Poorly timed, this han excursion into the north. For Alukhai, the resurgence of his people and domesticity are at the front of his mind. The matter of Saikhanbayar’s changing condition in Batu’s heart, with an inevitable war ahead.

Out came the koumiss, sour and lukewarm from the day, in a dried stomach held between forepaws on a jut of grass where khaan lay.

Eyes find focus on the prowl of a woman, gleaming as unmelted ice amid summer. A great creature five times his size and far more graceful. Only at a distance had Batu seen. Her beauty mesmerizes like the moon.

It is just them in this stretch of the steppe. The wolf, the tiger, the rising moon. Khaan gains his footing.

“Why does a tigress come down from the mountain?”