The Tiger-Headed Horseman (21 page)

Lily stood silently, peering into the eyes of her friend, trying to see if she was able to guess what she was about to say. Her friend began to weep softly.

‘Why are you sad?’ asked Lily. ‘You are beautiful. You are wise. You live in the most charming lands I have ever seen. And you are immortal. Please don't be upset. You have so much.’ Lily moved closer to her friend to comfort her but was waved away.

‘Please,’ said her friend, ‘please, let me tell you what I have to say. It has been so long since I spoke of it that I sometimes
wonder if I only ever dreamed it. I know that Tengis has no connection with Chinggis. I know that Chinggis would never speak to someone with such a foul mind. I know that Chinggis would never counsel anyone to fool the people so cruelly as Tengis is doing. I have a closer understanding of Chinggis than even his mother.’

Lily remained stock-still. Her friend stood up tall and composed herself.

‘Please,’ said Lily, ‘tell me.’

‘Chinggis and I were lovers,’ said her friend. ‘Chinggis and I were the closest friends can be. Chinggis and I were united on Earth and promised never to part. But Khad made sure we would never be united in death. I have waited for his return for eight hundred years. Chinggis was never committed to the ground. His death was never mourned correctly. His spirit remains stranded in some distant limbo unable to reach its final destination. Such is the way for those without proper burial. He cannot come to me and now that I am bound to the spirit world I can no longer search for his soul.’

Lily was shocked. In all the years she had known her spirit friend she had never imagined that she was such an important friend. She had presumed she was the spirit of some other shawoman, not anyone as important as the famous and falsely dishonoured Tsara.

‘What happened to you?’ asked Lily.

‘Once Khad had spread his vile words about my fictitious misconduct,’ said Tsara, ‘the people were too afraid to ignore them. Within months everything that Chinggis had striven so hard to create had been turned inside out by his jealous and evil cousin. Even my closest friends and confidantes turned against me. So terrified were they of Khad's wrath they shunned me. All of them shut me out of their lives entirely. They even took my children from me. My lovely Sukh and Bolorerdene. I
was deemed unfit as a mother. I, the woman who had given birth to Chinggis's rightful heirs, was made to watch as Khad took them from me and imprisoned them in a tower. Khad saw to it that my name became synonymous with dirt. Whenever my name was mentioned, people used to spit on the floor. It was more than I could bear – in the end my only hope of escape was to the spirit world to which I duly fled.’ Tsara fell to the ground and broke down. Her tears melted away the ice where they fell. Lily was struggling to accept what she was hearing. On top of everything that had been happening in the real world, the spirit world, too, was now being thrown into disarray. She bent down and comforted her friend.

‘I wish I could do something to help you,’ said Lily. ‘You have been such a good friend. You have always been there when I needed help. I would love to be able to repay your kindness in some small way.’

‘How I miss my children,’ sobbed Tsara. ‘How could anyone deprive a mother of her children? My poor Sukh and Bolorerdene. I have no idea what happened to them. Every day I pray that one of my more kindly friends managed to get them released and that they lived long and happy lives.’

‘Have you never found them in the spirit world?’ asked Lily. She knew it was a sensitive question but wanted to find out what she could if she was going to try and help her friend who had done so much to help her as she had grown up. If the children had not been found in the spirit world, then they had met a fate as callous and cruel as that which had overtaken their father. Tsara remained wordless, crying into Lily's shoulder. The ladies consoled one another helplessly. They remained thus for several hours.

‘This spirit world has many wonders,’ said Tsara, ‘but it has many drawbacks too. If only I could visit the real world and search for my loved ones.’

‘What about me?’ asked Lily. ‘Surely I can help. I don't know where to start but with your guiding hand I could help you surely?’

‘I know very little,’ said Tsara. ‘All I remember was Khad bragging about having sealed Chinggis in an icy tomb and my children in a tower. I have no idea where either might be located but if you could possibly help me I would be eternally grateful . . . and I do have an eternity in which to be grateful! Come, let us sit down and plan. There is much that needs doing.’ Tsara led Lily by the hand and they sat beneath the tree where once they had talked briefly to Mark Anthony. Lily found some paper and a pen and they began to make notes on what needed to be done.

‘I have so many things to do but have failed at discovering any of them so far,’ said Lily. ‘I have no tiger with a bell. There seems to be no sign of cats eating fish. Heaven and Earth still feel like very different places to me. My father is still being held somewhere but I don't know where that is. We have to look in every glacier for Chinggis; there are hundreds in Ongolium. And we must find your two children, though again I cannot for the life of me think of anywhere to start looking.’

‘Have faith,’ said Tsara. ‘If eight hundred years has taught me anything it is that while a person might fail seven times yet they will rise up again eight times. I said before that you are special. Use your prescience; it will serve you just as I do. Think of it as a guide in the real world. Do not look to master it. Let it feel freely and when it directs you, follow.’

‘I will try,’ said Lily. ‘What about Tengis? How will I avoid him? If I meet him again, what should I do?’

‘His power lies exclusively in his highly spun words and shimmering substance,’ said Tsara. ‘Words can easily be outmanoeuvred by actions. When the time comes you will know what to do. As for his shiny material, I will leave it up to you to
decide how best to deal with this. For now I bid you fair weather and fill your heart with my love and gratitude.’

‘Please,’ implored Lily, ‘don't go!’

It was too late. Lily began to feel the pull back into the real world she had grown accustomed to. The invisible shroud slowly began to dissolve and she found herself sitting next to a fire. Lucky stood behind her with a startled look on his face. She braced herself in anticipation of the icy wind but it didn't blast her. They were not where she expected them to be. She looked about for her tent; it wasn't there. Standing up in the darkness, she banged her head. Rubbing it better with her hand, she listened for signs of wildlife or weather. Her ears filled with the sound of silence. As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, her mouth opened in awe. This was most definitely not the Steppe.

20

‘Have you caught her yet?’ asked Tengis. ‘I want her found and I want her killed. There is no place in my city for heretical witches.’ The guards lining the walls looked on bemused; they hadn't realised that Baatarulaan had become Tengis's city, at least not yet.

‘No sign of her, sir,’ replied Oldortar. ‘It confirms my suspicions that there must be some underground movement that aided her escape. My men are too thorough to have missed her otherwise.’

‘Evidently not thorough enough,’ said Tengis.

Oldortar shrank away from him into the shadows; his guards stifled their laughs.

‘All of you, get out! I want that witch found. Nobody rests until she is dead, you understand?’

Odval looked almost ashamed. She loved Tengis but ever since he had returned to Baatarulaan with the shimmering substance his thoughts had begun to become ever more corrupt. With each day that passed his savage hunger for absolute power wiped out the sound, logical mind she had fallen in love with. She feared that he no longer wanted to restore the faith of Chinggis. She feared his motives were completely personal and he had been utterly seduced by the glistening material. In the past week he had taken a new and terrifying direction. Since the moment Tengis had met the woman who was Lily he had been overflowing with bloodlust.
The man she adored who had once never been able to lift a finger in anger was craving death, violence and mayhem. She had no idea why one woman should have incited such passion in his heart and she was embarrassed to admit that she, too, longed for her demise – that this other woman could stir such emotion was beginning to claw at her heart as jealousy started to overcome her.

In the previous two days Tengis had ordered three executions. The first victim was someone who had tried to steal his glimmering metal, the second a foolish boy who had tried to start a True Chinggis movement at one of Tengis's own rallies. The last person he had hanged that week was the result of simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. A young girl who worked in his kitchen had hurriedly been carrying Tengis and Odval's porridge to their bedroom when she had rounded a corner and bumped into Tengis as he was on his way to the bathroom, spilling the contents of Odval's bowl down his pyjama bottoms as she did so. It had scalded Tengis where he least wanted to be scalded and he had immediately ordered that the girl repay him with her life. Odval had willingly concurred; she loved her porridge on cold mornings and was most put out to have missed breakfast.

Life in the Tengis household was fast becoming less than relaxed. With Tengis rampantly seeking the blood of Lily, Odval fighting her jealous demons, the guards floundering as they sought to find Tengis's quarry, and the staff simply cowed and scared, the home was quickly shrouded in tension. The stronger Tengis's desire to capture Lily grew, the more time he spent alone seeking counsel from the voice in his head.

‘You must humiliate and destroy her!’ said the voice. ‘She is the one person that can prevent you from fulfilling your destiny.’ Tengis shared one thing with Lily: both of them were regularly reminded by their personal counsellors that they
separately had amazing futures ahead of them if only they fulfilled their destiny. ‘If you fail to kill that woman she will tear apart everything you believe in and sully your name for ever.’

‘But how can one person possibly ruin our plans?’ asked Tengis. ‘I am committed to killing her but it's not because I fear she could prevent me reaching my potential. There is just something about her that makes me livid. It's as though we know each other without having ever met. She can see into my soul. What would you do? More to the point, what would Chinggis do?’

‘Well, it's not about what Chinggis would do,’ said the voice, ‘it is about what
you
should do. The power you have at your disposal offers boundless opportunity. You can turn Ongolium into whatever you please once you prove yourself worthy to the people. I have always believed that the best way to prove one's worth to one's people is to ensure that they fear you more than death itself.’

‘How can that be?’ asked Tengis. ‘I have always simply wanted to make their lives better; it is the New Chinggism way. My Ten Recommendations are all designed to help people live a happier life. When I wrote that people should not take things that are not theirs, I meant for them to put an end to the robberies and theft that have dogged Baatarulaan for centuries. When I recommended that people stopped saying bad things about one another, all I wanted was to create one big society that was based upon mutual respect. My suggestion to have only one belief was to unite faith in the same way that Chinggis united cultures when he was emperor. As for asking people to stop killing one another, that is because it's a job for higher authorities not the common person in the street. There has to be a jolly good reason to put an end to somebody's life. I am all about the people; I have always been all about the people; I will
always be all about the people. Why would I want or even need them to fear me?’

‘Was it not you who killed a girl over porridge?’ said the voice. ‘People will always look to their leaders to set the benchmark for acceptable and proper behaviour.’

‘That was a spur-of-the-moment sort of thing,’ replied Tengis. ‘I really probably should have just given her a stern talking to, but my bits hurt so much that I got carried away. I promise I will try harder going forward.’

‘Very well,’ said the voice a little wearily. ‘But have you not taken possession of everything that had once belonged to the Khadists? You have even made their head office your home.’

‘That's different!’ explained Tengis, ‘I have formed a coalition between New Chinggism and the Khadists. It is only fair that we sought to find accommodations between us. I have relinquished threatening behaviour towards them and they have given up each and every trapping of office. I have also given up all claims over their personal possessions. I think you'll find that I have been more than generous on that account. They may have given up or amended accordingly every policy they stood for but I have kept them in power . . . Well, we share power, sort of, and they still have their lives.’

‘If you are to lead by example,’ said the voice, ‘surely you should stop saying bad things about that girl in public, and about everyone else in private?’

‘What I say in my own home is my own private business,’ said Tengis. He was becoming more than a little irritated. ‘I can say whatever I want in my own home and, if there are people in my home that hear what I say, then that's fine because it's my private home, and if my home just so happens to be the main office where we govern the country from . . . well that's life. It is
my
home and I can say what I like. As for that girl. That girl is beneath contempt.’

‘If she is beneath contempt,’ said the voice, ‘doesn't that mean she is not worth feeling contempt for?’

‘Don't play with my words!’ said Tengis. ‘She is beneath contempt in so much as she ignites sentiment that is even more base than contempt. I hate her. She is a danger not only to me but to the whole of Ongolium. If I am to do right by the people, she must be wiped from the face of this world. It is the best thing for the people. If this requires me to spread the word of her status in order to capture her, then I am only doing the bidding of the people; it is nothing personal. I would never dream of saying anything bad about anyone else unless it was for the greater good.’