The Endless Golden Dunes

Chapter 24: Mongolian Eyes

TUGULDUR
  

For a moment, he had simply fancied to stare at the arrivals.
  
Tuguldur watched as the Abbasids struggled to climb the mountains he had conquered so easily just by being one of the kins of Genghis Khan.
  
‘Pathetic, these ones,’ he said to himself. ‘But then again, all Abbasids are. I shouldn’t be surprised, all things considered.’
  
There was one with armor no like the others. Squinting his already narrow eyes, he saw the man in the front. He had a commander’s armor on him, which was just visible in between the gap that was formed between his furry coat.
  
Just another head on the spikes. That was how he saw the general. The thought made Tuguldur’s mouth curve into a cracked smile. If he would try enough – and he often succeeded – he could smell the scent of dripping blood combined with the natural smell of the wood the spikes were made of. He thought it was a wonderful smell.
  
‘What foolish men,’ he said. ‘Why do they have hope they can defeat the members of the empire that the great Khan made?’
  
When he spoke it aloud, he was offended. He wanted to suddenly shout at the Abbasids, but he knew he would draw unneeded attention. They weren’t supposed to know that they resided here. No, not yet, at the least. They will soon, Tuguldur was sure of that.
  
And then the damned voices came.
  
‘What if they are to kill you, Tuguldur? You would be a disgrace to the Khan and to all of the Mongols.’
  
‘Oh, be quiet, All you do is sit around my mind and tell me these things. Quite stupid, is it not?’
  
‘I am telling you of what is the truth. You cannot deny the fact that you are to die some day, fail when you tried.’
  
‘Idiocy! To Hell with you!’
  
With the intention of ignoring those thoughts, Tuguldur looked at the soldiers once more and that was when one of his own soldiers came to him.
  
‘When do we kill them?’ he asked.
  
‘These Arabs, they do not have high morale given the slightest inconvenience.’ Tuguldur replied.
  
‘But they are not all Arabs. They come from places such as Persia, or even Jerusalem.’
  
‘Jerusalem you say? Always had a dream of it being conquered by us.’
  
‘Then the start of that dream might be to kill these people.’
  
‘But see here, I want to make them suffer.’
  
‘Suffer? How do you plan on doing that?’
  
‘Many ways for that, Jochi. It is not hard. I am thinking of the future, the ireedui. Why bother wasting our energy on these few men, when we can make the entire caliphate collapse?’
  
‘I am not sure how you would do that.’
  
‘If we had the eyesight for it, southwards, there is a camp of these men.’
  
Though the two had the inability to see it, Tuguldur pointed in a direction.
  
‘Soon, very soon, that place is ours,’ he said. ‘A part of Persia, is it not?’
  
‘It is.’
  
‘Ah, I want to see the Euphrates and the Tigris. They lead to many great cities. Baghdad is where I have my eyes.’
  
‘The Khan has told you to only defend the mountains and maybe have some part of Persia around them.’
  
‘A man can dream, can he not, Jochi, my naiz?’
  
‘It is harmful for a man to dream of things he knows he will not be able to achieve.’
  
Tuguldur laughed.
  
‘True enough. Nonetheless, think of what will happen in the long run if these soldiers lose their morale. Like wildfire, panic will spread throughout the caliphate, and we shall sit back to see the result, observe it as it unfolds.’
  
‘Where are you going with this.’
  
‘Simply observe and do as I say. You will see soon enough.’