One Night in Xanadu

Chapter 04 - Is that not the old way?

"Am I, the daughter and sister of the Chanyu of the Xiongnu, not here as a gift, Lord," I said, and now my face was not the cold face. My cheeks were pink, my lips were red and my words were not words of flattery or simulated happiness.

"I, the daughter of the old Chanyu, Attila, and sister of the new Chanyu of the Xiongnu, I have been sent to you to serve you as you please. You are the Great Khan of the Xiongnu, Lord, for if you were not, I would not have been sent as a gift. Instead we would be meeting in battle as our people met in the past, or you would be raiding the camps of my people, as we raided each other's camps in the past."

"Though my grandmother, whose name was Gan, was a woman of the Khorulas," I added. "Taken by my grandfather in a raid." And now I smiled.

Around me, his guards' hands gripped the hilts of their swords, the shafts of their spears, the grips of their bows. One word from the Khagan and my body would join Jiang Shunfu's on the stone road, but I had my pride and my honor and my eyes met the Khagan's, and I sat Aranjagaan upright and unyielding. I sat without fear, for what was death compared to honor and pride.

Around me, his guards' breath hissed out, their horses shifted beneath their riders. 

I smiled, for many of my people had stolen wives from the yurts of the Mongols in the past, as the Mongols had stolen many wives from the yurts of the Xiongnu.

As my grandfather had stolen my grandmother from the Mongols, and Mongol blood ran strong in my veins.

It was counted no dishonor for a woman to be taken in a raid. Dishonor for the men to let their woman be taken perhaps, but for us women, this was a fact of life. My grandmother had made the most of it. She had been a wife of the Chanyu of the Hu, which was no ill fate. Not his first wife, for he was the Chanyu, and he had had many wives, but a wife nonetheless. Her son though, he had become the Chanyu in his turn, and now her grandson too, fool though he was.

The Khagan threw his head back; his laughter filled the air. "Your grandmother's blood is strong in you, daughter of the Xiongnu, blood of the Khorula's, and I see at a glance that the Khorula blood and the Khorula pride and the beauty of the Khorula women run true. When I was younger, I would have raided your father's yurts for one such as you."

My eyes looked into the Great Khan's. "And if your raid had been successful, I would have welcomed one such as you, to carry me away and make me his wife in the old way."

Now I smiled, for was I not Xiongnu? Was I not a daughter of the steppe? Was I not of the People of the Wolves? "If one such as you could indeed capture me and take me as a daughter of the Xiongnu should be taken. Is not that the way of our peoples, Lord? Is that not the old way?"

His men, his guards, here and there a man nodded agreement, here and there came a hiss of approval, and the Khagan heard. He heard, and he took notice, and I saw that even the Khagan took heed of the approval of his warriors.

"It was our way," the Khagan said. "That was the old way, and it was good, and it appears to me that you are indeed your father's daughter, and that his blood and the Khorula blood run strong in you," and he was watching me, and it was as if he could see into my soul and read my mind and he smiled then. "Your brother the Chanyu has sent you to me as a gift, but I do not accept you as a gift, Princess Altani of the Xiongnu."

My heart sank like a stone cast into a lake, but I held the cold face as the Khagan watched me. Watched me for a long moment and then he smiled. A slow smile, a smile that held a deeper meaning. "Why do we not let us see then if the Khagan can still capture and take a daughter of the Xiongnu as his wife in the old way, if that should be your wish, Princess."