Swords From the West by Harold Lamb Read Free Book Online Page B

Yuan only smiled.
    "I led him to the merchant so that he should be cared for. This merchant hath many great chests with locks." The shaman's brow furrowed as he pondered. Without another word he departed, and the snarls of the beasts rose from the darkness as he passed.
    Within a half hour he was down on all fours upon the ground, a bearskin pulled over his shoulders. Patiently, moving a little at a time, he made his way across the wide enclosure in which Yashim had pitched camp.
    Avoiding the tents of the Turkomans, he sought out the great round yurt with sides of white felt bound upon wicker work. After a glance over his shoulder, he scratched gently on the felt.
    After a moment slender fingers pried up the edge of the felt, and Mardi Dobro thrust through his hand, touching and recognizing a silver armlet that could only be upon the wrist of Shedda the Circassian, the spy of Barka Khan.
    Even after that he whispered cautiously.
    "What hath the peregrine falcon seen in the tents of Islam?"
    "The Turkomans say there will be steel drawn in Sarai ... Yashim keeps a rein upon his tongue ... One boasted that more than twelve thousand Moslems are ready to arm themselves. The talk is of Barka Khan and the day when the ice will go out of the rivers. They will do nothing in Tana ... I have need of gold."
    "As ever!" Mardi Dobro checked a snarl. "Nay, thou-"
    "Be still. Yashiro pays little heed to us women, his head being full of other matters. His guards will look the other way for a gold piece, but they spit upon silver. Wilt thou say nay to the bearer of a falcon tablet of the khan?"
    The shaman ceased to argue and felt cautiously in his girdle. He selected some coins and passed them under the felt to Shedda, who fingered them and gave them back swiftly.
    "I said gold, not dog-dinars."
    Pensively Mardi Dobro brought out three coins, smooth and heavy, and this time Shedda accepted them.
    "Patience! " he muttered. "Nay, I have no more. Thy fingers would lift the horns from a bull. Now give heed. Thou hast seen the farangi merchant with the red beard. He rides to Sarai, as doth Yashim, with the next caravan. He hath with him only one swordsman, yet he bears heavy chests. He bath talked with Yashim, yet he buys no slaves. Do thou pry out what is in those chests, 0 nimble of fingers and wit!"
    "Akh! Is that work for me?"
    "On the book of the bakshi it is written that this Tron is a jewel merchant. Still he swears that he hath upon him only precious stones to the worth of a single horse. The chests are locked."
    Crawling away from the yurt, Mardi Dobro gained the gate and stood up, chuckling to himself. After a glance at the stars to learn the hour, he retraced his way to Ku Yuan's house and found the Cathayan reading by an oil lamp.
    "There is a letter," the shaman said, "to be written to the khan."
    He himself could write prayers to sell to the ignorant. But a message to his master was another matter, calling for deft brushwork in the Mongol characters.
    "By courier or pigeon?"
    "By pigeon. It must go swiftly to the camp."
    Ku Yuan brought out a small square of rice paper, a slender brush, and a tablet of ink.
    "To the Lord of the West and the East," the shaman dictated, "from the humble reader of omens at the sea gate of Tana, these tidings. The wolves of Islam are gathering in packs about his city of Sarai, and they will hunt before the breaking of the ice. Let the khan turn his eyes to the golden domes of his city. His men there are few, the wolves many. Now, Master Ku, let me see thee make thy mark below."
    Mardi Dobro could not read the lines of Mongol characters, but he knew the Cathayan's mark. Satisfied on this point, the shaman snatched up the rice paper, folded it, and rolled it into a tiny silver cylinder. He did not let the cylinder out of his hand until he had fastened it over the claw of a pigeon that he took from a cage hearing a special mark.
    Going out into the darkness, he tossed the pigeon up and stood to watch it