The Tiger Queens Read Online Free

break her. That’s why he gave her to me.” He called to the horse again. The filly’s ears flicked as if at a buzzing fly, but then she trotted toward us. “It was either that or eat her.”
    Temujin vaulted onto her empty back and offered me a hand up. His hands were square and squat, much like the rest of him.
    “I prefer not to break my neck,” I said.
    “She hardly ever throws anyone.” He grinned, the expression transforming his young face. “At least not if you hold on tight.”
    I ignored his hand, knowing I should leave, but instead I grabbed a fist of the horse’s mane and mounted behind him. The filly startled and sidestepped for a moment, but Temujin didn’t give her a chance to think. Instead, he kicked his heels into her ribs, sending her bolting straight toward the paddock’s rickety spruce log wall.
    The scream that tore the sky came from my own throat; the paddock was built so tall that no horse could clear it. Yet with Temujin’s urging in her ear, the dun-colored filly leapt into the air, arcing over the fence and landing with a jolt so hard my teeth almost cracked.
    And then we were tearing out of camp, racing past slack-jawed boys bringing in their goats and old men huddled together trading even older hunting stories. I thought I glimpsed my father, but I blinked as my eyes watered at the speed. I clutched Temujin’s bony ribs, feeling my hat fly away and my hair tumble loose behind me.
    And then I laughed. Never before had I dashed barebacked over the steppes like this, scattering grasshoppers and racing the cranes overhead.
    Temujin’s voice joined mine and he urged the horse faster. Only after the filly’s pace began to lag did he rein her in. The
gers
of my camp were tiny dots on the horizon, white cotton flowers in the distance.
    “So you
can
laugh,” he said over his shoulder, mocking my earlierwords. The filly ignored our conversation, more interested in the grass at her feet.
    “Of course I can laugh,” I said, making a face at the back of his head.
    Temujin seemed much easier now that his father was gone, as if every step Yesugei took away from our camp lightened his son’s heart. I wondered if the same would happen once I left my mother’s tent, but the very thought was like a weight pressing against my chest.
    “One day I’ll be khan of my clan,” he said. “I’ll have a whole herd of horses like this one. Sheep, goats, and camels, too.”
    “What, no yaks?”
    He laughed. “Maybe a few yaks.”
    I let my arms hang loose, noting the worn leather of his boot and the countless places where it had been stitched with sinews of various colors and ages. Many boys before him had probably worn the same shoes. I wondered how hard his life had been, how difficult mine would be once we were married. “Your father must be a good herder to be able to spare his eldest son.”
    I knew even before his spine stiffened that it was the wrong thing to say. “My father is a terrible herder,” he said. “But he’s an excellent raider.”
    I searched for something to say. “I suppose that takes skill as well.”
    Temujin glanced back at me again, then laughed. “Are you always so polite?”
    “Are you always so rude?” I scowled, but he didn’t seem to mind. “I should return home,” I said. “My mother will be wondering where I am.”
    I feared he would argue, but then he urged the filly into a trot toward camp, forcing my arms around him again. “My father told me before he left that I should be pleased to have such an obedient wife,” he said. “I held my tongue.”
    “You don’t care for an obedient wife?”
    “I think you’re like this filly. You only
act
obedient,” he said, “because you don’t want anyone to see your true nature.”
    I let my hands drop completely then, preferring to take my chances on being thrown than to touch him a moment longer. He felt my anger and glanced over his shoulder.
    “I meant that as a compliment,” he said, his voice quiet.