One Night in Xanadu

Chapter 03 - My Name Was Altani

My name was Altani.

I was a princess of the Hu, the Hunnu, the Xiongnu. A princess of warriors, trained in the ways of war. Trained to kill men, and my hand itched to wield my spear even as horsemen rode up from behind us, a hunting party, parting the merchants and the tradespeople and the laborers on the road before them as if they were water.

"Wait, Princess." The Captain of Five Hundred did not move, but he knew me as I knew him and in that moment I knew he would not have objected but for this interruption. His voice was flat and this fool of a Han had no idea how close to death he was.

"What is this?" The voice at my back was harsh.

A voice such as my father, the Chanyu Attila, had once had before the sickness took him. Harsh. Commanding. A voice to be listened to and obeyed instantly. Before me, the Captain of Five Hundred and all his men instantly bowed low over the necks of their horses whilst the bearers of that thrice-cursed palanquin flung themselves on their faces, heedless of the snow and the ice and the mud.

Before my eyes, this Han woman who thought he was a man half fell from his gelding to prostrate himself in the snow and mud beside the road of stone leading towards those great gates. I did not take my eyes from the Han but my hand moved to grip my spear the better to drive it through the Han and the blood-rage filled me as I looked down on him considering where best to pin him through as I would have pinned the misshapen frog he resembled.

"Who are you, woman, who considers the death of my servant so eagerly?" that harsh voice said, curious now. Forcing the blood-rage back, I turned my head. I looked.

"Bow to the Khagan, Princess," the Captain of Five Hundred hissed, his face next to his horse's mane.

"I am Altani, Princess of the Xiongnu and sent by my brother, the Chanyu, as a gift and as a concubine to the Khagan," I said. Only then did I bow my head, to the same degree as the Captain of Five Hundred and his men. "And this woman in men's clothing on the ground before us has insulted me."

Around us, nobody moved. Nobody. It was as if the very air had turned to ice.

"If your brother is now the Chanyu, your father, the Chanyu Attila must now be dead, Princess Altani," the Khagan said. "And that is news to me, but first, Chingay, we will discuss this insult." The Captain of Five Hundred. Chingay. In all those weeks and months of travel, he had never revealed to me his name, and out of his armies, his men in the hundreds of thousands, the Khagan knew his name. "We will also discuss why a Princess of the Xiongnu who is sister to the Chanyu, and a daughter of the Chanyu Attila, is sent only as a concubine and a gift."

"Lord." The Captain of Five Hundred sat upright and while the Khagan's attention was on him, I ran my eyes over this Khagan, this feared ruler of the steppe peoples and of the Han, and, too, ruler of my own people, seated on his horse.

This man, he was my destiny whether I chose or not. My fate, my life, my future was in his hands, and I eyed him with, yes, both curiosity and fear, for it was wise for all men and women to fear the Khagan; and my brother the fool had gifted me to this man. This ruler of all.

"Who is this?" the Khagan said, eyeing Jiang Shunfu, prostrate in the snow and icy mud.

"One of your bureaucrats, Lord," Chingay said, and he spoke as a warrior of the Xiongnu would have spoken to my father. Forthrightly, but with respect.

I knew now what manner of man this ruler of these Mongols was. What manner of man this Khagan was. A man such as my father had been before he had sickened. A man such as this, a ruler such as this, there was no dishonor in this for me as a concubine, but even for him I would not swallow my pride, for I was Xiongnu, and honor and pride were everything. Without honor, without pride, I was nothing. Less than nothing.