The ger was larger than Sorghaghtani's provision quarter space but furnished with the same pragmatic absence of ceremony. A working lamp, a low table, two cups already set.
Mongke was seated when Batu came through the entrance, which meant he had arrived before Batu and had been waiting without finding another meeting for himself in the interim. He was watching the lamp when Batu entered and looked up without particular urgency.
He was younger than Batu had expected given the weight of what Orda and Shiban's reports had placed on him. Late twenties, perhaps thirty, with a lean frame that carried no excess and a face that confirmed what Orda had described. The coldness was in the eyes before any word arrived, an attention that made most people break from it first.
Batu sat.
