Orel was at the administrative station when Batu arrived in the morning. The census records came in on three pieces of felt, Orel's hand throughout, each entry dated and marked with the wolf's track seal. He spread them across the table without a word and stepped back.
Batu read the near-camp clans first. The Burjin, the Tergesh, the Ulus, the Sartat, the yellow banner clan, the Yargach, the southern third clan.
All seven ran within a small margin of what they had reported. The third clan's count was exact, every entry matching the record to the unit. Under Dorbei's control of the winter grazing, it had nothing to gain from padding its numbers and it knew it.
"The Kipchak," he said.
Orel set the second piece of felt beside the first. Of the six Kipchak clans reached before the ground hardened completely, four came in within range. Two did not.
The first had reported 820 households in the previous season's registry. The riders counted 1140.
