The session had moved without giving Guyuk room to recover.
That was the first thing Batu noticed after Berke sat. Guyuk was back in his position in the Ogedeid section, and the session registrar had already turned to the next prince.
Batu kept his eyes ahead and waited.
Orda rose from his left.
He came to standing the way he did everything, without showing it. One moment seated, the next standing with his hands at his sides and his eyes on the full gathered arc of the session floor.
The assembly's attention found him the way it found any prince who had a khanate under him.
"This campaign marches from the ancestral land to a distance no Mongol army has crossed," Orda said.
He let his gaze travel the arc, steady and unhurried.
"The route passes through three large expanses of ground. Every one of them a different khanate."
He didn't pause to let that land. He kept moving.
