesa thought, like the mightiest barbecue in history.
Ruddy Kipling, standing with his broad face sheltered by a peaked cap, pulled irritably at his mustache. What nonsense fills the minds of men! You know, as a child my ayah was a Roman Catholic, who would take us children to churchthe one by the Botanical Gardens in Parel, if you know it. I liked the solemnity and dignity of it all. But then we had a bearer called Meeta who would teach us local songs and take us to Hindu temples. I rather liked their dimly seen but friendly gods.
Abdikadir said dryly, An interestingly ecumenical childhood.
Perhaps, Ruddy said. But stories told to children are one thingand the ludicrous Hindu pantheon is little more than that: monstrous and inane, and littered with obscene phallic images! And what is it but a remote echo of this nonsensical crew on whom Alexander wastes good wineindeed, of whom he believes himself to be a part?
Ruddy, when in Rome, do as the Romans do, Josh said.
Ruddy clapped him on the back. But, chum, hereabouts Rome probably hasnt been built! So what am I to do? Eh, eh?
The ceremonies finished at last. Bisesa and the others made for the boats that would transfer them to the ships. They and most of the British troops were to sail with the fleet, with about half of Alexanders army, while the rump would follow the shore.
The army camp broke up, and the baggage train began to form. It was a chaotic scene, with thousands of men, women, children, ponies, mules, bullocks, goats and sheep, all milling around. There were carts laden with goods and tools for the cooks, carpenters, cobblers, armorers and other craftsmen and traders who followed the army. More enigmatic shapes of wood and iron were catapults and siege engines, broken down into kit form. Prostitutes and water-carriers worked the crowd, and Bisesa saw the proud heads of camels lifting above the crush. The noise was extraordinary, a clamor of voices, bells and trumpets, and the complaints of draft animals. The presence of the bewildered man-apes, confined in a lashed-up cage on their own cart, only added to the circuslike atmosphere of the whole venture.