Free The Tiger-Headed Horseman by Chris Walker Page B

with the Fun Brigade. Your father disappeared because he never really wanted us, or if he did he was more concerned with what he wanted for himself. I did, though. I have raised you, fed you and loved you as only a mother can, and yet you treat me this way?’
    ‘You!’ screamed Tengis. ‘Why is everything always about
you
? Have you not heard what I have been saying? This whole place is putrid. We are being treated like idiots. Somebody has to make a stand and do something before we degenerate any further. I am going to be that person. You'll see. One day you'll remember what I've said and maybe then you'll understand me. Until you do I cannot live under the same roof as you. So long as you put up with this way of life your home is as putrid as the gutters of Baatarulaan.’
    ‘Tengis!’ said Mrs Khaan. She had begun to cry. ‘My son, what are you saying?’
    ‘I'm leaving, Mother,’ said Tengis. He had started to calm himself. ‘I have a life to find. That life is certainly not here, not at the moment anyway. Don't cry for me. I will survive; I know how to stay alive. You will hold your head high once I have made things better. You will be proud of me.’
    ‘I
am
proud of you,’ sobbed Mrs Khaan. ‘Please, Tengis, please don't go. What will I do without you here? You might be able to survive but I don't know if I will.’
    ‘You have survived worse than this,’ said Tengis. He took his mother in his arms. ‘This is something I need to do. I am sorry if I have hurt you. I have to leave, I have to be what I am meant to be, I am destined for great things.’
    ‘What about Clown Oldortar?’ said Mrs Khaan. She knew that her son had his mind set. ‘He will be looking for you. He controls everything. How will you keep safe? Odval, you must contact Odval. You can't leave or go anywhere without speaking to her. Where are you going to go?’
    ‘I cannot tell you, Mother,’ said Tengis. ‘The less you know the easier it will be when you speak to Clown Oldortar. He won't hurt you. Odval will have to wait. Perhaps the passing of time will help her see that I am being logical, that I am Chinggis Khaan, that I am the great person she once believed me to be. Perhaps she will come to love me, even – perhaps not! My purpose transcends friendship. For the time being it transcends family, too.’

 
     
     
     
     
     
    9
    Lily had spent several days at her makeshift camp trying in vain to understand what it was that Chinggis had meant when he wrote: ‘A tiger wearing a bell will starve and a cat that likes to eat fresh fish will not go into the water; however, the distance between Heaven and Earth is no greater than one thought.’
    Her first task was to identify who it was that Chinggis was referring to. There were only city dwellers, herders and Outsiders.
    She surmised that the feline references related in some way to Baatarulaan. She had heard the elders often refer to the city's inhabitants as ‘fat cats’. That made sense – who else could it mean? Lily knew that city dwellers were far more showy and extravagant than her nomadic group. In Lily's opinion, the people who lived in the city were too lazy to fend for themselves. Her father had warned her against the corruption and base nature of those within Baatarulaan's walls. Still, he had also inferred that they did have riches far beyond anything any mere herder could ever expect. Lily's father and the elders actually shunned riches; so long as they had enough they knew that was enough. More led to more problems. But riches were riches and would never lose their real appeal so long as humans breathed.
    However, Lily knew that the appeal of riches was greed and that, no matter how many riches she accumulated, greed would have kept her poor for ever; even the abundance of this worldwould not make her rich. It was an odd conundrum but Lily knew that living as a herder she was living on the side of the equation she preferred. City dwellers were welcome to the