The Most Unfortunate Khatun Part 1 - A Daring Plan

When Bo-Jing and his war band returned to Banua, the battle had settled into an uneasy stalemate. Dead beastmen and other monsters littered the ground before the walls, but the defenders were nearing exhaustion. The archers had almost spent their last arrows, and the surviving attackers searched for ways to climb the walls and overwhelm the catwalks.

Though weary from their long ride, Bo-Jing and his companions immediately joined the defense. Charging through the gates in tight formation, they relieved the exhausted archers and methodically drove the remaining monsters from the settlement.

Bangqiu and Naransetseng reached Banua later that same day. Having crossed the mountains, they spent one final night at a small stupa outside the settlement before entering the city. Naransetseng was warmly welcomed by Ganbaatar, brother to her late husband and Khan of the Bolad Horde, and by Bo-Jing, who once again returned to her the necklace that had so recently been recovered. She accepted it with joy, grateful for his gesture of quiet heroism.

The celebration proved short-lived. By the following morning, Ganbaatar spoke the truth that everyone already understood. Whatever obligations family might impose, his first duty was to the people of Banua. With the Master's armies pressing ever closer, the Bolad Horde could not risk its survival to protect a woman who no longer belonged to its people. Naransetseng would be granted three days' refuge in Banua and might be required to depart even sooner should the beastmen return.

At the time, neither the companions nor the khans understood why the Master's servants pursued Naransetseng with such determination. They knew only that wherever she fled, the beastmen followed.

Those anxious days were brightened by the arrival of Tetsukichi, a renowned warrior of the Sansar Horde. Faithful allies of the Eagle Clan, sixty Sansar horsemen had answered the Eagle Clan's desperate call for aid. Tetsukichi himself was already a trusted companion of Bo-Jing and Bangqiu, having fought beside them in many adventures, including recent victories against the Master's advancing armies.

Together they reached a bold conclusion. The surest way to defend both the Valley of the Five Fires and the northern khans was to force the Empire itself to confront the Master. If Naransetseng were escorted toward Khanbaliq and the beastmen pursued her into the settled lands, the Emperor could no longer leave the burden of the war to his frontier vassals. And if the Master’s incursions weakened the Emperor, Bo-Jing opined that it would be a punishment not completely undeserved considering the institutions of slavery and concubinage that flourished within the Empire.

Bo-Jing and Tetsukichi therefore departed Banua with their companions at the head of two hundred mounted warriors: one hundred and forty riders of the Bolad Horde joined by sixty horsemen of the Sansar Horde. Their road to Khanbaliq led first through the neighboring lands of the Eagle Clan.

There they found devastation surpassing even that suffered by Banua. Dead men and beasts lay where they had fallen. Scores of bodies had been hung from trees or splayed upon the rocks as grisly warnings. For leagues the forests had been felled, and the scrublands burned bare. On the second evening of their march, bitter winds sweeping down from the mountains forced the company to make camp in the shelter of a shallow valley.

There, for the first time, the companions began to question whether escorting Naransetseng to Khanbaliq remained their foremost duty. If the Eagle Clan had truly been broken, pressing onward might preserve one woman while abandoning an entire people—and perhaps the Valley of the Five Fires itself—to the Master's advance.